A Mother's Guide to Disney

First let me say Disney was awesome, especially the Magic Kingdom.  They pipe that music in there, strategically place that castle, and boom it's like your a little kid all over again.  It was pretty magical.  I was glad though that I had prepared ahead of time though, because the Magic Kingdom could also be magically expensive.

1. Bring your own water bottle.  We went to Disney in July, and it was crazy hot.  Thankfully we brought our own water bottles and water flavoring so we could stay hydrated for no extra cost.

2. My girls loved trading pins with the park employees.  Disney allows kids to trade with any park employee who is wearing trading pins.  The catch is they will only trade Disney pins.  You can tell which are true Disney pins by the Mickey ears on the back.  Before we went on the trip, my husband bought lanyards and pins online for much cheaper than they were in the park.  As an added bonus, we clipped a card with our phone numbers on it to the girls' lanyards just in case they go separated from us.

3.  Buy your souvenirs before you go on the trip.  Before we left home, I went shopping for Disney themed goodies.  No need to stop in the gift shops when there are goodies already in your suitcase!  At the end of the day, when we were relaxing in the hotel, I would pull out one of the little souvenirs I brought along.  The girls were thrilled.  

4.  Bring somethings to collect autographs.  We brought autograph books.  After our trip, I heard the suggestion to bring the matting to a picture frame to collect autographs on.  Great idea!  I'm using that one next time.

Eating in San Diego With Kids

My husband, two daughters and I recently took a trip to San Diego.  We had done a San Diego trip before our kids were born and that one was so different from this one!  No fancy restaurants this time around!  Restaurants with kids menus were our new necessity, and thankfully we found a couple of great restaurants that made everyone in the family happy.

Our first stop was In-N-Out Burger.  We were starving and needed to feed the family quick!  No kids menu, but milkshakes, french fries and burgers made everyone happy.  The line was crazy long but actually moved really fast.  The girls loved watching them make the fresh cut fries while we waited for our food.  Okay, maybe I liked watching them cut the fries more than the girls.  It looked like such a great arm workout!

http://www.in-n-out.com/

My girls' favorite restaurant of the trip was the Corvette Diner.  The diner is a 50's themed restaurant complete with waitresses in poodle skirts.  The wait staff worked to make the restaurant fun for kids.  Drinking straws turned into hair accessories, the chicken dance, and lots of laughter.  The food was good and we loved the milkshakes.  We seemed to be on a milkshake kick on this vacation!

http://www.cohnrestaurants.com/corvettediner

My husband and I loved Coronado Brewing Company.  The drive over to Coronado Island was an adventure in itself.  The view of San Diego from the bridge over to the island was beautiful!  The restaurant was great.  It was by far the best meal that we had during the trip and there was an awesome kids' menu.  I'm still having happy flashbacks to the Islander Burger I devoured that night.

http://coronadobrewingcompany.com/