Fairy GodMAW Grants Princess Bella's WISH! Update 12/2 - One more sleep til Disney!

[StefaniLyn]

I agree, it would definatly be great to meet another Disfamily exspecially one that understands some of the things my son is going through.

Tell Bella, that while at WDW she gets to meet the princesses, At the Ren Faire she gets to meet a Queen. And I personally know her. Not to mention all the other lady's in big dresses, one of which would be me. Hope this works out. Opening day is July 11th and it is open on weekends until and on Memorial Day. Like I said I will be there on Sundays except for July 26th. PM me and we'll figure things out.

We're in Indiana right now visiting my in-laws but I will check my schedule when we get home. The girls would love meeting a queen! Do most Faire visitors dress up?

excellant! I havent been to Ren Fair in ages - I'm thinking maybe dd might like a trip - I'll be sure to sport a Lime Green Mickey head!! Thanks for the info!

I need to get me a Lime Green Mickey Head too!

I just found this TR! I used to be a CM at WDW and an Angel (volunteer) with GKTW. I'm now with MAW Kansas City. If I can answer any questions- let me know!

I'm really glad that you all got the dates you wanted. Hopefully you will have a truly magical wish trip!

Thanks so much for your offer - I'm sure I will have pleanty of questions as we go through the planning process! I am so excited about our dates as well but waiting is going to be soooooo hard!

 

[MomTo4+more]

Hello! We are in Chicago, so not terribly far from you. My son's MaW journey has just begun, but there is a good chance we may end up in Disney around the same time. We are looking at dates in November and early December. It will be a couple weeks before anything is decided. My children will be 6, 8, and 11 by the time we go. It would be fun to meet another family from the midwest.

Out of curiosity, are you a writer by profession or by hobby? I ask because your PTR is so enjoyable and easy to read. You have a gift!

 

[HeatherSue]

I've been waiting to find out your dates!! How exciting that you'll be there for Christmas!!

 

[StefaniLyn]

I'm hooked!!


Love the pictures!! Such darling Princesses! Wow mom - I'm in awe! PTO, School Board, and mom to 3 girls!!

(and also near the IL northern border!! Neighbors!!)

Hello Neighbor! I just passed through IL on my way home from Indiana this morning - thankfully Chicago wasn't a parking lot! Sorry I accidentally missed your post at the bottom of the first page earlier - thanks for joining me on my pre-trip report! Right now my girls are my "career" until they get a little older. I've made it a point to become as involved as I possibly can be (hence the PTO, board of education, etc) until they are a little older and I get a real "job"

Hello! We are in Chicago, so not terribly far from you. My son's MaW journey has just begun, but there is a good chance we may end up in Disney around the same time. We are looking at dates in November and early December. It will be a couple weeks before anything is decided. My children will be 6, 8, and 11 by the time we go. It would be fun to meet another family from the midwest.

Out of curiosity, are you a writer by profession or by hobby? I ask because your PTR is so enjoyable and easy to read. You have a gift!

It would be wonderful to meet another Wish Family while in Disney if we go at the same time! My girls will be 5, 8, and 10 - almost the same age as your kids! The way I see it, early December will be perfect because we get to see MVMCP, Osbourne Family Lights show, and the weather will be great for the kids. Is November or December your first choice? Let me know when you get your dates!

Thanks for your compliments on my writing. I do not do any professional writing or consider it a real hobby for me. However, I have found writing about my journey through parenthood with a special needs child to be somewhat theraputic. In fact, during some of our most difficult and stressful moments I would journal on Bella's Caringbridge website www.caringbridge.org/visit/isabellagriggs and the responses I recieved via emails, guestbook entries, and prayers have been incredibly uplifting. Writing for me has been a way to connect with other special needs families and communicate with other family and friends. I just write from my heart most of the time.

I've been waiting to find out your dates!! How exciting that you'll be there for Christmas!!

Thanks for joining me on our PTR HeatherSue! We're excited to go at Christmastime too! BTW, I'm a big fan of your Trip Reports. Your Dueling Trippies with your sister last year had me ROTFLMAO on many occasions!

