the happiest place on earth

So we got back from Disneyland last Friday and I think I am mostly recovered now.

Traveling with three kids is hard. How do you people with larger families do it?? 
We had a great time--here are some pictures and favorites!

Car trip treasure box

Our long-anticipated trip to Disneyland is coming right up--we leave in 10 days! And that means it's time to get down to planning and packing business for this momma.

We've done the driving long distances with kids thing multiple times, but honestly, it hasn't gotten any easier. People always ask if we have a DVD player in the van. The answer is yes. We do. With Monsters Inc stuck in it. And no sound.
Anyway, to combat the worst of the "Are we there yet?"s, I spent the last week putting together a ton of activities for my kids in the car. Look for my full list of 100 activities to keep kids occupied in the car in the next week or so!

First up, a hanging book rack between Tempe and Helena's car seats. It has three large pockets, one divided in half for smaller books, and is within easy reach of both girls. For our long drive, I'm going to stock it with I-Spy, Where's Waldo, and Graeme Base mystery books, all of which keep my girls (Tempe, especially) occupied for--well, not hours, but a long time!
Books are great, but they won't keep even the most avid reader occupied for 10+ hours. Enter the car trip treasure box.

Why did I put all of our activities in a treasure box? Because they are more precious than gold when traveling with three preschoolers.

Ours has an art kit (pipe cleaners, crayons, beads and elastic, and washable markers for coloring on the windows), a viewfinder, a set of plastic Bingo boards, the girls' collection of those little Disney Princesses and rubber dresses, bubble wrap (a lot of bubble wrap), bubbles, and a magnetic cookie sheet with alphabet magnets and a magnetic paper doll set.

I bought clipboards for the girls to color on and we have a full pack of printer paper, so we should be good!

We're also bringing a few books on CD (Peter Pan and Ramona), a special mix of all the girls' favorite songs (it includes Johnny Cash, Elvis, MGMT, and Adele), and their kid camera, which has a few simple video games on it. 

Now I am headed to the grocery store to stock up on car-friendly snacks!

Disneyland prep + a cheap souvenir idea!

 

We're getting close to our third trip to Disneyland!

We've known about this trip since Christmas, when my parents surprised us with some Disney gift cards. My mom totally scored--she found $100 gift cards for $25 on Disneyland's website, so she bought 16 of them. I wish she had told me! I would have bought a bunch, too. Disney later called her and told her it was a pricing mistake, but they would still honor it *if she wanted*. Um, yeah! 

Anyway, since we've known about it so long, it wasn't until last week or so that we really started getting excited. I've been getting stuff together this week for our drive (stay tuned for a post about that later!) and making my insanely detailed packing list. 

 

I thought it would be sweet if my girls had some cute Disney shirts to wear, but no way was I going to shell out the kind of money Disneyland wants. I got this Minnie Mouse shirts at Target for $5 each.

 

We've found on our previous trips to Disneyland that most of the junk in the stores there is 1) overpriced and 2) sold at Dollar General, Walmart, or Target pretty much anywhere in the country. I want my kids to have something to remember the trip by, but I don't want to waste money on stuff we could get anywhere.

This year, I came up with two cheap and memorable souvenirs for them: pressed penny bracelets and postcard books.

I bought cheap bracelets and jump rings from Walmart for $2 and added some Mickey Mouse charms that we already have. Tempe and Helena will each have $2.04 to make four pressed pennies at the different machines around Disneyland. Then, when we get home, I will drill holes in the pennies and add them to the bracelets. Total cost: $4.04 each!

For the postcard books, we are going to buy each kid three postcards as soon as we arrive (one for each day we spend in the park). At the end of each day, we are going to have them dictate to us what their favorite part of the day was, what rides they liked best, who they met, etc. Later I will add some pictures and have everything laminated and bound as a book.

Juno doesn't have a Mickey hat yet, so she'll get one of those instead of the bracelet and book. She can make her own bracelet next time we go!

I never sleep on planes... I don't want to be incepted.

I got incepted a few nights ago.

I had a dream in a dream. The dream in the dream was about the hotel we stayed in last time we went to Disneyland. Then I woke up from the dream and before Jason left for work, he said "Hey, go ahead and book a hotel for Disneyland this year."

