Review of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Check out our review on our Go To Gals site of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios Orlando.  We review the rides, the stores, the Three Broomsticks restaurant - was it worth the wait?

And most important - did a wand choose one of us?

Did you attend - or will you later this year?  If so, give us your best tip that made this trip more enjoyable!

What A Way to Start the Week!

This morning I walked downstairs with my laundry basket brimming over with dirty clothes, ready to start the day with the fresh scent of Tide (I love that Febreeze scented stuff) only to open the laundry room door and step into an inch of dirty, debris filled water.

The basket of clothing that I had dumped on the floor the night before, was seeped in lint filled water and all I could do was let a Fantastic Mr. Fox expletive like "what the cuss?"  (Which happens to be my kids' new favorite saying--fodder for another post.)

Suffice it to say, this is no way to start your day.  I had not even had my morning cup of coffee!  Cue the violins.......

So after using nearly a dozen towels to sop up the mess, I got on the horn in search of someone to snake the drain.

This is part of my mess--yuck!

Thankfully I found an inexpensive plumber (yes, I realize that is an oxymoron and if you want to know his name, you'll need to leave a comment....) who could come out  later this afternoon--there was no way I was going to skip my morning nail appointment (I leave for Spain in 4 days so the dirty duds could wait).   Yes, I have priorities!

Somehow whining about it on my blog is making me feel better.  Let's just hope that the rest of my week gets better.  Actually, I know it will--did I mention I leave for Spain in 4 days (sans kiddies?).  

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Worth the Wait?

More than five years in the making, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is now a reality.  Since the 2010 Memorial Day weekend the Universal Studios Orlando theme park has had a "soft" opening for select visitors which has enabled the park employees and Universal executives to test out one of the most anticipated theme parks of all time.  Similar to the Disney brand, the Harry Potter brand has a huge fan base.  But this fan base is more cult-like (although arguably children dressing up as the Little Mermaid and Cinderella could be construed as cult-like!) and tends to have a slightly older demographic. 

By luck or by "dumb luck (and you'll get what I mean in a moment), I planned our summer vacation nearly nine months ago.  That's what having a timeshare will do for you.  It forces you, mostly for the better, to plan your family vacation because you  have to book your timeshare destination a year in advance.  We exchanged our Maui Marriott timeshare for a trip to Orlando. 

All three of my daughters are extreme Harry Potter fans and kept up with the best of the Potter blogs including the Leaky Cauldron, Mugglenet, and the Official JK Rowling site to stay current on the theme park grand opening.  For three years,my girls have been anxiously awaiting the Potter World grand opening and begging me to plan a vacation there.   So like any parent who has three children with that heart-melting plea, I had to be the hero and "book 'em". 

As I mentioned, I planned this vacation nine months ago, without knowing the exact grand opening date.  So I pulled a date out of the air only with the vague information that it would open sometime in the Spring 2010.  As "dumb" luck would have it, our arrival would bring us to the park for the very day it would officially open, June 18, 2010.

OK, so by dumb luck, which I mean as parents we would do anything for our children that might be deemed "dumb" by our friends and only to be heroes in our children's eyes.  That means waiting in enormous lines in 90 degree heat coupled with the Florida swamp-like humidity.  What was that famous line the Wicked Witch of the East said?  Oh yeah -"I'm melting" - and melt we all did.

But my girls were thrilled the instant they set foot into that park.  It was everything they read about and imagined all these years.  My oldest daughter has been reading Harry Potter books since she was nine years old.  The characters in the books have become part of their imagination for more than half their life. 

Was it Worth the "Wait"?

You might ask if it was worth the wait.  Well, by wait I mean the long hours we waited in line.  We probably waited an average of three to four hours just to get into the park each day we attended.  Then it was another hour to several hours to get into each store or ride.   Yes - an hour or more just to get into a store.  But, in a nutshell, the answer would be "yes" after seeing and hearing the thrill all of my girls had with the rides and souvenirs.   I guess that answer is reflective of how much your child loves the Harry Potter series.  And it's a hearty "yes" for my girls.

For more details on the park itself and handy tips and tricks for families to prepare for a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, see information at Go To Gals, our review site.  Check it out for that review.

Kicking off The Summer Season

The kids are out of school--hooray!  The end of the school year was so crazy but now we are in summer-mode.

