disney day 3

to be continued....i promise.

xander's been tagged!

one of xander's friend's "tagged" him to answer some questions about things he likes and does right now at age 4! (thank you makayla! i think he actually enjoyed the interview and he LOVED hearing your answers!)

(all answers are xander's. mom's honor! although I added some comments of my own in paraenthesis after his answers)

first of all. xander is VERY quick to tell you that he is not 4. he is 4 1/2!

eye color: blue

hair color: brownish, reddish

favorite movie: "Camp Rock" (he just finished watching it!)


tv show: "Super Why" and "Boo" on Qubo (big question mark next to that one, cause i've never heard of it and i don't know that he's ever watched it.)

favorite book: the big book (a large book with a collection of awarded children's favorites such as, Crictor, Caps For Sale, Pete's A Pizza, Harold & the Purple Crayon, and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

favorite superhero: Buzz Lightyear (it's usually Superman or Spiderman)

favorite vacation: Helen, Georgia (that is huge considering we just go back from Disney World)

favorite sport: baseball (tonight he said, "dad, i'm going to be a famous baseball player someday")

favorite color: red, white, blue (his usual answer is just red. maybe he's feeling patriotic)

favorite food: chicken nuggets, french fries, ketchup & bbq sauce

treat or candy: give it up for skittles! (yes, he really did say "give it up...")

favorite song: "Who's In The Family" by Xander Little (written earlier this evening and performed in front of a live living room audience) and the songs we sing at bedtime - "I'm A Child of God", "I Love to See the Temple", "I Have A Family Here On Earth", "Child's Prayer", "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus", "Reverence Is Love", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Rock-a-Bye Baby", and "Away In A Manger". (not all in one night, but these are the standards he asks for)

favorite thing to do at school: play outside

when i grow up i want to be: a firefighter (first time told to Kim Possible at Disney World. she asked him, this was his answer...i'd never heard him mention it before. but he's repeated the answer 3 or 4 times since then)

best friends: wesley, nicholas, jayden, makayla, ethan and lorali, maggie
"but mom, my best, best, bestest, best friend forever is cassidy lane little." (i swear there was very little prompting from me for this answer. i believe my comment to him when i first asked him who his best friends were, went something like "is your sister one of your friends?")

favorite disney character: all of them

favorite thing to do in the summertime: go swimming

"camp rock" inspired

watching "camp rock" again tonight... (and listening to the soundtrack twice while driving in the car)...
"mom, i want a real guitar." (said while holding onto his toy guitar that he got when he was two)
"okay, and when you get a real guitar you can take lessons so you learn how to play."
"duh, i already know how to play. see!" (air guitar motion)
"mom, did you have a guitar?"
"no, i never did."
"have you ever written a song?"
"no, i haven't. have you?"
"i think i'm going to write one"
"that would be great. when do you want to write it?"
"right now. will you get me some paper?"

he worked on it for the last 1/2 hour of camp rock and then performed it for us. the title is "who's the family". written by xander little on june 28, 2008. the first of many.

"the next one will be even cooler!"

dreaming of disney

camp rock

xander is totally loving the jonas brothers! i even splurged in the grocery store a few weeks ago when he asked me to buy the people magazine that had them on the cover. turned out to be a special issue all about the group. he has looked at it over and over. loves his jobro magazine. while in disney we watched the disney channel while in the hotel. the commercials for camp rock, a new movie with the group in it, were shown every break. when i suggested to xander that we watch it at home he quickly reminded me that we don't have the disney channel. (sounding a little worried?) but when i told him we would go to someone else's house to watch it he was thrilled. so last night we went to our friend's the douglas's (thank you stephanie!) to watch it. he loved it. wanted to listen to the music in the car on the way over and the way home. and was looking so cool playing the air guitar!