Then I woke up for real and was like, dude, I would go to Disneyland every day of my life if I could, so it was a complete waste of energy and resources to incept me for that.

And I'm not the only one. Helena says to me every single day "Mom, can we go to Disneyland next day?"

I wish, Helena. I wish.

... a dream is a wish your heart makes...

So there were a few mishaps this year... like diarrhea while waiting in line (Tempe), ridiculous crowds, sore feet, grumpiness (mine), and a truly horrible dinner at Captain Kidd's Buffet (Jason called it all-you-can-eat school lunch).

But how can you go on vacation to the happiest place on earth and not have a great time?

It was another wonderful vacation and we loved experiencing it with my family!

Am I crazy? You be the judge

I am 33 weeks and 2 days pregnant.

Today we're leaving to drive to Anaheim (10+ hours).

Tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday we're going to Disneyland.

{And don't worry, my doc is completely on board with this. I'm not even having Braxton Hicks contractions.}

home again, home again

But not by choice.

Disneyland: Where to stay

Along with when to go, one of the first decisions you will have to make when planning your Disneyland trip is where to stay. If you haven't been there before, choosing a hotel can be overwhelming and intimidating. Anaheim is filled with hotels, all claiming to be family-friendly, clean, and close to the park. So how do you know which one is really the best?

First, you have to decide on your criteria--must-have and would-like-to-have. This criteria will affect how you conduct your hotel search, to an extent. For us, the biggest criteria was proximity to the park. We wanted to be able to walk back and forth several times a day, if necessary, and not spend half an hour at a time doing it. This About.com article was very helpful in narrowing the hotels down by price and proximity. You could also look at Harbor Blvd and Katella Ave (the streets that border Disneyland) on GoogleEarth and make a note of all the closest hotels. After I narrowed my search down to the hotels that met all or most of our criteria, I started reading reviews at Tripadvisor and AAA, starting at the lowest rating. If I found a lot of negative reviews that revolved around the same issue, I crossed the hotel off the list (you have to remember that there will always be the odd bad reviewer--don't let just one bad review change your mind!)

Price is another big consideration when choosing a hotel. If you are on a tight budget, you will have to sacrifice either location or how nice the hotel is. Going in the off-season, when prices are lower, is one way to beat the price. Joining AAA and getting their discount is another way. The AAA discount can be up to $40 or more per night at some hotels!

If you do not want to eat out a lot, choose a hotel with a complimentary continental breakfast and a kitchenette in the room where you can prepare your own meals. If you can't afford a kitchenette suite, make sure your room will at least be equipped with a microwave and refrigerator. We are not planning on buying any meals while we are there--I will be cooking all our meals in the microwave! (For the record, we are having canned soup and rolls from a grocery store, baked potato bar and chili, and cheese and chicken quesadillas with salsa, and refrigerated microwave pizza. Maybe not the most gourmet meals ever, but they will keep us alive and energized!)

Even if you don't want to cook your own meals, having fresh fruit in your hotel room will help you combat the urge to buy treats in the parks.

Some of the hotels that were on our short list include the Desert Inn and Suites (which is the one we chose), the Park Vue Inn, the Carousal Inn, the Castle Inn and Suites, and the Howard Johnson Anaheim--they have pirate themed rooms!) All of these hotels met our relatively low budget, are within walking distance of the park, and cater to families with young children.

Remember, your hotel room is really just a place to sleep and park your bags when you are at Disneyland. As long as it's safe and clean, that's all that matters!

Disneyland: Enjoying your visit

{Most of these tips are aimed towards families with young children. I may have only been to Disneyland twice, but I have spent many hours researching tips, studying maps, reading other bloggers experiences, and poring over the Disneyland website and here are some of the things we will be implementing.}

