If you have anything planned while I'm in Orlando, can we come? We usually visit a couple times a year!

:001_smile: I tried to plan a European trip for our family and got entirely overwhelmed. We decided to send each of our kids to Europe on their own between jr and sr year. How old are your kids? I long to go with them, but with such different ages, I see a really, really bored 6 yo at cathederals, museums, and castles!!!! NOT fun!

:iagree: We travel quite a bit as a family and it's HARD when there are such different ages to contend with. We were either doing things that made the younger set happy OR the older set. It was hard to find things to do for all of us. We now have dileneated between a trip and a vacation and have different expectations of each. Trip. Anyplace you go that involves a lot of sightseeing - Grand Canyon, New York City, etc. Lots of walking. Lots of planning. This has the potential for a lot of issues - hungry kids, bored kids, tired kids, etc. It's hard on ME because I do all the planning for all of it. We keep these trips to a day or two before moving on to the "vacation" part of our trip. Vacation. Anyplace that does not require a lot of planning on my part. Anyplace that has things for everyone - teens, pre-teens, school age, pre-school, etc, etc. That MUST include mom and dad. These are the easy trips. Food is readily available. Entertainment is easy. This type of trip for us includes cruises, theme parks, Disney, etc. We can send our older kids to their activities/rides/etc. and then meet up for a meal or an outing as a family. My big kids feel like big kids because we go places we feel safe and they can roam with some freedom that they desire without having to stay and do "baby" things. We mix it up. When we went out west, we did things like the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. Then, we visited family (I consider that part of the vacation part because there is no planning on my part). Then, we took a cruise. Anyway, I think sometimes kids act like brats for a whole variety of reasons. Only the OP knows her kids and knows if there should be punishments doled out for their behavior or if she might have been asking too much out of them. :grouphug:

Absolutely beautiful. Your dd should be very proud. I'm in tears here thinking of all the emotions of the last few weeks for you. I can't even imagine!:grouphug:

:iagree:

Yeah!!! Congratulations! Boy, they want to move fast, dont they?

Watching it with my dd right now in another window. We are loving it!!!! Beverly, the parade, Beauty and the Beast, the creepy hippo, Test Track, etc. My dd recognized them all!!!! I can't wait until our next trip!!!!

Definitely Craig's List. Also, when we had our sale a few weeks ago, my husband uploaded pictures to Facebook and Twitter. SO many people came because of those two things!

This happened to a friend of mine, and in the end, the DOG was the carrier! ETA: I just googled it and found out that studies are mixed on this. Hmmmm . . . . Well, I know they had the dog tested and they did some sort of treatment and the strep didn't come back.

We did this with our kids and cell phones. They came to us with a HUGE presentation (Power Point and everything!). In the end, we were actually convinced, but we made them pay for everything.

I've bought a few at Plato's Closet! My latest is a beautiful Coach bag. I got it for $15! Check them out.

Homemade pizza? Make your own crusts (practically free), canned tomatoes ($1), and cheese ($4 - maybe?). If you happen to have toppings, great! If not, no biggie. Chicken and potatoes. Roast a chicken one day. (To make this work, I have to roast two chickens, but I have a really big family!) Have potatoes as a side with veggies. The second night, take the leftover chicken and make a chicken casserole (we usually do chicken alfredo over rice). Make the bones into a broth and do a veggie soup the third night. (For added protein, I'll add beans, or egg. Sometimes I'll serve it over pasta or rice. Others I'll make dumplings.) Homemade waffles and scrambled eggs. Yum! We also do all the beans and rice meals, but mostly those are snacks for my kids. I keep all the ingredients in the fridge and the kids can go at it anytime. So, those aren't really our meals anymore.

OMG! I killed the dog thread!!!

We had a neighbor do this. The only problem is that the loan rate wasn't fixed. That's scary to me!

Wow!!! That is huge!

We are dog-sitting our neighbor's coton. Isn't he cute? I hope it's okay to post if even though he's not mine!!!

My boys all went with my husband a few years back. They all agreed it was worth the money. They got a ton of candy. There were NO lines for anything. All the characters were out in their Halloween costumes. I chose not to pay for my dd and me because she would have fallen asleep anyway!

We have more problems with our kids' friends leaving the stinking door open. Drives me INSANE!!!!! I'm thinking of charging the kids every time they stand there in front of the fridge looking for things to eat though. . . .

:iagree: I hate them. Seriously. I CANNOT wear them. I think I have some sort of sensory issue with them. They are YUCKY!!!! I want to crawl out of my skin when I put them on. DON'T wear them!!!!!

Oh man! I can't believe your dd swam with pneumonia! Congratulations to her! I'm glad you have some answers!!!

A whole chicken is my easy go-to meal! If I'm feeling fancy, I will put some bacon under the skin before I stick it in the oven. It makes it very juicy and yummy! Stick some water in the roasting pan and bake it until done. It's SO easy and a real family favorite. Make sure to save all the bones and put them in a stock pot with water over them (with a splash of vinegar). Cook for a few hours. It is the BEST broth ever!

That is wayyyyyyy cool!!!! She looks so happy!

I've got more! What sizes do you need?

I think it depends on the area. We had a garage sale a couple weeks ago. I'd read to price things so you have some wiggle room. We hung all the clothing and priced everything individually. Mine was mostly kids' clothing from Gymboree, Hannah Andersson, or the like. I priced things at $3 or $4 each expecting some bargaining. I sold nearly everything at full price!! Nobody questioned it! But, I live in an area that has a lot of money. Good luck! We made over $650 at our garage sale!

EVERYTHING!!! Yum. I love parmesan! We put it on things - popcorn, veggies, rice, spaghetti, salad. I make a really good chicken alfredo - onions, chicken, cream cheese, milk, and LOTS of parm cheese. Eyeball everything. Serve over rice or noodles.