 

[MomTo4+more]

I am glad Chicago wasn't a parking lot for you! I understand just what you mean. It gets crazy near us, especially when there is a Cubs game! I haven't pinned down my first choice for dates yet. I want to talk to Deyki's wish granters about it when they come next week. Deyki says his first choice is to go tomorrow! I think I am leaning towards December. Maybe we will see you there!

 

[StefaniLyn]

​

Today, the Wisconsin Chapter of Make A Wish celebrated it's 25th birthday. Now that we are the proud owners of an official "Wish Kid" our family was invited to join other Wish Kids and families to celebrate at a Milwaukee Brewer's baseball game and tailgate party. The kids were super excited all week for this event and I honestly didn't know what to expect as we'd never been to any "Wish" function before.

The day begun with a very emotional moment. As we arrived at the MAW tailgate party, we were handed signs and told that Wish Kid, Sam, would be arriving soon. Sam's wish was to sing the national anthem at a Brewer game and today was his big day. So with signs in hand, we eagerly awaited Sam's arrival. Here's Bella holding a sign for Sam.

Sam's limo pulled up just a few moments later and he stepped out onto a RED CARPET to dozens of screaming MAW families, volunteers, as well as some incredible Star Wars characters. Flashes popped and the crowd chanted "Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam!" The moment brought tears to my eyes. A very proud and amazed young Sam was treated like a celebrity and you could just tell he was basking in his glorious moment! Doesn't he just look like he's on top of the world? He's only 5, but I hope he remembers that moment for the rest of his life, cuz I know I will.

After watching Sam's arrival, our family enjoyed the amazing experience of the MAW tailgate party. Bella and Kennedy got their face painted (the best face paintings I've ever seen). We ate some delicious hot dogs, brats, chicken, etc. An amazing artist drew a charicature (sp?) of the three girls. There was a bounce house and inflatable obstacle course. There were so many activities and so much good food we didn't get to all of it!

Brewer Corey Hart stopped by too and donated $10,000 to the Make A Wish Foundation! And you'll never believe who else stopped by - MICKEY MOUSE! Unfortunately, we missed seeing him and didn't even know he was there until we saw him at the tailgate party on the news tonight! I was so bummed when I saw Mickey hanging out with the other wish kids - I can't believe we completely missed him!

A photo-op of all the Wish Kids attending the game today. Isabella is the one in blue. HA! Just kidding - she's in the front row, near the center. She has the big white bow in her hair and is one of the smallest kiddos.

After the amazing tailgate party, we went to the Brewer game.

We first watched Sam get his wish and sing the national anthem. It was another tearful moment for me. Many wish kids got to participate in special events during the game as well.

Bella started feeling ill right at the beginning of the game. She gets overheated so easily, especially after eating, which she had done shortly before the game. We were sitting directly in the sun and it was in the mid 80's. About 1/2 hour into the game, Bella was sweating profusely and looking pale. So I quickly took her up to the deck into the shade. I lifted up the back of her shirt and laid her on the very cool, smooth concrete. She perked up after about 10 minutes of laying there. Then I took her to the bathroom and soaked her shirt with cool water. After that, we took turns taking the girls up to the deck every half hour or so to keep them cool.

During one such walking trip, Bella and I happened across the famous Racing Sausages hanging out on the lower level. She was so excited to get her picture taken them. We saw all except for one. Is it wrong that I was excited about this not because she loved the Sausages so much, but because I imagined her running up to characters at Disneyworld with that same enthusiasm? I guess I have a one track mind . . . . Here's Bella with the Racing Sausages. FYI: Hot Dog won today!

As we watched the game, dripping with sweat and constantly encouraging the girls to drink more water, I kept thinking how happy I was that we changed our choice of dates from August to December. Bella especially would have been absolutely miserable if we were to take her Wish Trip during the extremely hot August weather. She will do much better in December.

We stopped for some souveniers towards the end of the game as well.

Even though the Brewers lost 7 to 4 to the Dodgers, they rallied towards the end and were so close to tying it up! It was a great game and we had a wonderful time.

NEXT: CHAPTER 6 - A HISTORY OF BELLA - WHY THIS WONDERKID IS GETTING A WISH​

 

[MomTo4+more]

Thanks for sharing your fun day! I got tears in my eyes reading about Sam and his incredible welcome. That picture captures such joy and pride. You're, right - he'll never forget that!

