Suzy and Perla Skip the Lines Again: From roughing it to the lap of luxury

Just because I'm a terrible person and like to prove my point fully, I timed the bus from the bus stop.

From the moment we got to the bus stop to the time we were on the Purple bus was 3 minutes 23 seconds.

Yeah. Buses are cool.

Ok. I've tried to play nice about this point. But you've pushed me and pushed me Perla so the gloves are off.pirate: Let's tell the nice readers........which one of us didn't gain any weight on this trip and which one did???!!!??? :rolleyes1

They had had a much less stressful entry into their dinner. Boat to Chef Mickey's. Picture. Light up thingy. Lit up. Seated.

Yes, Our wait for dinner was lovely. Which we needed after the previous night's agony at WCC. Although we chose NOT to get our portrait taken. Did you see the state of my boys faces?? :rotfl:
 
If you look at the picture of Boo sucking the soup with the straw, the little purple thing around her neck is her Izzy pixie dust holder that Mulan made her so she wouldn't have to store the glitter in her underwear anymore. I forgot we brought it with us and she wore it this day. Just in case she needed to fly.
 
Ok. I've tried to play nice about this point. But you've pushed me and pushed me Perla so the gloves are off.pirate: Let's tell the nice readers........which one of us didn't gain any weight on this trip and which one did???!!!??? :rolleyes1
:
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Riding that bus was SO worth those two pounds. And, since you brought it up and there is a little blue sky right now, I'm gonna go for a run before writing the next chapter!

But as long as we're handing out tips, if you want to eat what you want and not gain weight, follow Suzy!
 

Just to prove my point- I posted the last message, but I didn't realize that I was not logged in to my own computer. Apparently the PC user in our home was surfing the dis boards on MY MAC:confused3 So, sorry for any confusion about the last post. It wasn't estherhead who said that, it was me. :lmao:
 
Sorry you didn't enjoy 1900 Park Fare. We loved it so much on our visit in 2009 that we're going back TWO times on our next trip. The first night as our opening dinner (we usually do Chef Mickey's on arrival night) and breakfast on the last day.

Of course for us it's not about the food at all (it's rare for us to like buffets, 2/3 of my kids are REALLY picky eaters and even I can only eat so much pasta and mashed potatoes :headache: ) but the character interaction and we loved the interaction at 1900 Park Fare.
 
/
I know this isn't the discussion board for such things, but I had to give you a "tip o the hat" for this one pirate:

:rotfl: Look, I can quote Stephen Colbert!

Just to prove my point- I posted the last message, but I didn't realize that I was not logged in to my own computer. Apparently the PC user in our home was surfing the dis boards on MY MAC:confused3 So, sorry for any confusion about the last post. It wasn't estherhead who said that, it was me. :lmao:

In my defense, I have to hop on the Mac because it easily collects and organizes photos and he was waiting till we got our Photopass pictures to burn it onto a disk so I can upload to Photobucket from my own computer.

Believe you me, it's much easier to have a disk! As it is I often have 3 Mac's around me (iphone, ipad, and Mac) plus my own Gateway computer. And the tv on. :lmao:

Donald came home for lunch Thursday with me in this state and came over and handed me his iphone. Didn't want it to feel left out of the little electronic party.

Sorry you didn't enjoy 1900 Park Fare. We loved it so much on our visit in 2009 that we're going back TWO times on our next trip. The first night as our opening dinner (we usually do Chef Mickey's on arrival night) and breakfast on the last day.

Of course for us it's not about the food at all (it's rare for us to like buffets, 2/3 of my kids are REALLY picky eaters and even I can only eat so much pasta and mashed potatoes :headache: ) but the character interaction and we loved the interaction at 1900 Park Fare.

This is why we like to try restaurants for ourselves and not listen to Disboard reviews. Because if a restaurant is truly terrible, even at WDW, it will go out of business. So there has to be a reason 1900 Park Faire is packed out every evening. But it's just not for us.:thumbsup2
 
In my defense, I have to hop on the Mac because it easily collects and organizes photos and he was waiting till we got our Photopass pictures to burn it onto a disk so I can upload to Photobucket from my own computer.

