Yesterday, I told you the beginning of our Disney surprise for the three oldest children. They had already received their first clue at home and were on their way to the second, but they had no idea where they were headed.
The prevailing assumption was that we were going to a movie theater to watch a Disney film, perhaps even Peter Pan.
But then we pulled up to Nana’s house.
“Get out of the car!” I sang. I had been singing Disney songs the entire way but the kids weren’t particularly interested in my vocal acrobatics or my touching rendition of “Part of Your World.“ If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were blocking me out. “Get out of the car!” I sang again.
The kids stared at me. “Get out of the car?” Faith repeated. She sounded a little worried that we might have arrived at our destination, and while Nana’s house is great, it certainly didn’t blow her mind like Daddy promised.
“Aren’t we going to be late for the movie?” Jonathan asked.
“I don’t know, but if you don’t hop out, you won’t get your next clue,” I teased.
The van emptied immediately. Children ran into Nana’s house and children squealed when they saw Nana and children read Nana the first clue and told her all about the fun they’d already had. Nana told all the children to calm down because she had to go to the bathroom.
But really, she was bringing me her suitcase to load up into the back of the van with the others. Oh, the trickery!
After the suitcase was stashed, we lined the kids up on her couch. I gave them each a wrapped package with a little note that read:
Bibbidi bobbidi boo!
There’s an adventure waiting for you!
You’ll need a bit of faith,
A lot of trust,
And don’t forget your pixie dust!
(Have you ever Googled “bibbidi bobbidi boo?” I have.)
Moving right along.
The kids opened their boxes.
Each child had a little pixie dust necklace.
“Pixie dust! Can we eat it?” asked the child who did not care about being able to fly. He’s going to regret that when Captain Hook gets ahold of him.
But, in point of fact, he could eat the pixie dust.
After looking high and low and trying all sorts of things to create little vials for pixie dust (including taking apart little light bulbs so I could use the glass containers, which totally didn’t work) I found these little plastic containers in the bead section of my local craft store. They cost $0.49 each. Score!
Plus, they came with a plastic lid that already had a hole in the top for stringing ribbon. Yeah me!
I created the pixie dust by mixing a bit of sugar with just a drop of liquid food coloring. I created several colors, then baked them in the over at 350 for 10-15 minutes, just until the sugar was no longer damp. I layered the sugar into the vials, added pretty ribbons and beads, a few stickers, and of course, Tinkerbells.
I thought this might be a dead-giveaway for the surprise, but I was wrong.
With the video camera rolling, I prodded. “So, you have pixie dust. What do you need pixie dust for?”
“Flying!”
“Yes, flying! So, where do you think you’re going?”
“Neverland!”
Face palm.
“Get in the car.”
These children would make terrible detectives
Nana hopped in the car too and we all headed off to the airport, although the kids didn’t know that. The airport is all the way through Seattle for us, and I wondered how long it would take the kids to figure it out. So far, their powers of deduction left a lot to be desired.
But, they were about to find another clue.
Kya happened to peek in the back of the van. “There are suitcases back there!” she yelled.
Rats.
“Suitcases? We are going to Beachwood!” Jonathan shouted. “I knew it! I thought of that! I thought of Beachwood!”
“Jonathan, Beachwood is in the other direction,” Nana noted.
“Then we’re going to Whistler! I knew it!”
“Whistler is in the other direction.”
“What’s south?” I hinted.
Silence.
“Nothing,” Faith said.
I’m sure she meant no offense to Oregon and California.
We zipped right past Providence Classical Christian School, where Jeff used to work, so that meant we weren’t picking up Kiri and Moira for a movie date. We zipped right past the Space Needle,
and said many laudatory things about the glories of Mt. Rainier on that particular day.
Too bad the children were not particularly interested in the view. They were languishing in the backseat. Ahahahaha….this adventure is taking forever. Weeping and gnashing of teeth and are we there yet?
I decided to send them to Argentina. So I took the exit to the airport.
“Are we getting off the freeway?” Faith asked. “Are we going to the airport?”
Perhaps…
The exit to the airport curved around and put us on another freeway for a second.
“Aw man, another freeway!”
But wait…
“It is the airport! We’re going to the airport! Are we getting Grandma?”
Never mind the fact that my house was in a crafting state of despair and there was no way I’d let Grandma come over with it looking like that no matter how much I’d like to see her, I let the kids ponder that possibility.
I zipped my little blue van-that-does-not-indicate-I’m-a-soccer-mom right under a glaring DEPARTURES sign, but no one read it.
I zipped my little blue van-that-does-not-indicate-I’m-a-soccer-mom right past the loading zones just to tease the children and not because I misread the signs that led to parking.
“Why are we at the airport? Why are we at the airport? Why are we at the airport with pixie dust and a bunch of clues about Disney?”
I don’t know, kids. Why are you?
We parked.
“Okay,” I said. “Time for another clue!” We tumbled out of the car and I opened the back of the van, which was stuffed with suit cases and three bags loaded with Disney-themed treats. I handed each of them another wrapped package and started rolling the video again because surely, surely they were going to get it now.
Wrapping paper flew into the air and each child got one of these:
Personalized reverse tie-dye Disney shirts for Kya, Faith, and Jonathan
“Huh. Mickey Mouse shirts. Thanks, Mom.”
Face palm.
“Put them on,” I commanded while pondering the fact that this generation of uneducated children has no idea that Mickey Mouse is Disney. This generation of children knows nothing of The MOUSE!
It’s a shame.
“They just don’t get it,” Nana said, shaking her head. She was taking it hard.
“So. Let’s review,” I said, holding on to the last fragment of hope that my children could put the pieces together. “What do we know about Mickey?”
“He’s a mouse?”
“He has a clubhouse?”
“He’s from Disney!” Kya came in for the save.
“Yes! Disney! So. We are at the airport with pixie dust necklaces and Mickey Mouse shirts…where do you think we’re going?”
The video was rolling, waiting to capture this precious moment for all posterity.
But.
They didn’t get it.
Face palm
I wanted to shout it but I didn’t. “Okay, pause,” I said, putting the video camera away. This was going to take a little more work than I thought.
Stay tuned tomorrow for another edition of, “How long will it take these kids to figure out they’re going to DISNEY?”
(Also, I’ll have a t-shirt tutorial up later this week so you can make your own reverse tie-dye mouse shirts in case you want to test your child’s deductive powers by surprising him or her with a trip to Disney).
