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I’ve mentioned before that I was spoiled as a child. I remember once, a two of my friends told me I was spoiled and I had to ask my mom what it meant. She said it meant I was really loved. Now obviously that could be misinterpreted to lead my friends to think they weren’t loved, but we all seemed to turn out okay. Really, as a child I don’t recall being obnoxiously spoiled. I mean – I never had an Easy Bake Oven OR a Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine, so seriously, how bad could it have been? I actually think the conversation with my friends came from my announcing our first trip to Walt Disney World. I suppose, in the world of a small bedroom community in New England, announcing a 2-week trip to Walt Disney World where we would stay in the Lake Buena Vista Vacation Villas was something to be envied.

Anyway, that is not the point of this post. I wanted to talk a bit about my parents, and how I was raised. Of course, my reflections and memories of my childhood are just that, MY memories, and my mom may have a completely different account as to how things happened. These are the things that stuck with me and formed me into the kind of parent I am today – some as a direct result of what I rebelled against as a child, others because I appreciated the lessons I learned from my parents.

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Inspired by some of my fellow bloggers as well as my favorite, Family Fun magazine, I thought I’d share my family’s top Turkey Day crafts! I have to admit, almost all of the crafts my children have done over the years are thanks to their amazing grandmother, my mom. She has an agenda when it comes to the holidays and always makes sure the kids get to create something new each year and feel like a big part of the festivities. I have come up with a few of my own over the years though, so this list combines both.

Continue Reading Top Thanksgiving Day Kid’s Crafts

It’s hard to believe Sesame Street is turning 40 today, but it’s true. This pioneering children’s television show has stood the test of time and continues to adapt and appeal to new children every year. In honor of today’s anniversary and inspired by my new blogging friend OhAmanda’s Top Ten Tuesday, I thought I’d put together a list of my personal Top 10 Sesame Street Songs and Skits.

Each link below is a video from YouTube and will open in a new window so you can view them all at your leisure – Sesame Street’s birthday has slowed YouTube a bit with all the views.

10. R.E.M. – Furry Happy Monsters
9. Ladysmith Black Mambazo – African Alphabet Song
8. ladybug picnic
7. Martians Find a Phone – Kids, that item is a PHONE-shocking, I know! It had a cord and no buttons!! How did we survive?
6. Teeny Little Super Guy I remember looking in my cabinets and wishing he was there!
5. Herry & John John Count to 20 (LOVE John John!!)
4. Fly in my Soup! Waiter!!
3. Container of Milk, Loaf of Bread and a Stick of Butter I still say this every time I have to make a grocery list.
2. 1-12 Pinball Song I think this just sums up the 70’s.
1. Lowercase n This will always be my favorite.

While discussing my Top 10, my husband of course chimed in with his own picks and we soon had many more than 10, so I thought I’d add some of his favorites that weren’t in my list, as a bonus! I truly feel his favorites have shaped him has a person, since he’s sitting here laughing hysterically as he watches the videos.

5. Doin’ the Pigeon This was part of J’s courtship dance for me.
4. Phone Booth Rock Again, kids – this is called a “phone booth” if you needed to call someone while not at home, you used this, and a DIME to make a phone call. Crazy.
3. Bert & Ernie Fishing Heeere fishy fishy!!
2. It Ain’t Bad to Get Mad This Goat is okay with his anger issues.
1. Kermit the Gorf He was laughing to the point of tears watching this, perhaps I shouldn’t be blogging that though…

Of course these videos are just the tip of the iceberg of 40 years of amazing songs, parodies and skits. The humor back in the 1970’s was hilarious and free spirited. Though political correctness has changed the focus a bit, there are still some great parodies out there even now – they just released a Sesame Street version of “Mad Men” which is pretty funny. Popular musicians and actors will also still continue to make appearances, making the show much more enjoyable for parents as well.

We left off a lot of the more popular favorites, “C is for Cookie”, “Rubber Duckie” etc. but I hope you’ll comment here and share your favorites so we can all remember this epic show together!

As parents we’ve probably all taken our kids to an event primarily aimed at adults and then wondered “how do I keep them happy?”. If you are looking forward to Epcot’s 14th Annual International Food & Wine Festival for all its delicious gourmet fare and adults-only drinks, you may worry about how you’ll keep your little ones entertained. Luckily, you’re in Epcot! Even if you leave the rides and attractions Epcot is known for behind on your visit to the Food & Wine Festival, there will be no shortage of activities to keep the wine in your glass rather than a whine from your stroller.

Here are 5 to get you started:

5. KidCot Stations - There are KidCot stations in 11 World Showcase locations as well as in The Land and The Seas pavilions which feature a FREE mask that your kids can decorate. At each station, a cast member gives your child’s personal creation a stamp and attaches a paper cut-out, each themed to the KidCot location.

