Our OWN Year of a Million Dreams : )

[timandlesley]

Year Of A Million Wishes
Hi everyone...this is Tim. :wave2: Since we are still ALOTTA days away from being able to take part in the Year of A Million Wishes, I decided to spice things up here at home..... pixiedust: So everyone, put your hands together as I present Tim's "Week of 7 Wishes"!!! Woo Hoo!!!! Starting Monday 2/5 I will start granting wishes :wizard: at my house to my Wife Lesley and my kids Luke and Lauren. I will grant 1 wish a day to any of the 3 of them and then I will report back to you the wish granted. Do I have your attention???? Good, this is where you come in....if you want. :cheer2: Starting Monday, you can submit a wish that you would like to see be given to any of the 3 family members. If your wish is selected, you will join the "Online Dream Team" blue shorts and all. I am really excited to do this and I think it will be tons of fun. I hope to hear from you all very soon!

Tim

[lennon2004]

This sounds fun and creative! :)

[shmoogrrrl]

I'll have to do some creative thinking for wish ideas!

[krismom]

You are too fun! I wish my DH would come up with something like this... hmmm- there's a wish right there!
pixiedust:

[Tinker_]

Tim...can you call my DH and clue him in?? haha!

For Lesley..... (from a mom's POV) a day to sleep in, take a uninteruppted bubble bath, not worry about cleaning or dinner, and a chance to go shopping...ALONE!

[ggeorgiagirl]

For LUKE:

A day at the park with daddy only...toss the ball, swing on the swings


For Lauren:

A date with dad...maybe the movies and dinner...just the two of you!


Let us know how it goes!!!!

[Idroveallnight]

I always do a Mickey pancake breakfast for my kids before a trip! They think it's alot of fun!

What about Disney movie night? Rent any Disney movies they may not have seen, popcorn and everything as a family?

[timandlesley]

Tim...can you call my DH and clue him in?? haha!

For Lesley..... (from a mom's POV) a day to sleep in, take a uninteruppted bubble bath, not worry about cleaning or dinner, and a chance to go shopping...ALONE!

I'll be taking phone numbers and making those "magic" phone calls next...lol!! I'm sorry I think you're on your own. :confused3

Tim

[timandlesley]

For LUKE:

A day at the park with daddy only...toss the ball, swing on the swings


For Lauren:

A date with dad...maybe the movies and dinner...just the two of you!


Let us know how it goes!!!!


Great ideas.....you may have just made your way to the Dream Team!!! :goodvibes

[ggeorgiagirl]

YEA! YEA! YEA!

I really want to be on the DREAM TEAM!

You sound like an AWESOME Daddy-O!

[njdisneyfreak]

What a terrific idea! My DH is doing something similar for me, once a month, until we go on our trip.

The idea of being on a virtual dream team is so cool. :banana: So, here are some ideas:
(1) For Lesley
- Plan a romantic evening or weekend. If you can, find a place to go to. But, since this is probably not possible if you are saving money like the rest of us for your WDW trip, make it an evening at home. Have someone take the kids for the evening. Send her out to get pampered (like massage, nails). When she returns, have the place set up for a romantic evening with maybe a nice dinner, romantic DVD movie, etc.

(2) For Luke
- How about buying him a plush version of one of his favorite Disney characters? The ones from Cars are cute, and there's always the traditional fab five, the Toy Story characters, etc. -OR- take him to a local Disney store and let him pick out a gift of his own, only don't tell him it's happening until you arrive at the store.

(3) For Lauren
- I think she might like the idea of being a princess for the day. Maybe get her a costume to dress up in of one of the princesses. Let the day be all about her. She can choose a place for the family to eat or a meal to be made at home that she especially likes. Maybe she can pick out an item she's been wanting from the Disney store or a toy store. You get the idea? She calls some of the shots on her "princess day".

That's all I can think of for now. But, I'll keep on thinking of others. This is fun. :goodvibes

[wuv tigger]

Each one of them could do ALL that they wanted for the day.

Chose what was for breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Get out of any & ALL chores for Mom.

