ToothFaerie

I've never tried to have my kids believe in anything not true. (i.e. Santa Clause, Easter Bunny or ToothFairie) We like having the fun traditions (i.e. stocking, egg hunts, and quarter) but I never want my kids to question what is real or to give others credit for what I do. After all there are years the stocking of goodies is all we can do for them at Christmas I want them to know that was me thinking of them. And I feel the same way about the toothfairie.

So when my daughter lost her first tooth I had put some thought in how I wanted celebrate. The result: her tooth-faerie doll and cards. I bought a cheep fairy doll (hers happens to be Barbie) and told her that as long as she had it we would play faerie every time she lost a tooth. The Faerie leaves not only a quarter but also a small card where I write the date and which tooth was lost.

Charry has been very diligent leaving her tooth and doll on the bookshelf before bed each time so she can get her quarter and her card. In fact after the first three I skipped the card because she didn't seem interested so she made a special request that I not forget the card this time.

It's always nice to know your kids appreciate what you do. And besides making Tooth-faerie cards is a fun way to use up scraps and the extra embellishments that I always have laying around.

Disneyland

For thirty very happy years I didn't go to Disneyland. Not Even Once. I had seen pictures, received the occasional postcard but never actually gone anywhere close. And I never missed it. Not Even Once.

This year life was weird and hard and being a mom/wife was weird and hard. So someone offered us a trip to Disney. My gut reaction was to say, "No Thank you." But I worried about my kids because of how weird and hard things had been, so my husband and I said, "OK." And we all went to Disneyland.

Now as anyone who has been to Disneyland can attest to at the end of the week we were experts, ready to share our new found knowledge with anyone willing to listen. And so I have the following bits of wisdom and advice gained from my experience.

1. Get to the park early as possible, better yet get the Magical morning pass and come an hour earlier. That way you can ride more rides and spend less time in line.

2. Pack a lunch, best time to eat is while in the longer lines.

3. Get a small backpack for each child to carry their own gear, lunch and water.

4. In the gear: dry clothes incase they get really wet.

5. Take a siesta/dinner break to rest and save money by not eating at the park.

6. Set your souvenir budget ahead of time and stick with it.

Now you may be curious how our trip was thanks to our wisdom. Well unfortunately the wisdom came after the trip was over so we won't know if any of that would have helped until next time (hopefully it won't take thirty years to go back.)