 

[Corrine 1973]

We're in Indiana right now visiting my in-laws but I will check my schedule when we get home. The girls would love meeting a queen! Do most Faire visitors dress up?

A lot of people do dress up but even more just wear their normal cloths. It's all up to you. We have people in princess dresses, prom dresses, xena and hercules type outfits, in close to our court costumes, and believe it or not we have even had a few Klingons roaming around. Can't wait to hear your plans, and looking foward to possibly meeting your family.

 

[StefaniLyn]

Some of you may be wondering why Isabella is getting her Wish and going to Disneyworld. As I mentioned earlier, Make A Wish grants Wishes to kids who have been diagnosed with a life threatening medical condition. Isabella acually has 5 such diagnoses. Warning - the following post is filled with medical jargon and terminology. There are also photos in this post that are not for the easily squeemish. I apologize in advance. The short story is, Bella has 5 diagnoses that qualify as "life limiting" and therefore qualify her for a Make A Wish trip to Disneyworld. Her diagnoses include esophageal atresia, congenital heart defects, epilepsy, celiac disease, and pancreatic enzyme insufficiency. For those of you who want to be spared the gory details, CLICK HERE to skip to the next post. And for those of you who would like to know more, continue reading for the long verson of the History of Bella.

The first diagnosis for Bella came before she was even born. Bella was born 4 weeks early and weighing just over 4lbs. Before birth, we knew she would likely have a condition called esophageal atresia (EA). This basically meant that her esophagus was not attached to her stomach. Her throat ended in a pouch instead of continuing to her stomach. There are several types of EA, and Bella's was considered "long gap type c". After her birth, Bella was immediately taken to the NICU at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. When she was less than a day old, she had surgery to place a g-tube in her stomach to feed her. For the next 2 months, she remained in the hospital, trying to grow big enough and strong enough for another surgery. Eventually, an incredible surgeon was able to connect Bella's esophagus and stomach. She was discharged from CHW after 84 days in the NICU. Even after the surgery to repair her esophagus, Bella struggles to swallow and has very bad acid refulx. Without immediate medical intervention and multiple surgeries after her birth, esophageal atresia would have been fatal.

1. Bella at one day old (holding Daddy's wedding ring) 2. Bella 2 months old - just before a big surgery

1. Isabella after her surgery 2. Bella before going home (84 days old)

Bella's second diagnosis also occurred before she was born but didn't become problematic until she was about a year old. Bella was born with 3 holes in her heart. She had an atrial septal defect, a ventricular septal defect, and a patent ductus arteriosis. The VSD closed on it's own before Bella was 6 months old. However at around 10 months, Bella went into congestive heart failure. Essentially, with the remaining 2 holes in her heart, Bella's heart was unable to keep up with the demands of her growing body. When she was 13 months old, Bella underwent open heart surgery to repair a quarter-sized ASD. To this day, the PDA remains but it is not causing her any problems and she has no restrictions because of it.

1. Bella just after open-heart surgery 2. 3 days post-op - her recovery was amazing!

Just 2 days before our very first Disney trip with the girls, Bella threw us all for a loop. About 10 pm one evening my husband and I checked on Supposed-to-be Sleeping Beauty Bella and found her in the midst of a grand mal siezure. After a 911 call and 2 ambulance rides, we found ourselves back at Children's Hospital. The following days were filled with MRIs, EKG, EEGs, and every other medical acronym you can imagine. Despite it all, the amazing staff there discharged Bella just 18 hours before our Disneyworld vacation (and I still hadn't packed!). Our first trip to Disney with the girls was incredible but I was on edge the whole time. Bella was seizure free while at the World, but began to have more once we returned. Shortly thereafter, she was diagnosed with epilepsy. After experimenting with several medications we finally found one that stopped her siezures. I'm happy to say that she has now been siezure free for over 2 years and we weaned her off medications last fall!

Here's Bella having one of her many EEGs.