Let Mom get a 1/2 day at the Spa. Get her hair & nails done.

Get a housekeeper for a day for her.

You go to a place called Meal Makers, Dinner Done or Let's Dish and make a dozen or so meals to be put in the freezer for the coming weeks.

You pick up & drop off the kids @ day care/ pre-school or @ school.

You volunteer to be her Limo driver the day. Complete with drinks, snacks and quiet for her while she gets those much needed errands completed in quiet.

That's all I can think of for now.

hope those help.

J

[Kellyscrapbooks]

Ok... here are my ideas!

For your wife, there is nothing in this world I want more than for my husband to plan an evening out for us. It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive at all... but I don't want to be the one that has to organize it. (make sense?) I don't want to have to call and find a sitter, look up the movie times, pack for the kids if they are sleeping over at Gramma's, call for reservations. I just want him to do it.
If that doesn't work, I'd melt at a love letter.

It appears that your Lauren is tiny... so how bout a Daddy & daughter playdate? Or better yet, start a new tradition with her, a special storytime or movietime?

I couldn't get an indication of how old your son is... but my suggestion is just about the same for him. Make a new tradition, something you do with him that is special. :) I'm all for creating memories with your kids when you can!

No matter what, if you have fun with it, I bet they will! Good luck! What a great idea. :)

[mrsmom]

For Lesley- A dinner at Brio's at newport on the level and do priceline for a downtown hotel for the night and just have a romantic night with flowers and chocolate and just spending time together.
Luke- a afternoon at dave and busters and lunch with daddy
Lauren- afternoon at the newport aquarium and lunch with daddy

Kim

[dizneedrmr]

Great Idea!

For Luke and Lauren, you could do a no "No" day. You and mom can't say "no" to them that day (within limits of course)! A little boy I watch got one of these days recently and he absolutely loved it! He was cute because all he wanted was to go to the bookstore!

For mom, have a "pamper mom" day where you and the kids can get together and give her a princess day at home! You guys do all the things that mom does that day and give her massages and do her nails and hair and cook a nice dinner for her. My mom would absolutely love her own princess day!

[timandlesley]

So. . .today the Sawhook dreams began. I put on my blue dream team uniform first thing this morning and I chose Lauren as the lucky one and told her when she woke up she could go to Walmart with mommy and pick out anything that she would like (of course within reason). Here is her reaction hen she woke up:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/S5000094.jpg

She was soooooo excited. We went b-day shopping for a friend of hers a few weeks ago and we got the girl a barbie magic notebook and a makeup case. Well, Lauren was so jealous of that Barbie notebook that the first thing that popped into her head when I told her what her wish was, she wanted that notebook.
Lesley, Luke and Lauren headed off to Walmart (I stayed back and fixed dinner) and Lauren picked out her prize posession:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/S5000098.jpg

So, one wish down 6 more to go, stay tuned and keep those suggestions rolling in. Until tomorrow.

Tim

[Bee]

Ok, so I had already read your trip and pre-trip report.

Unfortuately< the only person I have a suggestion for is Lauren.

I have 2 princesses.

They always want to be grown up. So my suggestion is taking Lauren to a "Salon" (could be a Wal-mart or even a beauty school, to save money)
Where they will wash and style her hair, (kind of like a cheaper version of bippidi boppity boutique)

Maybe they will even give her nail polish and a mini pedicure. No matter how old girls are they still like to be pampered. Or you could do both of your princesses and mom could join in the fun. Then maybe you could take pictures like they are models or something fun like that, (I think black and white photos look really cool)

Ok so thay is my 2 cents worth!!

[timandlesley]

Ok, so I had already read your trip and pre-trip report.

Unfortuately< the only person I have a suggestion for is Lauren.

I have 2 princesses.

They always want to be grown up. So my suggestion is taking Lauren to a "Salon" (could be a Wal-mart or even a beauty school, to save money)
Where they will wash and style her hair, (kind of like a cheaper version of bippidi boppity boutique)

Maybe they will even give her nail polish and a mini pedicure. No matter how old girls are they still like to be pampered. Or you could do both of your princesses and mom could join in the fun. Then maybe you could take pictures like they are models or something fun like that, (I think black and white photos look really cool)

Ok so thay is my 2 cents worth!!


