Disneyland Tips 2012

So, this is a post I have been thinking about for a long time.  We recently got back from an amazing family trip to Disneyland!  I found the internet invaluable as I researched tips and tricks to help me both in the car ride there and inside the park.  I appreciated all the moms who posted tips on their blogs, so I'm going to post mine in hopes that they will help at least someone out there as well as remind me of what to do again next time.  Here are my Disneyland ideas and tips, in no particular order:

• I know I said there was no particular order to these tips, but this is my number one tip.  Disneyland does allow you to bring snacks and drinks into the park, so each morning we would make about 10 peanut butter sandwiches and pack them in our bag.  Whenever the kids got hungry before we were ready to take a break or eat a meal, I would hand them half of a sandwich.  This made Mom and the kids happy.  We forgot to bring the sandwiches the first day and there were plenty of tears, but we didn't have a problem any of the other days.  I will never go without sandwiches again!!!  I'm sure any snack would work, but the sandwiches seemed more substantial to my children and they could eat them easily in the stroller with little mess.
• All the food places (that we went to) will give you free water in a cup with ice.  This was a lifesaver and eliminated the need to carry around big, heavy water bottles.
• Bring ponchos, especially if it is going to be cool.  No one likes to be wet all day, especially kids, and no one likes whiny, wet kids.  We didn't use ours the first day and got soaked on Splash Mountain late in the evening and spent the rest of the night cold and miserable.  The next day we made sure to wear them on the Rapids ride, and even though it was sunny and warm, we appreciated not spending the day wet.  The others on our boat got soaked, which made us even more happy to have our ponchos.
• If you are going to watch World of Color and want good seats, plan on being there right when the seating opens up.  Also, make sure you go and get your fast pass right when California Adventure opens up so you end up in a good seating area in the first place.  You will probably wait at least an hour for the show to start in order to get good seats, which took up the rest of our night in the park due to the shorter hours.  Make sure you plan accordingly.  It was worth having a good seat.  Oh, and some of the seats get you soaked while watching so be careful if you don't want to get wet.
• Remember that you WALK so much in Disneyland.  It is definitely worth packing the double stroller if you have more than one small child!  Disneyland rents single strollers if you don't have room to pack one, or there are places in some hotels or online that also rent them.  Wear good shoes, make sure your kids wear good shoes.  My dad doesn't walk very well and at the last minute decided to rent an electric scooter despite the price.  It was the best $50 he spent each day!
• If possible, use a crowd predictor when you are planning and go when it is least crowded.  I really liked the crowd predictor HERE, but it have to use it beyond thirty days if you want to use it for free.  There are lots of them, just google crowd predictor.  My husband and I have been twice in September, right after Labor Day, and the park hardly had anyone in it and we rarely waited in a line.  I've been during Spring Break, it was miserable.  We didn't want to have to wait in long lines with our small children, so I checked a few online crowd predictors to pick a slower week that worked with our schedule.  I know this is not always an option, and there are benefits of going during the "on" season like longer park hours and fireworks every night.  If you do go when it's busy, definitely use the Disney Apps that shows you how long the lines are and I would even suggest Ride Max, a program that let's you design your day with the least amount of waiting.  We used it once and loved it.  Also, make sure you know how to use your Fast Passes an take advantage of them.  Disneyland is much more fun when you don't have to wait in lines and you can actually push your stroller through the streets without hitting anyone.
• For me and my small children, it was worth the extra money to stay close to Disneyland.  I didn't want to mess with a shuttle late at night or in the middle of the day if my toddler needed to go back for a nap.  We were right across the street and at the end of the night even that felt like a long walk.
• If your kids like flashy things or glow sticks, you can buy them ahead of time and bring them in.  You can find glow sticks at the dollar store or flashy lights at WalMart or Target for just a couple of dollars and avoid a fight inside Disneyland.
• Plan on spending a lot of money on food.  Even the restaurants around Disneyland are expensive.  Our favorite places to eat were on the Pier in California Adventure and in the Pizza Place in Tomorrow Land.
• The Blue Bayou is a very cool place to eat, but you have to have reservations ahead of time or you will wait FOREVER or possibly not even get in.  If you want similar food, the New Orleans Cafe serves the delicious Monte Cristo sandwich that they serve in the Bayou.  It's a little expensive, but totally worth it.  It's big enough to share, which we learned the hard way, so share the sandwich and get the Frites as an appetizer.  They are delicious!
• You can buy autograph books for not too much at WalMart or Target ahead of time.  I bought two cheap notebooks and covered them with cute Disney paper for my kids.  A friend of mine forgot to bring hers, so her son just used the free notebook from the hotel they were staying.  Anything will work, but I don't think they'll sign T-shirts anymore if you are wearing them.
• Go to Toon Town at night.  We went both in the day and the last hour of the night.  During the day it was so crowded, but at night it was a Ghost Town.  We even got to spend lots of personal time with Mickey in his house, which my four year old LOVED.
• We did the character dinner at Goofy's kitchen and LOVED it.  We would definitely do it again even though it is pretty pricey!  The food was great and my kids were on cloud nine.  There is lots of information about it online if you have anymore questions.  Make sure you bring your camera!  Oh, and you can take your own picture with Goofy at the front of the restaurant, you don't have to buy the one they take for you.
• Scour mousesavers.com!  If there is a deal to be had, you'll find it there.  There are also lots of tips and tricks!
• Both the single rider pass and baby swap pass can save you lots of time if you have small children.  You just notify the cast member at the beginning of the line and they will give you directions of what to do.  Don't forget to use your fast passes as well to save you time in line.
• If you want cute souvenirs, stop in at City Hall and they will give you cute buttons for your first time, or anniversary, or birthday.
• If you want to get the most done, make sure your arrive 30 minutes before the park opens.  We have small children so we went straight to Fantasy Land, skipped Peter Pan, and rode Dumbo, the Carousel, Pinnochio, Mr. Toad, Snow White, and Casey Jr. in an hour.  Then we used our Magic Morning pass the next day to ride Peter Pan and Alice.  We didn't have to wait at all.  If you don't have a Magic Morning pass, go straight to Peter Pan.  The line will be long all day, just get it over with!
• A good place to stand if you want to meet the characters is right where they come in and out.  Twice they took my kids by the hands and personally escorted them to their picture spot.
• Don't miss the Disney Jr. show.  It is sooooo cute.  Also, make sure you go into the Animation Studio and do Crush and all the fun stuff downstairs.  You can see what kind of character you are like in Belle's library and have Ursula steal your voice and use it in a Disney clip in her Caverns.  It's really fun, my kids and parents loved it!
• They have lots of Disney photographers all over in key areas to take your picture.  They all carry cards that they can give you to keep track of all their pictures in one place.  You are not required to buy anything.  We liked being able to look at them online when we got home and having the option to purchase any we couldn't live without.