The wonderful thing about the World Showcase KidCot Stations is that whether it is their first visit or thier 20th, your kids will still love to create a new mask and add to it at each stop. This attraction is aimed at preschoolers, but I have to admit, my oldest son enjoyed it until he was almost 10, and my 9 year old daughter still loves to do it!

4. World Showcase Passport - Passport gift sets are available for purchase in many Epcot merchandise locations, as they have been for years now. I remember getting my passport stamped when I was about 11 and asking many cast members to write my name in their language as well. Now they come with stickers for each country, and a space for the cast member to write a message in their native tongue. This is a great activity for kids that may not want to decorate a mask, but still want an “International” souvenir to take home.

3. The Flavorhood, hosted by Edy’s Ice Cream – I’m not sure I need to say more about this new addition to the Food & Wine Festival – it’s ice cream! This fun spot will let the whole family test their “flavorology” and learn their ice cream personality. Ice cream can also be purchased here. A great spot to recoup before heading out for more international tastes! Did I mention the ice cream?!

2. Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure – This interactive adventure is one of the best additions to Epcot in recent years. Be sure to head to a pick-up location early to reserve your “Kimmunicator” because this is now a very popular attraction (you receive a Fast Pass type ticket to return and pick up your Kimmunicator in a certain time frame, this is so there aren’t 30 groups heading to the same mission at once).

Once you receive your first mission, follow the directions that appear and you’ll be in for all sorts of surprises and fun for the whole family. Each mission takes about 30 minutes to complete but can take up to an hour, so be sure you have allotted time for at least one. After one mission you can either turn your Kimmunicator in at a marked location, or continue on to defeat other baddies around the World Showcase. My personal favorite is the China mission, we visited areas of that pavilion we’d never seen before and the whole family loved the surprise finale of that mission.

1. Eat to the Beat Concert Series - True, your pre-walker, pre-schooler or tween probably won’t be familiar with the line up of great performers for this concert series, but don’t let that deter you. As you know, kids LOVE music. What better way to relax between tastings than jamming along to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy or En Vouge, among others? This year 5 new acts are added to the series, which perform 3 times nightly and range from R&B to jazz to classic rock and more.

image from indigoskye at flickr.com

In addition to the above suggestions, Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival is a wonderful way to introduce your children to other cultures through food and hopefully even expand those growing taste-buds. Your child may surprise you by requesting a new gourmet favorite for dinner after trying it at the Food & Wine Festival. Remember to be adventurous yourself and try new things and use the above tips to entertain the kids between bites.

Baby's 1st Mickey Waffle, Disney's Polynesian Resort

As I discussed in my history of Disney obsession, I came to love Walt Disney World the way most kids do, on a family vacation.

Part of what makes it so magical is that you are leaving your comfortable surroundings; you are venturing into another world, and when it’s over, you go home and pine away for a time when you can do it all over again. But what happens when you are raised in an environment where you can go to Disney World every weekend, or if you really felt like it (and gas prices didn’t cost an appendage or two), every day? Does it become less magical? Do you become spoiled by what is no longer in a kingdom far far away, but happens as often as “we’re going to the mall, kids“?

After we all retired our Cast Member name tags, we purchased annual passes and still went pretty much every weekend. Sometimes we’d just go for lunch or dinner and not even go on a single ride. When my first son was born in 1999, we had been living in the Orlando area and been park regulars for the past 4 years. It seemed only natural to head to the opening of the Asia section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom when he was 3 weeks old. We got several stink-eye looks from wizened old grannies that always have advice to offer new parents “He needs a hat!” “He needs booties!” “He needs more blankets!” (yes, even in Florida, you get told to add layers!). Many asked “How OLD is he?!” and when I answered “3 weeks” I did so with the disclaimer, “Oh, we just live down the street, it’s not like we’re here for a 10 day vacation.” That seemed to satisfy them a bit, although I’m not sure why I cared to explain myself – we were at Tower of Terror one time when a mother was getting quite irate with Cast Members for not being allowed to bring her six week old infant on the ride. Yes, really.

So our firstborn grew up getting wheeled around Disney World until we sold our house and moved back to Massachusetts (a long story, but basically, we had a child and both exclaimed – “We can’t possibly raise a child in FLORIDA! We must return to Boston, to history and culture!” – We were back in FL within 6 months). At that time, I was pregnant with our daughter. She was born in Massachusetts, and we did indeed return to Florida 6 months later. She too, was wheeled around Disney World like her brother had been. Of course at 2 years old and 6 months old, they were too young to remember what they experienced anyway, but we had fun. Cue a few more moves, and we didn’t really return to Florida to live until 2003.

