Photography and Homeschooling (Roadschooling as often as we can)
Ok, I think I finally got a solution to the big video mystery. I realized my video is over 100MB. No one really likes to help you get those uploaded to the web. Thank you Heather for introducing me to Vimeo. May I love them as much after I hit the publish button as I do now.
Reagan’s Birthday Surprise from Vicki Diesing on Vimeo.
Please let me know if you can view the video.
Today Reagan is 6 years old. She says it’s hard to believe she’s six and that’s it’s hard to say she’s six instead of five. Today was also Reagan’s last set of birthday surprises. She got dressed in her special birthday dress and we headed for the Magic Kingdom to “see some of the things we missed the first day we were there.” When we got there we visited the Guest Relations counter to get a birthday button. If you visit Disney World on your child’s birthday make sure you get one of these buttons. The cast members noticed the button and would wish her a happy birthday. Regular visitors would also wish her happy birthday as well. She was on top of the world after she realized how all these people knew her name (her name was written on the button).
We headed straight for Cinderella’s Castle. Back up a little bit. I woke up at 0600, like normal, for an 0800 departure. The park opens at 0900 and we needed to be at the castle at 1000. At 0700 I woke up Du and he lies around in bed for a little while. When I inquire about when he’s going to get up and get going he says, “do we really have to leave as early this morning if we don’t have to be there until 1000?” Ok. First, I woke up at the normal time so you better believe I’ll be ready to leave at the same time. If we’re going to leave later I want to sleep in a little bit. Second, it will take time to get to the castle. And once we got to DW, parked, rode the monorail took the ferry to the park after waiting in line for the monorail only to find out that general maintenance turned into an actual breakdown, visited guest services, entered the gates, went back to one of the gate attendants to ask for some Mickey confetti, getting some confetti, throwing said confetti into hair, and then making sure said confetti would not fall out of hair we realized we had to hoof it to the castle to check in on time. It took us 3 minutes from the entrance to the back-side of the castle. That’s fast people.
Reagan’s face lit up when she found out she was having breakfast with the Princesses. Her eyes got big and her mouth opened wide with a smile. We entered the castle and she had her picture taken with Cinderella. Then we go up a winding staircase (very reminiscent of European castles) into the dining room. Dozens of tables were filled with little girls and their families eating breakfast and being visited by princesses. We were seated and the fun began. Reagan and Ashlyn were given wands and “wishing stars” and used them to make wishes later in the breakfast.
Ascending the staircase.
Each princess came over and greeted both girls. They took time to talk to Reagan and all made comments about her birthday button. Reagan was in heaven. We were too because the food was really good. What was even better was that I paid for the experience when I made the reservations so there was no sticker shock at the end of the meal (make your reservations 180 days before your visit). Ashlyn ate more than Reagan so we got two meals for one out of that. Reagan ended her meal with a birthday breakfast cupcake complete with Mickey sprinkles.
Lovin’ breakfast.
See the Mickey Sprinkles? You may have to double click on the pic to enlarge it.
Before we left the castle Du took her over to some windows to look at the view outside. After they were done they headed back over to the table…with Reagan wearing only one of her glass slippers. I mention that one of her shoes is gone and then realize…she’s playing the role of Cinderella. I find the shoe, we try it on her foot and sure enough it fits. She’s Cinderella all right.
We went to Mickey’s Philharmonic and Minnie’s house after breakfast. The Philharmonic was a good 3D show. The effects were great. Reagan didn’t wear her glasses though. The 3D shows that she’s seen so far have frightened her. So she sat curled up in her chair with her fingers in her ears the whole show. Ashlyn, on the other hand, was smiling and clapping through the whole thing. She couldn’t see it in 3D, but she loves action and noise. I’m sure you didn’t know that about her by now.
We also went on the Jungle Cruise. Our “skipper” was hilarious. We were the only people who thought so, but maybe we’re the only ones with the right sense of humor. Maybe we were the only ones who could actually hear her. We were laughing through the whole thing though.
We headed over to Epcot using the monorail and meandered through the countries again. There’s so much to see in the countries and in Future World. We’re looking forward to coming back when Reagan’s older so we can spend time doing some of the more adult things.
