If it’s Crazy, I Don’t Wanna Be Sane: Just Me and My 2 to Disney-June 2012 PTR

[luvmy2babies]

Wow! You're going to be busy with all those things to do!

We just pre-ordered our Photopass! I love it! It's the only way that we all get in a picture. Plus, since I'm behind the camera there's very few pics of me. It's nice to "see" that I was actually there.

Yeah, we have 8 park days planned out of the 10 we'll be in Orlando. I'd like to be in a few of the pictures. I didn't get the photopass the last time even though we had pictures taken. Ran into some issues when we got back and had to do something else with the $150. I decided if we went again I'd order it before hand. We went to Sea World in October and the only pictures I was in were the ones the park workers took when we first arrived. I bought the CD on our way out.

I decided I actually wanted some character time too. I'm probably going to get the personal archive CD too after we get back so I can put our character meal pictures and some others that I take on it.

No doubt this is a mega trip for us. Our first trip was 6 nights, but with the times of our arrival and departure we only had about 5 park days and with it being Thanksgiving week, coupled with some tummy trouble we had a great time but we missed some things. I think we got more done when we went to MK for the last day of our Sea World trip than we did in the 2 days we went the first time. We are looking forward to having a much longer trip.

Got mixed in some half days where we'll spend our afternoon and evenings hanging around the resort, and our World Showcase day won't start until around 10am. I've been working more on our actual touring plan and I'm going to post more detail about our day to day plans soon.

Next thing on my agenda is to begin my Garden Grocer list. Could you help me with something? I want to do my table of contents with the links, but I haven't been able to get it to work. Any tips you can offer? Thanks in advance.

 

[Snickals]

Just wanted to pop in and say I am really enjoying reading your report!

 

[luvmy2babies]

Just wanted to pop in and say I am really enjoying reading your report!

Thank you. I am finally able to enjoy writing it. I went into a real planning slump for a while, but as we approach the 3 month mark, things are in full swing again.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Wow, by the weekend we will be down to 90 days.

I had previously figured we’d do a countdown this time because the last trip was a surprise and we didn’t get to do one. I think it will add some excitement and cut down on the how much longer conversations so I think we will make some kind of countdown calendar this weekend. I’ll have to look on here for some ideas.

Well, this will be a short update. I put in my order on etsy.com for dd’s dresses. She picked out a pink dress for BBB and I’m surprising her with a Rapunzel dress that she saw and fell in love with while we were looking. The lady said it would take two to two and a half weeks for me to get them. I’ll post pictures when they arrive. On to ebay to purchase those accessories and some other things.

My son’s City Mini arrived last night. I think he was more excited than I was. I hadn’t even put the wheels on yet, when he came over and jumped in it.

The next two weeks, I’ll begin looking for and picking up some essentials for our trip and for summer in general.

In a real life update, I’m also planning my daughter’s birthday party. My little girl will be 9 next month.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

The 3 of you will have a fantastic time! My 2 and I have visited DLR a few times just the 3 of us and we always had a blast!

 

[luvmy2babies]

The 3 of you will have a fantastic time! My 2 and I have visited DLR a few times just the 3 of us and we always had a blast!

Thanks, we really are looking forward to it. Well, dd and I are anyway. Ds knows he will just get dragged along where we go and is fine with it.

 

[cinderella crazy]

I want to do my table of contents with the links, but I haven't been able to get it to work. Any tips you can offer? Thanks in advance.

I see on post 2 you've made a space for your links. This is what I would do:

1. Go to the first page of your PTR and go to the second post
2. Scroll down to the next post for your PTR
3. In the top right hand corner of the post is a number (it's the post number for your thread). Your next trip entry is on post #3 so click on the the 3.
4. A new window/tab should pop up with just that post.
5. Copy the URL address from that window/tab (the one for just your post #3
6. Click back onto your PTR window/tab where you had scrolled down to the second post.
7. Click "Edit" on your post #2
8. You can either highlight the word "Introductions" with your cursor or just click next to the word "Introductions" to post the link (If you highlight the word "Introductions" the word itself will become the link. If you click next to the word "Introductions," the link will go next to the word.
9. At the top of the edit screen, you'll see a symbol that looks like the world with a link in front of it. Click on it.
10. Remember the URL you copied from post #3? Paste it into the window that popped up when you clicked on the world.
11. Click "Okay"
12. Then click "Save" at the right bottom of the edit screen.
13. Repeat the process for each entry you've made (click on post number you want to link to, copy address, edit post #2, select where in post to place link, paste link, and save).