Okay, I think that is it for now.  If I remember any other good ideas I'll make sure to update this post!  There are lots of good resources online if you still have questions or want to research anything else.  I found the more prepared I was the more relaxed and fun I had in the park!  Hopefully your trip will be as magical as ours!

Disneyland T-Shirts

It's been a very long time since I have posted, and I have lots of things to share, but I thought I'd start with one of my favorite things I've done lately and that is our Disney t-shirts I made for our recent trip to Disneyland.  I love everything about Disneyland and I have been looking forward to taking my kiddos there for a long time.  We finally found it in our schedule and our budget to take the trip and I wanted everything to be perfect.  Part of this plan was having matching shirts for Z and E to wear on our first day in the park.  This, of course, is easier said than done.  So after searching in vain I decided to take inspiration from my friend's blog and make our own shirts.  They turned out so cute!  Here's how I did it:

First I searched online for coloring pages of Mickey and baby Minnie mouse.  Once I found the ones I wanted I printed them off, placed them under the shirt where I wanted them to go and traced them on the front of the t-shirt with an extra fine point black Sharpie marker.  I also placed a thin piece of cardboard between the coloring page and the back of the t-shirt to prevent any bleeding onto the the back of the shirt.  When I was done tracing I went over the outline to make the picture a little darker.  I also printed of "Disneyland 2012" using a free Disney font I found online (just google free Disney font) and traced the words underneath my pictures.  Then I filled in all the black parts with my Sharpie and let them sit overnight so the black ink could dry a bit before I added the color.  The next day I colored my t-shirts using Sharpies (you can buy packs of about any color, I found mine at Walmart).  Here's what they looked like as I started adding color:

So cute!!!  When I added the color the black ink bled a tiny bit, but it gave the shirts a cool, watercolor look.  I loved them!!!  Here is E's all finished:

And here is my little Z wearing his finished shirt.  He loved his shirt so much it was hard to get him out of it!

I seriously love the way they turned out!!!  My friend, whose idea this was in the first place, did hers on old colored t-shirts and only used black Sharpies.  They also turned out very cute, you can click here to see her finished t-shirts.   You can do this with any coloring page you want, not just Disney.  My son asked me if I could make him a Spiderman one.  If you want to include your kids you can have them do the coloring-in part, either with Sharpies or washable markers.   Wouldn't this be a fun birthday party activity?  I didn't wash my shirts until we got home, but they've held up under multiple washes since then.  So for a very little cost (two cheap t-shirts and some colored Sharpies) I had the perfect t-shirts for the perfect trip to Disneyland.  

Our Bee Birthday Party

My little E just turned one!!  As I was making her first birthday plans I found the internet invaluable in finding ideas to complete the Bee theme I wanted, so I'm sharing my party in hopes that it will help someone else out there!

