Always Let Your (Preschooler) Be Your Guide. My First Trip Report! COMPLETE

[katt789]

Yay for updates!! It so exciting that your (and our) trip is so cloooseee!!!! EEEK!!

I still can't get over how similar our plans are! I've totally forgotten, have you guys eaten at Tusker House already? It's one of my favorite places to get breakfast! I love the pre park opening breakfasts, so much awesomeness!! If we manage to not run into each other at some point it will be crazy!!f

No splash mountain!! As if!!?? Haha, definitely myhfavorite ride....although I might have some hard feelings after DLR...booo Sooo excited!!

 

[kmedina]

For the life of me, RFC and SofA is not ringing a bell to me as to what they are?

RFC=Rainforest Cafe. SofA= Spirits of Aloha

I think you will really enjoy CBR, DH and I stayed there in 2006, and we really loved it! It is such a pretty resort and I think it has the very best moderate resort pool (and better than some of the deluxes!).

Agreed. We finally stayed at our dream Resort, the GF. When we went to the pool, I kept thinking I like the pool at CBR better.

 

[MrsTeddy]

Yay for an update and how soon your trip is! I hope that you have more fun at AK this time! I can't wait to read about Tusker House we plan on eating there too!

 

[shan23877]

Sorry I missed this one!

We spent our honeymoon at CBR, lol. Not quite the Bahamas, but we loved it there.

We got married on a cruise to the Bahamas (took 7 people with us) and then went to Disney for 4 days after. In some ways, I would have rather been at Disney the whole time!

Coming from the West Coast, it is always so late by the time we reach Florida. It is hard for us. We did the red eye once, but ended up sleeping the whole day when we arrived, so that backfired.

We are lucky that it's only a 2 1/2 hour flight. We drove to Fla. all the time when I was a kid, and even that took less than a day.

Wait until you see how many times we got to ride the monrail last trip. You will be surprised. You already know what happened the first morning, but there are more instances to come. I would have been more angry, but I kept thinking about how we were upgraded to a Magic Kingdom View. The boats do not start running as early as the monorail. I do not know the exact times. The boat dock was just a few feet from our room, so that would have made our early ADR in MK a little easier.

That's a great attitude to have. I think I'd book one of those resorts for the proximity to MK rather than the monorail access, but I think a lot of people book for the monorail.

I am glad you like the realtor and you got lots of good news.

Thank you! He seems much more our speed than the other guy. We had 2 showings this week, so things are looking good!

Has your dd seen It's Tough to be a Bug before? I have been noticing that people say it's scary a lot lately, but we went last year and dd (3 at the time) loved it! I didn't really notice anything frightening about it..though obviously that is different for everyone. We went on everything and saw everything that we could for her height (which was 40.5 inches last year) and the only thing that scared her was Stitch's Great Escape. I guess Dinosaur scared her a little, but when we got off the ride she insisted on buying a dino which became her new bff, and later in the day we did ride it a second time. I guess my dd is just a thrill chaser! lol

DD hasn't done ITTBaB or Dinosaur, but she's a little bit of a 'fraidy cat. She won't go on Splash again, won't do PotC (though we're working on it). She loves roller coasters, but the "dark" ones really freak her out. Mayble we'll talk to her about it and see if she want to try it. I wonder if there's a youtube video of it that she could see. I really, really want to do HM this trip, so DH and I may loose her trust completely if we convince her to do that!

For the life of me, RFC and SofA is not ringing a bell to me as to what they are? I keep reading SofA as Sons of Anarchy which I'm pretty sure is not at Disney

Sorry! I may have gone overboard with the abbreviations. I think that Kimberly already answered, but it's Spirit of Aloha and Rainforest Cafe

So it looks like our trips are overlapping a day or so. I need to go back and do the math on yours lol. We are arriving April 28th.

And i have to say....time has seemed to hit a standstill now that I am in mega-trip-thinking mode!

We'll be there April 22-29. If I didn't have so much going on around here, I'm sure that time would be crawling by. I'm totally obsessing, but luckily I have lots of distractions. We literally don't have one free weekend between now and the trip.

I'm glad you guys are giving AK another chance. Though it's not our favorite part, we enjoy it a lot. And for some reason Ron loves starting our trip there. He looked at me all crazy last night when I mentioned possibly starting with another park next trip. He's a man of habit, what can I say.