Hope this all makes sense.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Thank you so so so so so so much. I can't wait to work on this tonight.

 

[luvmy2babies]

I discovered my love for ebay while getting ready for our first trip to Disney World. Quite a few great little finds on there added to the trip. I got dd’s princess dress for her Akershus lunch on there, her carry on backpack, which was the only one I could find with 6 princesses, our lanyards and our Cinderella carriage necklaces for Pick-a-Pearl. For our trip to Sea World, I ordered her a notebook with a matching shoulder bag she used as a sketch pad.

This trip, I have found all sorts of things on there.

Drawstring backpacks for pool time
Drawstring backpack with external pockets for my park bag
Miniature Disney Princess backpack for dd to use at the parks
Lanyards with a tiny purse attached
Disney Princess Autograph book for dd
Cars Autograph book for ds
Character themed hair clips and bows for dd
Princess accessories (necklaces, bracelets and sticker earrings) for dd
Handy Manny plush toy for ds

And the cool part is everything will be used beyond this trip. The autograph books should get us through a few trips and our Disney Cruise next summer since I’m making them books for character meals. The lanyards we can use anywhere as well.

I’ve earned a good customer certificate from ebay although I have not followed the instructions in the email to print and display it. Never thought I’d earn an award for shopping.

I’ve done some other shopping too. Started on the children’s summer wardrobes, which I’d be doing anyway. I have ordered their play clothes from Wal-Mart and got dd some items for children’s church from Crazy 8. I’ve ordered her princess dresses from etsy and I have ordered their pool/beach cover-ups from www.onestepahead.com . Still need to get swim wear, water shoes and towels. Dd had a nice Tiana towel, but it got really worn during summer camp last year as they went to a pool twice a week every week, and it got washed quite a bit.

Other items still on the to buy list

I’m still working on my Garden Grocer order
I’ve started working on my t-shirt order (jiffyshirts.com).
Life jacket for dd, puddle jumper for ds
CARES harness for ds
Stroller fan for ds
Misting fans for dd and me
Refillable bottles to drink from in the parks and on the plane

Making another trip payment today as well. Almost done.

 

[cinderella crazy]

I love buying stuff for Disney trips! So much fun!

 

[jana616]

I just wanted to say that I am loving your report!! I also wanted to say how sorry I am about your husband, but I am in awe of your strength and spirit...your kids are very lucky to have you! We will be there a few weeks before you...would you like me to send them postcards from Mickey (or someone else)? A nice Diser is doing that for my kids, and I would be more than happy to pay it forward. Just let me know if you are interested

 

[luvmy2babies]

I just wanted to say that I am loving your report!! I also wanted to say how sorry I am about your husband, but I am in awe of your strength and spirit...your kids are very lucky to have you! We will be there a few weeks before you...would you like me to send them postcards from Mickey (or someone else)? A nice Diser is doing that for my kids, and I would be more than happy to pay it forward. Just let me know if you are interested

Thank you for your kind words. I have learned a lot about myself in the 2 years it has been just the three of us, and one of those things is that I should just enjoy them. I put off Disney for a long time with good reason of course and we were planning on trying to go as a family when ds got bigger. After dh died, one of the things I started to question was what I was waiting on for certain things and taking a trip to Disney was one of them. That first trip in 2010 was great, but this one I’m enjoying the anticipation of taking them back now that dd knows more about the place and ds is obsessed with Mickey.

Thanks for the offer, but I have welcome letters for them “from” Mickey Mouse. I hope you have a wonderful time on your trip. Not much longer now.

 

[lbuzz52]

just popping in. i hope to be back to catch up later today!

 

[luvmy2babies]

Anyone else ever have the feeling their trip is sneaking up on them a bit. I never thought I would feel this way since we started planning last summer and booked in September, but here I am. Of course it being Disney kind really adds to the lists.

I have my four lists I make for every trip.

Things to do
Things to buy
Things to pack
Things we can’t leave behind.