Soon after we enter the park one of the kiosk attendants notices Reagan’s button. He asks her if she’s gotten any special phone calls today. She tells him the family members that she’s talked to on the phone. He quickly picks up the kiosk phone, dials a number and hands the phone to Reagan. It’s Goofy wishing her a happy birthday. After the phone call Reagan says, “I couldn’t say anything to Goofy because he was talking the whole time!”
A Goofy Phonecall
It didn’t take long before we had to be in Norway at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall for dinner with the princesses. Here Reagan got her picture taken with Belle and other princesses visited the tables throughout dinner. Dinner was more of a Norwegian style (at least that’s what we’re told) and also very good. And once again, Ashlyn out-ate Reagan by pounds. We can’t believe this kid only weighs 16 pounds.
We were seated in a small room to the side with four tables total. Another table had a birthday girl as well. So we all sang Happy Birthday when her cake and dessert came out and everyone then sang to Reagan when her cake and our desserts came out. All the girls had so much fun. For some reason this meal wasn’t prepaid for so there was a bit of upchuck potential when we got the bill, but we managed. Actually, it wasn’t that bad compared to some of the meals we’ve eaten on this trip. Both meals were worth every penny. I highly recommend one or both if you have girls and they’re into princesses. If you have boys then you’re up the creek. I have no idea if there are boy character dinners. Are boys into that?
Mickey Ravioli
It was an early night home, comparatively. We’ve come to realize that it wouldn’t be vacation if we made it home before nine or if the kids ate dinner before their regular bedtime. Usually we leave the park in the evening, then head for an internet hotspot. Then we head home. Tonight it’s 9:30pm as I write this and Du is fluctuating in and out of consciousness while trying to watch Fox News beside me. Hopefully it can be posted tonight.
The end of a good birthday.
Rise and shine at 0600 again, like everyday this week. Heather commented to me last night that she’s not sure how I get the energy to do this. I’m not sure either, but I do know that it’s fading. The first two mornings I woke up before my alarm went off, and I even got out of bed too instead of waiting for the alarm. Since then though the alarm has startled my deeply sleeping mind into consciousness and each day it’s getting harder to drag myself out of bed. Once I get going I’m fine, but it’s no longer fun and exciting to get up, get ready, get the girls ready and be out of the house by 0800. Maybe tomorrow will be different since it’s Reagan’s last surprise.
Today we did MGM. The park is small in size like Animal Kingdom. There were a lot of things there we weren’t interested in because the subject matter wouldn’t please all in attendance. There was one show we missed that we wished we could have seen and one show we saw we wished we could have missed (the adults feel this way at least). We missed a huge stunt show that included cars, sets, water, explosions, everything. That would have been cool to see. We sat through and barely tolerated the Ariel show. Du & I couldn’t believe how horrible it was. Reagan however loved it. We all loved the Beauty & The Beast performance. Besides the finale it was the best.
The first show we did was a big hit with Reagan as well. We took part in Playhouse Disney. Ashlyn almost got us kicked out though. We were sitting on the floor in the front row. There’s a HUGE yellow line painted on the floor, which you are clearly not supposed to cross. Ashlyn is either color blind, or doesn’t understand this yet. She not only crawled past the yellow line but proceeds to try to climb the steps to get up on stage. Don’t look at me, Du was the closer parent. I’m the video/camera girl, Du’s the kid wrangler. After nasty looks from the crew that are strategically placed around the stage to prevent this we promptly place her in some type of head lock to make her stay back until the show started.
The culprit in action
During the parade Ashlyn tried to pull the same thing. She was sitting with Du behind Reagan and me. He was watching her too, but looked away for a second and she bolted for the four inch gap between Reagan and the lady sitting next to her. Remember, I’m the camera/video girl. I had the video camera going in my right hand and the still camera going in my left (I’m talented like that) so I had no clue that she was about to join the parade. I hear Du yell, “Ashlyn!” as he reaches up and grabs her back.
I was trying to rest before the parade, to get some of my energy back. Ashlyn made sure that didn’t happen though.
