children Archives - Page 4 of 29 - Kristen Anne Glover

Variations on the Disney Theme

It’s Disney week here at Five in Tow! If you’ve been reading along this week, you know that Jeff’s aunt and uncle took the three older children to Disneyland for the week. We kept the trip a secret until the day they left.

Yesterday found us at the airport. The kids had just received their personalized Mickey Mouse shirts. They pulled them on over their heads, put their pixie dust necklaces on, and grinned at me because clearly, Mickey Mouse shirts and pixie dust and the airport are completely unrelated.

“So, what’s the surprise?”

I considered coming right out and saying it right there in the middle of section J-5 of short-term parking.

But I didn’t.

I had one more trick up my sleeve. Enter the Disney gift bag, otherwise known as the if-you-don’t-get-it-after-this-you-never-will gift bag.

Ta-da!

Originally, I thought the kids could open these on the plane. However, I also thought the kids could figure out they were going to Disney without the help of divine handwriting on the wall.

Alas.

Enter gift bags! I grabbed the gift bags at the dollar store and added my own interpretation of the Disney theme (see his buttons?). That didn’t go so well. When I showed Jeff the bags, he looked at me blankly and asked me what eyeballs and to do with Disney.

Artists are so misunderstood.

While at the dollar store, I got some other Disney-themed goodies. Did you know the dollar store has lots of (cheap) Disney stuff? Here are some of the things I snagged to fill their bags:

Disney puzzles in tins, perfect for the plane ride

Autograph notebooks

I was going to make autograph books for the kids, but then I saw the Aladdin-inspired notebooks for the girls and thought, “Hey, that’s one less thing I have to do.”

Sometimes, the Fairy Godmother needs to outsource.

Next, I found Wish-Upon-a Star glow sticks for the Grand Parade.

I wanted the kids to save the glow wands for the parade and not use them for a mid-night light saber fight, so I wrapped them up and included a little note:

The handwriting isn’t that neat but you’ve gotta give the Fairy Godmother a little slack because she was in serious danger of going to the ball without mascara.

Scary.

Also, the dollar store had light-up bouncy balls, which I turned into these:

These would make great party favors for a birthday party, Disney-themed or not. Simply change the wording to “I hope you had a ball!” and hand them out as the kids leave so that you don’t have to deal with a billion seizure-inducing light-up bouncy balls boinging around your kitchen while you’re trying to serve the cake.

Word to the wise.

I found Pixie Stix in the candy aisle, which was kind of a shame because I’d already made my pixie dust necklaces, but I couldn’t resist because a good two years of my childhood were fueled by Pixie Stix.

I bought them and later justified my indulgence by turning them into this:

Hey, the kids have to get home, right?

In my spare time, I also created two different kinds of “Mouse Mix” for the kids to munch on.

The first was Mickey Mouse mix, a concoction of pretzels, almonds, dark chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and coconut flakes.

I took the pretzels and put a dark chocolate chip in each “ear.” Then, I stuck them in the oven at 350 until the chocolate softened. Of course, chocolate chips are made to hold their shape so I had to dab them into the holes with a knife (because I had nothing better to do than to dab chocolate into pretzels) to make them look anything like mouse ears.

Use your imagination.

The second “Mouse mix” was just a bunch of different flavors of Jelly Belly candies in red, white, and black, the Mickey and Minnie Mouse colors.

I made a Mickey Mouse template using spice jars so I could trace and cut out Mickey Mouse labels for everything.

Using a real ribbon made everything look that much nicer and yummier. Why is it that ribbon makes things taste better?

The last thing I did was create money holders for the spending money we were sending along with the kids. Twenty dollars should be enough to buy…nothing. Disney should take a hint from the dollar store.

I used the same template I had created for the labels, traced them onto felt, and used my hot glue gun to glue the edges together, leaving a small opening for the money. I added hair bows for the Minnies and a snazzy bow-tie for MIckey that almost-completely-removed-my-fingerprints-because-I-stuck-my-fingers-into-the-hot-glue–ouch.

I wrote a poem to go with it (you knew I would).

If you can’t read it, it says:

Every story has to end,

So here’s some money for you to spend.

Buy a treasure, something neat,

Buy a memory you can keep.

Don’t forget to think of others

(Perhaps buy something for your brothers).

Ignore that glob of glue on MIckey’s bow tie. Just like my fingerprints, it’s not there.

All of those things went into the gift bag, along with a few other random things like bubble gum for the plane ride and Disney stickers. Would it be enough for the kids to figure out what was going on?

Well, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

I’m mean, I know. But really, I’m hoping Jeff can help me edit the video so you can see the kids’ reactions yourself, and since I’m completely inept when it comes to hot glue and video editing, I need some help. Also, this post is getting really long already and you probably have things to do, right?

Bwahahaha! Stay tuned for the final Disney reveal, coming tomorrow!