Believe you me, it's much easier to have a disk! As it is I often have 3 Mac's around me (iphone, ipad, and Mac) plus my own Gateway computer. And the tv on. :lmao:

Donald came home for lunch Thursday with me in this state and came over and handed me his iphone. Didn't want it to feel left out of the little electronic party.

:lmao: Sounds like our house - 1 macbook, 1 iMac, 1 iPad, 2 iPhones, 3 iPod touches, and 3 PCs for a family of 5, one of whom isn't even a year old! :eek:
 
I am having so much fun reading your trip report.

You are brave women. We RV camped at Fort Wilderness. I never would have tent camped. I'm not prissy by any means but, it gets so hot, rain, animals that crawl. But then again I won't stay in a ground floor at the resorts-- those gecko climb walls. :(.

I am from Washington State so our camping is a bit different then Florida. I remember seeing air conditioners, electric refrigerators, fans, it was like a condo with no walls. I have camped here in NW lots of times and did enjoy it lots. It makes my heart happy that you are showing your kids what a wonderful time camping truely can be. Some of my best memories are camping with family. ( With five kids and not much money my parents tried to make sure we had a vacation every few years)

I must say I enjoyed the night time camp songs, marshmello roasts, and movie each night at Fort Wilderness.

Oh, and sometimes kids do need a reminder of how much parents give up so their children can have wonderful experiences and "things". You did good :). He just needed a bit of a reminder. You both sound like you have wonderful Kids and Husbands :). But then I think they have wonderful Mom's and Wifes.

Any who -- I am caught up with report and can use more reading material. :)

Patty

:laundy: :dance3: :cheer2: :laundy: :dance3: :cheer2:
 
So we moseyed on up the Main Street and turned right, as mentioned. We hit this corner just after 7 o'clock and bought the shoes.

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We hit the potty to prepare ourselves for the fun filled evening. I volunteered to sit out the first Space ride with Boo and Jack-Jack.

First up for me and the little ones: Peoplemover!
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We then partied with the Chipmunks:
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We met easily at the exit and Suzy was getting BTMRR FP's. Because we didn't have enough FP's. :lmao:

We hesitated for a moment outside of Winnie the Pooh for Suzy to come back, she hustled:
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She came back with a little piece of information from the BTMRR FP lady. We may or may NOT be able to use our FP's after the main park hours. We still had well over 100, especially since we had replaced those used. It was 8:15 and the park's official hours closed at midnight.

3:45 to use 122 (more or less).

So we started out using the ones for Winnie:

We didn't get to play with the cool interactive things. That was for non-FP users.
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This picture shows the beginning of the rest of my trip. Somehow my little "fight" or should I say "one sided put down" of McQueen had sparked between the two of us a special relationship. And for the rest of the trip McQueen, Boo, and I were pretty much inseparable.

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After bouncing with Tigger, we headed over to Philharmagic. We had FP's for this too. If you get Peter Pan FP's you always get bonus Philharmagic tickets. But you never need them.

We had great timing for this and tried to center ourselves so we had middle theater and middle row.

But before all that I had the foresight to take a classic photo BEFORE getting into the theater.

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Boo has always been scared of this movie even though it stars Donald Duck, her favorite. It's really the 4-D effects that get her. So my Donald held her and I put my hands over the wind and water special effects. She was still a LITTLE scared but she handled it.

We then rode Peter Pan. Boo was still wearing her pixie dust necklace was SO excited. She declared at some point, "I AM Izzy and I made Croc get HOOK!!!!" Soooooo excited. She had done it!

After this we rode it's a Small World. It was 9:15 when we got off:
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Sorry everyone, I took a flash photo:
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I really am obedient, to a point. I don't obey silliness I read on here. But I do use common sense and still get the photos I want without blinding people. :)

We stopped at the Fantasyland potty there close to HM. Donald came out without his make-up He was done. I also believe we waited here quite awhile for some Suzy clan boys. Not sure why but sometimes they can get lost in the potty.

After this, we headed to the BTMRR! We were very concerned that Boo or Jack-Jack wouldn't be tall enough. So say that we measured them a lot before we left home, we are not kidding. We measured them barefooted. We measured them in every pair of shoes they had.