I believe there are more than one path going around the Tree of Life. The one I know you can take right before the bridge to Africa. It's often deserted, so it almost looks like you're going backstage, but it's a real path.

I hope that we'll enjoy AK a little more this time. We like animals as much as the next guy, but we don't really seek them out all that much. DD was in a serious zoo phase a few years ago, so we may have overdone it then. I do think that AK has the most amazing themeing ever though. I could spend hours just taking pictures of the little touches.

Thanks for the info on the paths. We've obviously never spent a great deal of time at AK since I have no idea how to get everywhere

I am also a creature of habit-we'll probably always start off with MK.

I must have missed that you started a PTR here! I'm all caught up and I'm really excited for you about your new house, move, and WDW trip!

I think you will really enjoy CBR, DH and I stayed there in 2006, and we really loved it! It is such a pretty resort and I think it has the very best moderate resort pool (and better than some of the deluxes!).

I really hope you do a TR when you get back, because I'd love to hear about all your dining experiences. Doing the deluxe plan is one of my Disney dreams, so I could live vicariously through you!

Glad you checked back in on the TR! We have LOTS of exciting things going on around here! I am totally over the selling of the current house, but I'm pretty excited to start shopping for the new one.

I'm really looking forward to staying at CBR. I have not heard a single bad thing about the resort.

I'll do a TR, but it may be a slow moving one depending on where we're at with the move.

We are pretty jazzed about DxDP. I know that it'll be a lot of food, but we're up to the challenge. 3 TS is giving us the chance to try a lot of places that we've wanted to try buy pass over in favor of the tried and true. It should be fun to share!

Yay for updates!! It so exciting that your (and our) trip is so cloooseee!!!! EEEK!!

I still can't get over how similar our plans are! I've totally forgotten, have you guys eaten at Tusker House already? It's one of my favorite places to get breakfast! I love the pre park opening breakfasts, so much awesomeness!! If we manage to not run into each other at some point it will be crazy!!f

No splash mountain!! As if!!?? Haha, definitely myhfavorite ride....although I might have some hard feelings after DLR...booo Sooo excited!!

YAY for trips so close!!! It cracks me up how much of our plans are the same. Great minds think alike...

We haven't tried Tusker House yet, and I'm really looking forward to it. I love getting into the park early for breakfast, we have 4 of them planned this trip!

You're right it will be more shocking if we DON'T run into one another than if we do! Everytime I read a TR with a dismeet, they forget to take photos, so we'll have to remember.

DD has sworn off Splash, and DH doesn't like walking around wet all day, so unless I want to ride solo, Splash is out. If DD and DH insist on hitting the Tiki Birds or Country Bears, maybe I'll wander over on my own :rotfl2:

Yay for an update and how soon your trip is! I hope that you have more fun at AK this time! I can't wait to read about Tusker House we plan on eating there too!

I am getting so excited (and DH so tired of hearing about it! He'd much rather I just plan everything and he show up.) I hope that we'll enjoy AK more than usual. We're gonna give it a shot! I think that DD will really enjoy the Rafiki's area, and I'm looking forward to the FotLK.

I think we'll like Tusker House. DD will like it because there's characters, and I love breakfast food, so my guess is that we will. I can't wait to share the trip!

 

[Caretames1]

Thanks! I read up on the monorail situation, and it seems that they won't be running from 9am to 6pm. I'd be really steamed if I'd booked a monorail resort at that time! Do you now how early the resort monorails and boats start running? I'm still trying to figure out the best route for a couple of breakfast ressies at GF and Poly.

I need to get the camera out more (right now it's locked up because we're showing the house so much ) I'll check out the photography boards though, thanks for the tip!

How did the skirt hunting go? Did you find any for Kadence?

I think a lot of people are going to be bummed when the monorail stops running! That is a long time each day to be out of commission!
I believe the monorail starts at 7am. We have used it for our Ohana 7:30am breakfast ADR and it was fine.

Skirt hunting didn't go, the sickness is going around and I'm waiting to see what's at Justice. I just got a 40% off so this weekend I'm gonna take a look around.


I hope your MIL law gets to go, even if she gets to spend a bit of time with Maddie, it will be worth it. We have ask my MIL again to go, but she's saying no for sure. I wish she would, Kadence would love it, and get the grandma time she has been jiped out of the last 4 years due to my usless BIL and his 2 girls living with them. The girls wear my MIL out and we try not to put more on with Kadence visiting and adding to the fray!

