The Aroma of Family: Where it's Good to be a Kid

So, I've been silent for a week or so, but for good reason. However, I must keep you in the dark on why for a bit longer. Let me first set up the purpose of my silence.

In parenting four children, we want to give quality time with each child. The biggest challenge, outside of my own shortcomings as a Dad, is that my boys don't understand that concept yet...unless they are the child of focus. Each one wants to be involved with every activity while still wanting everything to be centered around him as an individual.

We started last week with all six of us enjoying a Disney movie-themed event. Now, this is quite a treat since the boys don't get to watch movies on school nights. They were beside themselves with joy! We started with Beauty and the Beast Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday we watched Aladdin. And, we finished the week Thursday with Peter Pan. These are three classics, if you ask me. Before each movie, we asked the boys what this movie can remind them of our relationship with God. The key themes:

Beauty and the Beast - It's all about the heart and be selfless! Having a heart for God is what creates true beauty
Aladdin - Riches are not in material things
Peter Pan - Be willing to fight for justice

It was a fun start to the week, but Friday the younger two got to go get special attention from Mimi and Grandpa. They played with the dogs, watched movies, read books, and many other things I don't know yet.

That same day we picked up the older two from school early. That's odd, they thought. We asked them to stay in the car as we ran into the house for a couple minutes and then started driving. Where are we going? Why did I have to miss PE? I didn't want to leave school? Where are we going? I'm hungry. These were all resounding comments as we coyly navigated to the airport.

What? Are we going to the airport? Are we going to Destin? South Carolina? Washington DC? The Georgia Aquarium? Well we did go to the airport. Checked in for our flight through Atlanta - No, we're not going to have time to go to the Georgia Aquarium - and flew to Atlanta. We grabbed a bit to eat and handed the boys these buttons:

We were on our way to Disney! This kept me much too busy to blog, but was something quite age appropriate for our 5 and practically 8 year old. We spent 5 days at the parks and had a blast all around. We rode rides, watched shows and fire works, stayed up late, had meals with Disney characters, ate desserts every day and had an all around blast. We were able to pray a prayer of gratitude each night to the Lord for giving us great quality time together.

And, do you know what? Even I had a great time. This was a great place where it was okay to scream at the top of your lungs, sing songs from Disney movies, ride the same roller coaster 3 times in a row, and many other kid-friendly activities. It felt good to be free-spirited, to allow our children to be wild and crazy, and to give them a little extra focus that they don't always get. I hope this is the first of many trips to come!

A few highlights from the trip:

Brothers watching a show as it all started at Magic Kingdom.