"When stars are born, they possess a gift or two."

"...One of those is, they have the power to make a wish come true."

Wishes.

Ah Wishes.  What can I say?  If you've been to Disney it's one of those things you *know* - and you wont forget it.  We can share a wistful smile here and nod knowingly.  You're with me, yes?

For those that aren't there in the moment, Wishes is the firework spectacular that comes at the end of the Day in the Magic Kingdom.  It's set just behind Cinderella's Castle, but makes the Castle just as much a part of the show as the music, rockets and sparklers.  The buildings beauty is magnified to epic proportions by the lighting, which changes colour and effect throughout.  You'll see it shift from scene to scene as though it were part of it's very own Disney movie.

*How* do they make fireworks so big??

Picture the most amazing firework display you have ever seen.  Magnify the size of the explosions by about 10.  Lengthen it a good deal - just when you think it's over, start it up again.  Twice.  Picture fireworks raining down like magic sparkles of every colour imaginable.  And shaped fireworks - heart shapes...  Mickey shapes...!  (how?!)  I couldn't tell you how many times my children told me that they could see the magic sprinkling off of the shooting wishes - but I can tell you I agree with them, I saw it too.

The reason this blog entry took so long in coming - I was *determined* to do this activity!
This is 'Wishes' by Supergirl.

The music is wonderful.  Honestly, I still can't think the lyrics "Starlight, star bright" without welling up a little.  It was far and away the most magical point of our trip for me.
My Star was born 9 months ago, my Starbaby.  He even has Star as his first middle name - he's my Disney baby and some day he has to see these fireworks.  I so look forward to seeing his face lit up in the magic of it all, his eyes sparkling with the 'pixie dust' reflecting in them.  The Wishes soundtrack soothes him when he's otherwise inconsolable, it helps him to sleep when he's too tired to drift off by himself.
So the Blue Fairy tells us that when a star is born, they possess the gift to make a wish come true - can you guess what I wished on my Star?

'People watching the fireworks' by Sunboy

Everyone gathers from the front of the Castle, right down Main Street USA to the entrance gates.  And yep, you get a view of it all even from way back there.  In fact, in some ways the view is better there than close up, because if you're too close then the castle can get in the way - but what makes up for it is a perfect view of the Castle animation, a fab view of Tinkerbell flying from the Castle right over your heads (yes, really!), and a wonderful sense of community, as you all crowd together waiting.  The night we were at the castle gates we got talking with a man on leave from the US army, he was there with his family and had lots to talk about, as did we!

You can even get a view of Wishes from Tommorowland Terrace, a restaurant on Main St USA.  They have a dessert party upstairs each night, which sounds absolutely wonderful!  Desserts?  Fireworks?  View of the Castle?  Not needing to stand and wait?  Perfect.  But beware - much time is needed for advance dining reservations!

An activity so fun, that even mummy might get a little carried away and make her own...  *ahem*

So today we finally got around to our Wishes activity that I have been meaning to try for ages.  I can remember at school, doing firework scratching pictures, with crayons and a knitting needle - did you ever do one?  It's pretty simple. 
All you need for the Disney pic we made is a sheet of card, colourful crayons, black crayons, a knitting needle (we used a crochet hook), a glue-stick and a cut out silhouette of Cinderella's Castle.

Start off by colouring a huge patchwork rainbow on to your card.  You could use paper as we did, but it's much harder to cover with crayon, I'd use card next time.

Then cover it all with black crayon.  Be prepared for this to take some time, and be prepared to ache a bit by the time you've done it!  Smaller children may struggle to cover the page, so it might be best if you do this bit and leave them to get creative on the firework etching.

Now the fun bit!  Get scratching.  It's harder than you might think to draw fireworks, but the colours showing through make up for any lack of artistic talent.  I suggest trying star shapes with a 'tail', and spirals - of course you'll want some hidden Mickeys in there too! 

If you google a Cinderella Castle silhouette or colouring page (I'd do it for you but my search wont work!) then print and cut this out, and you'll be left with the perfect shape to stick in front of your lovely firework display.  Beware those flags though, they rip off rather easily!

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

Things have been busy here! I'm sure you can imagine, with ferrying five children around to their various places (and bearing in mind I don't drive!) - oh what I wouldn't give for some pixie dust!

So I was at a toddler group chatting with a friend yesterday and she asked about the cost of Disney.

Friend: So what is it, about three to four thousand?
Me: Uhmm, up
F: Five, Six?
M: Keep going!
F: Seven? More??
M: It's the flights!

Friend concedes that flights are indeed ridiculous, and I get across that The Dream is a very big thing to save for, without actually giving a number.
I wasn't lying. The flights ARE expensive, and to be fair to Disney, while its expensive their end too, it covers EVERYTHING. 

Transport

Mickey's Magical Express - *SWOON*

Accomodation

All Star Music - So magical you wouldn't believe it's a budget resort

Entertainment

*Everything* deserves a parade and a celebration at WDW.  Even opening the gates.  Every day.

 All our food and drinks are covered and paid for


Sunboy wasn't dropping that sausage for any amount of once in a lifetime photos

...and of course access to six parks - each one completely different from the last - and boy do these people look after us! I've never in my life felt better cared for than I did on those two weeks there.
This would explain that while life in a large family can be chaos, and you'd expect that being on holiday (vacation to my American friends!) in another country would be even worse, it's not. Everything ran amazingly smoothly, and I felt that as an adult I was looked after and belonged there as much as my children. Yes we were worn out by the end of it, but it was the best two weeks of family time we've ever spent.