Good News on the home front!

 

[shan23877]

Hello All!!!

It's been another crazy week around here! In the last 7 days, we've had 12 showings of the house. On one hand it's excellent news, and our realtor says he almost never sees this much interest in a house. On the other hand, it's exhausting to drag Maddie and both dogs out of the house at a moments notice and for an undetermined amount of time. I have never mopped floors so much in my life as I have in the last week! One of the prospective buyers have been here twice, and from what I understand they've narrowed their search down to us and one other house. They plan to visit each one more time, and make their choice early next week. This is by far the best lead we've had, so please cross your fingers and toes for me!!! (Incidentally, this is our first house and we're definately in first-time-home-buyer range. One of the things we've heard about the house is that some of the finishes don't look professionally done. Ummm, hello? They weren't. The house is on the market for less than 130K. What the heck do people expect? Do they really think that we paid several hundred dollars to have each room painted?)

Anyway, if we can get a contract with a buyer, we can avoid doing the open house thing which as of now is planned for the same weekend that I've committed to go to a bridal shower. The other open house is planned for the weekend that we plan to leave for Disney.

Speaking of Disney.......


THE RESERVATION DIDN'T CANCEL, AND I PAID THE BALANCE THIS MORNING!!!!! I took Maddie to preschool at 9, and by 9:30 I was texting this to DH. "Just spent $4300 in 15 minutes" "A good morning's work hon, even for you".

I paid off the balance of the trip, booked our airline tickets, and prepaid for the photopass CD. Unfortunately the airline prices had jumped considerably but I was able to find flights for pretty close to what I had budgeted. And we saved $100 by upgrading to water view so that helped to offset the inflated flight costs.

I have been searching for a "Cinderella Blue" "tutu" skirt for Maddie to wear with her Cindy and Alice T-shirts, but haven't found one. Tonight I broke down and bought the fabric to make it for her. Making the skirt wouldn't be a big deal, but to have the house ready to show, all of my sewing things have been tucked away. I do need to sew a couple of one-seam dresses anyway, so I guess I'll drag everything out at once.

An update on MiLgate 2012? There isn't one. She hasn't even responded to my email. Disappointing.

And now onto DAY 3!

This will most assuredly be Maddie's favorite day of the trip, and because of that will likely be Bryan and I's favorite too.

It's another MK day!

Breakfast on day 3 is at Crystal Palace at 8:50

We love Pooh and the gang, and the puffed french toast is yummy!

We'll be able to get into the park a little bit ahead of the crowds, and we'll get to sleep in a bit!

After breakfast we'll focus on Fantasyland. But, before we hit the new Goofy coaster, we'll be on a mission to find the FairyGodmother. I know from other TRs that she's often out in the castle area in the mornings. Does anyone have any more info about her whereabouts? Carey? Didn't you guys manage to find her? The reason it's so important to me is that 1. she a new character for us and 2. we'd love to be able to get her to deliver Maddie's "invitation"

You may remember that we told Mads that little girls had to be invited to the BBB, and would you believe that she'll be invited to go again? Such a lucky little girl! Anyway, since we told her that F.G. delivered the last invite, we'd love to be able to get her to hand deliver this one.

If we can't find her, the day will not be ruined. We'll just tell Maddie that we forgot to give her the invite when she woke up. We'll knock out as much Fantasy land as possible (and hopefully get through the Rapunzel line without a huge wait) before our 11:50 appointment at the BBB!!

We're doing the Castle Package again. Maddie has been planning for "next trip" for a few weeks now, and she claims that she'll choose the Jasmine outfit if she's lucky enough to go to BBB, so we'll see if she sticks with that or crumbles in the face of that pink Aurora dress.

After BBB we'll get a quick lunch paying OOP. I'm hoping for corn dog nuggets at Casey's, but since this is DD's day we'll probably end up at Peco's Bills.

I'm sure that most of our afternoon will consist of princess and fairy stalking, and I think that we'll stay at MK all day. I know that DD won't want to ruin her hair by swimming, but I can picture her wanting to hop over to Epcot to meet more princesses there.


And, finally for dinner, the last trick that mom has up her sleeve for the day...

We'll be dining at CRT at 8:30. I do wish that it was a bit earlier, but it's the only ressie that I could get my hands on. Maddie remembers her CRT breakfast as her favorite meal from her first trip, so I'm sure that she won't mind eating a little late.

