Tampa Mom

The 2008 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival runs from September 26 through November 9. Florida residents are eligible for a lot of great deals during this time of year. If you live close to Orlando, consider the Epcot After 4PM Annual Pass, a fantastic deal, and will get you into Epcot all year without blackout dates after 4pm. This is great if you just want to dine, go to an Eat to the Beat concert, or visit France for pastries and fireworks at the end of an evening.

Kids can experience all the fun of the festival by traveling to over 14 Kidcot activity stops around the theme park. Our kids really enjoy this and it keeps them motivated during the day. It also provides an opportunity to rest inside, out of the sun or rain. This year, USA Pears sponsors The Pearville Fair, a learning center about pears! Our kids love Epcot!

A note about food allergies: In our experience, Disney is very accommodating, especially in the more formal dining experiences. Even the takeaway food stands are pretty knowledgeable about what they are serving. If you have food allergies, notify your server, and they will typically introduce you and your allergic child to the chef. We’ve met numerous Disney chefs and had just as many conversations with them about our food needs. Once, a chef at Boma (my personal favorite Disney restaurant) made a special dessert for Elizabeth since she couldn’t eat a single thing from their dessert offerings. As with any food activity with allergies, don’t forget your Epi-pens, Benadryl, Albuterol, and whatever else you typically need to deal with an incident. Also, don’t forget to pack some safe snacks. We always pack plenty of safe snacks wherever we go.

One last money-saving tip: You can get a large cup of ice water for free at any fountain drink vendor at Disney. I get a 32-ounce cup of ice water and sometimes mix in a Crystal Light To Go packet. Don’t let your budget prevent you from staying hydrated! Pack a water bottle. Water fountains are abundant throughout the parks, and single-serving drink packets can make it more palatable.

Tasting menus from some of the 2007 international food vendors.

For kids aged 5-12, Home Depot offers its own brand of Kid Workshop on the first Saturday of each month. Saturday, September 6, 2008, kids will be constructing a paper football goalpost. Building begins at 9am, and goes until noon, or until supplies run out. Get there early to secure your spot and make sure your child has plenty of time to complete their project. Each child receives a kid-sized orange apron, an achievement pin, as well as their own newly-constructed project kit.

Check out the next project here!

Get your kids involved in home improvement at Lowe’s Build and Grow program. This is a free program for kids offered at your local Lowe’s store, usually on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month. Kids learn building skills, project safety, and get a boost of self-confidence when they discover that they really can build something themselves! Check it out and post your comments and reviews here!

Sign up now for September activities!

You can add us to the no-TV crowd. We moved our remaining television to the garage where it sits unplugged. We’ve moved a computer monitor into its place that we use for iTunes through the stereo and a digital photo album. This is really cool during parties. For example, we showed pictures from all of Elizabeth’s birthday parties at her party.

We still watch a lot of movies and subscribe to Netflix. Everyone in the house has a laptop that plays DVDs, so that’s not a problem. My husband still watches a lot of TV, but it’s out of sight from the kids on his computer (he has rabbit ears on it and also many networks put their shows on their websites now.)

Overall, though, this has seriously cut down on the amount of advertising coming into the house and unwanted television. Although I miss cooking shows, Discovery Channel and some other stuff, I can pretty much still find what I actually need and want, rather than passively absorb unnecessary, unwanted information.

I don’t think the kids miss it at all, and I certainly don’t.

If you need further convincing, visit http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/. This is an excellent resource packed with intelligent discourse about television.

A side benefit to all of this is that we don’t have a cable bill. It’s quite nice.

It’s that time of year again to purchase Fun Cards at Busch Gardens. For Florida residents, that means we buy a one day admission and can come back all year through Dec. 31, 2008! Sounds like quite a deal, doesn’t it?

Let’s take a closer look. If we just want annual BG (Busch Gardens) passes, for our family of four (2 adults, 2 kids – ages 4 and 8), the Fun Card total is $239.80. This does NOT include parking ($9 general), discounts on food, beverage and merchandise, or anything else.

Here’s my suggestion: For $35 more, buy one adult 1-year Passport and Fun Cards for everyone else. 4 trips to the park will pay for this difference in parking alone, because you get free general parking with the Passport. Another area of savings is 10% off all food, beverage and merchandise. Get this Passport for the parent who will be taking the family all the time. If you are planning to get Fun Cards again next year for the family, pay $50 more and make mom’s Passport good for 2 years. If you can’t swing the money up-front, BG offers EZ-pay for Passport holders! For the 2 year passport, it’s $6.24/month for 2 years. Add on the Fun Cards for 2008, and it’s only $174.85 up front plus the $6.24 for mom, the first month.

We’ve found that the benefits of the Passports are worth it. You will use your pass more since you won’t have to pay $9 to park every time you go. Exhausting your preschoolers in Dragon Land for a few hours in the morning or afternoon won’t cost you anything but gas to get there and back, goldfish crackers, raisins and water bottles (all in Mom’s backpack!)

Read more about all of the ticketing options at Busch Gardens here.

This is a great gift for your family members, retired parents/grandparents, home schoolers, stay-at-home parents with small children, your nanny, and even your teenage babysitter!

Stay tuned for more Busch Gardens tips soon!