Agreed! I have 3 boys from 12 to 2. There are big separations in age. Its very helpful but also difficult at times. We allow our oldest to do Boy Scouts and 1 sport. Our middle son does Cub Scouts and isnt interested in sports yet. Our youngest is 2 so hes happy playing with his toys and brothers. I am going to keep this strict 1 sport and 1 club rule for each of them. Luckily, by the time my youngest starts joining things my oldest will be able to be dropped/picked up/carpool with friends. I see our friends going crazy with 1 child who they put into every sport and club around. Those kids dont seem to benefit either. I think thats why alot of kids today have problems concentrating. As hard as it is for the parents, imagine being the kid who is the one participating in all these activities. He must be exhausted, and always thinking about where he will be going and what he will be doing next!
Short vacations seem to be much better than long ones, although we do one weeklong vacation/year. Kids only remember the highlights of vacations anyway. Swimming at the beach will be overshadowed by an amusement park if they are in the same vacation.
I think having an emergency fund goes without saying.
Its important to try not to keep up with the joneses because you never will, unless you are super rich and have unlimited time at home. Its hard to see the joneses with all their new cars and material things when you cant afford them. We try to put value into things that are different. We tell our kids, that its nice that the joneses have those things and those things make the joneses happy, but we would rather have these things and these things make us happy. Everyone lives their lives in ways that make them happy. Its like they say, happiness is being grateful for what you already have instead of always wanting more (or what somebody else has-just because somebody else has it).
We have also simplified our lives and gotten rid of so many possessions. Its made our lives so much easier and we didnt even notice the stuff that we got rid of. We kept alot of toys in our basement because our kids are so far apart in age that they will reuse the toys, but other than that, we have very little clutter and it makes us so much happier. We even look to declutter more all the time. Its a constant process of making you feel like you are getting rid of chaos. For birthdays and Christmas, we ask our family to get our kids either experiences (like bowling) or things that are used and then gotten rid of (like a dinosaur dig kit). We also ask our family that "cant help themselves from buying them lots of toys because they love to see their faces" to buy inexpensive/cheap toys so the toys break by the time the kids get bored with them and we dont have to feel bad about getting rid of the toys (and it saves our family lots of money). The kids faces are just as happy seeing a bunch of expensive toys in wrapping paper as they are seeing a bunch of cheap toys in wrapping paper.

Rush, the fight scene was the best part of the movie. I was also surprised to see so many people die, until it turned out to be a vision. Ive never read the books but I heard that fight doesnt even happen in the books. The unrealistic part is that everyone walks away from the fight like things are going to be perfect forever now. The Volturi just saw that this group of vampires/werewolves is dangerous and could potentially kill the Vulturi in a fight. Dont these people/vampires/werewolves think that the Volturi will come back to kill them coven/pack by coven/pack? The Vulturi are worried about a child (who is half human) will be a threat to them, and they think the Vulturi wont see this group as a threat? I originally thought the ending of the movie was a way for them to make a sequel but when that never happened, I realized it was just a really bad ending. I heard this story came to the author in a dream. I guess she woke up before it ended.

I would love to see the whole cast come back for the next book though

First, Edward is old school so yes he believes that sex before marriage is bad. Maybe you feel it shames people, but thats his beliefs and he is entitled to them. Second, its a book. Its not real. All that other stuff isnt realistic but, neither are vampires or werewolves. All the stuff listed here is just stuff that you have to accept if you want to enjoy the story... Until, That Whole Imprinting Thing. Not only is it weird, its disgusting and a huge plot hole. Its demented to assume that Jacob would go from being an older brother figure to a boyfriend. Sometimes it happens in real life, but Im pretty sure they are not planning it from the beginning. The guy isnt like, "Im going to be a big brother to you now but one day were going to be romantically involved". Its one thing for Alice to see it in a vision, but Jacob shouldnt be as accepting and okay with it as he is. The line where he asks Edward if he should start calling him dad?? Renesme is like 6 years old. Its disgusting that he would even be thinking about being romantically involved with her. Not to mention, if werewolves automatically imprint on people, wouldn't Jacob know right away that he wasnt meant for Bella? Why would he pursue something so hard if he knew it wasnt meant to be?