Summer mode for my kids entails staying up late and sleeping in.  It means ripsticking, playdates, swimming, catching bugs, roasting marshmallows, playing the Wii (2010 World Cup Soccer game with the annoying horn buzzing in the background), playing on the computer (maybe a little too much--limits will be set soon) and just chillaxin.

For me, my summer state of mind involves finally reading my stack of ignored magazines, gardening, and getting ready for a trip to Spain.  Of course, I've got the regular chores that never go away to take care of but nothing is pressing and I like it!

If only these lazy, crazy days of summer could last longer than 8 weeks..........

Padded Swimsuits for Tweens!

Yes, you read it correctly, stores are now carrying padded swimsuits for tweens.  I went out shopping with my daughter to find her a swimsuit for this summer season and was appalled to see Justice carrying padded swimsuits!  This was a size 10 swimsuit.  What are they thinking?  That we want to enhance our daughter's bust size?  I understand having a liner to provide extra coverage for developing chests, but padding, c'mon! Had  I let my daughter try on the swimsuit with padding in tact, she would have looked like she just got a new set of silicones--o.k. maybe not that bad, but still.  Padding!

I'm telling you finding a swimsuit for tweens is tough.  Especially for those girls who do not want zebra print bikinis or tankinis that show off their innie or outie.  On that note, aren't tankini's supposed to cover one's belly?

You can read more about my quest to find an age appropriate swimsuit at SVMoms blog.

Gearing up for College - and Graduating to a Quieter House

I've written about my eldest daughter's decision to take a Gap Year, and it's been a great year for her, filled with real world experiences.  During the past ten months she's traveled to Europe, interned at a high tech company where she learned to speak techno-jargon, do copy edit, and create marketing materials.  She also found a second job where she's bartering some of her artistic skills in exchange for audio books - art and books, two of her favorite things.

But now we are in the midst of getting her prepared for college.  She's been accepted to the highly ranked San Jose State University School of Art & Design.  Her goal is to major in Illustration, a talent we took note of since she was about three years of age.  For the past few weeks we've been registering her for Freshman Orientation, talking to her college counselors and paying for her first set of bills for tuition, room and board.  My heart is filled with pride as well as pangs of bitter sweetness; she is my first to go off to college and experience living away from home and discovering a new world of her own. 

Still, it is with much excitement that we see her prepare for this next phase in her life.  She just received an official letter telling her she got into her desired college suites rather than the traditional brick and mortar dorm filled with halls full of rooms and shared bathrooms.  In these modern suites with four bedrooms she will have seven roommates and have an adjoining common area.  She does not have to deal with the dreaded hallway bathroom where loads of kids share stalls of toilets and showers.  She received a list with her roommates' contact information so they can begin calling each other and finding more about who they are.  This could be the beginning of some life long friendships.

My two younger daughters are already discussing how they will use her bedroom after she leaves.  One has already decided she will move into her big sister's bedroom and make a new bedroom/guest room from her former bedroom.   We don't want to make my college bound daughter feel like we're completely pushing her out of the nest, but we do want her to see that this is a big phase, and walking out our door to head to college is the first step toward her own independent life.  We know our children may "boomerang" back into our lives and home, and that's fine.  But we want them to know that this is a major milestone and they need to take responsibility for the decisions they make and the friendships they form.

While our daughter makes these preparations for college, I see that I need to be prepared for a life where our house will one day be quiet.  The noises that I never thought would fade such as the pitter patter of baby feet stomping evolve faster than a shooting star to the noises of toys clanging, children laughing, Disney movie music, Guitar Hero, and favorite TV shows.   The noises I hear at the kitchen counter where they tend to do their homework will be quieter than snow falling. These noises will ebb to the noises of just my husband and our family dog.  Our 84-year old neighbor once told my husband and me that when he looks back on his life - the period of time when he and his wife had children was a blur.  In the blink of an eye, they go from babies to adults and out of the house.  Married over 50 years, he told us his time with his children was shorter than the time they have had as a married couple.  So it's very important that you choose the right mate since you will hopefully be with them for a long time.

It is with a rush of these thoughts that I hug my daughter and cherish the remaining days of the summer of 2010.  We've built a great foundation for her, now it's her turn to add some bricks to her mortar.

