Maddie the Conformist Misfit

This is Maddie in her Misfits t-shirt, flared jeans, black flounced mini-skirt and black Converse All Stars. She is quite the fashion plate and likes to stay on top of all the latest junior high trends. We were pretty slow on buying the Chucks, but according to Maddie, she's the fourth person to wear a skirt over her jeans, so she got in early on this trend and will have longer to enjoy it. That's a direct quote.

Army Man

I've always had a soft spot for guys in uniform. The first thing we saw at Disney MGM were the green guys from Toy Story. I nudged all my kids out of the way and jumped in for a picture. They've got a green tank you can see in the background that they tool around the park in. After I got my picture, I let my kids have one too.

Disney MGM Studios

Here are the kids at the start of Day 2 - Disney MGM Studios.

Lovey Dovey

Sam and Ellie after the fireworks, too tired to remember to jockey for postion in the stroller. Their robots from the beginning of the day are at their feet.

Day One, nearing completion

Dave, Maddie & Ben near the England pavilion. We tried to stack out a good spot to watch the fireworks and boat show, but we'd waiting too long. I also wasted way to much time trying to take good pictures of the scenery. It was really pretty with all the lights and music, but it doesn't translate to film very well.

Free drinks at Disneyworld?

This is Heather (and Maddie's back) at a little attraction at Epcot that offers samples of sodas from all over the world. We were all thirsty from traipsing around the different countries, and Maddie had told us about this place. You get a little cup, and there are soda machines that dispense about 8 different kinds of soda. I think one was vegetable flavored. I can't even find a link for it on the DW website, because I'm sure their bean counters are already agonizing over the idea that drinks are being given away without charge. The floor was very sticky in there, but most of the drinks were yummy.

Paying the Piper

This is a smile on Dave's face. Can't you tell?

Dancing Girl

Ellie always has so much energy - I wish I could feel like that for just one day.

Not Hungry

I know you paid $8 for this spaghetti - that's why I'm not hungry. Can I have some more chocolate milk?

Italian Lunch

This is Ben, with his fancy drink at L' Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante. I had called ahead for priority seating there, and then they were even nice enough to find us a seat outside. We got a fancy appetizer of Italian meats, cheese & olives. The two older kids got these blue drinks, the little ones got chocolate milk. The food was pretty good - not fantastic but tasty. All the waitstaff were from Italy, so Dave got to chat with our waitress for a few moments, since he served his mission there. There was a circular courtyard nearby with Italian music playing, and the little kids got up and danced at the end of the meal. The next few pictures are from our lunch there.

Innoventions Robots

Here are the kids with their Innoventions Robots.

Epcot - Innoventions

The first thing we did when we got to EPCOT was walk around the park arguing for 20 minutes about what we should do first. Maddie had visited EPCOT last summer with some family friends, so she had pretty strong opinions. Finally, an executive decision was made to go through the Innoventions building first. The first thing you see in this building is a Segway Human Transporter display. Since they don't let you actually try out the Segways, we skipped this one. Maddie and I made some smirky comment to each other about the announcers resemblance to G.O.B. They actually had scenes from Arrested Development playing on a monitor there.

Next up was recycled paper making. That's what Sammy is doing in the photo above. Each kid made a tiny sheet of paper and stamped it with an EPCOT stamp. I wrote their names on them and saved them. After that we did Robot Races. First you watch a little presentation about different kinds of plastic. Then we got to design virtual robots and run a race with them, using footpads similar to Dance Dance Revolution pads. Sammy and I ran together. Dave actually won the race, which was included another family. Next stop, you can assemble your own small "robot" out of premolded parts. The next photo is of the kids holding their creations.

We sailed pretty quickly through the rest of Innoventions. We made a quick stop at an exhibit that explained some economic concepts, like the law of supply and demand. I've been boring Maddie to death with lengthy economics lectures lately, in between study sessions for the CFA exam this June. They had some games using these concepts and I thought it would be fun to play them. However, right before we started, the attendant came up and whispered something to Maddie. As soon as the game began, she just hit all the keys randomly, as fast as possible. She outscored me by a mile. I was kind of ticked at the guy for telling her to play the game "wrong", but she enjoyed beating me.

Beware of Snakes

We saw this sign at a rest stop somewhere in Florida. Nearby was a congealed looking pond that was fenced, with warning signs not to drink or touch the water. Another sign told us that the area was monitored 24 hours a day. Lastly, solicitation and pandering were strictly forbidden. What a great place, huh?

I used to think that Texas, especially the rural areas, had a lot of billboards. Then I went to Florida. I swear that there was a full size billboard about every quarter mile from the border to Orlando. Florida seems to be a state of extremes. For every pro-life and religious sign, there was one proclaiming "We Bare All" at Exit 364. (Note - I make no promises that this is the correct exit from Interstate 10 - we didn't stop by). It's all sort of disconcerting - we're on a nice family vacation to DisneyWorld and being bombarded by information about abortion and strippers. The only other signs I noticed were for Ron Jon's Surf Shop. These seemed to make up the remaining third of the roadside advertisements.

The very strangest sign we saw was on the way home - it was sponsored by this organization. I think it was the last billboard we saw before we crossed the Florida border. A few hundred miles later, we were back in Texas, where the billboards advertise normal things, like ambulance chasing lawyers and barbeque places.

Are we there yet?

