September

September was a big month for us around here:

We spent a totally relaxing Labour Day weekend up at the trailer in amazingly warm weather. Otherwise we didn't get up there much this month.

Two not so little boys went to school. One for the first time and totally loves it.

I took my first trip away from Noah and the longest I've been away from the others. One of my best girlfriends and I went to Chicago for five glorious days. Some highlights were: the Art Institute, a wine boat cruise, Cubs game at Wrigley Field, Blues Bar, Second City Comedy Show, 18km gangster history bike tour, and a free greeter tour with a local gal which was so fun. There wasn't a meal I ate that wasn't delicious. Such a beautiful city!

Skating started back up and I wasn't nearly as sore as after the first practice last year.

I took the boys to Doors Open, an annual free event where places that aren't normally open to the public open their doors. The site we visited was our local airport and military museum.

               

Happy October and Fall to all!

May

Wow, June already! We've been enjoying the few glimpses of warmer weather and spending plenty of time outdoors. I've been listening to the Arkells' album High Noon on repeat too. So. Good.

Lately:

- We've been weekending at the trailer. Sometimes it feels stressful/overwhelming after working all week to switch gears and pack up the car with the kids and everything we need but as soon as we get out of the city, I immediately feel at ease. The route there is familiar and nostalgic. R and I met not too far from where our trailer is and we've travelled those country roads often. We've been making a bigger effort to get up there every weekend this summer no matter what. I've even managed two days solo with the boys up there while R went into work from there. Many of our great neighbours up there help out a lot with the kids. The sense of community is really nice.

- Victoria Day long weekend was perfect. The boys went fishing a lot, we went to the zoo (the most fun was had not seeing animals but rolling down a big grassy hill and playing on a tire swing), swimming in the outdoor pool, and boating into a nearby town with friends for dinner. The lake was still cold but the boys insisted on going tubing. After a rough first weekend in the sleeping department for Noah, he is sleeping like a champ up there now. All three boys are sharing a bedroom which has been less of an adventure than we thought since they are so tired at night!

- We've been cycling! We took the boys out this month to a local Ride of Silence to honour and raise awareness for cyclists that have been injured or killed on the roads. B actually participated in the ride (approx. 7 km and on some busy roads) while R towed the littles in the trailer and I rode. B liked riding with the police officers on bikes and understood a little bit more about the importance of bike and road safety. The big boys really love riding their bikes and I hope that doesn't change as they get older. I splurged on a new bike for myself recently so I've been trying to get out on my bike more myself. I actually rode nearly 15 kilometres to work last week but couldn't quite muster up the energy to ride home so I've got some work to do! I'd love to be able to ride once in a while.

- Gearing up for kindergarten. N had his Welcome to Kindergarten Night this month and totally rocked it! He is so ready to join his brother at school in September and it was so amazing to see him on his own interacting with the other kids and teachers.

- Making the best of a rainy weekend. Last weekend was RAINY. Until this year we've left the trailer when the forecast was calling for long periods of rain. Entertaining the littles in a trailer that is less than 400 square feet isn't the most fun. Especially when your kids don't love watching movies and aren't old enough to play board games or read independently. This past weekend we stayed and had a surprisingly good time. The older boys did some organized indoor kids activities, Noah napped well, and we went with friends into town nearby for bowling and afterward introduced the boys to our old favourite, Night Kitchen take-out pizza, which we brought back to the trailer to eat with a glass of wine.  It was perfect.

June is going to be a busy month for us. I can't wait for summer!

Disney on a Budget

I thought I'd offer a bunch of tips on how we managed to make it to Disney World over Christmas holidays without completely breaking the bank mixed in with some tips that made things more smooth for our trip. Travelling over the holidays is dreaded by many but we actually spent very little of our vacation waiting in line ups and weathering crowds even though it is supposed to be one of the busiest times of year at Disney.