So it was with cautious excitement we went to get them measured. Boo had her really tall tennis shoes on, she wore them all day just in case we needed to ride a 40" thing. We measured them and Boo easily made it with her 2 inch shoes on. Jack was literally EXACTLY 40 inches.

Did they enjoy it?
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We had great seats:
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As we were exiting we said to Boo, "Did you like that?"
And she said, "YEAH!!!" So then we said, "Do you wanna ride it again?" And she said, "Yeaaaa, uhm, no."

But we ended up riding again anyway. Despite her protests.
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But by this time it was almost time for the 10 o'clock fireworks so Suzy, me, Boo, and Jack-Jack stayed off as everyone else rode Splash. Plus, I really wanted Boo to like Splash and I was afraid a tired Boo might not enjoy a night time Splash.

We sat down and I got out Boo's headphones and got her listening to her music so she wouldn't be scared. We had a nice view there on the Frontierland bridge. It was almost cozy in a "we're on a bridge with a zillion people" kind of way.

The fireworks started and all was good. I LOVE me some fireworks:
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At this point, Boo's headphones stopped working. And she started screaming, "They aren't working!!!!!" The really weren't. ??? So she and I headed into the store there in Frontierland and amused ourselves.

Very shortly after this, our families were off the rides and had thoroughly enjoyed watching the fireworks from Splash Mountain whenever they weren't in the building.

Suzy, Disney genius that she is, had suggested that we watch the second Magic, Memories, and Me show. We headed over there with 5- 10 minutes to spare and found a GREAT spot right on the circle and plopped ourselves on the curb.

It was before 10:30 p.m. But we go the late night giggles. Seriously. We could NOT stop laughing. Everything was just hilarious. And the fact that we were so pathetic and had gotten the late night giggles at 10:30, which isn't even late to a 4 year old, made us laugh that much harder.

This picture shows perfectly the mood:
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I assure you, it wasn't 2 am. And we weren't drunk. Nor even drinking. Actually, that picture may have been taken before the fireworks which makes it even MORE pathetic because it wasn't even 10.

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You have to make it a priority to see this show.

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After this amazing show, we headed back into Tomorrowland to ride Buzz Lightyear together and for my turn to ride Space Mt. Milo sat out. Even with 8 of us riding Space Mt. twice with our FP's we still were left with 16.

By this point EMH had started and the losers of the group headed to the boat. Mainly because the stroller kids were asleep and so adults would have to sit out and watch them anyway. Also, because we are lame.

Donald volunteered to stay behind and Charming, Buzz, Mulan, and Ariel all stayed.

We headed home on the first boat we saw:
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It was after midnight when we left. There weren't any people in front of us in the boat line so we sat on the benches and talked all the people behind us into sitting too. This was very relaxing. Chitchatting about our great day with others who had had a great day too. We walked from the boat, obviously, as carrying 3 sleeping kids, two strollers, and all our stuff would have been stupid. The pushing Boo through the woods and over that hill and through the grass nearly did me in. Our stroller did not have off road tires.

I was having some serious allergy problems and kept hollering, "The Nature! It's on me! Get it off!" Well, more like a whisper. It was almost 1, so we were quiet. Well, quietly giggly.

The coffee pot had tipped over when we got back so I washed it off and got it ready for the next day. I then used my neti pot. Which I only mention because I couldn't get the water warm. Do they turn off the warm water at midnight? The sinks in our CS were automatic so you can't adjust. And cold water in the Neti pot is AWFUL!!! Seriously. This is not the first time I've been forced to use cold water in my neti pot and it is never pleasant. But I had no choice. It must be done. I could have used the shower water but it wasn't coming out warm there either and I didn't feel like waiting.

I also took a BUNCH of cold medicine but I still couldn't breath well. Oh well. I blew up both air mattresses more, etc. Since Boo was asleep I had time to "fuss" with no one in my way.

And then, I laid down. And kind of drifted asleep but my phone kept going off.

Donald and the kids were having a BLAST! Both Mulan and Donald texted me over & over.