disney day 2

you know what a procrastinator i am, not good, i've known that for years, but i was afraid that because of this bad character trait of mine we wouldn't be able to have a disney character dining experience. when i called two weeks from our vacation date the only time i could get at a restaurant with mickey mouse in attendance was breakfast at 7:25, at the ohana restaurant at the polynesian hotel. so i'm thinking really there is no way we are going to be able to do it. we just don't show up, no big deal, cancellations are allowed. after driving the day before i'm pretty sure we are all going to be wiped out and get a late start, not to trifle with breakfast. but xander popped right up when we called out to him about 6:00am. "i'm ready!" and we did, we got up, got ready, had our bag packed and we were out the door.

our directions to the polynesian resort - bus to magic kingdom, monorail to the hotel. it took a little longer than we expected, but we made it fashionably late at 7:45. (another bad character trait of mine). but that wasn't a problem. we had our family picture taken - which we bought for an additional $30 - and then into the restaurant. the food was great! if anyone comes across a recipe for the pineapple bread they serve i totally want it.

right away we could see the characters and xander started getting excited. last year he really didn't care about the characters or getting autographs or pictures, but this year was suddenly looking very different. "i see mickey! i see mickey!" "i don't see him. are you sure he's here?" "yeah dad, over there!"

we were visited at our table by first stitch, then lilo, followed by mickey and pluto. xander loved each one of them, asking for their autograph, giving them high fives and hugs. and posing for some cute pictures. we really didn't warm cassidy up to the idea, just threw her right to the sharks. stitch was first, and she was mostly shell-shocked to have too much of a reaction to him. she posed for a picture - i guess more accurately she stared at the camera dumb-founded at what was next to her. following stitch we were thinking she was going to be okay with the characters, but when lilo walked up she screamed. frightened, terrified, distraught - she screamed. so, no picture with lilo. but she was fine for mickey and fine for pluto. go figure, a huge bloated human head...why would that scare her?

during the breakfast (did i mention that it was yummy? and so much food! they just kept bringing it!) they had the kids stand up and form a parade around the room. each child help a maraca and marched with the characters. i tried getting cassidy to catch up to xander, but when i put her down she stood and watched all the kids pass her by. a little too overwhelming first thing in the morning.

after leaving we headed to magic kingdom. we rode the monorail again, and learned that they allow people to sit up front in the first car. you have to be the first to ask though. we didn't ask for this trip, but tucked that little piece of information away for another day.

riding the park transportation was a huge hit with the kids. they loved riding on trains and buses. and we loved it because we didn't have to worry about driving and parking. definite plus!

we learned from our last trip that you when you tell your kids you are going to disney world then you had better go to "disney world" first! magic kingdom is disney world (all other parks don't really exist under the disney world name). we rented a stroller for the week for way too much $$, watched cassidy fall on her head as she tried standing in the stroller, realized that the wheel was broken and had to split up so one could return it and the other could get the vacation going. off to a good start, eh?

todd and the kids headed into tomorrowland and rode the tomorrowland transit authority/train while i walked back up to the main gate with the broken stroller. as i passed by the castle the "dreams come true" performance was being performed on the stage and i was bummed that we had just missed it, literally by just a few minutes. another mental note to get back there to see it.

our next stop once we joined back up was the monster's inc. laugh floor. it is amazing what technology allows disney to do, but it was like a live action kind of show, where the monster's on the screen can "see & hear" the audience and respond to them. xander even got a kick out of the comedy.

buzz lightyear is always a hit in tomorrowland, using the fast pass we didn't have to wait long at all. it is definitely high on xander's list of favorite rides. cassidy even got into using the laser gun to shoot at the targets, although her score did not reflect the number of times she managed to push that trigger!

then we were off to the tomorrowland speedway. it was our first real line, but those cars keep moving, so it didn't take very long. we took pictures while standing in line - cassidy holding todd's hand, me and xander, the cars driving underneath us on the bridge...we were just getting that camera warmed up! xander was a pretty good driver. not as much herky jerky as last year. maybe in the next couple years he can go for his tomorrowland speedway driver's license!