That was worth more than 2 cents....thanks sooo much!!
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_1_75.gif
I will see if I can put those to use....you are a great resource.

Thanks !!
Tim

[timandlesley]

Ok today it was Lesley's turn to receive a wish...but what could I do for her. So I phoned her at work to see how her day was going and I found out it was train wreck so I decided I was going to give her a night off and some pampering. I took the kids to the store to get her flowers, wine, and plenty of snacks. I also picked up some roses to spread on the bed (my wish or hers ?? :rotfl: ) It snowed a ton here in Cincinnati today so Lesley had a 2 hour commute home that usually takes 10 minutes, needless to say she wasn't happy when she arrived home and she really was happy to see the wine ;) . The kids were excited to show her the tulips (her favorite) that I had bought for her. I told her to go upstairs and get changed into pajamas and when she walked upstairs she saw the roses on the bed and was very very happy :love: . (why did she suddenly mention she had a headache :confused3 ).
I also had purchased some of her favorite snacks for the evening, and I had prepared dinner for her and the kids so she didn't have to lift a finger. After a glass of wine with dinner she was in a MUCH better mood.
Anyway, she was quite thrilled with her wishes. Here are some pic's of the surprises:

Lesley with her flowers:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/S5000099.jpg

Lesley excited by the bedroom roses and wine:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/S5000100.jpg

Thanks so much for all of the suggestions, I appreciate the ideas and will award honorary dream team members tomorrow.
Gotta run, hoping the roses and wine will pay off tonight
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_3_7.gif
Tim

[ggeorgiagirl]

Make Lesley a CD of really good music for her ride to/from work! Tape it to her steering wheel in the morning!

[lennon2004]

I have no suggestions, but I love this thread, and because of it I read your trip report earlier today and enjoyed it as well. :D

[MOREMICKEY4ME]

OH, OH, OH, PICK ME - PICK ME- I HAVE SUGGESTIONS!!!


I'm a mom too, and I am always saying how I would love to spend time with my old friends. I say call a few of her old (or new) friends and arrange a lunch or dinner date for them all to get together. If that's not possible, bring a bunch of sandwiches or goodies to the office for her to share with her co-workers. (This will earn MAJOR brownie points for you!!!) Every girl wants to be the one in the office who has "such a great husband".

As for the kids, mine just love "stay at home" days. Get some new board games, make some rice krispie treats, and have a great day.

[mrsmom]

I have another one, how about havinga surprise lunch delivered to her work with a romantic note .
Kim

[ggeorgiagirl]

:cheer2: MOREMICKEY wins...dang it! :cheer2:
I wanted to win!

[Korwynne]

for your wife.. surprize takeout, candles in the bathroom, some new bath goodies (bath salts or bubblebath?) and a glass of wine? Maybe some new jammies or fleece socks or something cozy as well?

for your son.. not sure how old he is.. my little boy is 4 and his favorite thing is alone time with Daddy. He likes doing to the dinosaur museum, the aquarium, the park to feed the ducks and play on the swings.. all the better if he and Daddy get lunch while they're out. He'd also be thrilled to go get a build a birdhouse kit, make it with Daddy, paint it, find a perfect spot for it in the yard and fill it with birdseed. It could be a special thing to refill it once a week together or something like that.

for your daughter.. don't know how old she is, but mine is 5. She *loves* anything that feels like she's grown up. She loves having a bubble bath with candles, and then her toenails painted.. or dressing up and going to dinner with her Daddy.. or going to breakfast/brunch/lunch with him and then a matinee. She'd also love to plan a meal, go shopping and then prepare it with her father, but he doesn't cook. :lmao: She also loves going to starbucks and getting a chocolate soy milk and a cookie and having "grown up time"

Take your wife and daughter to glamour shots, let them get fancied up and get mother/daughter pictures :)

[FINFAN]