There were no lines at all and they did let them use their FP's for the first hour. After that they hadn't needed them as no one was there by 1 a.m. The went in the Country Bears and were all by themselves, literally, and so Charming yelled out random things, like, "Do you take requests?" and of course, sang along.

They also rode POTC and it broke. The animatronic still worked but the audio part broke down. So my little group supplied all the lines. "We wants the red head! We wants the red head!" and "Show us your larbored side" and the whistling to the dog, etc. To the great amusement of them and the rest of their car.

And they rode Space 4 times. But after that, they were done. They left just before 2 a.m.

They took the purple boat home and were back before 3. They all claim I was super snoring. This does not surprise me at all because I couldn't breath. However, I'm not really sure I believe them as I actually got up twice to re-neti pot and take more antihistimine/decongestant between 3 am and 8 am. So, I'm sure I was snoring, but no way a not-sleeping person snores very long.
 
:lmao: Sounds like our house - 1 macbook, 1 iMac, 1 iPad, 2 iPhones, 3 iPod touches, and 3 PCs for a family of 5, one of whom isn't even a year old! :eek:

Suzy and I grew up without a tv in our house. Donald and I believe Milo had no cable and few channels. And, of course, cell phones and computers weren't truly invented. We remember when Atari for homes came out and Suzy and Milo bought their first Nintendo AFTER they were married.

Anyone else remembered playing centipede at the roller skating rink?

Oh how FAR we've fallen! We have 3 laptops, an ipad, 2 iphones, Mulan's cell phone, a Wii, Playstation 2, and 3 t.v.'s: 2 are over 45 inch screens. And believe me when I say they are WELL used. :lmao: Did I mention the 2 Nintendo DS's and the Leapster 2 of Boo's?

:happytv::happytv::happytv::surfweb::surfweb::surfweb:

I am having so much fun reading your trip report.

You are brave women. We RV camped at Fort Wilderness. I never would have tent camped. I'm not prissy by any means but, it gets so hot, rain, animals that crawl. But then again I won't stay in a ground floor at the resorts-- those gecko climb walls. :(.

I am from Washington State so our camping is a bit different then Florida. I remember seeing air conditioners, electric refrigerators, fans, it was like a condo with no walls. I have camped here in NW lots of times and did enjoy it lots. It makes my heart happy that you are showing your kids what a wonderful time camping truely can be. Some of my best memories are camping with family. ( With five kids and not much money my parents tried to make sure we had a vacation every few years)

I must say I enjoyed the night time camp songs, marshmello roasts, and movie each night at Fort Wilderness.

Oh, and sometimes kids do need a reminder of how much parents give up so their children can have wonderful experiences and "things". You did good :). He just needed a bit of a reminder. You both sound like you have wonderful Kids and Husbands :). But then I think they have wonderful Mom's and Wifes.

Any who -- I am caught up with report and can use more reading material. :)

Patty

:laundy: :dance3: :cheer2: :laundy: :dance3: :cheer2:

:lovestruc Blushing! Thanks! We did feel pretty brave and full of ourselves for how great we did at tent camping. I really think my family could be 100% in when it comes to the tent camping if it weren't for the fact that after only 36 hours of being outside 100% of the time very few of us could breath without assistance.

It was so fun!

If my little May trip pans out to a state park near here I'll post a few pictures of our set up there. :thumbsup2
 
I am already retracting my above statement. I did little research on Atari for home and I DO NOT remember when it came out. Cause I was born in 1974 and it was before that. And the main one came out in 1977, which even that there is no way I remember. What I remember was when the first of my friends got an Atari 2600 with astroids, which was new to the home version. 1981. That I remember. And I was allowed to play. But then, just like now, I mostly watched cause I mostly died.
 
Atari built the large coffee table style video games. If I remember correct Pac-man was one of the first table top and console games. Metroid I think was other. I was pitiful player at both.

My husband got one of the first portable ones for Christmas in '74 -- I think. Might have been later but We married in "77 and it was before that. You can not ask how old I was but big clue-- I could drink the drinks that come in a cute glass, with umberella's and and taste sort of fruity.

Patty
 
I absolutely love your TR. I started reading your Sept. one yesterday.