heading into toon town we knew exactly where to go to first - the barnstormer! a roller coaster just for kids! the ride is literally just a minute long, but xander is enamored with it. so xander and i did the ride together, while todd and cassidy chilled. okay, maybe chilled isn't the right word for it as i am pretty sure the temperature was well over 90 degrees. but after the ride we went to donald's boat that has water fountains to let the kids cool off a little. i felt bad not letting them get wet, but knew that it would feel good while they were in the water, but not so good while they had to sit as their clothes dried. with much resistence we pulled them out of there and walked into the gift shop. once seeing the amount of time it would take to wait in line for the characters there we chose not to and shopped for a few minutes instead. this is where xander's wish list was born. high school musical, hannah montana, a goofy hat, a stitch hat, a prince caspian sword. he saw a lot of really cool things that he couldn't live without. calmly i tried explaining to him that we would write down the things he wanted and then in a few days he could decide, cause if he spent all his money now he wouldn't be able to choose something different if he found another "must-have" later on. we did get cassidy's souvenir. we picked it out while she was sleeping, but once she saw the soft touch, grippable princess dolls we knew we had picked the right toy for her.

we left magic kingdom, jumped on the bus and headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap. todd had some things to get at walmart, so he went off on the first of three trips while we were there, and brought back dinner. while he was gone the kids and i checked out the pool. it was warm, there was a fun ledge for cassidy to walk on pool side to keep up with action, and xander was outfitted with his water wings/floaties, and pretty soon i had two little fish. casual dinner, quick bath and we headed out again.

that night, animal kingdom. the character attractions were closed and many of the things that remained open were mainly adults, but we hit the dinosaurs and rode the flying triceratops. todd and xander went on the "dinosaur" ride and we had yummy, drippy, sticky ice cream treats. xander said he would never go on that dinosaur ride again! it was too scary and he almost got eaten by a big dinosaur. but all that was said as he tried not to grin. little stinker - he loved it! just don't ask him to admit it, cause it'll never happen. before we left for the night we watched the 3d bug's life show. getting cassidy to sit still for the shows is difficult and remained difficult for much of the week, but xander really got into it - the smell, the spray, the bugs coming right for your face, and the ones that crawl along the benches, right under your seat. that'll make you jump.


end of the day report : a fabulous first day!

the drive down - disney day 1

sunday morning. we've packed up the night before, just need to load everything into the car. will we get our 6:00am start. heavens no! but we did get out about 8:00. we kept the kids in their pj's and tossed them into the car along with all that we would need for a week at disney!

but before we could really start driving we needed breakfast. xander specifically remembered that last year's trip started with breakfast at mcdonald's (xander calls it old mcdonald's and cassidy calls it donal's). so we created a new tradition and stopped there first.

as we left the parking lot around 9:00 and headed down the highway into atlanta already we had to sleeping kids. it wasn't until we hit the florida border that we had to get the entertainment out. we propped up the dvd player and watched 5-6 hannah montana tv episodes. luckily i'd already seen them all so listening wasn't too annoying for me. (i hate listening to a tv show or a movie that i haven't seen before.)

but just under 8 hours later, three bathroom stops, we pulled into Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. we were excited to get out of the car. the kids were excited to get balloons when we checked in at the front desk. trinidad south, room 3407 was ready for us and we moved our stuff in. it was on the backside of the building and had a view of the lake/water right behind it. right away we saw several creatures that added to the thrill of the hotel - rabbits, lizards and exotic birds.

we went to eat dinner at the "cafeteria", happy that mcdonald's breakfast and snacks had kept us from having to stop for lunch on the way down, but now seriously needing some food. the kids happily ate, even the healthy stuff, and we had officially begun our disney adventure. a quick trip through the gift shop (which isn't ever an easy or quiet trip), a good laugh here and there at the antics of our kids, and then we were back in our hotel room, getting into pj's (which xander had just barely changed out of for dinner), snuggling into bed, and setting alarms for the early morning start!

btw, love the beds at disney!

back from disney

we are back from disney!

what a great trip. i hope to have an entry for each day we were there, but that'll take me the week at least.

disney really is a magical place, and as a mom i really wanted it to be magical for my kids and really get them believing that dreams can come true. you just have to work hard at them!

before we left xander made a comment "someday, i'm going to work for disney". i told him that he could do anything he wanted, "so what do you want to do when you work there?" his response "drive buses!"

love it! now that we've been he's talking about running the place. okay, so maybe we helped that idea along, but with his personality, i don't doubt it. not for a second!

until i get my thoughts together to recount the trip, here are some pictures to peruse.