That’s not all of her antics for today. While we were waiting in one line she shoved the lady in front of us. Fortunately she’s pretty cute so the lady only laughed. Later, at another attraction, she leaned over and pulled a ladies hair. Once again, only laughter. This won’t last for too much longer though. I think I’m going to start pointing at Du and blaming it on him. Teehee.
We found out how the kid swap deal is supposed to really work today. I got in line for the Star “Tours” ride and Du sat outside the doors with the girls. Once I rode the ride he handed me the girls, I exited and he got to ride the ride. No extra waiting in line. BONUS! While Du was waiting with the girls someone handed him a Million Dreams Fast Pass with six fast pass tickets on it. That would have been a major score if it weren’t for two things: we’d already been to 3 of the 6 attractions, and this park isn’t one that we wanted to use fast passes. It was a nice gesture anyway. We have a cool souvenir now.
After that ride they make you go through the Star Wars gift shop (you’re forced through a gift shop after every ride. I can’t believe how gullible some parents are). I can’t tell you how long Du spent in there, I think I passed out once or twice waiting. He was like a kid in a candy shop…or like me in Sephora. He ended up with one mug. Who actually needs one more mug though? Du rotates his though, do you?
We were taking a tour of the Disney sets and special effects when we got something we didn’t plan on. We were standing in front of this pool of water where they were demonstrating how they make explosions in the water, etc. An explosion went off and water shot everywhere…not on us though because we were standing in the back row. I, however, started feeling wetness on my side. It was the side of me that was holding Ashlyn…she was peeing on me. How’s that for timing special effects? I guess her diaper wasn’t fastened correctly, you’d think I’d know how to do that by now. I made Du carry her after that and so he got soaked as well.
We had another exciting moment when we saw Snow White signing autographs and taking pictures. We walk up and get in line. The character “body guard” gets in line behind us and starts denying everyone else. “This is the last family of the day, people. Snow White is done signing autographs after this family. The line is closed now.” You wouldn’t believe the tricks some families tried to play to have her bend the rules (and this is something <em>they do not bend </em>on.) One lady said to her kids, “well, it’s your last day at the parks kids, your last day in Florida, looks like you’re not going to get Snow White’s autograph.” This was told to the kids after she tried telling the body guard that she had a hard time getting the kids up from laying on some benches for two hours waiting on their grandparents<em>. What</em>? At a theme park? Whatever. Some people tried to slip in between us and the body guard but she quickly shooed them away.
The last show of the day is supposedly the best of the four parks. Fantasmic is a water, pyrotechnic, musical and character display of wonder. It was neat how the spray of water became the screen for the video. They would play parts of Fantasia (or whatever it’s called) and then show that live with all the special effects. It was really cool…and it was cold outside so the spray of water that was hitting our faces wasn’t really appreciated by me.
We’re at Panera tonight and I haven’t stopped having internet problems. I think I’d rather be at McDonalds paying for my internet. So, goodnight for tonight. Didn’t really edit this, so hopefully it’s manageable.
Lost In Translation. We saw this while waiting to enter the park. It’s on an Asian sweater.
A reporter from Florida Today stopped and talked to me while we were waiting for the shuttle to launch. I forgot about until tonight and I looked it up. I made the article!
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880207021
Vicki Diesing, 32, of Warrensburg, Mo., had her daughter, Ashlyn, 1, standing between her knees. Ashlyn seemed oblivious to the shuttle event, first focusing on flinging a coloring book around, and next examining a pebble she picked up off the ground.
Diesing, on the other hand, watches shuttle launches religiously. This is her first launch since coming to see one in the 10th grade.
“It just fascinates me,” she said. “Space just fascinates me.”
—Jessica Raynor, FLORIDA TODAY
We decided to forgo Panera as our surf site of choice and are now sitting in another McDonalds. This one, however, is a Bistro Gourmet. I had heard of these types of McDonalds but had never seen one. As we were on our way to Panera we passed by this two-story Mickey D’s and decided to give it a try. There’s an elevator that goes between floors. The upstairs is set up as a kids’ game room. We’re downstairs in the bistro part. They serve bistro food too. I had the
Signature House Salad:
A mix of spring greens tossed with prosciutto ham and Asiago cheese dressing. Garnished with goat cheese pesto croutons.
My McDonald’s Salad…on a plate, with silverware.