Common Sense Social Networking - Safe Surfing

As the mother of teens and tweens, it's a daily task to observe and reinforce good Internet safety to my children. There was a time about ten years ago when my eldest daughter was eight years old and was checking out an Internet site and innocently chatting with someone who had a site with all sorts of G-rated jokes. She was laughing and giddy about the chat conversation she was having.

Unfortunately I was under the wrong impression that she was chatting with a school friend. Somehow, a stranger got her chat name and started a chat conversation with her. At the time I didn't know about parental controls on the Internet or blocking.  For those of you who don't know, "Blocking" is where you can prevent unknown and unwelcome people from knocking on your virtual chat door or sending a message. In any case, my daughter revealed that in fact she was not chatting with a school friend, but rather some unknown person. Who and how old, we had no idea!

In my surprise about this, rather than be calm and instruct her on Internet safety, I blew up at her for being so careless and foolish about what she was doing. After my tornado of words spewed out at her, I realized, how could an 8-year old know about Internet safety, it was my job as a parent to teach her what to do, just like it was my duty to teach her how to cross a street safely and not talk to strangers.   I was angry with myself, but directed it wrongly to my daughter.

Ten years ago, the Internet was relatively new. It was uncharted territory to me as a parent. I was barely aware of instant messaging myself. It was pre-Facebook and pre-iTouch.   Oh, how things have changed!

In the eighteen years we have been parents, my husband and I have had high tech jobs. Our children grew up seeing us work on our laptops, emailing and instant messaging our colleagues.  But that was something adults did. In the blink of an eye, it is not something only employees do as part of their job. Now our children have access to all sorts of tools to get on the Internet wirelessly and email and text their friends as soon as they can use a mouse (which is really around two years old). But, just like teaching our children about safe sex, Stranger Danger, and "Just Say No", I realize it is just as important to teach safe Internet socializing. We can't assume our children understand as we do how to prevent a computer virus, how to understand what a spammer is, and how to know when an official looking email comes in from your bank or credit card company but is in fact a fraud. Therefore, to be sure I was doing all I could about it, I attended an Internet safety presentation in Palo Alto last November.

The presentation was sponsored by LeapFrog, and presented by Larry Magid, co-director of ConnectSafely. What I learned and found fundamentally valuable is it is not about putting up barriers and parental controls at this stage for my children because that does not teach them how to be wise internet users for the rest of their lives. They are of an age where they can be taught how to handle a situation and pass this along to friends and eventually their children.

Larry's presentation put into perspective those sensationalized headlines we see and hear about all the time, such as "Teen Abducted by Internet Predator", "Cyber-bullying", and "On-Line Harassment". Those headlines and news stories tend to focus on what catches the audiences attention. They create fear and trepidation. They increase viewership of those media sites. But Larry presented statistic after statistic that dispelled inaccuracies about these headlines. The internet itself is not the cause of newsworthy issues such as teen abductions or bullying. (But they sure makes a great headlines.) The best analogy Larry used was that of a swimming pool. You can put up fences, create barriers, install alarms and lock gates. But at what point are you going to do the smartest thing which is to teach your children to swim and the next step beyond that, to teach them how to save another life in the pool of life?

If we continue to restrict our children from using these tools creatively and usefully, it restricts their freedom and educational value. Which, ironically, is what schools and public libraries do when they set up restrictions preventing access to various websites and tools. Of all places, shouldn't the public library and public schools be about educating "the public" about the internet? If you restrict access, how do you learn to be a safe user?

Larry's philosophy about internet safety is about common sense. Is common sense lacking these days because we interact more by Facebook and less face-to-face?

I came back with a new perspective and had a great discussion with my children about internet use and internet safety. I'm not as articulate as Larry, so check his ConnectSafely site and of particular interest is the link on Virtual World Safety Tips for Parents of Teens - and tips and suggestions on what to look out for with your children.  There's also a great report called "Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks" which was presented to Congress by the FTC.  The report helps debunk some common myths about the risks of internet safety and gives a clearer view on what parents should be aware of.  Educate yourselves as parents so you have the facts.