We'll be getting AP's when we go in June and will be going at least twice this next year. I'm trying to convince my mom and sister to go with me and the kids in Oct to make it 3 trips.

We tent camped at the fort twice when I was a kid. I loved it! I have such great memories of those trips.
 
Atari built the large coffee table style video games. If I remember correct Pac-man was one of the first table top and console games. Metroid I think was other. I was pitiful player at both.

My husband got one of the first portable ones for Christmas in '74 -- I think. Might have been later but We married in "77 and it was before that. You can not ask how old I was but big clue-- I could drink the drinks that come in a cute glass, with umberella's and and taste sort of fruity.

Patty

See, I knew there would be those who actually remembered. And as a kid you only remember stuff that happens to you, you don't realize that cool stuff is happening BEFORE it happens to you.

VCR's, for example. I have no idea when they really came out. But I know the first thing we saw on a VCR was Raiders of the Lost Ark. We stayed the night with friends and they rented the VCR and movie. This night is also of note as it's the first time I ever had nachos. I loved them from the first bite. What could possibly be wrong with a fried tortilla with melted cheese all over it? Not Doritos, either. But just plain tortilla chips with melted cheese. I thought this mom was a GENIUS.

I went ON and ON about it to my mom. I'm gonna guess this was the winter of 1982.

I absolutely love your TR. I started reading your Sept. one yesterday.

We'll be getting AP's when we go in June and will be going at least twice this next year. I'm trying to convince my mom and sister to go with me and the kids in Oct to make it 3 trips.

We tent camped at the fort twice when I was a kid. I loved it! I have such great memories of those trips.

You will have so much fun! And definitely do the girl trip! My mom and sister and I have done 2 WDW trips, one with just Jack-Jack and, as you already know, the one in September with Boo too. It's SO much fun! So relaxing to have a few less personalities to bend for (as all moms do.)

It's seems weird we never camped at Disney World as we tent camped all over the US. From Maine to Yosemite. But we always rented a beach condo if we were gonna do Disney because we never went to Florida without my grandpa and he's in a wheelchair. So it's really not that weird.
 
I must say I enjoyed the night time camp songs, marshmello roasts, and movie each night at Fort Wilderness.
As a kid, my family and extended family and friends would camp for a week at WDW. We stayed in a large camper, and with all the friends and family, we would literally have 10-15 campsites taken up. I have very fond memories of this as a kid and the night time camp songs and movie were EXACTLY as I remembered them as a child. One vivid memory I have, (I was probably 4 or 5) was going to the campfire one night and we watched Disney's "The Ugly Duckling". I cried and cried and was so upset that all the ducks picked on the swan because he was different. Ok, so I realize that's not the most stellar happy memory, but it's one of the most vivid. And yes, way back in the late 70's they told you at the nighttime campfires at FW how you could tell Chip and Dale apart.

There were no lines at all and they did let them use their FP's for the first hour. After that they hadn't needed them as no one was there by 1 a.m. The went in the Country Bears and were all by themselves, literally, and so Charming yelled out random things, like, "Do you take requests?" and of course, sang along.

They also rode POTC and it broke. The animatronic still worked but the audio part broke down. So my little group supplied all the lines. "We wants the red head! We wants the red head!" and "Show us your larbored side" and the whistling to the dog, etc. To the great amusement of them and the rest of their car.

And they rode Space 4 times. But after that, they were done. They left just before 2 a.m.

They took the purple boat home and were back before 3. They all claim I was super snoring. This does not surprise me at all because I couldn't breath. However, I'm not really sure I believe them as I actually got up twice to re-neti pot and take more antihistimine/decongestant between 3 am and 8 am. So, I'm sure I was snoring, but no way a not-sleeping person snores very long.

This night was one of the most fun nights for me. This trip was a turning point for our families, because as Perla has said, ALL of us got to ride some of the big rides ALL together (without baby swap):cheer2: So, I was with the big kids and didn't feel I had to do a head count every other minute.

