Interview: Greg Attonito & Shanti Wintergate (Play Date)

It was only last year that one-time Skankin' Pickle member Mike Park released his foray into kids music, the album SMILE.

And now he's got a whole kids music label, Fun Fun Records.  One of the two debut releases from the label is Imagination from the band Play Date.  The band consists of husband-and-wife team Greg Attonito (of punk band The Bouncing Souls) and Shanti Wintergate.  They dipped their toes in creating art for kids with the publication some years back of the book I Went for a Walk.  They took some time last month from their summer touring schedule to talk about laying down under pianos, positive energy, and Imagination's inspiration.

Zooglobble: What are your first musical memories?

 

Greg Attonito: Listening to my Mom playing piano at our house. I would lay down on the floor under the piano keyboard at my Mom's feet and feel the sounds of the piano. I really loved that... and sometimes singing along when my Grandmother would play piano and sing at her house. 

Shanti Wintergate: I've been surrounded by music since I was in the womb.  My musician parents have always been performing and playing music throughout my life, so it's hard to pinpoint a specific moment...it was just always there.  Our whole family was always singing and harmonizing together as long as I can remember.  My brother and I used to lay down by the side of our pool and sing the same note into the water. We would watch the water move and listen to the reverberations and echoes of our voices. We would sometimes do this for hours. 

 

When did you decide you wanted to be a professional musician?

 

I thought it might be possible when I was in high school learning our favorite punk rock songs with friends.  We played shows in our hometown and talked about rock 'n' roll dreams.  Miraculously we made them come true.  It has been an amazing adventure. I have learned so much through the experience of making music with those same high school friends over the course of 23 years.  I'm excited to be bringing all I've learned from being in a rock band into making music for kids.

 

The idea first occurred to me, when I started learning how to play guitar to accompany lyrics and melodies I had always written.  There was a freedom in being a self-contained musical creator.  I was asked to perform one of my songs in a local summer music festival, which I did and I've been hooked ever since.

 

When did you first start thinking about recording an album of family music?  Was it around the time of publication of I Went For a Walk or was it later than that?

 

We had talked about it a bit before that. I think the first time might have been when we played for our nephew's 2nd grade class.. That was the initial spark. We continued talking about it during and after the "I Went For A Walk" tours but we were so busy with pre-existing projects there wasn't time for it. 

 

What was your guiding philosophy in writing the songs for the album?

Our main focus was creating music that parents would enjoy as much as the kids and to infuse some positivity and fun into the world.  We were also really careful about the energy we put into the entire creative process.  We wanted it to feel effortless, and naturally uplifting so we committed to only working on this project when we were in the right frame of mind.  We found that usually just working on this music in and of itself put us in a great mood so it wasn't really a problem.  I know this might sound silly but, our hope is that anyone listening to the record will feel like they had a blast hanging out with us singing songs and getting silly for forty-five minutes or so..... and maybe even feel a little more loved and cared about through the experience.  :)

What has surprised you (positively or negatively) as you wrote/recorded/started to promote and tour the album?

 

I was surprised at how much fun we had recording the record.  I knew it would be fun but it was way more fun than I expected!

I can't think of anything negative, but there have been lots of positives.  I also had a feeling we were going to have fun creating this music, but I hadn't expected the fun to be so contagious.   It seems everyone who has been around or part of the recording process has been influenced positively by the experience.... it's just too fun to resist!  Writing and recording this record, I allowed myself to explore musical boundaries that I didn't even know I had.  We also played all the instruments on this record except drums, so there has been a great satisfaction in that.

 

What's your impression of other music being recorded for kids -- any favorites, or have you tended to stay away?  Has that impression changed at all over time or as you've been recording/finishing the album?

I have just recently had my ears open to the world of kids music so I don't know many of the artists.  I like They Might Be Giants.  Their kids music is really good.  Our friend Kepi's new kids record is great, too. It's called Kepi For Kids and it will also be coming out on Fun Fun Records.

