The Longest Fall Break EVER!

Back to school today after 2 long weeks for Fall Break!

When we first started at the charter school we are at I loved the thought of the extended calendar year. Longer vacations during the year, less time out at summer and the kids supposedly retain more of what they learn each year. I'm still looking for proof on that one.

The first year we attended the school it worked out great. We took a vacation to California during Fall Break for an entire week and still had another week to recuperate and get ready for school again.

Due to budget contraints (actually there is no budget, because there is nothing to budget with!), we had no trip planned this year.

I am realizing that 2 weeks is a long, LONG time when you have nothing planned. I had good intentions. We were gonna go to one of the local farms to their chili cook off and pumpkin patch. Until I saw that it was $14 per person, and that price did not include food or pumkins! I'm all for supporting the local farmers, but when we our bank account is beyond empty I can't justify spending that much on a hayride and a corn maze. And the fact that the farm is an hour and a half away made the price even harder to swallow. Frankly...I guess I was just not in the mood to spend $100 on chili and pumpkins. There. I said it. It was easier to put a tarp up over the swing set and tell the boys to turn it into a fort. (Read it correctly, people, that is fort with an O, not the other word with an A!) Which they thought was cool for 2 days. The fort, I mean. They also think the other thing is cool and funny too though. But that's a story for another day.

That only left 12 days to fill. We made cupcakes and had friends over another day. Down to 11 days. Church 2 times, we're down to 9 days! Whoo-hoo!

At this point we were still waiting for our neighbor kids to get out for their fall break. They only get one week off. Because they don't like going to school until June 10th, which is the consequence of taking longer breaks during the year. I am starting to see the wisdom in a regular school calendar. But I digress. So we had a few tough days. Because mom's brain could not seem to function to come up with activities and my boys were having a hard time with the thought of actually playing WITH EACH OTHER!

Thank Goodness my nephew's birthday party came around! On Columbus Day we hung out with the cousin at Amazing Jake's all day, which is like Chuck E. Cheese on steroids. Have you seen that place?! It is loud and crowded and crazy and big. Rides, video games, prize games, rock climbing wall, laser tag, bowling, mini golf and a buffet. My kids love it there. I like the fact that I can actually get decent food, not just pizza. I had huge salads for lunch and dinner. Yeah, we stay all day when we go. My body was totally diggin' on the healthy food and I was diggin' on the fact that I didn't have to make ANY of it OR do the dishes. It's a long way from our house, almost as far as the pumpkin farm, but since we weren't paying for anything and I didn't have to cook or clean that whole day, it was worth the drive! Once I got past the feeling that I was swimming in a giant H1N1 petri dish, that is.

So that left 8 days. 8 days of watching my oldest (now 10 yrs old) walk around in circles trying to entertain himself. 8 Days of listening to "I'm bored." Read a book. Let's build your Scout Rocket. Play a video game. Help me pull weeds. Fold the laundry. Let's draw a picture. All met with rolling eyes and annoyed sighs. 8 days of fighting over chores, because "we are on vacation." No, we are on Fall Break, which is different from a vacation, because we are still home and making messes and chores still have to get done. "Whatever. This is the worst vacation ever." Glad he heard me.

In the end, they had a few fun days and I think that even if they weren't occupied every single minute of every day, they at least enjoyed having the break from school. Once the neighbors got out of school, things improved a little bit as they had other kids to play with.

But I wished I was in a better place for my kids. I miss feeling creative and fun and upbeat and willing to try new things. I just couldn't get there for them this time. I was too busy trying to get through the day. I realized that Big Man and I are just worn out. It's been a tough 2 years. We are ready for something different, but struggling to find the energy to create the atmosphere that will allow opportunities to present themselves. We really could have used a vacation ourselves.

I'm starting mine today. The kids are back in school. For at least 4 hours a day this week, I get peace and quiet and time to think and plan and change my attitude. Maybe I'll be ready for the 3 weeks the kids are out for Christmas. That's 7 more days I have to help fill! Yeah...regular school schedule is looking better and better to me everyday.