After dinner we'll see how everyone is feeling. I won't be surprised if we just head back to CBR for a quick swim and an early bed time.

If anyone has any tips for me or thinks that I'm missing something, please feel free to let me know! I feel like I threw this trip together in a matter of minutes while I was making ADRs, so I'm a little uneasy.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[shan23877]

I think a lot of people are going to be bummed when the monorail stops running! That is a long time each day to be out of commission!
I believe the monorail starts at 7am. We have used it for our Ohana 7:30am breakfast ADR and it was fine.

Skirt hunting didn't go, the sickness is going around and I'm waiting to see what's at Justice. I just got a 40% off so this weekend I'm gonna take a look around.


I hope your MIL law gets to go, even if she gets to spend a bit of time with Maddie, it will be worth it. We have ask my MIL again to go, but she's saying no for sure. I wish she would, Kadence would love it, and get the grandma time she has been jiped out of the last 4 years due to my usless BIL and his 2 girls living with them. The girls wear my MIL out and we try not to put more on with Kadence visiting and adding to the fray!

Good News on the home front!

I can't believe that the monorail will be down for such a large portion of the day! I know that things have to be built and fixed up a the slower times of year, but I'm getting bummed! Limited monorail useage, no BTMRR, and possibly no TT! Yikes! I'm sure we'll have a great time, but gosh!

I hope that everyone is feeling better by now, that's no fun. I bet you'll have good luck at Justice. They have cute stuff, and 40% is a major score!

I really hope that MiL pulls her head out of her.... armpit and decides to go. I mean, I'd really rather not go with her, but Maddie would LOVE to have some time with her without her cousins around. I know that my MiL would be on cloud 9 getting to spend time in her happy place with a deliriously happy 5 year old, but she's such a martyr!!!

I hope that someday Kadence will get to do Disney with a grandparent. My grandparents took me when I was a kid, and those trips are something that I'll never forget. It was so special to spend that time with them.

And thanks for the 7 am monorail tip! I think we'll have to use the monorail b/c the boats don't start until after breakfast. I sure hope that we don't have to bus from MK because THAT would be a pain!!

 

[CandleontheWater]

I think your day sounds about as perfect as it could get for a little girl!

I hope someone in my family has a little girl, because I would love to plan a princess-filled Disney day! Right now between me and my cousins we've had 8 boys, and one more boy on the way! Law of averages says someone has to have a girl sometime, right?

I'm sorry about your MIL, but I know you guys will have a great trip anyway. Sometimes its just easier to do Disney with your nuclear family, that way you don't have to worry about conflicting touring styles and ideas, or hurting anyone's feelings.

 

[merbobear]

We are doing BBB this year too (first timers though). I just showed my dd some dress pictures yesterday, and despite the fact that she's been saying she wants a Belle dress (and me trying to gently persuade her to consider cinderella, since she already has a Belle dress), she took one look at Jasmine's outfit and started jumping up and down saying she can't wait to be Jasmine. So...looks like that might be her princess of choice too. We'll see what happens when we are there though!

 

[JAMIESMITH]

I ordered a perfect "Cinderella blue" tutu from Gymboree last year. They are not on the website now, but you might find one on ebay.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Loving the plans for MK and can't wait to hear how Maddie enjoys being in the spotlight

 

[ronnmel]

Great plans! You can always try to stalk the Disney dinning website and hope to get an earlier ADR for CRT before the trip.

 

[katt789]

Yay!! So many plans are the same! Haha, we'll definitely be hitting up characters as much as we can! Probably do fantasyland in the emh. I still can believe we even have the same breakfast that day!
As for FGM: go through the castle, and immediately left, kinda in the smoking area, if she's not there, she'll be up about 10 feet and to the right hand side.

Maybe we'll see ya in Rapunzel's line?! (And by we I mean me...while Tyler & Tanessa do tomorrowland haha!!)

 

[katt789]

Also we'll have to keep in touch to see which Princess I'm keeping an eye out for in the parks!

ALSO, we went shopping in Edmonton last week, and of course went to the Disney store, and definitely saw the Rapunzel deluxe wedding dress...I almost bought it...for my future child...seriously...It's THAT amazing!! Hoooolyyyyyy cow!