The main points I learned are:

1. The first priority is to educate yourself.  Read up on the links in the paragraph above (ConnectSafely, Virtual World Safety Tips, Maping the Risks). Be sure you have your facts straight.
2. Have an open and honest discussion with your children.  Find out what sites they frequent.  If they are under 18 years of age, they should not hesitate allowing you to view their Facebook account (they should not have one without your approval anyway) or their email inbox for possible Spammers or cyberbullying messages.
3. If you have teens or college age children - teach them how to understand if their bank or credit card account  is asking for sensitive information or if it is a fradulent email account trying to steal information for illegal use.  If they are in college, they will probably have their own checking or credit card.  So this age group in particular is targeted by lots of illegal activity.  Basically, your children should learn never to give any sensitive information out by email without verifying who the sender is first.  The subject line may look like a valid company, but when they look closer, the sender email address is clearly not from that company or bank.  I've even seen emails that use a valid company logo and what appears to be a valid email address,  but upon closer inspection the sender clearly is a fraud. 
4. Go in with the basic premise that it is better to teach your child how to safely surf the Internet than having them fear it.  Just as you would teach them to swim before they dive into a pool, or take drivers education before they get behind the wheel of a car, you have to teach them common sense social networking. 

We welcome your comments to this blog, - what internet safety tips or Internet surfing stories do you have?

Otter Pop Revelation!

Yesterday, while at my twins' third grade end of year picnic, I had an epiphany.  I am better at cutting off the tops of Otter Pops than I am at passing them out.  "Better" is actually not the right word, "more patient" is.

You see, handing out Otter Pops to a slew of excited 8 & 9 year old kids can even the most patient person.   You'd think that these children had never seen an Otter Pop before.  Maybe it was the excitement of the day or that these kids were soooooo thirsty/hungry from running around at the park, but I swear it was like a pack of vultures had swooped down ready to fly off with as many popsicles as they could get into their beaks.

As I kept hearing, "I want yellow!" I want blue!"  "Can I have another?" all I could do was bite my tongue and try and find my happy place and give thanks that I was part of the back-end logistics (cutting off the tops) and not tackling the front lines (handing them out).  The mothers who were handing them out had the patience of a Saint.  I'm telling you if I were handing them out I would have snapped!

I guess we all need to recognize our strengths and weaknesses.  One things for sure, I'm not patient enough to brave those Otter Pop hungry troops.  I'll stick to the trenches and KP duty.

Ack--My Son is Turning 13!

I'm about to be a mother of a teenage boy.  In 4 days, my darling first born will cross the threshold into teendom.  Yikes!  So far, he has not exhibited any of that annoying teenager behavior aside from an occasional eye roll--but heck my 9 year olds do that.

I can't believe I'm going to be a mother of a teenager.  Boy, it makes me feel old.   Gray hairs, fine lines, occasional lower back pain are one thing but a TEENAGER, that really makes a gal feel long in the tooth!

Thankfully, my son is youthful in spirit (maybe he gets that from me--grin).  His big wish for his 13 b-day is a dwarf chameleon.  Yep, he still likes chasin' lizards.  Now I just need to find one by Friday.

Getting The House Back In Order

The past two months have been hectic around here.  Working on my kids' school auction (which raised over $19,000-woot!) and taking photos for 5 preschools has put most other things in my life on hold.  So this weekend I have been on a cleaning frenzy.

The problem is there is so much to organize, clean, straighten up, toss out, that I find myself getting distracted as I go.  I go from one mess to another, without completing either task.  Grabbing a broom from the hall closet to sweep my porch has me passing by our cluttered guest room, which then pulls me in to put all the crap back in the closet (which I had pulled out three weeks ago for the AT&T guy who needed to get into our crawl space).  While getting the Windex from my kitchen cabinet, I have to pass by my dining room which has pulls me in to sort through the various auction leftovers that are scattered across my table (anyone want to buy some great stuff  cheap?).  I can't stay focused.

On top of my innate ability to veer off track easily,  I've been taking breaks to:  make lunch for the kids, run to the store to get a birthday present for two parties the kids have this weekend, throw in a load of laundry, send out reminder emails regarding the last week of school activities, put together photo packages and write a blog post on how distracted and messy I am.

While these activities may not be getting my house any cleaner, they are all on my "to do" list so I should be pleased that I am at least scratching these items off my list.  But what I really want is for my house to be clean and organized again!

So here I go, off to finish what I started.  We'll see how far I get.........