• Disneyland's official rules say no outside food or drink is allowed, but common consensus is that they ignore water bottles and snacks for young children. We are taking a Camelbak instead of water bottles and snacks for our kids. Believe me, you do not want to be stuck with Disney's snack carts when your kids are hungry or you will spend a fortune!
• Although we don't plan on spending a lot of money on snacks inside the park, I know that the smell of Churros will get to all of us, so we have agreed that we can get one treat to share every day.
• There is a designated picnic area outside the main gates with lockers you can rent to keep your picnic lunch in. If you do have to buy a meal at the park, try splitting one or buying a kids meal--the portions are huge.
• If you have a baby or young toddler, the first thing you should find is the Baby Center at the end of Main St. They have a private nursing room, changing tables, child-size toilet, high chairs, and a microwave to heat up baby food and bottles. And it's a complimentary service! Tempe was about 4 months last time we went to Disneyland, and the Baby Center was a haven for me.
• Try to hit up the most crowded rides--Dumbo, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, and Peter Pan--as soon as the park opens to avoid long lines. Better yet, stay at a Disney Resort hotel or buy at least a three-day park hopper pass and get in an hour early to beat the crowds.
• During parades is another great time to go on popular rides!
• If you can't make it to these hot rides before the lines get long, use Disney's Fastpass service. Fastpasses are a great way to save time. At most of the most popular rides, there is a kiosk where you swipe your ticket. It prints off your Fastpass, telling you to come back in a few hours during a two-hour window of time. When you come back, you get in the much, much shorter Fastpass line and end up waiting a fraction of the time you normally would. This service is FREE and open to all visitors, yet somehow most people don't know about it! Take advantage of it!
• One of the first things you should do when you get to the park is choose a designated meeting spot. You don't want to be like my parents, who took their three children to Disneyworld, split up to go on different rides, and then spent three hours waiting for each other in different places. Yeah. It was horrible. The Walt and Mickey statue in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle is a good place to meet.
• With young kids, of course you'll try not to lose them, but admit it, sometimes it happens. Make sure your name and cell phone number is conspicuous somewhere on them--a bracelet or a tag on their shoes. I am planning on actually using a permanent marker to write this information on the inside of their wrists, just in case.
• If you do lose your kid, go to the Lost Children waiting room on Main St, near the First Aid Center.
• Souvenirs can be expensive, but you can't go to Disneyland and not get one! I like Mickey hats. Nothing screams Disneyland more than this iconic hat, but they are only $7 (well, they were in 2007) and you can have your name embroidered on the back for free. Other cheap souvenirs are packs of postcards, pressed pennies, or autograph books (don't buy one there--make your own before you go and take pictures of your kids with the characters to go along with the autographs!). You could also buy little Disney trinkets (The Dollar Tree has tons of them) before you go, slip them in your diaper bag, and whip them out when your kids start eying the expensive stuff in the stores.
• Speaking of shopping, if you don't want to carry bulky packages all over the park, have your purchases sent to the exit gate where you can pick it up when you leave for the day
• Look for Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald Duck, and their pals in Main Street Square, just inside the gates, and don't miss the Princess Pavilion, where you will find a variety of princesses every day. Ariel hangs out at Ariel's Grotto in California Adventure. And Tinkerbell and her fairy friends have their own new Pixie Hollow where you can find them.
• Think about your choice in strollers. If you have more than one child who will want to ride in one, consider taking two cheap umbrella strollers instead of your expensive double. Sad to say, strollers do get stolen at Disneyland, and you'd rather lose a $10 umbrella stroller, wouldn't you? It also gives you the ability to split up if one kid needs to go back to the hotel for a break and the other one doesn't.
• Overscheduling can take the spontaneity and fun out of a trip, but you should have an idea of where you will want to spend your time while at Disneyland. If you are going to California Adventure as well, you may want to dedicate large blocks of time to each park so you aren't running back and forth all day--spend the morning at CA and the afternoon at Disneyland, then the next day spend the morning at Disneyland and the afternoon at CA.
• Study a map/list of attractions before you go and make a master list of the things you have to do before you leave. You can explore the park at Disneyland.com, and even create a list of attractions, including where they are and pertinent information (height restrictions, etc), to print off and take with you when you go. If you take the time to do this, you will be sure to get to all the things that are most important to you and still have time to do everything else before you leave.
• Take the time to meet the characters, take pictures in front of the castle, and see a show (the Aladdin show at California Adventure is amazing!) These are the things that set Disneyland apart from other theme parks.
• If you forget a camera or just don't want to be bothered pulling it out, look for Disney cast members with cameras. They will take your picture and load them all onto a "photo pass". You can look at the pictures online later and buy prints of your favorites (at Disney prices, of course).
• Come prepared for any disaster--bring a change of clothes, diaper rash creme, sunscreen, hats, Tylenol, water and snacks, and anything else you could possibly need for your family. Be prepared to leave for a few hours if your kids have a meltdown--midday is a good time to go back to the hotel because it is the most crowded time of day.
• Have fun!! With all the time and money you put into your Disneyland trip, you want to enjoy it, right? :)