I would have believed it to be from Olive Garden before McDonalds. It was good.
The Bistro McDonalds
LUNCH, however was better! We ate in France. France, Epcot that is. There I had French Onion Soup (not as good as my own), a Croque Monsieur (a French toasted ham & cheese sandwich) with a salad, and Crème Brûlée. Très magnifique!
When you enter Epcot you start out in Future Land. It is open two hours before the rest of the park. We rode the Test Track Ride, which was awesome. Reagan was a little frightened, but she ended up enjoying it after it was over. We rode the Nemo ride and then had a “live” talk with Crush, the surfer-talking turtle from Finding Nemo.
Crush was a cartoon character on a huge movie screen, but he was able to interact live with the kids in the audience. He could see them, describe what they were wearing and ask and answer questions. Although he only answered two kids’ questions and really didn’t answer the questions. He just started talking about what he wanted to say. One kid asked him if turtles hang out in a pack and Crush came back with how boy and girl turtles are made (it has to do with the temperature of the sand). Du felt that Crush closely resembled Obama. Not in looks, stop that. He was all style and no substance, all generalities. He makes you feel good and you forget that he’s not saying anything of substance. That was neat for the kids though; you know, the masses who go with the flow and don’t think for themselves.
Du and Reagan rode Soarin’, a really cool ride that’s worth the wait…at least I’m told that. We decided to do the kid swap deal where one parent goes on the ride with the child who’s big enough to ride while the other parent waits, and waits, and waits with the kid who’s too small. Then, when the first two are off the ride you’re supposedly able to just get on and ride too. We tried it with the Test Track Ride and Du was the one who waited for Reagan & I to ride first. They made him go through the Fast Pass line, which was still a wait. So, for the Soarin’ ride, after I’d waited with Ashlyn for about half an hour for them to ride the ride, I decided I didn’t want to go wait in line myself and then have them hungry and Ashlyn-wearied when I got off. I took one for the team…but that gave me leaverage to decide where we were going to each for lunch.
Reagan got to see more characters today. She even had to get a second autograph book. The only one’s she’s missing that she’d really like are Snow White and Pocahontas. We didn’t see Snow White at the Magic Kingdom and Pocahontas ran off the stage as fast as she could after her humans-are-evil-and-burning-down-all-the-forests rant at the Animal Kingdom.
My goal for the day was to pig out in every country at Epcot. That started…and ended in France. We skipped over Canada and England to get to France and I ate so much for lunch I didn’t have room for anything else. We got some candy (and really cool chopsticks) in Japan and Italy, and I think that’s it.
The Vikings
It got really windy during the second half of the day so when we realized we had come full circle and had seen all the countries we decided to leave. We did not want to wait four hours to see a fireworks show that may or may not happen due to the weather.
Epcot at night
That’s how we ended up here at the gourmet McDonalds. Oh! We’re raising a fast food kid and I can’t say I’m too happy about it. When you’re on vacation though there’s not too much that can be done about it (no comments please about the full kitchen sitting unused back at the house…I’m on vacation too). Ashlyn ate FIVE chicken nuggets last night. And she didn’t even want them torn apart in bite size pieces. She grabbed one and just bit in. So, that’s how she eats them now. She ate four and some fries tonight. She would have eaten more, but we had a six piece meal, and Reagan did have to eat too. Don’t worry about Reagan. She’s good with eating maybe one nugget and then is full. Tonight she was more concerned with playing with her new Jasmine doll set that she bought with her own spending money. She also bought some glass slippers. The Princess is complete.
You think you can trust your neighbors and they go and betray you. Sure, we’re poaching his internet, but did he have to go and break my computer? Ok, I can’t say that he did that, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I was connected last night and tried to upload a video. It’s a pretty big one too and it must have slowed down his internet access. Just as it was about to be finished uploading (I’m convinced I was seconds away from having it up) the internet connection went down and I heard a short beep from my computer that I’ve never heard before. It was the sound of the microwave beep. Just a “beep”. That’s it. Short and sweet. Didn’t think much of it. Until I couldn’t connect to anyunsecured wireless connection after that. Can someone really do that to my computer? Did my computer get sick of me stealing the internet? Does it have more of a conscious than I do? Heather? Help me out here.