Disneyland is NOT for Whimps!!

Can I just start by saying that Disneyland during the Holidays is absolutely INSANE!!?? It's a whole lotta crazy at Christmas!

MomSelect and Disneyland gave me and my family the opportunity to meet up at Disneyland with 50 other MomBloggers and experience the park during the holiday season! (Shout out to Michele Himmelberg- Disneyland Resort Public Relations! She did so much to ensure we had a great experience! Thanks so much!) Since it was my family's first time there, I was a bit unprepared for the MASSES of people we would encounter, but in the end we really enjoyed ourselves.

Wanna hear all the boring details? Okay! First of all, we flew. We left Friday morning. They didn't know where we were going, we kept it a surprise! My boys had a blast on the plane, they have never flown before. Big Brother wants to be a military man of some sort and is really into military planes and jets right now, so he totally soaked up the experience, including the safety procedures the flight attendant reviewed with us (he's very, very safety conscious). He knew exactly how to save our lives when she was done. (Little Man was not asleep, I don't know what he was doing in that pic!)

We caught the Disneyland Express bus from Orange County Airport to the Disneyland Hotel. Jeff was our bus driver. He was...interesting. I'll leave it at that. The hotel is beautiful. We checked in without a hitch, got our 1st Time buttons and they even had an "It's my Birthday" button waiting for Little Man since his B-day was just on the 1st! Little Man, while happy, was extremely perplexed about how they knew! I explained how Mickey is a psychic mouse who uses his powers for good to suprise little kids and sometimes evil grumpy husbands. Kidding! We all know Mickey isn't psychic, just happy! Everybody was extremely pleasant to deal with. Disneyland kind of pleasant. I kept waiting for birds to start singing while circling around their heads! No, seriously, it was nice to have good customer service for a change. It made up for Jeff the Bus Driver...did I mention he was really...interesting? He kind of freaked me out. Something is definitely flying around his head and singing. Nice guy, just umm...interesting. I didn't take his pic, I didn't want to encourage him.

Here is a quick pic of our room and our view, which was chosen so we could see the fireworks from the balcony, which was awesome and useful on the second night, when we could not walk one more step and the kids were able to sit and dirnk hot chocolate and watch the fireworks while my feet died a slow death. I do not have pics of the fireworks. I will explain this later in the post.

We explored Downtown Disney the first afternoon and ran around the park just a bit before attending a presentation for all the MomBloggers Friday night. The presentation and awesome buffet were both held at the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel in the Sequoia Ballroom. The minute we entered we were greeted by Minnie, who promptly embarrassed Big Brother by giving him a hug. (He's 9...still not into girls, especially one's with big heads and ears.) Little Man ran over and gave her a big hug. I could have gotten pics of this if I hadn't dropped my camera and wrecked it, so now you will have to wait for the family/Minnie pic until I get it downloaded from DisneyPhotoPass.com, which I learned about at the festivities Friday night! I will blog about this more tomorrow!

Big Man and the Boys met some dads and ate shrimp cocktails, prime rib, turkey and pasta, along with yummy cookies and rice krispy treats while us MomBloggers learned about all the yummy treats the park makes during the holiday season! Did you know Disneyland makes more gingerbread than any other bakery or restaurant west of the Rockies? Who knew?! More on that tomorrow too!

Anyway, we finished the night at the park, with a special preview of the fireworks show, set to holiday music and SNOW! Disney can make anything happen, right? It was this cool snow looking stuff that fell softly over Main Street as we walked toward the exit. It was awesome and fun and the perfect way to end the night! We headed back to the hotel and had a wonderful night's sleep on those comfy beds, dreaming about the next day's adventures. I had no idea how many miles I would be walking the next day, so I slumbered with no worries. Tune in tomorrow for Part 2!