 

[kmedina]

I hope your house sells quickly, so you do not have deal with multiple open houses at inconvenient times. It is good that your WDW reservation worked out. I knew it would. That stinks that your MIL is ignoring you. You'll have fun with or without her, so it is her loss if she does not go.

You have an awesome Day Three planned. We saw the Fairy Godmother right near the CRT entrance around lunchtime two trips ago. I hope it works out. We did a 9:20pm dinner last trip, and the boys did all right. I think 8:30pm will be fine at CRT.

 

[Caretames1]

Sorry, I didn't respond earlier, I swear I haven't know whether I was coming or going the last week/weekend!


First to answer your question about the Fairy Godmother; I found her behind the Castle, right in front of Castle Couture. I also had asked a CM who pointed her right out! I have heard she doesn't stay out long, maybe an hour after park opening.

I did good at Justice and Children's place. At Justice my total bill was $93, after the clearance prices came off, and then my 40% the bill was $33! Score!

I will take some pics and put them up in my PTR......oh yeah I said PTR! (which will be started this week)


I haven't decide if we're going to do BBB again, I may wait until the next trip after....yeah I have that one planed too! It's going be a big one so that maybe more fitting.

 

[shan23877]

I think your day sounds about as perfect as it could get for a little girl!

I hope someone in my family has a little girl, because I would love to plan a princess-filled Disney day! Right now between me and my cousins we've had 8 boys, and one more boy on the way! Law of averages says someone has to have a girl sometime, right?

I'm sorry about your MIL, but I know you guys will have a great trip anyway. Sometimes its just easier to do Disney with your nuclear family, that way you don't have to worry about conflicting touring styles and ideas, or hurting anyone's feelings.

I'd think that there'd have to be a girl eventually! I think that our very, very girly day will be awesome, and I know Maddie will be overjoyed. She's been planning her "if we ever get to go back to Disney" trip a LOT lately. She's really nervous that she won't get invited to BBB again and is hoping that maybe we can just go in and ask if she could get a makeover.

I'm trying not to worry too much about MiL, but I know that it hurts DHs feelings. I'd much rather the trip be just the 3 of us, but I know that Maddie and MiL would both really enjoy the experience. I'm sure the trip will be great no matter what.

We are doing BBB this year too (first timers though). I just showed my dd some dress pictures yesterday, and despite the fact that she's been saying she wants a Belle dress (and me trying to gently persuade her to consider cinderella, since she already has a Belle dress), she took one look at Jasmine's outfit and started jumping up and down saying she can't wait to be Jasmine. So...looks like that might be her princess of choice too. We'll see what happens when we are there though!

You'll have so much fun at BBB!!! It is amazing!

We really wanted Maddie to choose the Tiana dress last time (it's gorgeous), and gently steered her away from the long-sleeved Aurora.

The Jasmine costume is really beautiful too, but I think my DH is having a hard time with the idea of his little girl with an exposed navel

I'll be excited to hear what your little princess ends up choosing!

I ordered a perfect "Cinderella blue" tutu from Gymboree last year. They are not on the website now, but you might find one on ebay.

Thanks for the tip! I had actually already bought the fabric to make one, and it only cost me $7 in fabric!

I'll post pics soon!

Loving the plans for MK and can't wait to hear how Maddie enjoys being in the spotlight

Thank you! I'm sure that she'll be over the moon about the "Maddie Day"!

Great plans! You can always try to stalk the Disney dinning website and hope to get an earlier ADR for CRT before the trip.

Thanks! I've been stalking the sight, but no luck yet. A late ressie is better than none though, and I'm sure she'd wait til midnight to eat at the castle!

Yay!! So many plans are the same! Haha, we'll definitely be hitting up characters as much as we can! Probably do fantasyland in the emh. I still can believe we even have the same breakfast that day!
As for FGM: go through the castle, and immediately left, kinda in the smoking area, if she's not there, she'll be up about 10 feet and to the right hand side.

Maybe we'll see ya in Rapunzel's line?! (And by we I mean me...while Tyler & Tanessa do tomorrowland haha!!)

Thanks for the FG info! I think I might stop at Town Hall on the way in for breakfast to try to get her pinned down. I really hope it works out!

You could always wait in line for Rapunzel with us if your friends ditch you!

Also we'll have to keep in touch to see which Princess I'm keeping an eye out for in the parks!