Anyway, we showed our neighbor. We’re getting internet, and it’s faster than his too, haha. Andwe get to smell greasy fries and burgers while we surf. We’re paying for our internet at Mickey D’s and I’m about to down a Big Mac, fries and a COKE people, a COKE. That’s worth paying for surfing. (And they’re letting us use their electricity too. We’ve got our computers plugged in to their wall).
Actually, Disney World has its act together. They serve Coke products and I couldn’t have been happier to take that first sip in the park when I found that out. It was like manna in the desert.
Today we visited the Animal Kingdom. I planned that on purpose. Yesterday, a big park. Today, a smaller park. Tomorrow a big park and Thursday a smaller one. I’m hoping we won’t burn out as quickly this way. The Magic Kingdom was packed yesterday. I couldn’t believe how busy it was. I didn’t know how busy it should be in the middle of February, but I didn’t think it would be that busy. One of our friends we had lunch with said that it’s probably the kids coming down from up north who are having their “winter break”. What’s a winter break? We suffered through the winter in Georgia with no breaks. And it is cold in Georgia in the winter. Du tells me I’m a sissy, but he’s as hot-natured as a woman suffering through a hotflash.
So, today I was happy to see smaller crowds at AK. We headed over to one area of the park that had the Lion King performance and a lot of character sightings/autograph signings. The Lion King performance was great. Acrobats, guys on stilts, absolutely awesome costumes and singing. AndReagan and I had small parts to play! The section we were sitting in was the elephant section. Before the show the main actor asked if anyone from our section would like to help get the crowd ready. We all kept our hands down expecting a kid to volunteer. No kid did. So he asked again. I shot my hand up and he chose me! (No one else was raising their hands, so he kind of had to choose me). It turns out I had to make an elephant sound and lead my section in making that sound before the show. It was fun and I’m a great self-deprecator so I was in my element.
Don’t I look just like an elephant?
Near the end of the show they pulled out a couple of kids to shake African rattles and dance around with the actors. They let Reagan be a part of it and she had a lot of fun dancing around. We were proud of her to volunteer, because until now she’s been shy about volunteering.
Reagan’s Lion King performance was not the last for her though. At the next performance, Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends, she got to start the show by quacking like a duck and banging a drum. Not sure what the quacking was for, but the banging of the drum sure was cool. She got a little certificate for her participation.
We got so many character’s signatures today: Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Baloo and the monkey from The Jungle Book, Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger. Reagan was loving this. She runs right up, hugs the character and hands them her autograph book. Yesterday she got signatures from Ariel, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle and Mickey Mouse. Her book is totally full. I guess we’ll have to buy another one (at $12) if she wants to get any more signatures. I’m impressed with how much time the characters take with each child. I expected something a little like the Santa scene in A Christmas Story. You know, where each kid is herded up the steps, picked up and twirled around, stuck on Santa’s lap and quickly thrown down the slide. This is a kinder, gentler celebrity meeting though. Each character, each human character that is, would talk to Reagan and ask her questions. The characters that don’t talk would still hug and high five and spend as much time as the child herder would let.
We didn’t ride a single ride today. There aren’t as many at AK as there are at MK. We didn’t even make it to the dinosaur section of the park, and the park is so much smaller than MK. But we saw at least four live shows (that I can remember right now) and did a lot of walking through animal habitats. We didtake a safari on a limosine-length jeep with a crazy driver, so that could be considered a ride. Lots of African animals. Even some babies. Very neat.
The main theme running throughout the park is innocent enough on the surface, but if you listen to some of the talk it borders on eco-crazy. Think evil-humans-killing-penguins in Happy Feet (that was an environmentalist wacko movie, y’all, if you don’t believe me you may have already been sucked into the dark side).
It rained on and off throughout the latter half of the day. We entered the Nemo performance with overcast, but dry skies. We exited into a downpour. We weren’t really bothered by the rain. There were people running for cover as if they would melt. We, however, stuck around and got the last four character signatures. The park closed at 6pm, so we were done for the day.
We’ll see if I’m able to post tomorrow. We’ll be getting out of the park late. How late is Panera open?
Not So SAHM 
