Magic Kingdom

First stop in our week-long Disney adventure was Magic Kingdom.  It was crowded, but as in past years, we didn't go with a set of must-dos.  We had FastPasses for three rides (Journey of the Little Mermaid, Tomorrowland Speedway, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin), but other than that, we just walked around and if the line was too long on one thing, we'd simply go on to another.  This worked out well for us.  Other than meeting Elsa and Anna (they had run out of FastPasses for this one), I don't think we waited more than 15 minutes for anything.  Meeting Elsa and Anna took an hour, and the only reason why it was ONLY an hour was because this was at 9pm, when everyone else was out watching the parade and fireworks (we had stopped by earlier and the wait time was 180 minutes... umm... no thank you!).

Big sister K cooling off in the hot weather:

On the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMovers.  Love that there was no line... we did this multiple times:

Picture ops with the characters.  First time we didn't take one with Mickey:

I asked big sister K if it was worth the hour wait just to take a 30-second photo with them, and of course she said yes.

Road Trip: Orlando

I don't know what possessed us to do the long drive down to Orlando!  What were we thinking???  (Or more like we weren't!)  I can sum it up in one word: BRUTAL.  We left Washington DC at about 7pm, got stuck in a bit of traffic, stopped for dinner, and by the time we hit the road again, it was probably around 9pm.  The kids went to sleep, M drove the first leg of the trip, and I took over at about 2am.  I was only able to go a few hours before my eyes could barely stay open.  At a little past 5am, I found a rest stop and switched places with M.  We finally got to Orlando at 10am after a detour to IHOP for some breakfast.  All I kept thinking was, "oh man, we have to do this again in a week (for the drive back)!"

We checked into the Disney All-Star Sports Resort, settled in, and took the shuttle to Downtown Disney to meet up with M's niece (who works at Disney and helped us get our hotel/theme park tickets).  M's brother also happened to be vacationing in Orlando (only he was smarter than we were and flew down there), so we got to see him as well.  We just chatted with each of them for a few minutes (M's niece had to get back to work and M's brother was catching a movie with his friends).  Still, it was nice to see familiar faces away from home.

We had dinner at the T-Rex Restaurant... similar concept to the Rainforest Cafe, but instead of wild animals, you're surrounded by dinosaurs.  Every 20 minutes, the lights would dim, the dinosaurs would start to move, and you'd hear loud roaring over the loudspeakers.  This meant that every 20 minutes, baby M would start crying and insist on being carried or sitting on either M's or my lap (if he wasn't already).  Oh yes, dinner was loads of fun that night.

Me and my girl:

 All smiles with daddy once we left the restaurant:

Road Trip: Washington DC

Our family road trip down to Orlando, FL has turned out to be quite an experience.  With my atypical last-minute packing, I was bound to forget something.  This time, the “something” happened to be Winnie the Pooh bear, big sister K’s beloved lovey, whom she can’t sleep without.  I realized this on the way to Washington DC (our first and only pit-stop) and made the mistake of asking big sister K if she would be okay without Pooh bear for the next two weeks.  Her face slowly transformed to one of despair, and before she had a chance to break out into tears, I promised her we’d go shopping for a replacement Pooh.  As we approached our hotel in DC, a quick search on Google found a Target nearby.  Unfortunately, the closest parking spot we found was two blocks away (not far under normal circumstances, but when you're dealing with torrential downpour, the walk could seem like miles).  The kids were real troopers though, and we made it there in one piece, albeit a little wet.

Despite the effort, Target ended up being a real disappointment.  We searched all over, but couldn’t find loveys anywhere.  Fortunately, there was a Marshalls in the same shopping complex, so we gave that a try and hit jackpot.  It wasn’t the same as the other two (yes, two – she already has a backup) Pooh bears she has at home (in fact, this wasn’t even Winnie the Pooh), but she liked it enough that the rest of us would be spared her complaining for the duration of our trip.