A Disney Adventure

Yesterday was D-Day.

It was the day my three older children were going to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. The best part was, they had no idea where they were going.

If you read Friday’s post, you know all about it, and you probably know that keeping something like that a secret was quite the trick, especially since I announced it to thousands of my closest friends on the internet first, including everyone we hung out with at church on Sunday.

But it worked!

The kids woke up giddy and clueless. Throughout the morning, as they languished over their schoolwork, they threw ideas back and forth like popcorn.

Maybe we were going hiking! Or camping! But wait–I hadn’t asked anyone to pack, so we couldn’t be going far.

No one had noticed the three neat piles of clothes on the table in my room, and no one had thought twice when Nana brought two extra suitcases over “because she was cleaning out,” and no one saw me lug three suitcases into the back of the van while Jeff suddenly decided to show the kids the pictures Jonathan took with his camera. Nope. No one had seen any of that.

So of course, we couldn’t be going anywhere overnight! Too bad, because that would have been fun.

Meanwhile, the suggestions continued. Maybe Grandma and Grandpa are coming to visit? Maybe we were going to Beachwood, a little vacation place we sometimes visit in the summers, or perhaps up to Whistler, British Columbia, where Nana and Papa have a timeshare. Or maybe it was family day at Ft. Lewis and we were all going to drive down there?

“It’s going to be better than anything you’ve ever done,” Jeff said casually as he walked through the dining room. “It’s going to blow your head off.”

Five sets of eyeballs grew round like moons and five jaws dropped like meteors.

What. could. it. be?

Thankfully, the Fairy Godmother had finally finished all of her secret preparations and had even managed to get a shower so the magic was flowing. Besides, two parents (who shall remain nameless) had finally had just about all they could take of pure excitement and raw childhood glee, so for the love of Peter Pan, it was time to go!

The clues were in place. The question was, how long would it take them to figure out where they were going?

The first clue was right outside the front door.

The Mother of the Year award goes to the woman who blew up dozens of balloons, created a balloon banner, hid it from five children, and managed to put it up without any of them seeing. Woo hoo!

The night before, I created a balloon banner in Mickey Mouse colors. I dizzied myself blowing up a bunch of balloons, then Jeff blew up a few more. I secured them to a line of dental floss to create a banner. We have yards and yards of dental floss from various Army trainings Jeff has done in which he always seems to acquire a little pack of dental floss. The Army is fastidious about dental hygiene, you know.

Meanwhile, back in the Glover house, I floss about as often as I sleep in.

Ahem.

Good thing there are other uses for dental floss.

Dental floss is perfect for creating a balloon banner because it is strong, lightweight, and practically invisible in between all of those balloons. To create a banner, just tie the floss around the ends of the balloons, trying not to crowd them too much (a mistake I made). If you crowd them, the banner will end up very bunchy. It worked out just fine in this application, but it was very fat and that would have made it more difficult to string up against a wall.

I tied one end of the balloon banner to the railing with black streamers so the kids could “open” the balloon banner when it was time for the adventure!

Under the balloon banner, I placed the first clue, an envelop inscribed with the words Once Upon a Time…

How all good stories begin

I thought Pooh should hold it.

A very useful sort of bear

When it was time, we released the children onto the deck (mad chaos!) and let them read the clue.

Discovering the first clue(s)

The letter inside the envelope contained a poem in squiggly font. It read like this:

Shake a hook,

Kiss a queen,

Go somewhere you’ve never been.

Make a wish,

Dare to dream,

Fly to places yet unseen.

Ride a carpet,

Chase a star,

Doesn’t matter who you are!

Count to three,

Jump right in!

Let the adventure begin…

I made that up myself.

They stopped and looked at each other. Then Faith read it again. What could it mean?

“That’s all Disney stuff!” Jonathan said.

“Are we going to Disney?” Faith asked, wide-eyed.

“No, we couldn’t be going to Disney. We’d have to got to the airport for that,” Jonathan said. “Maybe we’re going on a cruise.”

And here I thought they wouldn’t dream big enough.

Your carriage awaits!

The three older kids jumped in the van while Jeff took the twins on an adventure of their own. We were headed for our first stop, which I knew was Nana’s house, but they didn’t. All they knew was they were going to get another clue when they got there.

On the way, they chatted about their clues and came to the following conclusion:

All the clues in the poem pointed to Disney. We were going to see a Disney parade! No, wait, Jonathan hates parades. We were going to see a Disney movie at the movie theater! The kids had never been to a movie in a movie theater, even though their friend, Caleb, had been to dozens and they weren’t at all jealous. Peter Pan was a particularly strong theme, so it seemed logical that we were going to see Peter Pan in the theater! It totally fit the clues!

