But It's MY Ice Cream!

Watching your child stand outside the Dole booth in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and yelling, "I'm not sharing! I'm not sharing!  I'm not sharing!" is one of those parental nightmares we all dread.  If you add in actual foot stomping, it's apparently worse.  At least that's what my mother assured me earlier today, but to be fair, it was MY ice cream!  Maybe she should have waited another day before coming to meet us at Disney World.  Then she'd have missed the whole event and only MPH would have been mortified.  The kids just wanted my ice cream, despite having their own I might add... but they seemed unphased by my attempt to take a page out of their own books and pitch a fit.  Oh well. It was worth a shot.

Disney World is truly one of my favorite places in the world.  This is such a well known fact that MPH (in this particular context that does stand for My Perfect Husband) even arranged for us to have a vow renewal for our tenth wedding anniversary at the Wedding Pavilion next door to the Grand Floridian about a year and a half ago.  It was AMAZING!!!  There was a horse drawn carriage and everything!  And naturally I broke out my best tiara for the occasion.  So it should really shock no one that I'm back at Disney World with the extended family and having a wonderful time, other than having to fight to keep my pineapple float to myself.

We've been coming down here so often and for so many years that my children were all Disney pros by the time they were each 3.  They routinely stop and give adults directions and tips on how to get onto the rides fastest.  They roll their eyes when they discover that some people don't know how to work the "fast pass" system.  They tell you which characters show up for which meals at which locations, and then they tell you which days they'd like you to take them to said meals.  They know when the characters show up at particular locations around the different parks, and they also plan their days to know on which ones they will need their autograph books.  Today we were at the Magic Kingdom.  It's their favorite.  We get their early and we ride everything we can get on until MPH calls for mercy and we battle our way back through the midday crowd to get off campus to eat lunch and take a nap. They we head back in again during the late afternoon and ride some more rides!  They all have their favorites.  They've even ranked them in order, and we make sure we get to all of them.  We even have rituals involving how we get into and out of the parks.  You can't drive by the Tower of Terror sign near Hollywood Studios without everyone in the car yelling "Tower of Terror!  AIIIEEEEEEEEE!"  Don't try it.  It's not worth it.  They're like three little honey badgers and it's easier to just give in and yell than to try to pull them off you.  Because face it.  You have some rational reason why you aren't yelling like the rest of us.... but Honey Badger don't care.  Every time we bring a new au pair down here with us, we have to explain just this sort of thing.  Now that I think about it, our au pairs stare at us strangely a LOT!  This just gives them one more excuse to do it.

So anyway!  We are down in Disney and heading to Epcot tomorrow. There's a flower and garden show there this month, and surprisingly my children are thrilled.  Yes, I know. We've been here too often, and they even know the perks of the flower show!  Who'd have thought there would be for three kids younger than ten, but there are!  They love the butterfly pavilion and the Pixie Hollow area.  Me, I love the German Beer Garden where I'll be hiding while they color these cardboard teddy bears and wander around the different countries having them stamped and attaching emblems of each country to them.  Yup, if anyone needs me tomorrow, I'll be cheering on the oompah band, yodeling, and probably compulsively buying out the Japanese department store over in the Japan section.  So... ya know.  Don't wait up for me.

See ya real soon!!!