Before that, back in 2002 we had one wonderful, crazed visit where my husband’s parents, brother and his girlfriend, and the 4 of us in our mini-van all drove down to Orlando from Boston. The kids were then 3 and almost-2 at the time. Just the right age to enjoy most everything and be get that wonderful look of awe on their faces that Disney inspires. Of course they were also amazed by South of the Border on the trip back home, but…we’ll let that slide. It was the perfect little vacation so we could all experience what it was like to be a tourist at Disney again, rather than a local. The crazed part came with the super-cold front that rolled in, forcing us to seek out sweatpants and sweatshirts for the kids. My father-in-law got sick so their group went home a day early, and our son got sick as well – he decided to create a whole new appetizer at Canada’s Le Cellier while we waited to order. Ew. Just because that needed to be topped, I got the brilliant idea to adopt a pair of kittens from someone I had met online, so we met them in a Super Wal-Mart parking lot, picked up 2 tiny mewing kittens, supplies for them, and proceeded to drive back home in the now renamed Bodily Function Central mini-van. Despite those setbacks, it was nice to make a whole journey out of the trip and enjoy lots of things we’d missed for years by taking quick day trips.

Fast forward to 2003 when we took up residence again, we went back to weekend visits and trying out new lunch or dinner spots. The kids did not, in fact, lose their wonderment of the Happiest Place on Earth. They both got into pin collecting, and we got excited about what had become our family traditions – Mother’s Day at the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival, October at the Not-So-Scary Halloween Party followed by http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/epcot/special-events/epcot-international-food-and-wine-festival/, ending with of course the amazing decorations for the holidays,

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party with its snow on Main Street, USA, the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights (which make me cry each time), and the gorgeous trees in the resorts. We just shared our traditions with several hundred thousand other visitors to The World.

When we moved outside of Tampa in 2005, we visited a little less frequently. It certainly wasn’t every weekend, but we kept the family traditions alive. There was always something new to see, some refurbished ride or restaurant or resort to explore – it never got old. Then last year, I had our 2nd son, our 3rd child.

We waited a whole 10 weeks before bringing him to Disney for the first time, for the holiday celebrations mentioned above. He did pretty well at the Very Merry Christmas Party, it was me that was pretty much over breastfeeding with throngs of people getting their free hot chocolate and cookies around the park (but I still had fun!). He made it through the special nighttime Christmas parade, and we walked out as the Wishes fireworks were going on.

Since then, we’ve visited a lot more frequently, but I realized something when we had our good friends visiting from California. We had become dependent on the phrase “don’t worry, we can come back anytime”. Any time there was more than a 20 minute wait, or we didn’t want to deal with the baby getting in and out of the stroller, we said “catch ya next time” to a LOT of attractions. We, as parents, were still having fun people watching and having a Disney-quality lunch or dinner somewhere, but as parents know there’s only so much “walking around” kids can do (especially as they approach that fun tween age) before they start to formulate plans for mutiny involving the release of the Sword in the Stone from its imprisonment, on the back of a Disney World napkin as we stop for lunch.

My oldest son is also getting to the point (10 ½) where he doesn’t want to go on ANY rides. Don’t get me wrong, he still loves Disney and loves even more when we take mini-vacations and stay in a condo for a couple of nights. He seems to love the experience of the park, but just doesn’t want to bother going on the rides right now. I’m not worried, I know this too shall pass. I went through a phase when I was that age where I was completely PETRIFIED of the Haunted Mansion. I’d been on it a billion times, I knew it wasn’t “scary” but I still did NOT want to go on that ride and no amount of begging could convince me. Pirates wasn’t much better with all the skeletons. I’m not sure if he’s inherited a bit of that or not, but he’s a kid that begs to see every new horror film that comes out, so I’m thinking no. That is another part of living slow close to the parks – you can, but don’t have to go all the time. I’m sure with a break, he’ll be extra excited to ride all his old favorites.

During that visit with our Californian friends, I made a promise to my daughter that we would go on Splash Mountain next time we came to Disney no matter what. That next time was when we saw the Hall of Presidents preview. We were lucky enough to be gifted some Fast Passes when we were waiting in line, so we walked right on. It was her first time, and she LOVED it. So I decided then and there that we were going to have a Girls Day Out at Disney World. When we got home, I got out our customized Disney maps I’d ordered a year ago when we stayed at Dixie Landings (oops, I mean Port Orleans Riverside), and told her to make a list of all the rides she wanted to go on when we went. She was quite excited about that. Our itinerary is going to involve 3 parks. We’re starting out in Animal Kingdom, heading to Epcot and ending up in Magic Kingdom to go on all the rides there at night. It’ll just be us so there won’t be anyone complaining that they don’t want to go on this ride or that, and the baby will be at home so it’ll be that much easier to get around.