In December of 2007, Bella was scheduled for a day surgery and routine endoscopy. The surgery did not go well and Bella ended up being hospitalized for a week. Even worse, when results of the endoscopy came back, the Doctor surprised us with yet another diagnosis. Isabella's biopsy results were positive for Celiac Disease. Celiac is a digestive disease that interferes with the absorption of nutrients. Bella cannot eat any foods that contain wheat, rye, barley or oat (or other forms of gluten). If she does ingest even small amounts of gluten, her body will react by destroying the villi in the small intestine, causing malnourishment and other illnesses.

Here's Bella during that hospitalization - she has hospital bed-head here!

During all these hospitalizations and illnesses, Bella was completely tube fed. Bella's team of doctors at CHW tried twice to teach her how to eat during an inpatient feeding program but they were unsuccessful. In the summer of last year, Bella spent 8 weeks in a hospital in Baltimore. The feeding program at Kennedy Krieger Institute successfully taught Isabella how to eat pureed foods and drink liquids. She did so well that in October of last year, her tube was removed for the first time in her life!

Bella during her summer in Baltimore at Kennedy Krieger Institute

Unfortunately, eating regular foods have proven to be exceptionally difficult for Bella. After being extremely ill for 6 weeks and losing a lot of weight, she was again admitted to the hospital in February of this year. This time, test results revealed she had pancreatic enzyme insufficiency. Her pancreas does not secrete enough enzymes to break down food. Thus whenever she eats, Bella gets very sick and lethargic, sweaty, tired, and nauseous. It has made mealtimes very difficult as she simply doesn't want to eat and feel sick. Here she is feeling better in the hospital. She hadn't eaten for nearly 2 days at this point and was feeling great!

In total, Bella has spent over 200+ days overnight in the hospital. She has had many other surgeries as well as dozens of procedures, tests, etc. She also has other diagnoses that aren't life threatening including bilateral mild hearing loss, microcephaly, platelet function disorder, and a few more I'm sure I'm forgetting. Her latest diagnosis in February was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back. I decided during that hospitalization that Bella really was deserving of a Wish and despite my previous restraint (worrying that Bella's Wish would prevent another, sicker child from getting a wish), I finally submitted her name to Make A Wish (and secretly crossed my fingers that she would wish for a Disney trip!)

UP NEXT:

CHAPTER 7 - LET THE PLANNING BEGIN! COUNTDOWNS, MATCHY-MATCHY DEBATE, AND MOVIE NITES

 

[HeatherSue]

Thanks for joining me on our PTR HeatherSue! We're excited to go at Christmastime too! BTW, I'm a big fan of your Trip Reports. Your Dueling Trippies with your sister last year had me ROTFLMAO on many occasions!

Thank you!! I just finished another TR from a Feb trip w/ my mom and kids and Teresa just started one from her May trip with her family! We're both going again in October, too!
-------------------------------

Thank you so much for sharing Bella's story with us. She is such an amazing little girl!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Stefani, I'm glad you finally decided to do it. One thing that we are working on (MAW) is this idea that a child isn't "sick enough" or that their wish will take away from another child. As you know, an illness "only" has to be life threatening. A full 75% of kids granted wishes make it to adulthood. The other issue you mentioned is feeling like you would take away from another child's wish. This would absolutely not happen. One child's wish has no affect on another's. As much as possible everything that goes into a wish is donated or given at great discount. It is amazing thew ay the communities rally around the children to make sure their wishes come true. So please don't feel like you all somehow are not as deserving or fear that you are taking away from another child- because it is absolutely not true!

You all have had a hard battle and Bella absolutely deserves this wish!

 

[StefaniLyn]

Now that we have all those pesky introductions out of the way, it's time to move on to the real reason for this pretrippie, THE PLANNING! This is where I need the expertise and creative minds of all you DISExperts and experienced Wish Trippers!

As a self diagnosed borderline OCD over-planner, I want to start planning the where and when of each Disney day. Unfortunately, my desires have been curtailed by a lack of crowd calendars and Disney's delay in releasing park hours for our travel dates (why do they torture me so?)! The one and only plan we have for certain is . . . . .

MICKEY'S VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS PARTY!!!!! ​

can you feel the excitement??? I'm so excited about MVMCP as nobody in our family has been to this event before! We already have our tickets courtesy of Bella's Fairy GodMAW, Make A Wish. We will be going on Sunday, December 6th. Has anyone been before? Are all the rides open or is it mostly character meet and greets? What about restaurants? So MNSSHP has trick or treating, what does MVMCP have? Are there any special treats in store?