In the past I think it was a little more challenging to find music for kids that wasn't too "dumbed down" and obviously "children's music"... but it seems like today it's becoming easier to find good music for kids. MORE musicians are putting MORE effort into making quality music for kids.  It's so important!!  The music that kids are exposed to early on influence their musical tastes as they grow and there's plenty of evidence of music influencing emotional and mental states.  The importance of music in child development is finally gaining some well deserved ground.  Kids need a wholesome diet for their EARS as well as their BODIES!  

How much touring do you plan to do as Play Date? What have your experiences been playing for kids thus far as compared to playing in the Bouncing Souls or as a duo?

We just did a show last week in Montreal that was a blast! It was the first year the PouzzaFest hosted a kids stage at their big rock festival.  They did a great job and a lot of families came out and had a great time. 

We may do some dates this fall in Southern California. We intend to submit for more festivals with kids stages for next year and we are exchanging ideas right now about setting up a package tour with all of the artists releasing kids music on Fun Fun Records... so that is what is in the works at the moment. 

I have really enjoyed the new experience of playing for the kids in a more family friendly environment. The shows are earlier in the day..HAHA! It's broadening my musical horizons and challenging me to be more free with music in writing and performing.

 

What's next for you (kid-wise or otherwise)?

The Bouncing Souls released a new record on June 12th so I will be on tour in the U.S. all summer supporting that.  Play Date's record is coming out on October 9th.  We are really looking forward to getting the new Play Date record out in the world and supporting its release.  It's going to be really fun to see how it impacts the world.

 

Photo credit: Mike McLaughlin

Video: "Animal Alphabet" - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

Yaaay!  A new video and a new song from Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke.  OK, the song's been around for a little while (if not generally available), but the video?  Definitely new.  Yes, the "animals representing the alphabet" thing has been done before, but even Sandra Boynton didn't make a song out of hers.  (And Wilde's illustrations are every bit as cute.)

Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - "Animal Alphabet" [YouTube]

How I Got Here: Secret Agent 23 Skidoo (Midnight Marauders)

Many years ago, I started a series called "How I Got Here," which was my attempt to get kids musicians to talk in their own words about albums that influenced them as musicians.

Well, calling it a series was generous, because it consisted of exactly one entry.

But it's time to make it an actual series, with the next entry (and I promise you won't have to wait another 5 years for the third).  It's from the master of words and beats Secret Agent 23 Skidoo.  I think Skidoo's most recent album Make Believers is the best in his line of excellent albums for kids, and he's working on a live album for possible release this winter.

Here he writes about A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 album Midnight Marauders...

***

The first time I heard hip hop was at a friend's house, somewhere in the late 80's. We'd spent all day skateboarding and riding his 4 wheeler, and then he busted out the boombox and slid in a tape of RUN DMC. When I left that day, it was with a blown mind and a cassette dub of Beastie Boys' License to Ill, which I would wear down till it broke. These first tastes of rap single handedly moved me beyond Metallica territory and solidly into the land of Public Enemy and N.W.A. in which I would stay for years afterwards, and fully infected my brain, laying the groundwork for who I am today. But above all, I think it was A Tribe Called Quest's 3rd album, Midnight Marauders, that might have taught me the most.

Although many intelligent and artistic rappers have laced many funk fried beats before and after that time, something about that tape and when it came into my life made it become the bedrock of my style. I had to go listen to it again to write this, to figure out why it's such a depth charge to my psyche, and it turns out it has everything I love about hip hop in one neat package. The beats are sharp and full of pocket, right in the 93-99 bpm zone that I love best, and they sample dirty funk and jazz, complete with the crackle and pop of old vinyl heard for the 500th time. Lyrically, the 2 rappers, Phife Dawg and Q-Tip aka The Abstract Poetic, encapsulate everything it means to be an M.C. or Master of Ceremonies.

From the first song, "Steve Biko," it's obvious that these cats love rapping, that the act itself is the most fun to them. You can see them rocking a house party with a crappy plastic mic, in the corner busting freestyles endlessly to the party people, with hilarious punchlines, witty wordplay and perfectly in-the-funk-pocket delivery. By the time they get to "Award Tour," they become the prototype for the Super Emcee, globetrotting the whole planet not based on hype or gimmick, but high level, sophisticated, intellectual lyrics over unpredictable, head knocking beats. Then they flesh out their skills further, using "8 Million Stories" and "Midnight" to show mastery of storytelling, some straight day-in-the-life stuff that pulls you right into their world like a 3 minute documentary with a dope soundtrack.