I’m excited, but it seems like the more I get done on the list of things to do and the more I buy on the list of things to buy, the more there is to do. I finished my jiffy t-shirt order (my main addiction is making vacation shirts) and I planned to finish the kids’ autograph books over the weekend. Then down the list is still my Garden Grocer order. Got to do that in the next few days to stay on schedule budget wise.

I can’t believe it’s the middle of April.

When today came, I could look back and say, I did get a few things on the to do list accomplished this weekend, but didn't meet all of my goals.

I printed out all of the pages for my children's autograph books, but didn't cut them or take them to get bound like I planned. I printed out all of the dining invitations and dd's BBB invitation, but didn't take them to get laminated. I was printing out the pages for their memory books when the low ink light came on on the printer.

Somehow we just ended up sitting in the house all of Saturday until around 7 when I remembered we needed milk and a couple of other things. We got something else accomplished from that though.

I know I had mentioned that I have been trying to lose weight and it hasn't gone anywhere. Wanted to lose 30 to 40 pounds and I think I've lost 10. We'll see how the next couple of months go, but I didn't want to wait until last minute to buy my shirts. I'm making quite a few for the trip and didn't want to be doing them all at the last minute. I ordered more feminine cut shirts for myself this time. They cost a little more, but they'll fit me better. I had been wearing my clothes pretty loose, but I notice I look smaller when I wear things that fit as opposed to hanging on me. It's been part of the rebuilding process for me.

But back to our accomplishment. We walked to the store instead of driving. It's a 20 minute walk each way and we kept a pretty brisk pace. The pollen's been kicking my butt, but both dd and I agree we need to get out and walk regularly now. It was actually the first time our new stroller hit the street. Both kids really enjoyed the walk and so did I.

Went for extra ink yesterday and of the 4 Wal-Marts I could have chosen, I chose one that didn't have my ink in stock.

I did get dd's 2nd swim suit this week and I found ds some pool/beach shoes. I also got towels for ds and me. Dd is still deciding which one she wants. First it was Disney Princesses, then Ariel, then Hello Kitty and now Rapunzel. I told her to keep thinking about it. Still got a few things left, but we're getting there.

Found some links to some coloring pages I'll add to their activity/memory books. Thankfully these projects are not using as much ink as I orifinally thought. I decided to print the dining invitations in 5x7 instead of full size 8.5x11. When I printed the first one for the Akershus breakfast (courtesy of DISigner Shadowryter), it was just a little blurry, so I decided to print it smaller to save ink and card stock. I was able to print 2 invitations on each piece. They'll be easier to pack this way too.

The autograph book pages are 4x6 as the Creative DISign forum instructions say. Since we have so many character meals, I'm making them a book for those. I wanted to make them books, but didn't want to print out lots of characters not knowing if we'd see them. This I thought would be a cute alternative. One thing I love about character meals is the "guaranteed" meeting. There were lots of cute pages for characters at every meal we are doing. Chaos1cent did the kids' covers. Their names are on them with little pictures represented each meal. Pictures to follow. I know I keep saying that but I really do mean it.

It was kind of a rough day, but in the mail today though was dd's Minnie Mouse pillowcase dress that I ordered on ebay. It is totally cute. Plus, an email came letting me know my t-shirt order shipped.

 

[luvmy2babies]

I love jiffyshirts.com. This is my third time using them and I love the shirts and how they get them out to you so quickly. This order was my largest yet and it arrived yesterday complete and clean as usual. I love how the shirts hold their color through washing and they take the iron on transfers really well.

This is my project for May. Right now I’m still working on finishing up the paper projects and gathering some little items.

A word on these shirts though. They fit well, but I have to say if you have a toddler or preschooler like I do who will be joining in on the matching t-shirt fun, and get the Rabbit Skin brand shirt they run a size small. It is the least expensive shirt and it’s soft and I like it, but you can’t order your child’s current size in these for sure. I had read on the reviews of the shirt that they ran small so for our first trip even though he was 10 months old and wearing size 12 month clothes, I ordered his shirts in size 18 months. Here he is with dd at Chef Mickey’s. Little did I know this meeting would be the beginning of what is now an obsession with the Mouse.