Any day now, I need to get started on making a countdown calendar. This is something I haven' done with either of our two previous Disney trips so I'm not sure where to start. I'm thinking of either a sticker chart or if I get really ambitious, I might make something with my Disney cricut cartridges. Does anyone out there have a sample picture of your countdown calendar? Desperately seeking inspiration!

Over on another Wish Tripper's pretrip report thread, Supermom Corrine has come up with an incredibly creative lead-up to her son Liam's Wish Trip. One night each week, she has a Disney Theme Night. Each week she plays a different Disney movie. She also makes themed food to go along with the movie - how CUTE is that?!?! As I'm not creative enough to think up something so amazing myself, Corinne has given me permission to steal her idea for our family. I want to try and put some sort of twist on it for our family but I have yet to have any ideas pop into my head. I think we'll start this in 2 weeks, after we return from our trip to Seattle. I'll start with some of the older Disney Movies that I know my kids haven't even seen yet (GASP!) and end with the Princess movies so they will be fresh in our minds when we meet them at Disney. After we return from Seattle, we'll have a mere 21 weeks until we head to the World, so I'll need to select 21 Disney Movies and themes. Is there a list of top Disney movies anywhere? Hmmmm. . . . time to start brainstorming!

In the next few weeks, I'll start my pre-trip shopping. Because I'm "one of thooooooose moms" that enjoys torturing my children by dressing them in embarassingly cute matchy-matchy clothes , I'll need to find outfits that will fit the range of all 3 of my girls (4T to 12). This is not so easy as 4T and 12 are entirely different sections of the store these days. As we have for previous trips, the girls will wear matching, or at the very least coordinating, outfits for each day. Take our trip in September 2008 for example:
Here they are in Epcot - matching t-shirts and coordinating skirts

and again at the Magic Kingdom - outfits made by G-ma Chari, hairbows bought on eBay

Animal Kingdom - Look! It's a 5 headed Griggsosaurus. Oh wait, it's just us on a family match day! (DH is such a sport, he even let me dress him matchy-matchy)

and again at Hollywood Studios (notice the bows are matching too - I think DD10 will kill me if I try and put a bow in her hair this year however)

We even had matching outfits for our travel day (shown here in Orlando Int'l Airport)

Soooooo, you could call this an obsession, addiction, illness,blah, blah, blah, but I hereby proclaim that it is only a safety precaution. If one of the girls gets lost, I can simply (and calmly too, I'm sure) say "I lost a kid, she looks like this one (point to remaining identically dressed children), only _insert descriptive word here (taller, shorter, blonder, brown-haired, etc)." So if you hear of any amazing Disney clothes deals online, brick and mortar, or otherwise, please let me know.

So that's about it for today. I'm off to get some PTO stuff done and then feed the monsters . . . . er, I mean girls. One more day of summer school for them and then they're all mine for the remaining days until school starts! Now the real fun begins!

One more note. For those of you in the TMJ4 (Milwaukee) viewing area, check out The Morning Blend tomorrow morning. A photo of Bella, Kennedy, and Ben was selected as Art's Photo of the Day and will be featured during the show. But don't worry if you're not nearby, I *think* you will be able to see the video at this link. It will only be viewable tomorrow (Wednesday, July 22nd) as there is a new winner each day.

Up Next -

CHAPTER 8 - T-MINUS 120 DAYS AND ALMOST COUNTING

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I love the matching shirts! Some people think it's dorker, but when I worked attractions in Fantasyland, I loved them. Sometimes people can't seem to grasp the concept of telling us how many people are in their party total. They seem to think they know more about grouping people onto a ride than we do and will only tell us the number in their row and then get mad if I accidentally cut off their party! When I see people in matching outfits, it gives me a good idea of how many total there are and where they end. It helps to make sure I am doing my counts right and that the family will be together without any added hassle!

 

[MomTo4+more]

As usual, I love reading your PTR. Your girls' curls are so adorable. I love the matching outfits. A grandma who sews is a wonderful thing!