(we took over 500 pictures - now to scrapbook them!!!)

school year sum up

i haven't blogged lately and my reasoning was that i was way too busy with school and assessments and parent/teacher conferences, etc.

i'd have to look back to see if i have mentioned here on such a "public" forum about my assistant teacher. (the chances of her finding my blog are slim to none, but if she does then she needs to hear the truth!)

my assistant teacher this year was a complete idiot. truly. one of the other teachers in the school often said to me "there's nothing you can do about stupid". and not a truer statement could be said about this poor girl.

i knew right away that it was going to be difficult when i gave her a task to do during the teacher workdays, before school even started and she messed it up, or when during the first week of school she cut construction paper for the classroom using a guillotine paper trimmer and managed to cut it all crooked. it got to the point that i didn't ask her to do anything beyond cleaning and caring for the kids because she would mess up every task i asked her to do. and me being a perfectionist, couldn't handle the unprofessional results having her do something yielded. but taking care of the kids turned out to be something she couldn't do either. they knew how to "walk all over her". they didn't listen to her and would play the parent game - you know, if ms. sarah says "no" then go ask ms. ____ and she'll say "yes". she was totally inconsistent with them, didn't handle discipline very well - too much over little things and not enough when it really needed to be dealt with (yes, that goes along with inconsistent), and she really couldn't watch more than 2 at a time. often i would find her during free choice time sitting at the art table with 2-3 students doing playdough, only she wasn't making something with them, she was playing herself. and most often, those 2-3 kids would get up and find something else to do and ms. _____ would still be there playing all by herself, while i am left to watch 18 students throughout the room. but she did clean - the same three things everyday, and nothing more. sometimes less, if she didn't start in time and the clock struck 3:00. she'd drop whatever she was doing and leave.

at the beginning of the year i brought it up with the director, but she thought it was the bunny's fault (we had a pet bunny that she spend more time with than she did the students) so we found another home for it, then we thought she just needed a little guidance and training - so the assistant in the room next to ours stepped up and helped explain things that i had not (cause i assumed she knew how to do it after 6 weeks of work), and the assistant in another pre-k room spend 3 days in my classroom with us, telling ms. ______ things she needed to be doing, always up and walking around, always moving on the playground. and then she went to her official training. but when she got back from that she told the director that she hadn't learned anything, "it was just music and games and making stuff. nothing serious", yeah right! the only serious they taught her was HOW TO DO HER JOB! so the director was going to move her to another classroom only to have her plan thwarted by the fact that there was not a teacher in the school that could be moved that was 21yrs old, which is a requirement by the state of ga.

so she stayed. and then i was told - jokingly of course - that i was complaining, if i brought it up again. the enw director recognized the incompetence, but thought it was too late in the school year to make the change. so the night of our "graduation/celebration" she calls in and says she can't make it. her boyfriend is sick. so the director gives her an ultimatium - "come in or it's your job" we were hoping that she ddin't come in, but she did, and she looked terrible. i'm all dressed up, thek ids are all dressed up to perform, and she shows up in jeans and sneakers, hair pulle up and no make up (did i mention that when she doesn't wear make-up she looks 50? maybe that is so she can appear to be the same age as her boyfriend..yup, he'd 50) so she shows, but leaves immediately after the presentation is finished.

to make this short, she never was let go, she stayed almost til the bitter end. and then the last day of school she called in sick. didn't come in, didn't see the kids, and then didn't show up for her last two teacher workdays either.

i almost want to call her and make one last jib at her. just so she knows how much trouble it was this year having another child in my room.

so there it is, my school year. i have never had another year like it and hope i don't again. in addition to the assistant teacher thing i had 10 students come and leave my classroom during the year. that is a lot of turn over and change for such a young group. it was hard to feel settled.

i am happy the year is over. i hope some of the little dears come back and visit, but i was not sad when the last day of school was over!