I'm a compulsive planner.  As soon as we decided to take the trip, I spent a few months researching - food, accommodation, age appropriate attractions, must sees/dos for boys etc.  but also combing through the myriad of blogs devoted to doing Disney on a budget.  Since we were driving and this would be our first road trip with the boys, aged 5 and 2, longer than 6 hours in a small car (we used to travel by minivan), I sought out road tripping with kids tips too. Luckily I didn't have to search too far for those - my go to blog posts were - here and here. 

1. If you're staying on site, stay at a value resort rather than a fancier one. This is especially true if you have young kids. The "tackiness" and double beds vs. queen size beds mentioned as negatives by some reviewers are actually pluses for the little ones who love seeing gigantic characters or in our case, running along a giant computer keyboard. Our neighbours stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge which when I looked was twice the price per night as our room at Pop Century! I had grand plans of relaxing at the resort and going for swims or playing on a playground. The hubby and oldest only managed to get in the pool once during our stay, we spent most of our time at the Parks. Originally we had planned to have one non-park day where we'd just stick around the resort or do Downtown Disney but even at the price of the value resort, it probably wouldn't be worth paying that much to stay on-site to not go to the parks. A bonus of staying on-site are extra park hours and free Disney Transit. Although when researching afterward I saw some hotels in the area (Downtown Disney) offer cheaper rooms, continental breakfast AND access to Disney Transit. 

2. Book through Disney Vacations. Even better if you book during an off-peak time.  This is my budget friendly tip since you can make and book vacations up to 18 months in advance with only a $200 deposit (and no interest!). The rest you can pay at any time in any increment so long as the balance is paid off a month and a half before your visit. There's nothing like actually booking a vacation to get you excited about going on (and paying for) that vacation. Don't forget the exchange rate if you live somewhere other than the U.S. like I did and wonder why you were charged $215 instead of $200. 

3. Children under 3 are FREE. Choosing to go while N was 2 1/2 proved to be a great idea. There were only a few rides he could not go on due to his height and only a couple of those our 5 year old was tall enough to ride. Both boys had a blast. 

4. Opt out on the Dining Plan and the Park Hopper Passes. The Dining Plan is not only expensive but also healthy options aren't in abundance either. I had originally booked the Park Hopper Passes for us but then cancelled after reading several reviews of people with young children saying they weren't worth the money and I couldn't agree more. The base pass allowed us to enter and exit one park as many times as we wanted in one day. With the travel time required to get in-between the parks it also would've been a waste of some of the day that could've been spent in the park. There was more than enough to do at one park in one day. One day was sufficient for us to do all we wanted at Animal Kingdom but we used 2 days at Magic Kingdom to get in almost everything we wanted to do there. Unfortunately the parades and fireworks will have to wait until the boys are a bit older. 

5. Drive rather than fly. Parking at the resort is free and it cost us less than the cost of flights for 2 people including hotel accommodations to drive rather than fly. If you do drive, we brought lots of snacks, spill proof water bottles, a car tray - they took turns with this, colouring book and crayons, laptop (which we barely used), a Nintendo DS with new games (Xmas gifts from family and friends), and a LeapPad2 (Santa gift). We pulled the snacks out when the whining started. We had a fairly peaceful trip. 

6. Make most of your own meals. We don't eat out much at all regularly so this one wasn't hard for us. We chose to eat out for dinners while we were away. This meant breakfasts and lunches in our resort room (which had a mini fridge). We stopped at a grocery store about an hour out of Orlando and stocked up our cooler. We also chose to stay at Holiday Inn Express hotels on the way down and back which included continental breakfasts. We brought our own drinks and snacks into the parks without any trouble. We did splurge one night and got the boys Mickey ice cream bars since we only spent $30 on hot dogs for dinner that night at Casey's Corner in the Magic Kingdom.  We did buy coffee each morning too at the Parks. Even though we ate relatively few meals out, I was dying for a home cooked meal when I got home and feeling really crummy from all the sodium. 

