Good morning everyone!!!!
Well I survived Busch Gardens!! I was the designated "will you hold my bag" lady for the day since I won't ride roller coasters. These kids just left bags of "stuff" and money and ipods and went on their merry way. Oh, to not have a care in the world. The kids had fun, however, and I think DD went on the various roller coasters at least 20 times combined. The park was so quiet that they ran from the exit back to the entrances and went round & round.
Afterwards we went, with the bus, to a Golden Corral for dinner. That was a first for me, too, since I can be a food snob (At first I wasn't going to admit it, but this is like a big therapy session here --

) Anyhow, it was quite enjoyable given the fact that there were 32 kids and 7 chaperones and 1 poor busdriver. The yeast rolls were to die for and I had a hunk of sirloin that was actually very tasty and the salad bar was not too bad. I miss those salad bars that used to be everywhere back in the day (at least when I was a kid)...
The kids were all doing fine and acting in a semi-civilized manner until they realized that there was a soft serve machine.... Suddenly they were trying to outdo each other with dessert plates mounded with ice cream and rice krispy treats and, oh my, I was sure we were going to get kicked out. So I had to have a stern-eyed mommy chat with the tables about "take what you can eat and eat what you take" (and I sounded like my Navy dad). Needed to say, DD, was MORTIFIED that I was lecturing the kids.
It's like that on the ships where people will literally fill their plates with a pound of bacon and I think, have you never seen bacon before? Or the ladies with these huge plates of cut up fruit as if a cantelope is a rare and prized food. That's all cool if you are going to eat it, but it makes me crazy when at least 1/2 of it is left uneaten because "heck, we paid for it." Well, gee, of course you paid for it, but there's so much poverty in the world, and that amount of waste is disgusting, and if everyone did it then Disney would have to cut back even more on what they are offering (see the Steak discussion on the main threads for long diatribes on the food/menu changes and cutbacks.)
Off my soapbox.
Have a great day!
For
Deb: have fun shopping with a teen gal

... I've long ago stopped buying things for DD without having her there because whatever I think is cute (read: classic, or appropriate, or not showing cleavage) she thinks is hideous.