For some reason the shirt didn’t come in size 3T so for our 2nd trip I ordered him a 2T. He was 21 months old, but still wearing size 18 month at the time. Here he is taking a break at Sea World.

So they’ve fit him, but he didn’t have as much room as I would have liked. He is now 27 months old and will be just under 2.5 when we travel this summer. He is still in size 24 month or 2T in shorts, but, I got him size 3T shirts from Wal-Mart for play clothes. I love the Garanimals line they carry for infants and toddlers. They have the amount of room I want him to have. When I placed the order from Jiffy shirts, I ordered him a 4T. Last night I was taking pictures of our stuff for my report and decided to get one of my son’s new spring shirts from Wal-Mart out to compare to one of his shirts in my jiffy order. The Wal-Mart shirt is a 3T, the Jiffy shirt is a 4T.

When I put them one behind the other, you could not see the one in back at all.

So that’s my two cents about Jiffy T-shirts. Love the company, love the shirts and will keep using them. The others I have gotten for dd and me seem to run true to size or even a bit large, which is fine. Just be careful if ordering for a toddler or preschooler.

And yay! My next few posts will be about our stuff and there will finally be pictures. I took them last night and loaded them to Photobucket. Had to work over time from home though so that is all I got done. Just decided to take one of my breaks to make this post.

Up next: extras that make the trip fun and save me money on souvenirs.

 

[lbuzz52]

okay, i've finally caught up! First of all, i don't think you are crazy at all. My dh and I work opposite schedules to keep the kids from having daycare other than my mother and school. Once you get your routines down, taking the kids places by yourself becomes second nature. i consider my self lucky that Maya is such a great helper. Most of the time she keeps him on task.

I loved your description of your children. They remind me a lot of my own. Especially when you were talking about the love your dd shows for your ds. Isn't it great to have children who recognize the value of friendship and love in their siblings! And i also live with a mini-me!

James was roughly the same age as your DS on his first trip. He was so much more into it than i could have ever imagined. Judgng from his reactions, his favorite things at a that age were Its a Small World and Spectromagic. I too loved the oohs and aahs and all the clapping!

i think that you are smart to schedule the down time. we have done longer trips and a day in the middle to relax and explore was much appreciated

I wish your ds could give James some picture tips. J just smiles and giggles as he runs away. apparently its a great game to not take the picture!

I"m not certain that Diamond Horseshoe is on the DP.

i do want to see your Etsy choices and your autograph book. and your invites.

I'm trying to remember our counterservice experiences last year when James didn't have a dining plan. James was like your ds- could out eat Maya for sure. Luckily he has slowed down a bit now. I do remember in general they seemed to eat less in the long heated days than they would at home.

Pinnochios Village House, CS at our hotel, Pecos Bill - bought James his own

Yak N Yeti- all of us shared one meal as a snack easily to tide us over between large Tusker House breakfast and dinner

Rosie's All American- we shared meals here and it was enough to go around. i think he ate some off of all of us.

CHH- i think that we bought his own but could have shared.

I also contemplated, but didn't actually do it- buying a box of uncrustables from garden grocer to suplement his meals here and there.

 

[luvmy2babies]

okay, i've finally caught up! First of all, i don't think you are crazy at all. My dh and I work opposite schedules to keep the kids from having daycare other than my mother and school. Once you get your routines down, taking the kids places by yourself becomes second nature. i consider my self lucky that Maya is such a great helper. Most of the time she keeps him on task.

I loved your description of your children. They remind me a lot of my own. Especially when you were talking about the love your dd shows for your ds. Isn't it great to have children who recognize the value of friendship and love in their siblings! And i also live with a mini-me!

James was roughly the same age as your DS on his first trip. He was so much more into it than i could have ever imagined. Judgng from his reactions, his favorite things at a that age were Its a Small World and Spectromagic. I too loved the oohs and aahs and all the clapping!

i think that you are smart to schedule the down time. we have done longer trips and a day in the middle to relax and explore was much appreciated

I wish your ds could give James some picture tips. J just smiles and giggles as he runs away. apparently its a great game to not take the picture!

I"m not certain that Diamond Horseshoe is on the DP.

i do want to see your Etsy choices and your autograph book. and your invites.