This is our birthday invitation. 

I used everything black, white, and yellow.  It made it easier to pull it all together!

Lots of black and yellow candy: lemon drops, black licorice, lemon heads, salt water taffy, etc. 

Loved my birthday banner!

Chocolate cake with yellow frosting and bee cupcake toppers.    I also made water bottle labels for our water bottles, which was my favorite decoration/party treat!  I just googled water bottle template and personalized it with "Happy Bee-Day" along with E's birthdate.

This is the room halfway done, I forgot to take one when it was all finished.  I made the little black puffy balls hanging from the lights (another Pinterest find) and I found the polka dot balloons at Walmart.

My happy little birthday bee!  I found her shirt at The Children's Place and it says Queen Bee on the front.  Perfect!

I also made little bee antennae out of black headbands and pipe cleaners for everyone to wear instead of party hats, but E wouldn't wear hers.  On the party menu we had Creamy Chicken Taquitos, chips with fresh homemade salsa, sweet and sour meatballs, Jalepeno jelly and crackers, Brazilian lemonade, and a Chocolate Eclair cake!  It was a delicious, and successful, first birthday party!  I'm no party diva, but hopefully this sparks your creativity and will help you create the perfect party for someone!  Happy planning!

Notebooks

I have a friend who is the Mom of three boys, one of them is a teenager and the other two are "tweens".  She told me a tradition that she has started with her boys to help keep the communication going between them and I thought it was so good I'd pass it along.  She bought three notebooks, one for each boy, and wrote a letter in the front of each notebook telling them that their new notebook was for them to be able to ask her any question they had and for her to be able to do the same.  They would write their question on a new page in their notebook and then leave it on her bed.  She would then write her answer to that question and write a question of her own for them to answer and then return it to their bed to be answered.  She said it has worked really well so far and has received some really cool question like "Why did you want to go back to school?" and she has received some nice answers to some of her questions.  I love this idea because it takes the "face-to-face" nervousness out of the equation and still keeps the conversation open.  I taught Jr. High for seven years and one thing I learned about teenagers is they don't want to look you in the eye and talk about something they are uneasy or unsure or embarrassed about.  I advised the cheerleaders at my school for 5 years and I used to do a similar thing where I gave them each a notebook as a "venting"space where they could write their concerns and problems and dislikes and even ask me questions in it if they wanted to...with the promise that I would only read what they asked me to and nothing else.  It was a great outlet for them and gave them a healthy way to let off steam...much better than cutting themselves or other crazy ideas teenagers think will help them feel better.  I loved receiving questions from them (which surprisingly happened a lot) and I loved having time to think about my answer and give them the best advise I could come up with.  It also kept me up to date on the underground things going on in the squad and in their lives.  Writing in their notebook was optional, but I rarely had a girl who didn't use it or love it!  My same friend who gave me the mommy/son notebook idea also says she loves to walk the dog with her boys because they seem to tell her a lot more when they are "side to side" as opposed to across from each other.  Communication with teenagers is so important, and so hard, that any ideas or solutions that work is worth their weight in gold!  I'm glad to have friends who share great ideas before I am the parent of teenagers so I am armed and ready to make it a good time for all of us!

First Day of School Idea

This is another idea I got from Pinterest that I absolutely love!  Take a picture of your child on the first day of school or at the beginning of the school year (most of us do that anyway) and then write their favorite things down to go with the picture.  I used Photoshop to put it directly on the photo, but you could also put the picture and the list next to each other in a photo album or scrapbook.  I have to say it was pretty fun to sit down with my little guy and "interview" him on his favorites.  It made me laugh at some of the things he said because I was surprised with some of his answers (like Tarzan, I think he's only seen it a few times).  I think it will be a fun tradition to do every year or even on the first day of school and on the last day of school to see how they've grown and changed in one school year.  When I was in fifth grade we put together a first day of school "time capsule" where we put a picture of us on the first day, a list of things that happened to us on the first day, and our fifth grade favorites and put them in a sack that we opened up on the last day of school.  I remember laughing at how much I had "grown up" and changed.  I think we might start a similar tradition in our family where we put some of our favorite memories of the summer, winter goals, pictures, family favorites, etc. and then open it up on the last day of school or first day of summer vacation.  I think it will be good for all of us to see if we reached our goals and also have a good laugh at how fun last summer was and how much we've all changed.  I'll post a picture of it when we get it done.  Until then, have fun putting together your children's "favorites".  It will be a memory they will love looking at for years to come!

Shower Curtain City Play Mat

I got this fabulous idea from Pinterest, my new time-wasting obsession!  You take a plastic shower curtain (I got mine for $2 at Walmart, but I've even seen them at the dollar store) and draw in roads, houses, etc. with a permanent marker.  The kids can color  the map when you are done (we used wet-erase markers to do the coloring, but colored Sharpies work too...I just don't trust my son with anything permanent).  