One thing I have added to Corrinne's fantastic Disney Family Nights is working on our autograph book. We are making notecards for the characters to sign that will be put into a scrapbook when we return. It's fun to make the notecards for the characters in the movie we watch.

I am also making a very simple journal for the trip. I want everyone in the family to be able to add to it with drawings or words to describe how they are feeling and what we are doing through this whole process - pre-trip planning on through the return home. It's really simple. I have a thick spiral bound journal dressed up with ribbons on the spiral binding part. Each day someone wants to make an entry they put the date at the top and write or draw what they want. I am hoping it will make the waiting seem shorter!

I know how it is to plan without details. I just came up with a lot of tentative plans that look very nice on paper. I do feel your excitement! Keep sharing it!

 

[Corrine 1973]

Oh My Gosh, am I ever blushing. I have truely enjoyed the DMFN's but admite that I have had a lot of help with idea's. Here is a link to another thread that is all Disney Movie Night food and activity ideas. You will find a pretty good list here of Disney Movie's. You will find a list of movies with the page and post #'s on the fist post to tell you where to go. Some movies have several diffrent ideas. I try to do my own thing, but sometimes go there to get some ideas.http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1707141

I love the idea about the note cards, I wish I had thought about it.

My calander is just a simple one I printed on the computer. What makes it special for the kids is that they can mark off the days, I listed what movies we are going to see on Tuesdays, and in the left corner of each box is the number of days left until we go to Disney. Today we have 54 days.

 

[StefaniLyn]

When I see people in matching outfits, it gives me a good idea of how many total there are and where they end. It helps to make sure I am doing my counts right and that the family will be together without any added hassle!

Ahhhhh. . . . feed my addiction. Yet another perfectly logical reason for all of us to dress alike while in the World. Maybe I can even get G-ma to wear matchy matchy using this line of reasoning. She certainly wouldn't want to get left behind in line!

As usual, I love reading your PTR. Your girls' curls are so adorable. I love the matching outfits. A grandma who sews is a wonderful thing!

One thing I have added to Corrinne's fantastic Disney Family Nights is working on our autograph book. We are making notecards for the characters to sign that will be put into a scrapbook when we return. It's fun to make the notecards for the characters in the movie we watch.

I am also making a very simple journal for the trip. I want everyone in the family to be able to add to it with drawings or words to describe how they are feeling and what we are doing through this whole process - pre-trip planning on through the return home. It's really simple. I have a thick spiral bound journal dressed up with ribbons on the spiral binding part. Each day someone wants to make an entry they put the date at the top and write or draw what they want. I am hoping it will make the waiting seem shorter!

I know how it is to plan without details. I just came up with a lot of tentative plans that look very nice on paper. I do feel your excitement! Keep sharing it!

Yes, G-ma's sewing expertise certainly comes in handy (as does my Cricut for cutting out the Mickey heads on the dresses). She has already agreed to sew one set of Disney outfits for the girls as well as make Kennedy a princess costume that will be used for both Halloween and our Wish Trip. Unfortunately, G-ma is not all about the frills and fancy like me so I hope I can talk her into some ruffles and rhinestones on the outfits. If not, I'll have her make something more basic using an animal print for Animal Kingdom. I may need to meander on over to the craft board and get some ideas!

I love your idea of notecards! I may just need to try that. Or maybe some similar sort of crafty idea to go along with the movie theme. I think I'll buy AJ (DD10) a journal to write in like you mentioned as she enjoys that kind of stuff. Kennedy (DD8) doesn't have the patience, and Bella (WishKidDD5) can't write yet. Hmmm. . . . now you've got me thinking. I have exactly 2 weeks and 1 day until our first Disney Family Night. The wheels are turning. . . .

Oh My Gosh, am I ever blushing. I have truely enjoyed the DMFN's but admite that I have had a lot of help with idea's. Here is a link to another thread that is all Disney Movie Night food and activity ideas. You will find a pretty good list here of Disney Movie's. You will find a list of movies with the page and post #'s on the fist post to tell you where to go. Some movies have several diffrent ideas. I try to do my own thing, but sometimes go there to get some ideas.http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1707141

I love the idea about the note cards, I wish I had thought about it.

