Yikes! I hope he's ok!!!

From my experiences at Disney, here's my (comical ) suggestion:

Put your 14 year old in a wheelchair, with the broken leg sticking straight out. Everyone else in the family gathers in a large group behind him. Then, you use the 14 year old as a battering ram to make your way through the crowds. Ankle clipping is allowed for anyone rude enough not to jump out of the way. Be sure to glower at anyone who dares to bump into your son's leg.

This same theory works for strollers......

Of course I'm only kidding! I think you're a brave woman for taking 8 kids anywhere, let alone Disney. My understanding is that personal guides are available to help you make your way around the parks but group size may be limited or cost extra. I'd call ahead to make the necessary arrangements. Another handy tip... Sometimes wheelchair = fastpass.

my husband, myself and our 8 kids go to disney every year. Were going June 27th. Yesterday one of my 14 year olds broke his leg on a trampoline. He will be in a cast for 2-3 months.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Why don't you sign up to be a substitute teacher? I don't know if all districts are the same, but here all you need is an associates degree. It also pays really well for what it is. You can work just about everyday or hardly ever. We are in a low paying area but subbing still pays 85-105 a day depending on your education/experience.
I've been pres. for 2 years after being VP for a year and am also planning to take a break. (as long as someone else steps up which isn't happening yet!) My youngest son will be starting Pre-K this fall so I'm going to see about being a teacher's aide. If not, then I'll sign up to sub. At least I'll be on their school schedule. It's so hard to work an 8-5 job with 3 kids and still have the time I want with the kids.
I love being in the PTO but I just need a break. I start to feel so run down by the end of the year. There is so much going on with all of the activities in spring. But I absolutely love working around the kids so I've decided to leave PTO for now but still work in the school. It's about time I get paid for the time that I put their anyway! Even now, I spend so much time at the school, I end up subbing in the afternoons alot. Just today, I had a first grade class for the last 2 hours of the day. It's just easier if I'm already there for them to ask me than line up a substitute. Plus, PTO presidents are around so much, all students know you by name!

Hahaha. . . I'm an outgoing president. I've been on the board for two years now and am stepping aside for another great mind to take the lead.

Since I'll have some time on my hands next fall, I'm wondering what everyone does in the workforce. Our planning, organizing, business calling, etc. should be job requirements for some part-time/flex. position out there. If it helps, my BS degree and ancient work history is in social work. Tammy

Eastside - glad you had fun and thanks for sharing the tips.

Everyone - is it obvious to everyone else that Eastside must be a PTO pres? If not now, very soon!

You moms are great! Thanks so much for all of your advice and web links.

We had a GREAT time at Disney World. My husband had never been there. He was as blown away as the kids were! Since I'm DYING to talk about our adventure, I'll type a lot of "how we did it" for other first time Disney goers.

Our family stayed on Disney property at Fort Wilderness in our pop-up camper. There are no fire pits, so no one smelled like a "camper". It's a fantastic park except for the transportation. TO TRY: if you're going with a tent or pop-up, request loop 1500 and call the lodge directly to make sure you get it. 2000 is pretty far to walk from/to the activities area (which also has and best pool). I would also recommend driving your vehicle to and from the parks. Disney transportation is nice, but you lose an hour going one way because of the bus transfers. Driving takes a bit of figuring out, but your site includes FREE parking, it is much faster AND you can keep your lunch ice cold in your cooler.

As for the parks, we did Epcot on Tuesday, shopped for souveniers at Downtown Disney on Wednesday (no tickets required) and Magic Kingdom on Thursday (a grand ending to a perfect week!). I had two rules and a firm plan when we walked through the park door (using the "extra magic hour" of course). The rules were: no shopping and no waiting in line for more than 30 minutes - there's too many other cool things to do! That, of couse, meant that I had to put the kid's "must" rides at the top of our plan so that the lines would be short. We passed on the park hopper option because we had never been to Disney. There was no way that we could see one park in a day, so we stayed put (which kept us focused). We also passed on purchasing more days than we intened to use (saving them for another year) because we put a $750.00 fuel pump, with acessories, into our van on the way down to the Space Coast. We rode rides in the AM, and did shows/parades/fireworks in the PM. I did make everyone take a break around 2:30 and we came back about 5:00 when the heat broke and the crowds thinned. It was 38 degrees when we left MI, and we toured the parks in 86 degree heat (with lots of 50 SPF lotion!).

As for food, we ate light all week because of the heat. For instance, I precooked and froze seasoned taco meat at home, and then put it in my crockpot at camp. "Make your own taco night" was a hit!

The night before we did the parks, and again during our rest period, I packed a backpack that has a cooler compartment on the bottom, dry storage on the top, and pouches on the ends for maps, tissues, hand sanitizer, comb (use before character pictures) etc. Purchased at Rite-Aid, the backpack worked great at Hershey Park a couple of years ago, and traveled comfortable around Disney on my back.

At 6:00 AM I made flavored coffee and walked out the door with the last of it in a disposable coffee cup. I packed the cooler full of ice cold water, a Coke for my husband, drink pouches and/or Sunny D sports bottles, along with our sunscreen and some combination of: Mini-raisin bagles (spread with PB&J), cut apples, quick-cut carrots, string cheese and summer sausage slices, portable go-gurt, pudding tubes. *HINT: If you're white as snow, use the cool sunscreen everytime you snack.

The top compartment had a variety of individually packaged snacks: Special K breakfast bars (to eat in line with the Sunny D), granola bars, tropical trail mix bags, princess/nemo fruit snacks, pringles, cheese or peanut butter crackers (very dry). We went through an AMAZING amount of water and food to fuel our hot and tired bodies. One book that I read said to expect to walk a MINIMUM of 5 miles at each park you visit. They're not kidding. . . I also packed baseball hats, sunglasses, cell phone, autograph books and all the rest in the top. When it got warm enough to shed our sweatshirts, we took out the hats, etc. and stuffed them into the top! A carribeaner held our hats to a strap during the wildest rides.

Disney was fun to plan, and GREAT to experience. I am now looking forward to scrapbooking my memories. Is it "cheating" if I print this post and paste it in as my journaling??? This is also new territory for me, so if you have any ideas for pages, or know of a site where I could take a look at someone else's work, let me know.

Wishing you all a great 2006 vacation - Tammy