7.  Read menus and make reservations! Disney dining reservations book up quickly and I was bummed to find that by the time I got around to it I thought we'd be eating dinner at 2 in the afternoon or 10 at night. BUT I came across good advice in the comments section of a blog saying to call the restaurant to reserve instead since they only book a certain portion of the restaurant through online Disney reservations. I called. Got the exact times I was looking for. Warning: If you don't make reservations you could be waiting anywhere from 1-2 HOURS at table-service restaurants during peak times. With the reservations we waited 10 mins. Our two reservation meals we had while at Disney were at the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom and the T-Rex on our first night in Downtown Disney. Both bills came to around $100 for the four of us. We preferred the T-Rex which was a wee bit cheaper and the portion sizes were so large we had leftovers for lunch the next day. Side note: it pained me to spend $100 on dinner. Especially when the 4 of us ate dinner at Denny's on the drive down for $26. 

8. Bring your own stroller. We dusted off and brought our own umbrella stroller (you'll want something small and easy to collapse with transit). Stroller rentals are something like $15/day for a single. Our stroller has gotten virtually no use since a long day trip to Centreville last summer when N had just turned 2. Back in the fall, when we took the boys to a local Conservation Area, he walked/ran  a 3 kilometre loop without any trouble. At Disney, he rode in the stroller about half of the time so it was somewhat handy to have. If your child is school-aged you can get away with not bringing a stroller. Though we did see a lot of older school-aged children being pushed around in strollers which BAFFLED us. B was even confused and asked us why the big kids were riding in strollers.  

9. Book your Fast Passes ahead online. Every park ticket has the option of using up to 3 "fast passes" which allow you to arrive to the ride at a certain time and skip the line up. We picked our 3 for each day and booked them all for before noon. That way we got them all in while the kids were well rested and before we headed back to the resort for lunch and afternoon naps. The rest of the time, we chose rides with short line-ups. N was good for no more then about a 20 minute wait while B waited in line without complaint twice for 45 minutes to go on some more thrilling rides with his dad. We found early in the morning the waits weren't bad and when the whether was overcast/a little drizzly. We got many rides done during this time. Being pregnant, I was surprised there were still a number of rides I could actually go on. 

10. Souvenirs are expensive traps. The boys were lucky to get a little bit of money from grandma and grandpa for souvenirs as part of their Christmas gifts. They also got Disney PJs (from Walmart) as part of their gift that they wore during the trip. We were firm with the boys that they each got $40 to spend on souvenirs and that was it. The very first night, after playing in the Lego Store in Downtown Disney B wanted to use his souvenir money to buy Lego. We reminded him he got Lego for Christmas and that he should spend his money on something he couldn't buy at home. We told him to wait until the last day to choose his souvenirs after he had seen everything there was. The night before we left, I took him to the gift shop and let him look. I told him his spending parameters. He came back several times with expensive items. If it was more than $40 I let him know he couldn't afford it. Same went for the cheaper combinations of items. He carefully chose a Perry the Platypus stuffed animal and a Mickey Mouse digital watch. At Animal Kingdom, N saw a giraffe stuffed animal at one of the souvenir carts that he just had to have so we bought him that and then the last day I took him to another shop while the bigger boys were off riding go carts and he chose a small Mickey Mouse stuffed animal. Both boys were beyond happy with their souvenirs. We also splurged on a Lego Coffee Mug from the Lego store for R ($9) which had his name on it and on a couple of professional photos ($30) - one of all of us with Mickey and Minnie and the other of just the boys which we figured was worthwhile since we don't have any family photos of us all together since N was born and it is a nice memory of a fun vacation - our last as a family of 4. 