My calander is just a simple one I printed on the computer. What makes it special for the kids is that they can mark off the days, I listed what movies we are going to see on Tuesdays, and in the left corner of each box is the number of days left until we go to Disney. Today we have 54 days.

54 days?!?! I am sooooooooo J-E-A-L-O-U-S! Thanks for the linky. I have it bookmarked for future reference.

When did you start your countdown calendar? Do you think 4 months is a little overkill? For a moment I contemplated making it sort of like an advent calendar with a little gift (think stamp, sticker, tattoo, etc; small stuff) for each day, but that could get tricky. However, I could also throw in some big stuff that I buy for the trip (sunglasses, outfits, toys, etc) every once in a while to get them really hyped up. I would have to either use a photo of the item or I could do like a scavenger hunt and behind each number would be a *clue* to where they'd find their surprise. Yipes! Now that I think about it I may be getting in over my head. Time to give that some more thought!

 

[Corrine 1973]

I don't think that 4 months is an over kill. That's about the time that I started our calandar, actually more like 4 1/2 months.

Now this is just an idea, but instead of giving small items to the kids how about giving them points or pretend money that they could use at your own WDW store. You can purchase some items such as sunglasses, toys, stickers, hair excessories, jewelry, exc. and put them in your pretend store at certain prices that the kids can buy with there money/points. You can have your pretend store once a week or once a month depending on whats good for you.

Can't wait to hear about your first DMFN!

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

I love the matching shirts! Some people think it's dorker, but when I worked attractions in Fantasyland, I loved them. Sometimes people can't seem to grasp the concept of telling us how many people are in their party total. They seem to think they know more about grouping people onto a ride than we do and will only tell us the number in their row and then get mad if I accidentally cut off their party! When I see people in matching outfits, it gives me a good idea of how many total there are and where they end. It helps to make sure I am doing my counts right and that the family will be together without any added hassle!

Good to know! We like Matchy Matchy too.

StefaniLynn: I am really enjoying your trip report. I can't wait to read more. Disney Family Nights sound like fun! I may have to start hosting some of those.

If you like ruffles and frills and a few rhinestones thrown in come visit the Disboutique thread. You'll be on cloud 9 We are on the Family Board.

 

[StefaniLyn]

I don't think that 4 months is an over kill. That's about the time that I started our calandar, actually more like 4 1/2 months.

Now this is just an idea, but instead of giving small items to the kids how about giving them points or pretend money that they could use at your own WDW store. You can purchase some items such as sunglasses, toys, stickers, hair excessories, jewelry, exc. and put them in your pretend store at certain prices that the kids can buy with there money/points. You can have your pretend store once a week or once a month depending on whats good for you.

Can't wait to hear about your first DMFN!

K, you've convinced me that 4 months isn't too much (believe me, it didn't take much arm twisting ) I am going to start our countdown calendar after we get back from Seattle. We leave next Thursday and return on August 5th. That gives me less than a week to get it all prepared so it will be ready upon our return home. I also like the points idea and I may play off of that idea too. Like maybe the kids can earn points for doing chores, random acts of kindness, doing something nice for their sisters, behaving themselves in public, etc. Hmmmm . . . . . Me likey that idea! - bribery is the key to good behavior! Would it be terribly evil to take Disney Dollars away for whining and fighting? And the store idea, brilliant! Nothing like a hidden math lesson to add to our Disney Countdown fun! Thanks!

 

[StefaniLyn]

Good to know! We like Matchy Matchy too.

StefaniLynn: I am really enjoying your trip report. I can't wait to read more. Disney Family Nights sound like fun! I may have to start hosting some of those.

If you like ruffles and frills and a few rhinestones thrown in come visit the Disboutique thread. You'll be on cloud 9 We are on the Family Board.

We should start a secret society of Matchy Matchy Moms

I can't wait for our first Disney Family Night either! I wish I could invite you all to my house! I was thinking of inviting our Wish Granter to movie night once or twice. She has 2 small boys and they'd probably enjoy our Cars and Nemo movie nights. Would that be weird? We could also invite some of DDs friends.

I have discovered the Disboutique thread . . . . it's like Christmas to my eyes! I jealously drool over all of the amazing outfits and creations. I WISH I had a fraction of the creativity and ability that you DISBoutiquers have! Those ladies are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!