My suggestion is for the whole family...go get some Disney dollars and hide them really, REALLY good. After you have them hidden, tell everyone that you are going to make a "treasure box" like from POTC or whatever....go to Hobby Lobby, or use a shoe box, anything that can close and can be decorated in any Disney style they wish.
Then go on the treasure hunt, maybe have somme inexpensive little surprises also hidden, like Mickey pencils, or a bunch of the paint sample mickey heads form Home Depot, Disney coloring book, ( think dollar store or Target) then as the treasures are found, total them up and put them in the treasure box...to be used on your upcoming trip!\I have done this before and it is a blast, and I have also taped a quarter and 2 nikles to make a hidded Mickey on a post it or whatever and hidden those...kids keep track of the amount they have found and get that back once we are in WDW.
It helps towards the trip, and even for Dad too!


Pam

[tadamom]

What an AWESOME man you are!!!! I know you hear tons of women that would do something like this but you are truly as AWESOME MAN, DAD, AND HUBBY for doing something like this for your family!!!

You could do this with both kids together, a family thing or individually...how about a treasure/scavenger hunt. Make a list of attractions/places around your town and have them find them. Take pictures of everything so that you will always have pictures of the fun they have. And then let the final destination have a surprise waiting for them. Prizes could be Disney related: wife - a day at the spa in Disney World, Luke/Lauren - favorite w/daddy only!!

Again - awesome idea you have come up with. I may just have to steal this idea too!!

[timandlesley]

What an AWESOME man you are!!!! I know you hear tons of women that would do something like this but you are truly as AWESOME MAN, DAD, AND HUBBY for doing something like this for your family!!!

You could do this with both kids together, a family thing or individually...how about a treasure/scavenger hunt. Make a list of attractions/places around your town and have them find them. Take pictures of everything so that you will always have pictures of the fun they have. And then let the final destination have a surprise waiting for them. Prizes could be Disney related: wife - a day at the spa in Disney World, Luke/Lauren - favorite w/daddy only!!

Again - awesome idea you have come up with. I may just have to steal this idea too!!

Thanks so much for the compiments......I'm starting to get embarassed. http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10/10_12_6.gif (*******************************************ZSzeb0 01_ZRxdm103KEUS) You have some awesome ideas....I will see if I can try them out. Oh...by the way..... Welcome to the... Dream Team 2007http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cus/e_1_43.gif (*******************************************ZSzeb0 01_ZRxdm103KEUS) yea!!!!

Thanks!
Tim





http://www.smileycentral.com/sig.jsp?pc=ZSzeb112&pp=ZRxdm103KEUS (http://smiley.smileycentral.com/download/index.jhtml?partner=ZSzeb112_ZRxdm103KEUS&utm_id=7920)

[tadamom]

WooHoo!!!! I have been inspired by this thread to do something like this with my family before our trip!! We are leaving in 86 days and I have subscribed to this thread hoping to get some ideas -- hope you don't mind!!

On our trip, there will be 10 of us going (me, DH, DS, DD, MIL, FIL, SIL, BIL, Dniece and SIL). The in-laws are paying for our admission tickets and SIL & BIL put a huge chunk down on the room so I want to do something special for all of them to show our thanks!!

[Deesknee]

Personally as a mom & wife. I would love for dh to dedicate a romantic song for me on the radio and we have our own private dance. Wine and flowers would be nice too. (but I see you already did that)

for the kids. All of mine would love icecream sundaes for breakfast! Their ages are 16 and 3.

I must say, I agree with the others you are a very thoughtful husband/dad.

[timandlesley]

Hi folks....I'm finally back and I am full of updates. It has been a unbelievably busy week and when the evenings have arrived there has been no time to post....just work!!! Crazy family...but I love them!! http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/15/15_1_68v.gif

I will be back in just a few with details and pics!!