So we've established that for us Walt Disney World is worth it, but how much does being  fed, entertained and looked after cost?
The answer is A. Lot.  We weren't too great with knowing what the deals were and where to find them last time, plus we spent a LOAD of money getting to Universal's World of Adventures (Wizarding World of Harry Potter, baby!) and on souveniers while there.  It was pushing for £10,000  all told, and yes, I will whisper that!  Then hide in a corner, rocking and humming quietly to myself...

So the next step:
To figure out if I was right - do we need to go sooner rather than later?
Do the math - is it even possible to go without 8 years of saving?
The extra hard bit - approach my husband Liam to see what he thinks.

Reasons for sooner (am thinking May 2014)
Frazer will be year 8 (year 9 starts exams usually - not a good holiday time!)
Scarlett will be year 6 (still at primary - much easier to get time off, and with less guilt)
Rowan and Robin will still be considered 'child' (much cheaper)
Jasper will fly for free and be free in the parks (babies under 2 fly for free on a parent's lap, and are considered babies and so free at WDW until they are 3 years old)

Jasper being a baby also means that we can get the family suite again

Any time after 2014:

Frazer doing exams from year 9 onwards - I don't want to intefere with that.
Scarlett at secondary - I don't think her (strict) school will allow time off, and even if they do, I don't want the stress of asking 3 schools.
Rowan will no longer count as a child so will cost more.
Jasper will not fly free.

We would need two seperate rooms (Family suite sleeps 6 plus one infant) which would probably bump the cost.

Soooo... I put my argument to Liam.  What do you think he said?
He said if I think we can do it, then we can do it.  HE'S ON BOARD!!!

And do I think we can do it?  Well, if I can dream it...

"Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten."

Let me introduce you to my little rays of funshine.

Robin sure loved those big pink shoes.

On the left there's Rowan.  He's my Emokid.  This is probably one of his happiest, most 'in the camera shot' photos we have out of the thousands of pictures from our 'once in a lifetime' WDW trip.  Rowan was 6 there and is 8 now.  If he gets it in to his head that he doesn't like or want something (fairly often), he is unmovable.

Then there's Frazer, AKA DrummerBoy.  Yep, he plays drums.  But not only this, he is LOUD.  I also call him Mouth (for his constant noises) and Google (because he has an answer for everything).  He's a lovely sweet thing, but he's now 11 and going through those angsty pre-teen hormonal moments!

The little one is Robin.  I call him my Sunboy because he really is a loving little ray of sunshine.  He was almost 2 when this photo was taken and was rather taken with Daisy's shoes!  I have about 6 other photos of this moment and in almost all of them he's pointing at her feet.  Robin is 3 and a half now and still remembers this trip.

Uhm... Daisy.  While I'd love her to be one of our family, I can't really claim her!

Then Supergirl!!  My Scarlett.  While all my children are hairy, she is definitely the most like Cousin It.  She was 8 in this photo, is 10 now.  She's a Disney nut as much as I am - I can't wait to get her back.  In fact, I look forward to going with her when she's an adult too.


But someone is missing!  Only the most amazing, most cuddly, most fantastic Starbaby in the world.


Om nom nom - I mean, uuhm - Kisses!  I love you duffy Bear...  *munch*

And he's not experienced the magic yet - we can't have that can we?  Can't leave the Starbaby behind, no way!


That'll do, right?
Oohh - me!  And DH.  Yeah, mustn't forget us really.

Photo courtesy of DrummerBoy. Child 'tog extraordinaire

This is back when my hair was 'Ariel Red'.  In fact, we met Ariel - my hair was redder.  Now it's blue and purple so she has no competition from me.  DH is Liam.  We've been together since we were teenagers and I'm still smitten.  Making my dream come true to go to Walt Disney World was an amazing gift from him, but he's started an addiction!


We're such a varied family, I'm going to come back to each of us with some more detail, and to show how Disney works out a fab holiday for almost everyone.  I really didn't think we'd all enjoy it as much as we did, but we all left wanting to go back!



"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."

Hey there, I'm dipping my toes in the waters of the blogging world.

So, I'm a mum, I live in London UK and I spend chunks of my day dreaming about Walt Disney World.


Biggest. Fireworks. Evah.

I have a large family.  No not the Large Family, and no, we're not overweight.  We're a family that has a few more people than is standard.

Average sized kinda cool family

Larger than average and *awesome* family

We've been to Disney World before but have had one more little person come in to our family since, and so it wouldn't be fair on him not to have experienced the magic himself!  I recently realised that the only chance we will get to take all of our children while they are children is soon.  Very soon.  Very soon in terms of how long it takes to save for something like this anyway.
Now some people might not get it.  I expect most people wouldn't.  Most of those people just haven't been.  Or they are dead inside.
It was my lifelong dream before we went in 2011, and it was our 'Once in a Lifetime' (ha!) holiday - so we had to get it right!  We got it fantastic, but I'll come back to that another time.  All I need to say now is that it was the happiest time we have ever spent together as a family and I want to relive that - we all want to relive that.

Now it's time to work out how possible/impossible that dream is.  Come with me on the journey?