I think that proves that after all these years and after countless visits, my kids still get excited for the magic that exists only within Walt’s World. Sure, my oldest may be more interested in X-box 360 right now, but I have no doubt he’ll want to get back to Disney soon enough. Living here as given us the opportunities to truly experience all The World has to offer, that we might not otherwise be able to squeeze into a traditional vacation. We’ve been able to see Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba, the boys have rented the watercraft at Downtown Disney while our princess was turned into a princess at Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique. We’ve been able to stroll around Downtown Disney and see the ins and outs of each shop, try new restaurants when they open, go to both miniature golf courses, resort hop and look in the shops or try the restaurants, and do tours at Magic Kingdom. Disney has become like a second home for my children, as it is for the adults in the family as well. Sure, I’d love to be able to take a 10 day vacation on property with the dining plan, but I love being able to pop over for special events or just because I’m in the mood for Dole Whip. That, is magic.

And despite the loud parties many nights, I have to say Disney is a pretty good neighbor. Can’t really complain too much. They’re clean, always keep their lawn mowed, and they do have the best fireworks on the block.

[Edit: originally published on ZannaLand on 7/15/09]

As with most things of a fantastical nature, I avoided Harry Potter and all its hype for years. That sounds pretty confusing coming from someone that identifies as a small, stubborn, flying pixie. With the notable exception of The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien in general, I’m just not a sci-fi/fantasy kind of girl. After reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I especially wanted nothing to do with this obvious attempt to cash in on a similar story line that was Harry Potter. And then, the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone came on tv, back in 2003 or 2004 I believe. Wouldn’t you know I got sucked in by The Boy That Lived? I was pretty annoyed at myself, actually. Then we saw Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I didn’t care for that one as much, but it led to me wanting to actually read the books. The ironic thing was, we already had all the books that had been released up to that point, thanks to my mother-in-law that had been sending them down for the kids to read when they got older. So I cracked open Sorcerer’s Stone, and not only proved my earlier impressions wrong, I promptly fell in love.

When I had finally caught up with all the books, I had also found a new friend in my Starbuck’s barista at the local SuperTarget, who had read all the books several times. Our Harry Potter kinship led to us getting together with our kids, who were close in age, and eventually my getting a job alongside her. So when July 21st, 2007 rolled around, we were there with our two eldest children (both of whom dressed as Harry) for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. My friend wanted to stay up all night and read the whole book, but I couldn’t last much past 5am. When I did read it, of course I cried like a baby, as I had with certain parts of The Order of the Phoenix, as well as The Half Blood Prince. It was exciting to be a part of something that was taking place all across the country that night, and I’m glad my son got to experience it as well. Like it or not, the books got kids eager to read; connecting with their parents in some cases was an added bonus.

As our children have grown, so of course have Harry and friends within the books and movies. Honestly, the past two years since the release of The Order of the Phoenix film have been chock full of growth for both my older children. No longer interested in primarily toys, they now favor video games or just hanging out with friends. So I was surprised when they both exclaimed with great interest that of course they wanted to see the new movie at midnight when it was released. More than willingly, I purchased tickets online for the 12:05 showing in our local movie theatre.

It has been a while since I read The Half Blood Prince, so I won’t get into how “true the movie was to the book” or “this or that was missing and how dare they!” All I know is on its own merits, the movie was beautifully shot, and the story told was wonderful. It definitely set the scene for how Harry is growing up and must bear the burden of responsibility in the troubled world in which he lives. I loved the various camera angles and the different sets used this time around; visually it was just gorgeous. Not to mention Snape.

But quasi-movie review aside, what I loved the most about last night was the realization of the tradition and memories JK Rowling has unknowingly created within her series. This was the second time we’d seen a midnight release of a Harry Potter movie, and the kids were no less enamored of the event. When they are my age, they’ll remember these times and hopefully create some of those same wonderful memories with their own families.

It is quite a unique feat to fashion such constant yet ever-changing characters that serendipitously grow along with your very own children. While mine are not quite at the “snogging” phase yet (thank Merlin!) they are getting there, so they can still relate to this whole tale as opposed to quickly outgrowing a movie as being “kid stuff”. I love that about this series. It truly is something we can all share, get excited about and discuss for years to come.

So I am happy to proudly say that I am a Potter fan. While I may not own a Gryffindor scarf myself, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at one, nor anyone wearing one. In fact, it would be a great way to get to know them better, knowing we already share a love for something that has brought such joy to so many – hopefully my kids share that same realization. So thanks again, Jo. Well done.