Later in the album, they get serious on social issues and the state of the culture. These guys tackle topics with skill and intelligence, actually thinking things through instead of going with cliches and easy outs. And even though this is one of the deepest and most complex and artistic rap albums at that time, it never stops being fun.

No matter wether I'm creating for kids or grown ups, Party Rocking, Storytelling and Topic Tracks - these are still the 3 basic categories of songwriting for me. The freestyle feel and pocket flow of Q Tip's delivery is like one of my first teachers, and lives on like a funky ghost in my head, and if any of my beats cause me to screw up my mug into a funk face anywhere near as extreme as I do for some of these tracks, I know I've done right.

That was in the golden age of hip hop, when the most popular groups were also the most intelligent, skilled and unique. I miss those days. But it's nice to see that by that description, this must be the golden age of family music!

Photo credit: Mike Belleme

Interview: Ulises Bella (Ozomatli)

For more than 15 years, the Los Angeles-based band Ozomatli have been mixing musical styles from around the globe (LA is the globe writ small), moving people's feet while sometimes addressing some pretty serious topics.  Now, with their latest album OzoKidz, out this week on iTunes and out everywhere else late September, they're bringing their mashup of styles to some younger fans.  I talked last week with saxophonist and keyboardist Ulises ("Uli") Bella (sitting, center, with the uke) about OzoKidz's origins, the difference in structuring their live gigs, and the old Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard.  (And, for a limited time -- i.e., Monday -- pick up a free download of the song "Trees" from the new album at the widget at the bottom of the page.)

Zooglobble: What are your first musical memories?

Ulises Bella: I think... my dad was a classical violinist -- he didn't make it into the Paris Conservatory, but he loved classical music.  So Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, those artists.  But also my mom's poppy Mexican music and Spanish music, which my dad likes.  They encouraged setting up my own stereo system.

I remember my dad driving me to Tower Records to buy the new Blondie album.

The famous one with the actual tower?

Yeah, the one on Sunset.  It was quite a trek, about 40-50 minutes drive.  In fact, they had their annex with the classical music section right across the street, so I'd go into the main one and my dad would go to the annex and I'd meet him there afterwards.

You had done some kid-friendly things before this, songs for PBS and the Happy Feet Two videogame, but how did you fall into this album in particular?

There are some songs of ours that resonated with young kids.  "My kids love 'Chango,' gets so energetic in the car," fans would tell us.  We'd do outreach, and some songs just resonated with the kids.

Then Mario Calire, our drummer, just threw it out there -- "have you ever thought about a kids music album?"  Among Mexican Americans, there's this well-loved musician, Cri-Cri, who's this super-iconic Mexican children's artist.  We wanted to make that sort of album, specifically for kids, but for parents, too.

Did you have specific goals in mind when writing the songs for the album?

We did a lot of brainstorming -- should it be themed?  Like "animals" -- everybody writes a song about a different animal.  But in the end it ended up being an eclectic collection, lots of energy, always dacing.  Some of the songs are educational - "Trees," "Germs" -- and some celebratory.  We ended up being ourselves.

Did recording it have a different feel from recording an "adult" album?

Totally.  We try to focus on our audience, and tried to remember the energy of childhood.  Adults have to be intoxicated or really let their walls down.  We'd have kids in there with us with the percussion -- they brought a light energy to the room.  There were different subjects, too, more lighthearted as opposed to Ozomatli, which deals with more global issues, heavier subjects.  It really was like kids play.

What are the differences between playing live for adults and for kids?

Again, it's about presentation and the energy level.  A regular Ozomatli set is 90 minutes long and features a lot of solos.  The OzoKidz shows are a lot more concise, have a lot more energy.  We involve the kids in every song, as opposed to the adult shows.

Do you like playing 45 minutes as opposed to 90 minutes?

A little bit?  Sometimes I'm just getting warmed up and then I have to come offstage!? [Laughs.]

Are you willing to mix in kids tunes in your adult shows?