What we actually spent on our trip in total (we did get $100US, a $50 GC for Applebees and $50US for souvenirs as Christmas Gifts which is all included so out of pocket expenses are $200 less than the total below): 

$1,590	Disney Resort + Base Park Tickets - 3 nights/3 days
$230	Other Hotel Accomodations: 2 nights @ Holiday Inn Express - could've gone cheaper - paranoid about pests
$375	Gas & $15 Tolls
$425	Food ($355 Restaurants & Coffee, Mickey Ice Cream Bars), $70 Groceries and Beer
$52	Travel Emergency Medical Insurance
$170	10-year Passport for R
$115	Lego mug ($10), Photos ($30), Mickey Watch & Perry the Platapus ($40), Mickey & Giraffe ($35)
$2,957

Disney - We did it!

We're all settled at home and back into our regular schedule. For the first week, I found myself having the same feeling back at work as I did after we got the trailer in the summer - the feeling that I'd rather be somewhere else but knowing that in order to be somewhere else, work is where I need to be. I think I just need to focus on our next big thing - the arrival of baby #3 in less than 3 months time! I'll be posting all the details about our Disney Trip over a few posts. For today - an overview.

In short, we had SO.MUCH.FUN. The boys were surprisingly well behaved for our day and a half of driving each way and few days at Disney World. I feel like if we can do a 20 hour drive through 7 states (NY, PA, WV, VA, NC, SC, GA) with a 2.5 and 5 year old and me being 25 weeks pregnant in a tiny car and actually have a good time, we can do anything. It also made me realize how much closer other small getaways are (Ottawa, Niagara Falls, Montreal, Quebec City, etc.) and that when the inkling to go somewhere strikes, we should just DO IT.

Day 1: Christmas morning we woke the boys up at 4:45am to open presents from Santa. We had already done all of our family Christmas festivities and DH and I only bought them a few small gifts to keep them occupied on the drive so all they had to open were stockings and 3 presents each from santa. This only took 10-15 minutes. We had them put all the stuff they wanted to bring from santa in a cloth bag while DH packed the car up and I whipped up some eggs, toast, and coffee. We quickly scarfed down the food, did a quick clean up of the kitchen, put the coffee in travel mugs and were on the road by 5:30am. I'll save all the road tripping details for another post.

Day 2: Arrived in sunny Florida (22 Degrees!) around 1pm. After grabbing a few groceries for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks, and a few summer items of clothing for me since I've never been pregnant in warm weather, from Walmart, we checked into the Pop Century Resort at 3pm. The Resort and the room were perfect. It was very clean and we didn't feel at all cramped. I thought we'd spend a lot more time at the resort than we did but really it was just a place to rest our head. After a quick change into shorts (!) we hopped on Disney Transit to Downtown Disney for our dinner reservations at the T-Rex. Downtown Disney was beautifully decorated for Christmas. After dinner we hit up the huge Lego store where the boys built some creations while I stood in line to buy DH a souvenir Lego coffee mug with his name on it. Then it was back to the Resort and off to bed.

Day 3: Woke up bright and early and headed off to Magic Kingdom. Got all our "Fast Pass" rides in and a couple others with short lines before heading back to the Resort around 12:30pm for lunch in our room and naps. DH and I sat on one bed in the dark with our iPhones while the boys snoozed in the other bed. B woke up after an hour so DH took him down to the pool (just outside our room) and N slept another hour and a half. Once N woke up, we headed back to Magic Kingdom for just before 5pm. We rode the steam train around the entire park. It was evident that N was cranky and tired as he didn't want to wait in lines anymore so we went light. After the train ride, we grabbed some hot dogs and fries for dinner from Casey's Corner followed by some Mickey ice cream bars and took a walk around the park to enjoy the castle and Main Street all lit up.  I'd hoped to stay for the electrical parade (9pm) and fireworks (10pm) but followed the boys lead and headed back to the bus around 7:30pm. We watched some Disney Jr. in the room before packing it in for the night.