I'm trying to remember our counterservice experiences last year when James didn't have a dining plan. James was like your ds- could out eat Maya for sure. Luckily he has slowed down a bit now. I do remember in general they seemed to eat less in the long heated days than they would at home.

Pinnochios Village House, CS at our hotel, Pecos Bill - bought James his own

Yak N Yeti- all of us shared one meal as a snack easily to tide us over between large Tusker House breakfast and dinner

Rosie's All American- we shared meals here and it was enough to go around. i think he ate some off of all of us.

CHH- i think that we bought his own but could have shared.

I also contemplated, but didn't actually do it- buying a box of uncrustables from garden grocer to suplement his meals here and there.

Thank you for your feedback, especially about counter service. I know some places we will be able to share for the sheer volume of the food. Thankfully, ds is into more than just kiddie food. He’s actually better about that than dd is right now. So sharing with him will likely be no trouble for me. I don’t think I’ll ever get hungry enough to be unable to share with him when you consider all you get. I’ll never forget the first time we used a QS credit on our first trip. I placed my order at CHH and when I handed the cashier our cards, she said, “Oh, you’re on the Dining Plan? You also need ….”

That’s interesting you mention that about Diamond Horseshoe. There doesn’t seem to be much on this one. I did a search on the restaurant forum here once and very little came up. I think if we eat in this area, we’ll go with Pecos Bill’s.

Thanks for letting me know I’m not crazy, at least not about this. One of the things I like about this board is that what I do is normal here. Everybody thinks it’s great. People around here are getting used to it, but some people really think I’m biting off more than I should.

I remember you writing that about James and how he takes pictures. I think the number of pictures I take has trained my ds. I can pick my camera up to move it and he smiles and says, “cheese”. I can usually get a nice smile out of him. But we have our challenges with him. When someone else is taking it, it’s different. I’m wondering what our Photopass shots will look like. We had some taken at Sea World and he wasn’t even looking at the camera in a lot of them. A trick I do sometimes is hold him close and lightly tickle him when someone takes a picture. I actually learned that trick from dd. When he was about 11 months old, I had Christmas portraits taken and I was admiring what a nice smile he had in one (after a lot of work). Dd was holding him. As I looked more closely at the picture, I could see her hand and she was actually tickling him.

Action shots are better with him or having dd stand behind him or having him sit. Telling him to stand next to her doesn’t work yet. Sometimes I get him walking towards the camera like this one I took Easter Sunday.

This one I was trying to get him to stand next to dd. I ended up just telling her to stand behind him as close as she could without him noticing.

This one was one of opportunity. He plopped down into the grass and I told her to sit next to him. I hate that it’s dark, but I was afraid if I tried to move them into the sun, I’d lose the chance to even take it.

I did finally get the photos taken our our stuff including the etsy dresses and I’ll post an update or two tonight. I don’t have the autograph books put together yet, but I do have pictures of the covers and some of the pages. So the wait is almost over for that.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Okay, I think I've been promising for a few posts that I would post pictures of my projects for this trip. I'm working on:

Invitations to each table service meal and dd's activities
An Activity/Memory book for each child
A Character Meal autograph book for each child
Various t-shirts for each of us

I'm also pulling out the World Showcase passport kit from Epcot and the Safari journal from AK that I bought in 2010, but didn't use.

I haven't made my t-shirts yet. That's my project for May. This post and the next 2 will have my printed projects.

Invitations courtesy of DISigner Shadowryter

I apologize in advance that some of them are a little blurry. My camera and I were not getting along while I was taking pictures of these.

Garden Grill
Crystal Palace

Cinderella's Round Table
Akershus

Ohana
Tusker House

Hollywood and Vine
Chef Mickey's

Bibbity Boppity Boutique

Continued in next post

 

[luvmy2babies]

I do still want to add some journal pages and activity pages for dd and some coloring pages for both books, but the activity/memory books are well on their way. I can't remember which designer's file I found these covers in, but I want to say it was either chaos1cent or Shadowryter. I downloaded the Walt Disney font and put their names on myself.

I found the individual pages in chaos1cent's photobucket. I found memory pages for various restaurants, and experiences where the child can write down what they thought of the characters, food or the experience like the BBB sheet, but still need to find Garden Grill or ask for one.

I also picked up some stickers for the books. These came from the $1 bins at Target.