That's actually a hotly debated issue in the band.  We'll play it by ear.  We want to keep the energies separate.  But if one of those songs really penetrates on radio or with an audience, who knows?

What preconceptions about kids music music were changed? Any proven true?

One thing that surprised me was the group of artists that have done this.  Why don't more bands do it?  Might not fit their image, maybe.  We're always down for the kids, it's part of what we do.  We all had mentors growing up who said you can do it too and so we're bringing it to the next generation.  I always think it's cool.

Did anybody think it wasn't cool when word got around you were doing a kids album?

Not one negative response -- they all said, "That's awesome."

What's next for the band?

We're hooking up with producer Matt Wallace for the next straight-up Ozomatli album.  We're on the road every weekend, doing both adult and kid shows.  Touring Australia, too.  We're really excited to see how people digest the album.

Photo credits: Christian Lantry

Concert Recap: Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band (Phoenix, August 2012)

On an August weekend in Phoenix, there's generally only one requirement for any activity:

Air conditioning.

But it also helps if you can play and listen to music.

Los Angeles' Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band made the trek out from the coast to play a couple sets at the Children's Museum of Phoenix on August 20, and since I help book the series, I was definitely eager to see 'em play.

One thing CMOP has started to do is put a few of the shows in their large atrium.  What it does is let a lot more people see a show at any particular point in time (that picture there doesn't quite capture the dozens more outside of the frame), or just let the people playing in the 3-story-tall Schuff-Perini Climber (which you can see just a very small portion of at the top left) hear music while they scamper around.  It would be a bad setting for a solo artist playing an acoustic set, but for the more active rock and pop shows, the kinetic and vocal energy helps encourage the kids who are there in front to move around and dance.  I think if artists are willing to accept the less-than-distraction-free environment it can be a fun show.

I'm a big fan of Lucky, of course, and he and wife/co-band member Alisha Gaddis made a fair amount of noise considering it was just a duo.  I was particularly impressed by the kick-suitcase Diaz had fashioned to give his songs a little bit of extra "oomph."

Anyways, here's a clip of the band playing "Lemonade Stand" off their latest album A Potluck.

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - "Lemonade Stand" (Live at the Children's Museum of Phoenix) [YouTube]

Traveling to Disneyland as a Single Parent

There are many people for whom going to Disneyland is a lifelong dream, for whom mingling with 50,000 of their closest friends provides a huge thrill.

My wife is not part of that group.  She hates crowds.

So when we figured out how to swing a trip to Los Angeles and include a day at Disneyland, I knew that it would be me and the kids and nobody else.

On the one hand, this was exciting: I'd get 72+ hours of one-on-one (or one-on-two) time with my kids away from all the distractions of day-to-day life at home. One the other hand: me, two kids, and a big public place. I'm confident in my parenting and child management skills (not to mention my directional skills), but traveling solo with kids provides a whole different set of challenges.

I should also note that this wasn't my first trip to Disneyland as a single parent -- four years ago I traveled with Miss Mary Mack and spent a couple days at the park. We had fun, but I also look back at that trip and see how it could have been improved upon. In many ways, I think this makes the advice I'm about to dole out particularly useful, because I've done the relatively-uninformed traveler thing and while this trip wasn't absolutely perfect, it went better enough that I know this advice is actually worth considering. So, without any further ado:

Picking a Date

This is step #1, of course, and one that you may have the least flexibility on. For us (like many), we were constrained by the school year and while we weren't totally opposed to pulling the kids out of school for a day or two for a decent vacation-related reason, that was not in the cards for this trip.

I heartily recommend Touring Plans' Disneyland Crowd Calendar, which predicts crowd levels for every day of the year.  You can get predicted crowds for the a month out for the next month without subscribing.  Subscribing unlocks the entire crowd calendar, and is well worth the price (which is $0.99 per week, $1.99 per month, and $6.99 per year when done through its Lines app).

