Fellow Spawn of Tuan, Here We Come!

In several hours, the kids and I fly to LA for Tuanapalooza 2012--a Disney cruise to celebrate my father's 80th birthday with all of my family.  Scott, unfortunately, is the lone "Tuan Spawn" unable to make it because of his huge professional conference in Las Vegas--he's on the board, running for chair, has to politic, etc.

All week I've been asking the kids to pack.  I've been packing myself.  It's winter here in Boston so none of us are wearing our summer clothes.  So why was there still a clothes/shoes/bathing suit/I-can't-find-my-favorite-swim-shirt frenzy last night?

I made matters worse when I decided to take Ling shopping for a new dress yesterday afternoon.  Remember the Love Boat TV series?  I always wondered why Julie wore ball gowns for dinner.  Turns out there's a "formal wear" dinner, a "semi-formal" dinner, and pirate night!

How's a girl to pack?

Tank tops, shorts and swimwear are never allowed at dinner, where we're encouraged to wear "cruise casual" when we're not dressed like Love Boat Julie or Jack Sparrow.

Ling, at 5'9 1/2", owns two dresses, both of which end at what looks like a foot above her knee.  She and her sister think they look fine.  Scott, my parents and I don't.  At TJ Maxx we pulled out about 45 dresses, I left her to try them on while shuttling Kai to piano, and after 3 hours, we found 2 Calvin Klein dresses that are cute, more modest, and both under $30!

Kai claimed that she had no proper shoes, so I capitulated and bought her a pair of 4 inch espadrilles from Payless.

"You know that you're going to look 6 feet tall," I said.

"I don't care." said she.

I don't know if it was wise to buy a 13 year old 4 inch high sandals, but oh well, I had no more energy to find age-appropriate footwear.

Scott suggested that the girls design T-shirts for the cruise.  Here's what they came up with:

Fellow Tuan Spawn--Bring it On!