Also, the balloon banner was made of red, white, and black. The black was for the pirate in Peter Pan, duh, and clearly, the white and red were meant to represent the colors of the Japanese flag. The kids’ dear friends, Kiri and Moira, are half-Japanese, so obviously we were going to pick them up on the way and take them along too! What fun!

But the car did not go to Kiri and Moira’s house. It went to Nana’s house, where Clue #2 was waiting.

Don’t forget your pixie dust

Come back tomorrow to find out what happened when the kids opened Clue #2, and discover some more fun Disney crafts to do with your own family!

The Happiest Place on Earth

The happiest place on earth

A surprise is brewing here in the Glover house. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime blow-your-mind surprise for the children.

And they have no idea. If you’re the kind of person who can’t keep a secret, just stop reading right now. You’ve got to keep it in until Monday. If you can do that, then raise your right hand. Take the oath of silence. Got it? Okay. Proceed.

It all started a few weeks ago when my mother-in-law called to tell us that Jeff’s aunt and uncle wanted to take the three older children to Disneyland for the week. They were going to bring Nana along too, just to make sure the kids were comfortable since Uncle Fred and Aunt LaVonne are twice-a-year relatives and the kids might feel better going to California with someone they know better. Besides, everything is better with a Nana, even Disney.

Disney! Ahhhhhhhh!

I was stunned when I heard it. Never in a million years would we be able to take our children to Disneyland. Maybe if we were stationed in California we could take the kids there for a day, but to fly? And to stay for days on end? That was out of the question. It’s one of the realities of having five children. Some things should not even be wished for.

But that is not the way Uncle Fred and Aunt LaVonne think. They have always had hearts big enough for crazy wishes, and even though they have grandchildren of their own to spoil and love on, they have hearts big enough for a few more. Even five more.

But all five children were not going to Disney, only three. I hung up the phone and let that thought sink in. Only three children would be going to Disney, three children when all five were old enough to know what was going on and what was being left out.

I went to bed that night but I couldn’t sleep. What a beautiful gift we had been given. It was so beautiful, it almost hurt. It hurt because all of my children couldn’t have it.

It hurt because my twins would know they were being left out, and I didn’t know how to justify that. We are the kind of family that does everything together. From dawn to dusk, my children share the same space, the same activities, the same experiences. On the rare occasions when one of them is gone, the others languish like they’ve lost a limb.

The one who is singled out doesn’t fair much better. When I took Jonathan out for his birthday, he often paused his constant chatter about birds of prey and knives and speculations about how fast he could run to sigh dramatically and say, “I wonder what The Others are doing now.”

I wonder what the others are doing now…

The twins were going to notice. They were going to feel it. And I ached for them over it.

I ached so much, I almost couldn’t let the other three go. It felt selfish and mean to hold something back from the older ones just because the little ones couldn’t have it too. How could I deny my children the experience of a lifetime? But then I thought of those boys, those sweet boys who practically can’t function without Kya, their social coordinator, and Jonathan, their wrestle-buddy, and Faith, their story-reader and horse. Yes, horse.

I put my head on Jeff’s shoulder and cried it all out.

“Life isn’t fair,” he said in his I’m-going-to-make-it-okay voice. “Sometimes, it doesn’t come out the same, and the sooner our kids can learn that, the better.”

I got that. Really. I did. We have never tried to treat our kids as equals; we have treated them as individuals with different needs and different gifts. Sometimes, that means one of them gets a new pair of shoes and the others don’t.

But this is Disney. This is not just a new pair of shoes. This is the-greatest-thing-that-happened-in-my-childhood kind of thing. This is the stuff that will cause my twins to dye their hair blue and tattoo mouse ears on their bodies when they’re twenty-three. If I ask them why they’ll say, “You never took us to Disney.”

Cut out my heart.

Run away! Run away!

“We need to let them go,” Jeff assured me.

I knew it. I just didn’t know how to live with it.

So, I’ve kept it a secret. I’ve kept it a secret and I’ve poured all my creative energies into making this epic experience even more epic. It is Epic Supersized. I am doctoring my heart by planning the most amazing surprise my older kids have even known. They have no idea where they are going. They do not know they will be spending a week with Nana. They do not know they will be flying on a plane! They do not know they will be landing in California and spending three luscious days at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Here in my little laboratory (pronounced la-BORE-uh-tory), I am crafting up a Disney storm. Wait until you see the pixie dust I’ve concocted. You will die.

Somewhere in all my plotting and scheming and crafting, it has become okay. I guess that’s one of the ways to cope when life isn’t fair: you add glitter.

The other half of my brain is planning a week of precious memories with my littlest loves. Oh, the places we will go! They will not know that their siblings are at Disney. It’s better that way, I think. They will have time enough to know it when their sisters and brother return. They don’t need to be jealous about it while they’re gone.

All they will know is that they are loved.

And isn’t that the best thing to know when life isn’t fair?

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