Even if you have a lot of flexibility in your schedule, it's not as simple as picking out the day that has the lowest crowd levels, of course.  Outside of the summer months, park hours are shorter (which may or may not affect your time in the park depending on your kids' stamina) and rides are more likely to be out of commission, either for holiday-related overlays (particularly after Labor Day as they prep for Halloween and Christmas) or major refurbishment.  So if there's a particular ride you remember going on when you were a child that you want to revisit or there's some movie or character whose ride you want to make sure your child gets to experience, you can check the Mouseplanet weekly Disneyland update for and other items of note.  But as any parent who has been in a crowded place with their kids knows, it can be a lot easier to keep track if it's not packed like a mosh pit.

Where To Stay

For those of you traveling to Disneyland and without the advantage of a local friend with a spare bed or three, you'll need to find a hotel.  Actually, even if you have a local friend with a spare bed or three, depending on your budget, you may find it worthwhile to stay in a hotel, at least for each night before your excursions into the park.  That's because there are so many advantages to staying as close as you can that investing the extra $100 (or more or less) per night could add much more value than that to the hundreds of dollars you're spending on park tickets.

I would suggest that choosing a hotel at Disneyland is like finding a house - pick the best one you can afford in the neighborhood you want. In this case, the neighborhood is called "Within (15-Minute) Walking Distance of the Front Gate." (I know, not very catchy.) I cannot stress enough the importance of being close enough to walk out of the park and being in your hotel room, collapsed on the bed, in maybe 10 minutes. Much longer, and the walk will seem too daunting at 2 pm or 8 pm. And, yes, you can take the Anaheim Resort Transit shuttles, but there is inevitably waiting time at either or both ends of the return/departure swing, not to mention the farther away you are, the less likely you are to return quickly. It's like the Disneyland gravitational field.

For what it's worth, we stayed at the Anaheim Plaza Resort, whose rooms were basic but fine, and which has a large pool (which they define as Olympic-sized).  More importantly, for the purposes of this discussion, it was about a 10-minute walk from our room to the Mickey "compass" smack dab in the middle of the entry plaza.  Most of those close hotels are on Harbor Boulevard, the north-south street that is the resort's eastern boundary.  Some of the hotels on Harbor are actually closer to the Mickey "compass" than the 3 Disney hotels (Disneyland Hotel, the swanky Grand Californian Hotel, and Paradise Pier Hotel) for a fraction of the cost.  What you miss by staying in a non-Disney hotel, besides the immersive Disney theming, is the right to go into the park an hour earlier than everyone else.  The Extra Magic Hours, however, only apply (at this point) to the summer.  It's unclear whether those Hours will continue.  Whether it's worth the $200 or more per night that will cost you, only you can decide.

But the being close to the resort, that's non-negotiable.  And I know that there are plenty of hotels that are connected to the resort via a shuttle, either their own or the Anaheim Resort Transit shuttle.  All I'm saying is that we stayed at one of those hotels way south on Harbor (easily 1 1/2 miles from the resort) 4 years ago, and waiting for the shuttle to arrive, negotiate Harbor Boulevard traffic, and deposit us about a 3-minute walk from the "compass," took us a lot more time and wasn't that much cheaper (especially when you thrown in the cost of the shuttle) than the Anaheim Plaza Resort.  And it took a lot more effort to get ourselves back to the park after a mid-afternoon break.

Your Day(s) at the Park(s)

Here's where I go all drill-sargeant on you and give you the number one piece of advice for your trip to Disneyland:

Set the alarm.

I know, you're on vacation, your kids are on vacation, you want to enjoy the time together, the last thing you want to do sometimes is set an alarm for a time that might even be earlier than a school morning.

Do it anyway.

I'm telling you, you can get so much done before 11 AM that the rest of the day is almost like a bonus because a lot of people aren't setting that alarm.  Again, one of the advantages of staying close by is that you can set that alarm 15-30 minutes later.  We were probably up and moving by 6:30 AM.  After getting ready and having breakfast, we left about 7:35 AM and were at the Disneyland front gates before 7:50 AM to find... they were open.  That's right, they'll often open up early (remember, there are already some early guests in the park) so that you're almost at Sleeping Beauty's castle at the center of the park.  This means you can spend some time strolling down the Main Street USA section of the park admiring the theming; it also makes getting to the rides that much easier.

I am telling you, if you do one thing, it's get to the park before it opens.  I assure you, I've done the not-early thing, and it makes a huge difference.  Look at those pictures of Main Street and the Castle above -- those were taken at 7:50 AM and about 10:15 AM, respectively.  On a busy summer Friday.  Get there early enough, and the park is yours.