Disneyland: When to go

{Don't forget to enter my giveaway before tonight at 8 pm MST!}

One of the most important decisions regarding a trip to Disneyland is when to go. We're at a good place right now--Jason is done with school and the girls haven't started yet--so we aren't tied down to school calendars and can take advantage of all the perks going in the off-season brings. But even for those of you who have to think of school, I think it's well worth taking them out of school to go in the off-season. Dealing with crowds and spending the majority of the day waiting in lines can turn a great trip into a frustrating trip. I have only been to Disneyland twice, in September and January, and both times were magical. When we went in January, I think the longest we had to wait for any ride was for Space Mountain for about 15 minutes. If you have been there during their busy times, you know that is simply amazing.

If you decide to go in the off-season (Labor Day through the week before Thanksgiving, the weeks between Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas season, and most of January and February) in an effort to avoid crowds, check the Anaheim School District calendar to make sure they don't have a school holiday. I'm not sure how much of a difference this really makes, but the park is bound to be less crowded on regular school days.

Of course, going in the off-season does have some cons. More of the rides are closed for maintenance or holiday prep and the parks have shorter hours. But for families with younger kids who wouldn't be spending 12 hours at the park anyway, this isn't really an issue. If you want to be sure that your favorite ride will be open when you go, check the ride closure calendar at Disneyland.com. You can also find park hours and entertainment schedules on this calendar.

I am pretty bias towards going in the off-season, but if you choose to go during Disney's peak season, you can still have a great trip! I have some tips about crowd control coming up tomorrow.

Disneyland: Getting there

{Don't forget to enter my giveaway before tomorrow night!}

When we first started thinking about going to Disneyland, one of our major concerns was how to get there. We knew if we chose to fly, we wouldn't be able to afford tickets to the actual park, so that was out of the question. But the thought of 10+ hours in the car with a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old also seemed out of the question.

But our desire to go to Disneyland won out, and so we decided to bite the bullet and drive.

Since we will be in the car for just as long as we will actually be at the park, preparing for our car trip has taken almost as much time and effort as preparing for the rest of the trip!

The Minivan

• Get an oil change, put air in the tires, and do anything else you need to do to keep your car healthy
• Join AAA--not only is it helpful if we blow a tire/run out of gas/heaven forbid have car troubles, but most hotels give AAA discounts that can be really substantial!
• Hang a mirror on the back of the seat that Helena faces so she can see the DVD player (yep, she's still rearfacing!)

The Girls

To combat boredom in the car, I prepared four "activity bags", each designed to last 3 hours. Each one contains:

• a movie (ahhh, how did people drive long distances before cars had DVD players!!)
• several books
• a coloring activity (coloring book and crayons, chalkboard and chalk, invisible ink activity books, and aquadoodle)
• a special snack
• small toys from the Dollar Store (Disney princess figurines, tambourine and recorder, finger puppets, and Disney character fun sets that include yo-yos and kaleidoscopes)
• ideas for simple games to play in the car
• a special activity (lacing cards and magnetic paper dolls)

Another way to keep kids entertained in the car is to wrap the entertainment items you have packed. Even if they are things from home that your kids have played with before, kids love unwrapping presents and it will make them even more special!

In addition to the bags, I am packing a full cooler of snacks and drinks (for Mom and Dad, too!) and several more movies. We are planning on leaving early (around 5 am) so that the girls will hopefully sleep for a few hours in the car. We'll stop for breakfast at a fast food place with a playground and at a park for a picnic lunch to let the girls run off some energy. Hopefully the drive will take us less than 12 hours!

The happiest place on Earth

{Don't forget to enter my giveaway before 8 pm MST Thursday!}

Tomorrow I am getting in this...

... with these crazy kids...

...and this handsome fella...

... to go here!

The happiest place on Earth.

We have been thinking about this trip since March and actively planning it since August. Suffice it to say, we're excited.

Since I spent so much time planning this trip (I would estimate close to 1,000,000 hours), I have a lot of Disneyland knowledge. Look for a Disneyland-related post every day for the rest of the week for some of my best Disneyland/road trip tips!