Tim

[timandlesley]

Luke's 6th b-day was on Wednesday so he was the obvious pick for the Wish Person. We let Luke pick the meals for the whole day, of course he got his b-day present from us (HUGE remote control car, he had fun playing with.) It turned out to be a special day because he got a snow day from school with our first big snow day of the year so Lesley (being a teacher) was off too, so they had fun playing in the snow together too (while I shoveled ;) ).
Luke chose Red Robin for his b-day dinner. He was SO excited when we sat down that he wanted us to tell the waiter it was his b-day right away, he was grinning from ear to ear. He was SO excited when they came to the table singing happy b-day, gave him balloons and a sundae (sorry, I forgot the camera but had the camera phone handy, so these are the pics we got from the dinner):
Here he is listening intently as they sang (I promise he was EXCITED but this for some reason makes him look confused:rotfl: )
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/LukeatREdRobin2.jpg

Luke devouring his sundae:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/LukeatRedRobinIceCream.jpg

Luke had a GREAT b-day WISH day. More to come. . .
Tim

[timandlesley]

Lauren was up on Thursday, We called it "Pamper the Princess Day". She got a bubble bath by mommy when she came home from work (no pics here:goodvibes , don't want to be arrested :lmao: ). Then she got out, we put a new robe on her and she had her lounging time:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/February2007001.jpg
Then Lesley got the makeup case out and they did manicures and pedicures, LAUREN WAS IN HEAVEN:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/February2007002.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/February2007003.jpg
Lauren had a GREAT day of pampering. She was the boss for the day, told us where to sit at dinner (she chose the head of the table, which you need to understand that getting the head of the table at our house is like being the head of the mafia :rotfl: , enjoyed showing off her nails and putting lip gloss on from the case. Our own personal Bippety Boppity Botique http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/15/15_3_34.gif FUN FUN FUN!!
O.K., more typing to do.
Tim

[timandlesley]

O.K., Luke was up AGAIN and we took the Dream Teams suggestion for Dave and Busters (a local restaraunt/HUGE arcade that Luke loves and rarely gets to go to). He had a blast (o.k. we all did, daddy loves arcades too). We played the HUGE claw game and he won a Power Ranger kickball which started the night off right. He begged to play the giant Wheel of fortune game and came up a HUGE winner, scoring 1000 tickets on the first try. Here is a camera phone pic of the tickets coming out of the machine
(which lasted about 10 minutes :rotfl: )
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/Ticketscomingout.jpg

Here is a VERY blurry camera phone shot of Luke jumping up and down and dancing as he won:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/LukeatDBJumping.jpg
Here is one more pic of Luke posing in front of a game:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j133/timandlesley/LukeatDaveBusters.jpg

WE totalled 1400 tickets which the kids split and picked prizes. Luke got an electronic safe with a code that he thinks is awesome and he locks his "valuables" in it nightly. Lauren got a Hello kitty doll.
Fun had by all, Luke LOVED his WISH day.

Tim

[timandlesley]

Lesley and I decided Sunday would be my wish day. I asked her "I wonder how long I could sleep if no one ever woke me". Well I found out Saturday because Lesley had taken the kids out to run errands and didn't wake me up. I found out 10:30 is my wake up time on my own :goodvibes - WISH GRANTED!!!!
The real wish was for both of us this night. I had arranged for my mom to take the kids for the night. Lesley and I went to a movie and out to a late dinnerhttp://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_8_16.gif at our favorite Itlaian restaraunt Bravo, drinkshttp://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/7/7_4_33.gif (O.K. maybe too many drinks) and FUNhttp://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/1/1_4_76.gif
We enjoyed a nice evening without the kids and my mom brought the kids to church this morning, nice quiet car ride to church just the two of us.
So the WISH WEEK is over, it was FUN had by all, thanks for all of your suggestions, I hope this inspires others to do the same, if you do, please post here, we'd love to hear about it.
Until (hopefully) our own wishes are granted at Disney in June. . . .
Tim

[tadamom]

That was all soooo awesome!!! The kids were just adorable!!!!

I'm off to read your pre-trip report now - can't wait b/c I read your last trip report right after you got back and it was one of the best I've read!!!

Hope y'all have a great trip in June!!

[tadamom]

OMG - I started reading your pre-trip report and my side is hurting soooo bad after reading/singing your song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was the most hilarious thing that I have read in a long time! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great job!!!