Here's where I take a detour and tell you that Touring Plans also offers free touring plans available to everyone, paid subscriber or not.  It's well worth your time to plug in the rides and attractions your family is considering to be must-dos and have the computer spit out a suggested itinerary.  For the most part, what it'll probably do is tell you to get "Fastpasses" for popular rides as soon as you are able (those are basically reservations to do the ride at a later time) and to ride the slow-loading rides quickly.  [Also note: the plan assumes that you can bring back your Fastpass at any point once the reservation window opens, including 12 hours after that point, and well after the reservation window closes.  There's always the possibility that that flexibility will go away (it's my understand that Walt Disney World, for example, enforces Fastpass windows more strictly), but for now, it's nice to be able to go back at 4 PM or 6 PM for a Fastpass picked up at 10 AM.]

We didn't follow the Touring Plan I created to the letter -- especially if you and/or your kids are new to the park, you and they will be distracted by certain attractions and telling your kids, "no, we can't ride Astro Blasters now, the Plan says to ride it at 8:15 PM!" is inflexible to the extreme.  But because we were there so early, we rode more than half of the Fantasyland rides and navigated the temporary shutdown of Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with nary a problem.  While there were rides that I (or Miss Mary Mack or Little Boy Blue) would have wanted to ride (or ride again), we probably went on more rides in one day than in my comparatively uninformed two-day trip with Miss Mary Mack years ago.

By about noon or so, the park really does start getting crowded, and it is harder to find top-level rides and attractions without significant lines.  That's the point at which finding meals and other ways to help give your overstimulated and underhydrated kids a break is important.  We had our fancy meal at Cafe Orleans for lunch (those are the Pommes Frites above), but Disneyland's meal prices, while expensive, aren't dizzyingly so.  They're reasonable for a captive market.  And while you're not supposed to bring in food, the bag searches at the entry to the parks will permit things like waters and snacks, so it is possible to keep your kids hydrated and nourished (sort of) without having to spend money on every last snack.  Which isn't to say you might not want a Dole Whip (soft serve ice cream blended with pineapple juice - delish!), just that you can use those opportunities as diversions and treats rather than essential nourishment.

You can, if you wish, leave the park, and on a hot, summer day -- or even other days -- this is a pretty good idea.  We retreated to the hotel for a dip in the pool and Olympics on the TV.  (We don't have cable at home, so I remember one of Miss Mary Mack's treats on our last trip being able to watch the Disney Channel in the hotel).  Hopefully they're relaxing, taking in some fluids, resting their feet, and just generally "resetting" from a long day (which at that point already included about 6 1/2 hours in the park).  Preschool-aged kids and toddlers may even take a nap -- so much the better.  Obviously, if the park is only open from 10 AM 'til 6 PM, then you might not want to take a break in the middle if your kids' sleep patterns can avoid it.  But if you're there in the summer months, I recommend the mid-afternoon break highly.

Saving Money in (and out of) the Parks

Disneyland is not cheap.  Kids ages 10 and up pay "full fare," and those between the ages of 3 and 9 aren't much cheaper.  Our one-day tickets limiting us to the use of just one park (we chose Disneyland rather than California Adventure, which is being overrun this summer by folks wanting to experience the just-opened Cars Land) cost $249 for the 3 of us.  Multi-day tickets and "park hoppers" (which permit switching between parks during the day) would obviously drive that price up considerably.

That's one reason why I recommend staying in a close hotel -- we spent probably a total of more than 11 hours in the park, and that's something we could only have done if we had stayed in a hotel that close the night before and the night after.  We invested in the hotel (a bit) so as to maximize the value of those tickets.

Beyond the tickets and lodging, your other major cost component is food.  Most hotels along Harbor Boulevard have refrigerators and if you're driving in, you should definitely pack breakfasts and other foods in a cooler and use the fridge.  Some hotels have free continental breakfast and some don't (ours didn't), but my sense is that even those who do have a fairly minimal breakfast, low on the protein, and so it's probably worth your time bringing some.  (If you're flying in, I have read that Vons offers free delivery, one-time, if you sign up with them.)

