Best Idea Ever

Well, ok, maybe not the best ever, but it has lowered some stress in my life, so, at the moment, it is right up there.

In the last days of December I wrote a list of all the meals we enjoy.  Then I set up a meals calendar in my Google calendar, in which I organized the meals in a 3 week rotation.  I also did the same for the kids' lunches, but put those on a 2 week rotation.

The result has been amazing.  I had been just going day by day, and it was so frustrating. 5 o'clock would roll around and I would be at a complete loss for what to make for supper.  Now there is no thought involved.  And there is the added bonus that I can look at the approaching week of meals and do my grocery shopping accordingly, which is also a huge plus.

If you want to set up your own Meal Planning calendar, it is super easy.  (I'm sure there are plenty of great tutorials and guides to setting up an even better system out there in blogland, this is just a real simple way to do it.)

I already use Google Calendar to keep track of all sorts of things; appointments, monthly bill due dates, reminder to take out the trash, etc.  And the best part is that the main part of my calendar is shared with my husband, so I don't have to remind him about all those things (and vice versa) - it shows up right on our phones.

So, in order to save him from having to see all the meal stuff - and to make it a different color so it stood out - I created a new calendar within the main calendar.  If you open up Google Calendar and go to the left hand side, there should be a drop down menu called My Calendar.  Under that menu there should be the option to Create New Calendar.  Here is a look at mine on the weekly view - also showing where the Create a New Calendar option is.

From there it is pretty self explanatory.  For me, I went through and quick added all the meals, and then went back through and set them to repeat every 3 weeks. (Except for a few things that we really like, those I put on Thursday and set on repeat every 2 weeks. Well, actually I set two of the Thursday meals at 2 weeks and one at 3... so every once in a while there is an empty day, and a day with 2 options.)

I can't tell you how nice it is to not have to be thinking about what to make for supper each night.  So wonderful.  And, unless I change it, it will go on indefinitely.  We could be having the same thing every third Tuesday 5 years from now for all I know.

Disney World Part 1

Last week we took a trip down south to the heat and humidity for our first family trip to Disney World.  My mother-in-law came along as well (well she actually was the driving force behind all of us going, so saying she just came along would be an understatement. :))   I thought I would share our experience, how we did things.  I know that before we left I was concerned a bit about what all there would be for Noah to do - and if there would be enough for Ohlen. (lol)  So, if anyone else out there is hesitant to take their young kids, don't be.  I'll share some of the things I really liked and things they really liked.   And, of course, there will be pictures. :)

Our boys are 4 and almost 2, so we didn't want to completely overwhelm and wear them out.  So we booked a trip for 3 nights.  We got 2 tickets for the parks - the very basic tickets.  No park hopper option or anything like that.  It just didn't seem worth it for us.We did everything through Disney.  I ran the numbers a bit - and it was possibly a little cheaper to stay off resort, rent a car, and all that - but it would have also have been more of a hassle.  And for the time we were going to be there - it really didn't seem like a  huge price difference.

Meals.  I can't say I researched this too well.  We ended up going with the bottom tier meal plan.  Each person over 3 (I think) was given 2 meals and 2 snacks per day.  As well as a souvenir mug that you could refill at the resort with as much pop, coffee, etc as you wanted. So Noah did not get the meals - but we generally had enough to share with him - and he wasn't eating real well the whole trip anyways.  I have no idea if this was cost effective or not.  The food was, generally, pretty good, especially in the resort.  It was also fairly pricey.  It was a little confusing in the parks as to what was and was not included in our plan.  There was supposed to a symbol marking what was included, but many times the main dishes did not have a symbol - but if you asked they said it was included - so it was a little confusing.  But it all worked out in the end.

On one of the shuttles.

The whole Disney package was so nice.  They had a service to take your luggage from the plane directly to your room - no need to go to baggage claim.  They had fairly efficient shuttles that would take you from airport to resort, resort to each of the parks (including the water parks and Downtown Disney)  We had no need to take along a car seat for the boys, which was really nice.  We got there at a low time so check in was a breeze.  Plus they give you a card that you use for everything, meals, park ticket, etc.  The resort was nice.  The rooms were just regular hotel type rooms - but the decor around the facilities were so much fun.  They provide Pack n Plays for free.  We stayed at the All Star Movie resort.  We were in one of the Toy Story buildings. (Completely by chance - I was so happy. :))  They had a complete large mock up of Andy's room.  I think Ohlen's facial expression says it all.  This resort had 10 buildings 2 each per theme - Toy Story, 101 Dalmations, Fantasia, and The Love Bug.  There were also 2 pools, plus a kiddie pool area.  Our building was right next to the main building that housed the food and store and all the shuttles. It was also next to the playground and the pool.   We really lucked out as far as the location of our rooms.  And we had a connecting rooms which was a huge plus.

"That is a really big Buzz"

Probably a good idea to put a fence around Woody.

Army men "guarding" the rooms.

This kid's energy was impressive.

We saw Buzz's rear every time we left our room to go anywhere...

He really, really wanted to climb on to Rex.