I cannot tell you the amazingly hilarious experience that Charming and I had on POTC.pirate: Our whole boat was hardcore Disney fans and could probably quote the entire ride. Perhaps Charming and I had caught the giggles from Suzy and Perla too. And I think all of the CM's that were still working at 2AM were a bit tired and ready to go home, so were trying to do as much as possible to entertain themselves. The CM at Country Bear's was so excited to have people come to the show. And then when we were noisy and raucous in sining along with the show she was beaming with delight. (Blood on the saddle.....Blood on the ground....)

Just a note about the fireworks that Suzy and Perla and the little ones watched. Milo and I and the big kids were on Splash Mountain during the fireworks, and I must say that it is quite the incredible spot to see the fireworks. When you're not inside the ride (at the Laughin' Place), but your boat is circling around the mountain on the outside, you have a PERFECT view of the castle with the fireworks exploding above it. And the Memories show on the castle is truly and event not to miss. very cool:woohoo:
 
They took the purple boat home and were back before 3.

I was so happy that Charming and Buzz had their own tent this night. :)
I made sure their mattress was blown up before I went to bed and was only vaguely aware of them all showing up to our campsite around 3. Everyone in my tent was snug as a bug.:goodvibes
 
Wow! That was one amazing stack of fastpasses! How many did you have left at the end of the night - or did you manage to use them all?

Is the sundae a standard part of the 1900 Park Faire meal now or did you have something special on your ADR? We have eaten there several times (last in June 2010) and have never had the sundae. I am over 1900 PF now too. The noise last time did me in.

You threw away the princess dresses!?! :eek: My girls would never go for that. We have a closet full.
 
Wow! That was one amazing stack of fastpasses! How many did you have left at the end of the night - or did you manage to use them all?

Is the sundae a standard part of the 1900 Park Faire meal now or did you have something special on your ADR? We have eaten there several times (last in June 2010) and have never had the sundae. I am over 1900 PF now too. The noise last time did me in.

You threw away the princess dresses!?! :eek: My girls would never go for that. We have a closet full.

I'm not really sure how many we ended up with, but I know it was a stack still. We had used: Winnie, PP, many Space MT, Buzz, Splash, BTMRR. But we had multiples of certain things and we didn't use all the multiples.

We blew through most of them, however. And if we'd had an extra hour we may have gotten through them all.

We were diligent the rest of the week in getting FP's as well and this is always a great idea. As a matter of fact, our last day of this trip (obviously you'll get this story later) we wanted Jack-Jack and Boo to ride Splash and since we were in "chill" mode I didn't want to hike all over MK so talked Suzy into standing in the Splash standby line since it said only a 20 minute wait. But, as soon as we were in it (literally, 10 seconds) I realized I really hate standing in lines. So we grabbed FP's (they had a return time of just one hour) and headed back to ride Peter Pan which we already had FP's for.

I realize, and you've heard me whine, that hiking about like Suzy and I do can be exhausting. But truly, we do everything at WDW and don't stand in lines. And for us it's worth the walk between Fantasyland and Frontierland to not have to stand in line. If we hadn't had the mile hike to and from the boat twice a day, the walking in the park is no big deal.

We didn't have any special celebration at 1900 Park Faire and I had never read about this sundae on here??? But it came and it was the sundae to end all sundaes. My kids eyes bugged right out of their heads in joy. So I don't know? Like I said, we had a great server. Maybe she did it special?

As for the dresses, they really didn't want to trash them. But we'd bought the 3 of them for under $30.00 and they had worn them to a princess party at home and this entire day so they were pretty beat up. And they were none too roomy. Boo's was actually so short because it was too small. So I didn't think they'd be good for very long at home.

I told them all of this as we were standing in the GF bathroom while holding them over the trashing can. And my logic won them over.

I'm a big trasher. I can't stand clutter. My kids are pretty used to it. Once when Ariel was 4 we had a yard sale and I pulled all the toys they owned into the living room and had them pick out their favorites. Then we worked through them, them knowing I wanted to get rid of half. They did it. At 4 & 5 they were able to get rid of half their toys.

The next day at the yard sale I told them, "Before people start coming go out and get the one toy that makes you sad to lose. They both walked out and looked at each and every toy. Mulan settled on one and Ariel came back and said, "They can all go. I don't love them." And that was that.

So they are used to it.
 





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