news from the coop

What a winter to be a chicken! I'm glad God made them with their own down comforters wrapped around their bodies because they need it. We have a heat lamp in the coop that warms the air about twenty degrees, which lately brings the coop to a nice, balmy, zero.

But in the coolest twist (and probably due to the heat lamp and added light in the coop) we are getting our best eggs yet. Four a day, most days, and bigger than they've ever been. And one morning we found two eggs, brought them in the house and cracked them open to find egg slushies. We found those too late, apparently.

So the chickens are doing well. We got a text from our next door neighbor letting us know he's seen cayotes in his backyard a few times this week (during the day!). So that's exciting. We're watching the coop and locking everyone up extra early. So far they're doing fine. And I have witnessed less scuffles and chicken fights. Probably because they have to snuggle to survive.

the land of make believe

I've had this play kitchen for the kids for a year now, but never purchased any food for it. Play food is about as expensive as the real stuff, and I'm particular about the kind of play food I want in my house. (I did see stuff at Ikea before Christmas that I liked, but then never got it...)

Anyway. Yesterday I brought the kitchen downstairs and shortly after Elsie was digging through our recycling. Genius, Elsie. I taped our empty food boxes up, found our old Ikea kids dishes and set up a little restaurant for the kids.

Just as I was beginning to stroke my Awesome Mom ego, Elsie threw the fit of fits. She did not want a graham cracker box. She wanted "A Crakah!" She did not want an empty bowl. She wanted, "Foo!" She looked at me with annoyance, clearly not amused by my taped up, empty boxes. What kind of stupid joke was this. She wanted food.

So I spent the morning teaching my daughter how to play pretend. Well, actually, first I gave her a bowl of actual gold fish crackers and actual raisins. And then I showed her how to pretend eat from an empty bowl. And pretend cut food on an empty plate. She watched me suspiciously while eating her raisins.

the grand finale

disneyparade from Becca Groves on Vimeo.

Ivar has watched this little video many, many times. He told Rory, "maybe when I turn four we can go there! Actually, maybe when I turn all the numbers I can go there!"

This concludes Disney Day. A record six posts in one day. Hope you enjoyed today's virtual vacation during this crazy cold day. :)

Disney on a Dime

A few things that I want to remember for the future, and that you may want to know too:

1. We flew Spirit Air and had a great experience. The seats are cozy, we paid for our one shared carry on (no charge for laptop bag or a reasonable handbag), they don't serve free water, but for $175 a round trip ticket, it is a price that would be hard to beat.

2. We stayed at a Holiday Inn outside of the park. It actually was a mistake on our part...we thought we had booked at the Holiday Inn inside the park. Surprise. But later we heard that the rates at Disney's All Star Sports, All Star Movies and All Star Music resorts were incredibly low. Like $55 a night for two double beds! (That's what one man told me he was paying while riding on the train around magic kingdom.) These resorts seem like they may be a bit older than the others, charging a lower room rate. Good to know!

3. Because we were not at a Disney resort, after landing at the airport we had to walk right past all of the free coach buses going to Disney and instead got in a taxi that charged $60 for our drive to our hotel. Yikes. So now we know we could have stayed in the park for a reasonable rate and not paid for the taxi to and from the airport.

4. No matter what, Disney is expensive. The tickets to get in each park are pricey, the food and everything else add up fast. So just plan for that. This is why the free monorail rides to explore each resort felt like such a good value. It was like free Disney, right in the middle of the park.

5. The weather in January is spotty. Our first two days both hit upper seventies. Awesome. Our day at Epcot was freezing. The morning was 41 degrees and windy! (You may notice in that picture with Mary Poppins I was literally wearing every single shirt I had packed.) So plan a winter trip to Orlando with no expectations for the weather. When we booked our tickets I was excited about weather in the 60's because that would have been 80 degrees warmer than what we were living though in Minnesota. My bar was low, and I was so pleased when the forecast was for 70. And planned for the day with the forecast of 45.

6. A perk of the weather at Epcot was that we did not wait one minute for a ride. Every single ride was walk up and get on. Disney World was a little longer wait time, but we got a few fast passes and were glad for those.

7. Go without your kids sometime. It's different. But totally worth it. I felt a little smug when I saw other parents lifting big strollers up and down curbs and stairs. I've been there. I live that nearly every day. It was so nice to be nap-schedule free, not carry a bag of tricks everywhere we went and to have the only exhausted meltdown of the day be my own.

8. Read each ride description carefully. We ended up in a line for Belle's Storytime, assuming it was a ride. Ninety minutes later (the very longest we waited for anything, by far) we realized it was a photo shoot with Belle. We died. Died that we wasted so much of our day to see a princess. Died we didn't have any kids with us. Died laughing. Died when we realized two hours had passed that we could not get back. Ah!

a jolly holiday

I saw Mary Poppins from afar, then saw her line wasn't too long and told Rory we should get a picture. Strangely, he was more game to take the picture. So we waited in line and when it was our turn I stepped forward and said hi mary, can I get a picture with you? And then she started talking to me. I actually wasn't prepared for it. She was so convincing and I got caught up in the moment. She asked me if I was on a jolly holiday. I told her I was, and that my husband and I came without our kids. And she told me, "well that's the most jolly of holiday's, isn't it then?"

Yes! Mary Poppins! It is!

From here on out we are calling all marriage getaways Jolly Holidays.