The Brrm-brrm was also a big hit.

I could do a whole other post on flying with little ones - but really it went really well.  I would definitely recommend a stroller for ones as little as Noah.  It saved some sanity as we had to wait for a while in the airport on the way home.  We just pushed him around for a while and he loved just looking at everything.  It was also nice to have a light weight stroller along for in the parks - it was easy to fold up and carry onto the shuttles.  Although, renting a stroller there would be another viable option.  The flights themselves went really well.  Ohlen loved it.  He sat by the window and looked out a bit, when he wasn't playing on the GameBoy.  Noah was very sleepy on the way down - explained in next paragraph.  On the way back he was a ball of energy, but still did really well, no crying, screaming, or anything like that.  We had a genius plan to have him watch some Thomas on a laptop while in the air... but the laptop battery was somehow dead.  I do have to say I felt completely defeated at that point, but really it all turned out well.

Waiting for acceptable electronic devices to be allowed. (for some Gameboy play)

Sick little boy.

Enjoying the plane ride.

The biggest issue with the whole trip was with poor Noah.  He started with a fever literally as we were driving to the airport.  Although we didn't really notice until we were already on the plane - with the medicine and thermometer safely in the checked bag.  He held on to the fever until the morning we left.  However, my boys always seem to do really well when they have fevers, and he was in a pretty good mood - especially for not feeling the greatest.  And thanks to Disney for having some infant ibuprofen in their store.

The weather was also great.  Well, ok, it was a little too hot (mid 80s) and humid for Jonathan and I, but the rest of the crew enjoyed it. We even got to go swimming one day.  And it was nice not to have to worry about coats, gloves, and winter hats.  Although we did trade that for sunscreen and caps to keep the sun off of heads.

Tomorrow I'll post about the specific parks we went to.

Has anyone else done Disney with little ones?  Is there anything you found to be a better way than using Disney for mostly everything?  I think there are definitely pros and cons to using their shuttles vs driving yourself.  There is definitely more freedom in having your own car - but it was also nice to not have to drive at the end of the day.  As far as staying in a Disney resort vs an outside hotel.  I remember when we went when I was a teenager we didn't stay at Disney and it was fine.  You definitely don't get completely immersed in the whole "Disney experience"  They do have a whole bunch of little things they will do for the little ones.  We got 1st time Buttons when we first arrived.  One time they gave the boys a balloon with a neat Mickey weight thing to keep from flying away.  They got plenty of stickers wherever we went.  It was definitely a fun experience.

Favorites Weekend

This week I'm featuring my favorite North American* vacation spots.
*I added this clarification because, once I started thinking about it, I realized that there are other places I would consider favorites, but they are all over the ocean. 

#1 Anna Maria Island, FL
We have been here twice.  One time was at a friend's grandparent's winter home, and the other we rented a condo.  Both very close to the beach.  And speaking of the beach!  It is beautiful.  White sand, not crowded at all, wonderful sunsets.  I love the smell of the ocean - and I really wish we could make it down this year.  Maybe next year!

#2 Lake Nipissing Ontario, Canada
This was our family vacation spot for most of my childhood.  I haven't been back in over 4 years, and I really miss it.  It wasn't your typical vacation.  We would get up super early to go out and fish, come back and eat a wonderful brunch, nap/read/munch, early supper, then back out on the lake until dusk.  We stayed in a fully furnished cabin, made all of our own meals, and just really spent some quality time as a family.  It was also nice that we never had to worry about taking nice clothes along. :)

Favorites Friday

Video Capture device $100ish
Clementine $ 0.50ish
Capturing the laughter of 4 generations of family - priceless

(You can't see the 3rd generation - but you can hear them. :))

Family

Last weekend we spent every day at Jonathan's grandma/uncle's place for a family camp out. Ohlen slept with his grandpa in a camper all weekend, while Jonathan, Noah, and I came home. We had a great time and were completely exhausted at the end of the weekend. I think we were all still recovering on Monday.

Jonathan made the comment that he wished all families could have the kind of weekend we did, and I couldn't agree more. While we aren't all super close, or hang out all the time - I think we all had a great time. There were lots of laughs, and lots of good conversation. It was so much fun to see the members of the newest Troyer generation playing together.

I overheard a cousin saying their dream is to have family - like Grandma does. I have really been thinking about that lately. It's no secret to most people I talk to that the newborn stage is not our most favorite stage that our kids go through. So there are times, especially now, that I wonder why we want to add more. Then I remember. It's all about having a big family. To grow old with my husband watching our children grow into adults and start having families of their own. To hold our grandkids. To host large get togethers where we can watch them all interact and laugh together. It's what I've always wanted.

Not that we are just trudging through these younger years. Most of the time I love it. And sometimes there are bad days, and sometimes I'm afraid I am scaring our friends currently without kids. :) But the good times heavily out weigh the bad times. Those little gummy smiles and coos can cure just about any form of the bluhs. And the things that can come out of an almost 3 year olds mouth... priceless. These are the days. I wouldn't trade my life for anyone's.