It is approximately 1,000 miles from our house in Texas to the condo we stayed at in Kissimmee. We made this journey by packing up Expedition after work on a Thursday evening, and leaving around 10:30 pm. I sat in the front passenger seat; Sam, Ellie and Mary Lou took the second row; Maddie and Ben filled out the back - separated by a pile of last minute stuff we forgot to put in the suitcases. The kids slept through most of the night, and I took over driving duty around 6 am. Dave tried to catch some Zs, but only managed to get an acute case of motion sickness. After he recovered, he told me that while we were stopped on the side of the road he was seriously contemplating turning back, or better yet just staying right where we were.

At noon, Dave took the wheel again. Things started to get a little hairy in the back seat by then - children were not meant to sit in the car for 1/2 days at a time. Sammy was continually unbuckling seat belts, chewing on his shirt collar, and just being a general fart. While digging through my CD case, I came across Smithsonian Folkways Children's Collection. This became our soundtrack for the rest of the trip. While not my music of choice, it's better than the monotone zombie children that are featured on the kid song CD's I copied from a friend a few years back. The little kids fell in love with it, and now know every song by heart.

We finally arrived at our condo around 4 pm. We rented this place from All Star Vacation Homes. It was perfect for us. There were three bathrooms, which is a key factor when you've got 7 people. Each room had its own television. An odd triviality is that the kitchen table in the condo is identical to the one we have in our breakfast room at home. There was a small heated pool on the back patio, and a heated pool and clubhouse a short walk away. We made a quick trip to a local grocery store and tried (unsuccessfully) to retrieve our prepurchased tickets from Kissimmee Guest Services. More on that fun later. Suffice it to say their website does not give accurate office hours.

Back from the Disney Death March

We're back! Fifteen hours of driving each way, 6 days of unrelenting fun (with one day off sandwiched in the middle), and untold dollars spent on food, lodging and entertainment. I think everyone had a good time. I took hundreds of pictures, so I should have plenty of fodder for posts over the next few weeks. Right at this moment I've snuck away from the monumental task of getting everything unpacked and washed, because tomorrow is the end of spring break - back to school and work for everyone. If I can steal a few moments this evening I'll start the illustrated chronicle of our trip.

Possible Bad News

It doesn't look like I'll have an internet connection in Florida. There is a "internet cafe" about 1.5 miles from our condo, but according to our rental office, they want to charge $20 for the first five minutes and 20 cents for every minute after. I'm going to try and set up a dial up thing through my cable company, but I'm not even sure that my laptop has a modem in it, since I've only ever used wireless high speed at home. I guess this is what I get for staying in the cheap place, instead of getting a fancy "luxury" home. I'm having a mild freakout at the idea of 10 days with no internet - but who knows, it might be good for me.

Texas Snowman

This picture is from Christmas Eve 2004. We got snow for the first time in umpteen years - my little kids had never seen actual snow before. As soon as it started coming down, every child on our block was outside. This snowman is the culmination of all the snow they could gather, from truck beds, car hoods and trampolines. When they first started, they brought me the bottom sphere and said "We're going to build a snowman - this is the head!" By morning all our snow was gone and the snowman was fading fast. We've still got some snowballs saved in our freezer and of course the memories of our magical Christmas Eve blizzard.

Ladybug Pillow

Maddie's Sewing Project

Maddie made this pillowcase tonight with her Beehive class. The colored fabric has ladybugs on it - very cute. When I came to pick her up they were having some sort of problem with the black edge, but she smartly insisted we stay there until it was fixed. Yes, I do own a sewing machine, but it hasn't moved from my garage since we moved here in October 2003. Somewhere else in the garage are a couple of Rubbermaid bins filled with half-done crafts - cross stitch, quilting, crochet, probably some scrapbooking stuff. I like the idea of crafts, but never have the drive to follow through and finish the darn things.

DarkLord8005

Ben is drawing a picture of his new online gaming character , DarkLord8005, for Ellie. According to Ben, he tried to create a character named DarkLord8003, but the name was already taken. Kids and computers crack me up sometimes. More than once I've heard our neighbor say "I'll see you at the north ruins" as he leaves our house to go log onto the game at his own house.

My poor children are relegated to a Gateway computer we purchased in 1999 - last century - that runs Window 98. Last week, Maddie compared it to a cardboard box filled with gears made by cavemen. My kids know nothing of the dark ages, before DVDs, cellphones and TiVo. The way they take technology for granted and integrate into their little minds is amazing. After hearing me sing some old children's song this afternoon, Ellie said "Mom, we should make that into a CD, so everyone in the world can hear it."

Safety Boy goes to the park

Sammy got this tricycle for Christmas in 2003. It cost way too much money, and he was afraid to ride it. You never know when your three wheeled vehicle might unexpectedly flip over, possibly maiming you for life. While the other kids zoomed around our cul-de-sac on bikes, Sammy would get his little folding chair from the garage and watch them with me. For Christmas 2004, we got him a helmet. Suddenly the trike was safe! He rides it all over the place now. He has stopped using the attached seat belt - you can see it hanging down into the basket. Also of note is the big handle coming out of the back. That's for when you go to the local park with Grandma, and get tired of pedaling, so she can just push you back home. Ah, the life of a toddler.

Super-Sam

Ellie, unhappy to be awake at such an ungodly hour

Ben, taking a leap of faith

Maddie (with Sasha)

Start

Hopefully this won't be a failed exercise - I'm going to try and create a family blog to keep everyone updated on the fun things that happen in our lives. Assuming I've got high speed access at our condo, I should be able to post pictures and trip reports from DisneyWorld next week.