Day 4: Woke up bright and early and headed to Animal Kingdom. It was rainy but didn't last long after we got to the park. We got all our Fast Pass rides done in the morning and a few other attractions that didn't have long line-ups. We also did a character meet and greet photo opportunity with Mickey and Minnie which was super fun. The boys really enjoyed this. By 12:30pm, N had a meltdown at one of the rides when a family took our spot and we had to wait until the next turn - he thought we weren't going to ride. His meltdown scored him and his brother free Mickey ice cream bars since the ride operator felt bad for him. We took that as a que and headed back to the Resort for lunch and naps. Both boys slept almost 3 hours and then we hopped back on the bus to Animal Kingdom for our 5pm dinner reservations at the Rainforest Cafe. After dinner we hit up the rides we didn't make earlier in the day - lines were much shorter - and walked around for a bit before purchasing a couple of our photos from the meet and greet earlier in the day and heading back to the Resort at 8:30pm. We managed to get everything in at Animal Kingdom that we'd wanted in the one day. Bonus - we got to see some fireworks from our room just before the boys went to sleep.

Day 5: Woke up earlier than the two days before to pack our stuff up and managed to actually make it for early park hours for resort guests at the Park. We decided to go back to Magic Kingdom since there were still a number of rides we didn't get on the first day. It was off and on rainy that day so the Park wasn't too busy. We used our Fast Passes for the most popular rides and then the boys managed to get on a number of other rides with only a 5-30 minute wait. At this point, I was really tired from walking around the previous two days so took it easy and found a place to sit while the boys took turns going on rides with DH where the 3 of them couldn't all go together. We left the Park around 1pm having felt that we accomplished more on the last half-day at Magic Kingdom than we did the entire first day. We grabbed some McDonalds an hour out of Orlando and then the boys slept for a good few hours of our drive back to North Carolina. We made it to our destination in NC by 8pm and had a very late dinner at Appleby's before checking into our hotel for the night.

Day 6: We hit the road bright and early and saw the sun rise as we were driving through the Appalachians. The boys napped quite a bit during the drive this day too. Early afternoon we stopped for gas and found a Tim Horton's in PA, about an hour out from the border.  The boys were elated for donuts and DH for a "real coffee" after his McDonald's coffee that morning. We arrived home at 6:30pm. The boys ordered a pizza for dinner and I went out to Milestones with some good friends from high school for our annual dinner catchup.

I was worried about all the driving for such a short trip but both DH and I felt afterward that 3 days at Disney was just right for the boys at 2.5 and 5 years old. Longer would probably be okay if you broke it up with some non-park days but they were pretty tired by the third day.

The planning has begun - Christmas Family Vacation 2013!

My library card has been getting a workout

To early for a Christmas post? I'm just bursting with excitement to share that this Christmas, we're going to Disney World! Backing up just a bit... remember when I said (twice) that it didn't look like the week-long family vacation was going to happen for us this year? Well a few things happened since then:

- Our neighbours returned from their second (yes second!) trip to Disney this year with their almost 5 year old son. In chatting with our neighbour about how overpriced we heard Disney was, he said it actually wasn't too bad (aside from the flights) and talked it up big time. They are already planning their next trip!

- DH and I were chatting about doing a low-key Florida beach vacation over Christmas holiday but when we looked into condo rentals and compared to Disney - Disney actually came out to around the same price as a condo rental at the beach due to premium Christmas time prices, not to mention extremely limited availability.

- I got a raise at work with my most recent new contract (woohoo!)

Our vacation budget: $3000

Details: 5 nights at Disney, 3 days of Theme Park Passes (including Park Hopper Option), and a whole lot of driving (about 21 hours each way)

How we're making this happen:

- We are driving. Flights alone would cost about as much as the actual Disney Vacation Package whereas gas in the Prius is cheap and a decent motel can be had for $50/night. We are planning on doing the drive in 2 days each way - 12 hours the first day and 8-9 the second with plenty of rest stops. Sarah is my inspiration.

-  We made reservations at a "value resort" after reading many many reviews, we came to the conclusion that this would be perfect for our family right down to the "tacky" character themes. The boys will just love it and for us, we're fine with paying half as much as the the fancier resorts.