ALSO, we went shopping in Edmonton last week, and of course went to the Disney store, and definitely saw the Rapunzel deluxe wedding dress...I almost bought it...for my future child...seriously...It's THAT amazing!! Hoooolyyyyyy cow!

As of now, you're looking for Jasmine, but I'll bet that Aurora dress might make a strong showing in the end

Isn't that Rupunzel wedding dress amazing??? I can't wait until Easter to see it on her! I think that you can definately keep an eye out for a Rapunzel bride on the first day of the trip!

I hope your house sells quickly, so you do not have deal with multiple open houses at inconvenient times. It is good that your WDW reservation worked out. I knew it would. That stinks that your MIL is ignoring you. You'll have fun with or without her, so it is her loss if she does not go.

You have an awesome Day Three planned. We saw the Fairy Godmother right near the CRT entrance around lunchtime two trips ago. I hope it works out. We did a 9:20pm dinner last trip, and the boys did all right. I think 8:30pm will be fine at CRT.

Thank you so much. I may have house news very soon....

I was so relieved that the reservation worked out. We're getting really excited. DH even took it upon himself to print out invites to CRT and BBB today while he was at work! I was shocked, that tells me how much he's looking forward to the trip too.

My MiL is bumming me out. I think it hurts Bryan's feelings that she's not even responding. I'd rather go without her, but I know how much fun she and Maddie would have together.

Thanks for the Fairy Godmother tip! We'll be on the lookout all morning. Maddie has been telling us that CRT was her favorite meal last trip, so I think she'll be ok eating late as long as we're going there (and as long as we keep up a steady stream of snacks for her)

Sorry, I didn't respond earlier, I swear I haven't know whether I was coming or going the last week/weekend!


First to answer your question about the Fairy Godmother; I found her behind the Castle, right in front of Castle Couture. I also had asked a CM who pointed her right out! I have heard she doesn't stay out long, maybe an hour after park opening.

I did good at Justice and Children's place. At Justice my total bill was $93, after the clearance prices came off, and then my 40% the bill was $33! Score!

I will take some pics and put them up in my PTR......oh yeah I said PTR! (which will be started this week)


I haven't decide if we're going to do BBB again, I may wait until the next trip after....yeah I have that one planed too! It's going be a big one so that maybe more fitting.

No worries! It's been pretty crazy here too.

Thanks for the FG info. I thought you'd found her. I so hope that we can pull off that part of the surprise!

Sounds like a VERY successful shopping trip! I bet Kadence was excited! I had horrible luck finding shoe deals this weekend, but no problems finding multiple pairs

Very excited for the PTR!!!! I can't believe that you're pulling one over on her again! That's so cool. Will she be planning the trip that you're actually taking? So fun!!!

 

[shan23877]

Tonight I have excellent news to report....




WE SOLD THE HOUSE!!



To be fair, we've accepted an offer and are under contract pending the inspections and radon test. But still, great news!

However, the agreed upon closing date is May 4. Why is that a bid deal you ask? Because we're going to be in Disney until April 29

And, Bryan will be starting the new job on April 30.

So, what that means for us is that we'll likely move out of our house the day before we leave for WDW, moving almost all of our earthly possessions into my MiL's basement and garage. Maddie and I will spend the following 6 weeks in an extended stay hotel while she finishes up her school year and dance lessons. If all goes according to plan, we'll move out of our little room on June 3, the day after her dance recital. It's not an ideal situation, but shouldn't be too bad. And, without a house or dogs to take care of (the dogs will be at MiL's house with DH Monday through Friday), I should have plenty of time to get my PhotoPass CD ordered, and get my TR up and running!

In the next few weeks we have a garage sale to pull off, a dear friends bridal shower and wedding, Easter, and I'm planning the annual party for about 1000 people at my job. That's in addition to packing for the move, and vacation, and the hotel stay as well as meeting again with our mortgage broker and finding a house to buy I'm going to be a busy girl, but the time should fly by until vacation!

Speaking of the trip...

We got our Magical Express documents in the mail on Monday!

I realize that at the beginning of the PTR I said that I would likely match Maddie's outfits to our plans, but I've forgotten to do that. So, if anyone cares..

Maddie will probably wear a princess shirt and tutu skirt for the traveling portion of our first day, but we'll pack one of the princess dresses in our carry-on just in case she decides to be a princess for our first MK day.

For our AK day, she'll probably wear her Minnie bows shirt and skirt.