Some Animal Stickers

Some fun stickers to decorate

I found the autograph pages in the folders of various designers, but there is a thread on autograph books with links to several designers' work in the opening post. It also details instructions on making an autograph book.

Here's the link: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2323160

I didn't leave an extra half inch on each side of mine, but I want ds to be able to hold his. I have not yet made the final decision on whether I will have them spiral bound in that space at top or put them in a photo album.

Chaos1cent did the covers

Now, we're doing seven character meals and each restaurant has either four or five characters. I didn't want to do that many pictures, so I just put the cards from each restaurant in a stack and took a picture of one card from each restaurant.

Garden Grill (Chip, Dale and Pluto underneath) and Crystal Palace (Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore underneath)

Akershus (Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White and Aurora underneath) and Cinderella's Round Table (Belle, Ariel, Snow White and Aurora underneath)

Tusker House (Mickey, Daisy and Goofy underneath) and Hollywood and Vine (Jake, Agent Oso, Leo and June underneath). I think I read somewhere there is just one Little Einstein there now, but I have to double check which one.

Chef Mickey's (Donald, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto underneath)

Those are my printed projects for now. Next up: some little goodies

 

[luvmy2babies]

I know I said I was going to talk about our trip goodies next, but I forgot about this from earlier today. Plus I'm too tired to make that post right now. A conversation with my daughter this weekend resulted in a change in plans.

DD and I were talking about rides and she is still very adamant she is not going to ride Peter Pan or Winnie the Pooh because of the darkness. Now mind you she rode Buzz Light Year Space Ranger spin twice, declared it the best ride ever, but I guess the game made it worth it. When we were there in October, I wanted to grab fast passes to ride one of these and she flat out refused. Only being there for a day I had no time for drama, so we skipped both. She is still just as adamant about it now, here 2 months before our trip in June.

These are two of my favorites and though he was 10 months old, ds liked them. But he has no issues with the dark. He will go into the bathroom or his room at night and shut the door as a game. When I open the door, he is just smiling. Dd does have issues with the dark, always has, but I really thought the Disney characters on the rides and being right next to me and ds would cancel that out. But I do remember her holding my arm on these the first time.

She was firm. I decided to test it. I told her I really wanted to ride those so perhaps she should go to the kids’ club at the hotel and I should just take ds to Magic Kingdom so we can do those and spend some time at Magic Kingdom. There’s a couple of characters I think ds will like meeting that dd has said she doesn’t want to meet as well, namely Woody and Jesse. I figured she would have my head for even thinking of going to a park without her, but she was happy about the idea, so I’m definitely taking her seriously about not getting on those rides.

When we went to a Holiday Inn at the beach last April they had a small children’s area for children 4 to 12. I left her there during ds’ nap time and got some rest in the room. She loved it so much she didn't even want to leave to go out to the beach when ds was up.

The Cub’s Den is the kid’s club at Wilderness Lodge. The kid’s club opens at 4:30 and stays open until midnight. It costs $11.50 per hour and there’s a 2 hour minimum. They have movies, games, toys, video games, crafts, all stuff that is right up her alley. She seemed excited about it, so I began to think about it.

We have a half day planned on day 3 of our trip. We have breakfast ADRs at Crystal Palace and just planned to do Adventure Land and Frontier Land before having a light lunch and heading back for the rest of the day. I originally planned for it to be a pool day with dinner at Roaring Forks, but then thought this would be the perfect day for her to go to kids’ club. I could drop her off right at 4:30 and head over to MK with ds since he’s too young for the kid’s club. We could fast pass one ride, do other stuff during the wait, fast pass the other ride, do other stuff, have dinner along the way (kid’s club serves dinner) and likely be back for dd by 8:00. The more I thought about it, the more fun I thought it would be to go over to MK for a while with ds. Dd would undoubtedly have fun where she is and I get to do my favorite rides without forcing her. Seems like win-win.

I read on here that you have to make advance reservations for Cub’s Den, so I talked to dd about it a couple more times and she was more excited each time. I made the reservations today. So it looks like ds and I will have a date night.

That’s cool considering pretty much the entire next day will be about dd. It’s slated for the Rapunzel Meet & Greet, Tiana Meet & Greet, (break) BBB, and CRT.