BTW, if anyone is interested in seeing what big sister K's Pooh bears look like, here they are.  The one to the left is her favorite, followed by the "backup" in the middle, and then the new lovey on the right:

By the time we left Marshalls, drove to the hotel, and checked-in, it was almost 5pm already.  M didn’t want to waste the rest of the day since we only had one more day in DC, so we took the metro to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  We were only there for about two hours before the museum closed, but that was enough time to walk through all the exhibits.  I think the kids (and M) would’ve preferred to see live animals instead of fake ones.  Hence, a trip to the zoo was scheduled for the next day…

When we got to our car Sunday morning, ready to make the short drive to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, the car dashboard indicator warned us that we had low pressure on one of our tires.  M went out to check and saw a screw stuck in the tire.  We drove to a nearby gas station and started making frantic calls to AAA.  Unfortunately, they only covered services to replace our tire with a spare or tow our car somewhere (neither of which we wanted), but they wouldn’t actually fix the tire itself on the spot.  The nearest AAA Car Service Center did not open on Sundays, so I had the AAA rep look up other mechanic shops nearby that were open.  We ended up going to a Midas a few miles away (after an initial misdirection by the GPS).  They took the car in and the kids were kept occupied with the Incredibles movie on my iPad while we waited.  M found a coupon for Midas on his phone (very non-descriptive, so we couldn’t really tell what it was for).  When it came time to settle the bill, he asked if he could use it.  The lady put in the code, and the $40 charge came out to $0.  Nice!  Our two-hour detour to the auto mechanic shop ended up being free!

Parking near the zoo proved to be quite difficult, but we eventually managed to find a spot after circling around a few times.  It was still six long blocks away, but the walking saved us $22 from parking in the lot.  The kids were excited to see all the animals, especially the pandas.  About an hour into our visit, baby M had to go potty (and mind you, we had just asked him if he had to go and he said no; he ALWAYS waits until the very last minute!).  Unfortunately, I happened to be carrying him and he didn’t make it in time, so he peed all over both of us. I was so angry that I made baby M walk (or more like me dragging him) the six long blocks to the car to get clean clothes while M and big sister K explored the rest of the zoo.  After changing baby M in the back of the car, I started driving and found a closer spot to the zoo, but by the time I parked, baby M had fallen asleep.  I ended up staying in the car with him while he napped until M and big sister K were done.  After the zoo, we left DC and started the long 12-hour drive to Orlando. Stay tuned for the next segment of our family road trip!

Chinese School Graduation

Big sister K's kindergarten graduating class from Chinese school this past Saturday:

 Family photo!

 So proud of my little girl for winning 2nd place in the school's drawing contest:

Early June Happenings

I am in part glad that school is almost over for big sister K.  This means I get a break from keeping track of and chauffeuring her to all the various extracurricular activities every week... and maybe we'll actually have some free Saturdays before fall comes around!

With the end of the school year also means wrapping up on a lot of things.  Big sister K had her final exam at Chinese school last Saturday, immediately followed by her dance recital at the New Brunswick State Theater.  She scored 102% on her Chinese test (got an extra two points for knowing one of the teacher assistant's names), and did great on her performance.  Of course, this was with me relentlessly having her do practice exams every night, plus going through her dance routine during the week.  I normally wouldn't have her practice the dance at home (especially since she's had it memorized for weeks now), but the instructor changed her position at the last minute (another girl in the class broke her arm and wouldn't be able to perform so big sister K was upgraded to the front row) and some of the moves were different, so I wanted to make sure she knew it. She was very excited about the recital, but I think the highlight for her was being able to wear makeup... and I must say, I am quite proud of myself for managing to put her hair up in a bun.  Here she is with her dance buddies, waiting backstage for their turn to go on:

I registered big sister K for dance lessons in the fall already, but we don't know which class yet.  It seems like she wants to try something different every year... she did tap last year, ballet this year, and she's expressed an interest in acro and jazz, so it will probably be one of the two next year, depending on which works better for our schedule.

Next event to look forward to: big sister K's Chinese school kindergarten graduation!