On BBB day she'll wear another princess ensemble most of the day of course, and I'll try to talk her into a romper for breakfast since it's one piece and won't take up too much room in our park bag for the rest of the day.

This weekend I discovered that Maddie had outgrown all of her spring/summer shoes, so I was forced to go shopping she ended up with 3 new pair of Crocs, but we'll see how many days on the trip she can be talked out of sparkly princess shoes.

In the last update I mentioned that I'd been unable to find a "cinderella blue" skirt. Well for about $7 worth of fabric and 2 hours of my time...

It appears to be her new favorite skirt, and she insisted on wearing it to the local zoo this past Sunday. (She's also wearing one of her new pairs of shoes-the color changing Crocs. Once the saleslady mentioned the color change aspect, DD simply HAD to have them )

So, we should be up to speed on DDs wardrobe, and now onto Day 4!!

Day 4 was intended to be our "down day", but....

We have Breakfast reservations at 1900 Park Fare at 8:30am. We missed Alice last trip, so we figured that Maddie would love this.

She'll probably wear the Alice T-shirt with the blue skirt that I made.

After breakfast we'll bus from the GF to DTD. DH has already declared that he needs some new ESPN t-shirts, Maddie has been promised a Mr. Potato Head box (you know, on the hypothetical future trip she's planning), and I'd like to get our Christmas ornament. I wouldn't mind looking for a new Cubs T or 2 at Team Mickey, and DD has been earning spending money (though she has no idea why I won't let her spend it), and I'd love to get my hands on some fancy soaps for our fancy new master bath from Basin.

We have an early lunch planned at Earl of Sandwich which may very well be the worst use of a TS credit in the history of the Dining Plan, but this was one of the two restaurants that DH requested to dine at on this trip. He did ask if I thought he could get 2 sandwiches for his credit since it's quick service . I mentioned to Bryan a few days ago that I'd be photographing our food for the TR on this trip. He said that I could take pictures of my food all I want, but not his. When I asked why he replied "Because I want to eat my food when it arrives" I reminded him of the super fast shutter speed on our new camera and was rewarded with an eye roll. He's all bluster. I'll get the pics

After DTD the plan was origionally to go back to CBR and spend the afternoon at the pool. However, I think we may sneak a park in. We have a ton of things we'd like to to at DHS this trip, and I'm afraid that I won't get enough Flower and Garden in our only Epcot day, so we might hit up one of them.

Dinner on Day 4 is the 5:15 Spirit of Aloha Luau! DD is sort of obsessed with Hawaii, so I think she'll really like it, and DH and I are looking forward to seeing it for the first time too. On the off-chance that the SoA gets rained out I am hoping that we might be able to get into the late showing of the Hoop De Doo Revue. If not, we'll take whatever signature reservations we can get our hands on so late in the game.

We don't plan to try to see any fireworks shows that evening, but maybe we'll catch some of Illuminations from the pool at CBR!

We did get my MiL on the phone this week, and she said she plans to respond to my email tomorrow. She's had a lot going on at work, and after her morning meeting (with the FDA ) she'll have a better idea of whether she'll be able to get away or not. So, I feel a lot better knowing that she wasn't just ignoring us.

Maddie insisted that I take my "special camera" to the zoo, and I played around with it some while she played in the yard afterward. I thought I'd share my favorite pic from the afternoon...

Cooper is the Beagle. I often refer to him as my first-born, and I cried like a baby this week thinking about selling the house that we brought he and Maddie home to.

Lucy is the puggle, and though she's very,very sweet and loveable, she's also a pain in the butt. I didn't cry about leaving the house where we've made memories with her.

Have a great day everyone! I hope to post more soon, if only to have an excuse to take a break from my life.

 

[LilAnn]

Yay, congrats on selling the house!

Wow, she looks so grown up now and her hair is so long! We just chopped off DD's hair last night but seeing that pic makes me wish I hadn't. But she also wears her headbands right on her forehead, so it's not the same effect.

Awesome job on the cinderella tutu! I love that outfit! Makes me want to make one, but I don't really have any crafty genes in me.

 

[katt789]

Yay! Maddie looks so grown up! I love the tutu look...you think I could get away with it?

If you make DHS on day 4, maybe we'll see each other! Haha! Congrats on selling the house! I didn't know Maddie took dance?! That's awesome
GAH! Color changing crocs?!?! TOO COOL.