- N is still FREE until his 3rd birthday which saves us a whackload on the Theme Park tickets. We also saved by doing 3 days at the Parks instead of 4. I know our guys will need a bit of a break and with so much to do at the resort and in Downtown Disney, we won't be bored.

- We opted out of the Disney Dining Plan after reading several reviews. We are confident we can cover our food for less than $800.  We plan on doing some breakfasts/lunches in our room (which comes with a mini-fridge) since we'll be coming back in the afternoons for naps anyway and taking care of our own breakfast will allow us to get to the parks first thing. We have also budgeted for 1-2 meals out/day. I've been scouring the internet for restaurant reviews etc. Two of my go to sites have been this one and this one.

- We're scaling WAY back on Christmas this year. Rather than our usual $1200, we have budgeted $400. Also, if family and friends ask for gift ideas, we'll suggest trip-related stuff like Disney Gift Cards or fun toys/activities for the boys for the car ride.

- Timing. Yes, Christmas is a very expensive time to travel but it is the only time where DH and I both have "forced" holidays and where I can take vacation without using vacation pay (Stat Holidays and lieu time) to cover my time off which frees it up for spending on the actual vacation.

- Payment plan. Since we decided on the fly, we hadn't set aside any money for the trip. Lucky for us, if you book through Disney, they offer a no-interest payment plan option with a booking deposit of $200 and the balance being due 45 days before your arrival. We've just broken it down into smaller payments that we'll pay from each of our paycheques between now and then. What I really like about this is that it seems really affordable for families who plan, say 18 months, in advance - and who can take advantage of cheaper season rates. If we do plan on going back again we might just go this route.

Most importantly, we have not stopped paying down debt, just took another look at our budget and squeezed some more fun money in which will serve as a great incentive not to waste money. That is one more goal we'll be able to check off for this year!

My favourite parts of this summer

At the in-laws cottage in Temagami, Ontario

Summer is rapidly coming to an end so I thought I’d post the highlights of our summer in no particular order:

Purchasing a little piece of heaven up north and being lucky enough to spend nearly all our weekends this summer up there

A big milestone for the 5 year old - Learning to swim in the deep end of the pool with no life jacket or floatation device

Weekend morning canoe rides on the lake and dreaming about living on the lake full-time

Mid-week trip up north with my best friend while she was back from Edmonton and laughing until my stomach hurt

Monday library date nights with my biggest guy

Spending a somewhat surprisingly relaxing long weekend at my in-laws cottage – both boys slept like a charm and were easily entertained all day long

Seeing the littlest beam at the sight of any boat or boat ride

Getting together with friends whether it was hosting dinners, quick coffees, or having visitors up north, friends were never far away this summer

Attending the beautiful wedding of two friends and celebrating and catching up with some old university friends

Having a ton of interesting projects on the go at work and watching the pieces fall into place with my career (still no permanent job yet but working on that!)

At the beginning of the year I had really hoped to take a one-week vacation and spend some much needed family time. We didn’t take that week off this summer but we spent so much more time together, uninterrupted family time, just us - up north on the weekends. We are really so blessed to live in such a beautiful country and province with opportunities for cultural and outdoor experiences at our fingertips that we often take for granted.  A friend, Sarah, recently posted on her 10 year anniversary trip to Niagara Falls . Not Europe but amazing nevertheless and only 2 hours away. Our own backyard has so much to offer.   

Our weekends

This pretty much sums up our weekends lately. Lots of outdoors, swimming, playing, and R-E-L-A-X-I-N-G at our summer getaway. This weekend B mastered the monkey bars and pole at the park in 10 minutes, and swam the width of the pool unassisted in the shallow end. I'm constantly amazed at how quickly he seems to be learning things. Except for reading and writing. Although we are making some progress. He has started asking us to make the sound of the first letter of words so he can guess what letter it starts with.