I wasn't even half-way done with the road before my little guy was lining his cars up along the road.  We also used his blocks to build trees and bridges, and other fun things.  He helped me decide what to draw on our map and we ended up with a park, a school, a construction zone (for all his work trucks), a zoo, a library, a church, a farm, and a shopping center.  It turned into an all day activity that my son LOVED!!  I have to admit I liked it too!  He asks almost every day if we can pull it out again.  My only word of advice is to not use a super shiny shower curtain like we did, the permanent marker tends to rub off a little and we had a few dark marks on our pants.  Other than that, it was a blast.  Another tip, to make your roads evenly spaced, tape two markers around a bottle so they stay evenly apart as you draw (see a picture here).  I didn't have two markers, so my roads are a little wobbly, but that didn't seem to bother my son.  You can get even more ideas on what to draw or add to your town HERE or HERE.  The second website shows a map with printed off signs like Target and In & Out.  So cute!  

And you don't have to only do a road.  My brilliant mom came up with the idea of drawing a big "doll" house with all the floors and then drawing in all the rooms and furniture.  It would be a perfect place for Barbies or Polly Pockets to play.  Or you could do a Castle the same way and play with the Disney princesses.  Or you could draw a castle landscape and play Dungeons and Dragons.  Or you could draw the Endor Moon and play Star Wars or any other action figure landscape.  Or you could trace the outline of your child's body and let them color in their hair and clothes.  You could even use dry erase markers so they could do this over and over...but that may be a little tricky with younger kids.  My mom and I came up with all these ideas in just a couple of minutes, but truly the possibilities are endless!  And to think so much fun can cost $2 or less!!  

Love & Logic

I just finished reading this book, which is the first on a long list of parenting books I want to read.  When I was teaching Junior High I would say my classroom discipline was set up along the guidelines of Love and Logic, and it worked great with the teenagers I taught.  What teenager doesn't want to feel like they have control?  So I've been wanting to read the "parenting" love and logic book to glean ideas specifically for my new role as Mommy. I really enjoyed reading it.  I think with all books like this one you have to build your own personality and family around the framework the authors describe, but I definitely gained a few insights I plan on using, such as:

• If you can't change the behavior, change the location.  For example, if your children are acting terrible at the table during dinner you can give them the choice to eat nicely at the table or play quietly on the floor.  Or if they are doing something obnoxious calmly tell them they can stop when they are around you or they may continue doing that in their room.  I love this because you are not controlling their behavior, just the location they are doing it in.  What a way to bypass a power struggle!
• Focus on the things you can control.  The example the authors gave in the book was eating at a restaurant with your child and asking them to hurry and eat so you can leave.  You can't control how fast the child is eating, but you can control when the car is leaving so you say "The car is leaving in 5 minutes.  You can leave with us full or you can leave with us hungry."  I love this because then they have to think about what they want and not how much they hate you because you are making them do things.  
• Use thinking words instead of commands.  I do a lot of this already because that's how I taught in my classroom (teenagers do not respond well to commands), but it was nice to get some ideas specifically to parenting.  An example they give in the book is instead of ordering children to put on their coat you can ask "would you like to wear your coat or carry it."  There is a whole chart in the back of the book with ideas for this concept such as: Instead of "Sit down.  We are going to eat." you say "We will eat as soon as you are seated."  Or instead of "Don't shout at me." you can say "I listen to people who do not yell at me."  I have a friend that does this with her boys, it's hilarious.  When she wants them to clean their rooms, instead of ordering them around she says "I'll be happy to take you to karate as soon as your room is clean" then she sits down on the couch with a book or whatever else she was doing and waits.  She says it works every time.
• Use the natural consequence to teach appropriate behavior.  For example: let them be cold if they refuse to put on their coat.  Or my personal favorite, if they don't eat their dinner and want to get up from the table say to them "sure, but I hope you ate enough to last you till your next meal."  The hard part about this rule is sticking with it.  It is so hard as a mom to watch your child be hungry all night when they have to wait until breakfast to eat.  But I guarantee it will make a lasting impression.  The book has lots of good ideas for this concept!

I also like that they point out in the book that these principles take a lot of practice and that your children are still going to fight you and throw tantrums but if you stick with it they will work.  There are lots more good ideas in here (the whole second half contains "pearls" that give you real life scenarios and how to deal with them the "love and logic" way) and I recommend the book to any parent, especially if you want ideas on how to eliminate the power struggle.  I will say that in following the authors' principles you have to have a little patience and be willing to give up some of your control.  And you might have to watch them suffer a natural consequence.    But it is good stuff and I've already started to use these ideas on my challenging three-year-old...and anything that can help tame that cute little monster gets two thumbs up from me!