As for saving money on food in the park, good luck with that.  Like I said, I didn't think the food prices were terribly outrageous, but they're not cheap.  At "counter-service" restaurants, you are more likely to be able to mix and match meals and may find that a single adult meal may be sufficient to feed you and a kid.

As always, bringing waters and snacks will help reduce the mid-morning, mid-afternoon, late night munchies.  Not totally eliminate them, of course, and part of the fun of an immersive environment like that of Disneyland is to try the food.

One way I tried to extend the Disneyland Resort experience without spending money on tickets was to experience more of the resort.  So after we got settled into our room on Thursday afternoon, we wandered around Downtown Disney (the shopping/dining/entertainment district just west of the parks) and the Disneyland Hotel.  We ate at Tangaroa Terrace (a "counter service" restaurant overlooking the Hotel's large pool area), then soaked in the atmosphere at Downtown Disney.  ("Soaking in atmosphere" means enjoying the crowds, something my wife definitely would not do.)  I am very much against window-shopping as entertainment, but the LEGO store has some amazing Disney-themed structures and lots of LEGOs for freeplay, and wandering through the World of Disney store is a good way to let off some of that "gimme gimme" steam your kids are likely to have.  (I didn't want to spend our time in the park itself being in shops.)

On that note, I'm sure you all have your own rules for spending money our trips, but for what it's worth I let each kid spend no more than $15 of their own money, and they were perfectly happy with that.  Letting them know that the trip itself was their gift drew no whining on their part.

Another way to extend the experience is through a character meal.  There are character meals in the parks themselves, but you can also have character meals in which a variety of Disney characters stop by, interact, and pose for pictures.  The meals are, again, on the expensive side (especially for what tends to be a buffet), but if your kids are particularly into a character, the opportunity to have a relaxed (and air-conditioned) interaction may be worth the cost compared to waiting in line 30 minutes in the park.  We had a Sunday morning buffet at the Storytellers Cafe at the Grand Californian Hotel.  The buffet was pretty good, Little Boy Blue (and Miss Mary Mack, a little) enjoyed the characters, and it gave us an excuse to go through the hotel, which is a themed wonder.  Again, you don't need to have a meal here to wander through, but it was a nice way to extend the Disneyland experience before heading home.

Other Tips (and Things I Would Do Differently)

Bring water.  It seems like you shouldn't have to remind people, but I'm doing so just in case.  I brought water (those foldable plastic bottles that are now all the rage), but wish I could have brought more.

Bring a small backpack.  What I really wanted to bring was a fannypack, but I couldn't find mine -- maybe I'd tossed it out.  I didn't want to haul around a backpack, which meant my pockets were stuffed full of stuff.  Next time, I'll find a fannypack (or a small backpack) so I could store more stuff, like my sunglasses.

On that point: When they say you can lose your sunglasses on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, they're not kidding.

Assess your kids' maturity level before you go.  Miss Mary Mack is mature for her age; Little Boy Blue not so much for his age.  Just because he was tall enough to ride Indiana Jones doesn't mean (in retrospect) he should have.  That sort of assessment is especially hard to engage in if you yourself have never ridden the ride (which I hadn't), though I suspected it would be somewhat dicey.  In some respects, I spent a good part of the day bouncing between ride types -- a slow ride that would be Little Boy Blue's speed and a fast ride for his older sister -- and telling each of them that they would get to do something they wanted to do next.  If your child is mature enough (and certainly in double-digit ages), you may choose to let them ride via a single-rider line, which some popular rides have and which may let the person ride with less than a 5-minute wait.  That's a good way to let the older child have some freedom ("yay! I get to ride by myself and without my younger brother") without too much of a wait as you park yourself outside the ride exit.

Finally, remember to have fun.  That goes for you, the parent, too. As parents, we can get so wrapped up in trying to make sure our kids have a memorable experience that we forget to have a memorable experience (and ruin theirs, too).  Have a plan, permit yourself to deviate from it, watch your kids laugh, snap a few pictures, and laugh yourself.  I'd like to think that I did fairly well in that regard.  And considering the kids want to go back, I guess I did.