Been There, Done That, and Yes, We’re Going Back! New 5/8- I'm back!

[Chelley00]

What were your dates? I was there

We were there Nov 12-22. We got out right before the Thanksgiving rush

 

[disney<333]

Last night, Emily and I made towel animals. I had been wanting to do this ever since the couple trip in April where we got a towel animal in our room everyday. I told Emily about it and she was on board for making them, too.
For our first one, we Googled step-by-step instructions for an elephant. It was pretty hard. Some of the steps felt like foreign language. We missed up somewhere.

Apparently, if you're an elephant then it is o.k to wear a necklace around your legs. We named it Dumbo!
Just doing the elephant didn't satisfy our towel animal needs, so we decided to try the towel animal that you get on your first night! The Mickey Head!

We didn't use instructions for this and it was very simple. Take a bath towel and roll it up the long way. Then take 2 dish towels and do the same. The girls will have these on their beds Disney morning.
Mickey told me that he was impressed with it.

We still didn't have enough so we made a baby bunny. This was very easy, too. I found the instructions on the Disney Family Fun website.

Side view:

We decided the baby needed a Mommy so we did the same thing, except this time we used a bath towel. It ended up looking more like a dog.
Pluto's relative?

Emily completed the look by lending the dog her sunglasses.
We had such a great time doing this!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Towel animals!!! I never even thought of doing that!!! I am with Mickey -- very impressed!

 

[praisehisname]

Very cool towel animals! I never think to do fun stuff like that...

 

[disney<333]

My girls LOVE the alien cupcake! I really like the idea of the themed movie night! very fun!!

I'm glad you and your girls enjoyed it! The cupcakes were very easy to make.

We were there Nov 12-22. We got out right before the Thanksgiving rush

I would love to go during that time. Low crowds, DD's birthday, and my art festival (I went to it every year when we lived in Orlando!). We tried to go then last year but it didn't work out with school and work. The Thanksgiving crowds weren't too, too bad last yr, compared to other years. We had the whole MK to ourselves the night before Thanksgiving.

Towel animals!!! I never even thought of doing that!!! I am with Mickey -- very impressed!

Thanks so much. You should try it! I think the kids would enjoy making them.

Very cool towel animals! I never think to do fun stuff like that...

Thanks! Give it a try! It was so easy, well once we were done with the elephant.

 

[oboedm]

Great job with the animals! I don't think you missed a step with the elephant-- it looked like an elephant to me-- the face was just in the wrong spot, I think? Maybe the right side is the trunk?

Learning how to do this is a great idea. I am going with my nephew, so maybe I will make some for him as a "surprise" if we don't get any in our room. He will never know who made them--- just that the rooms were magically made up and there is an animal on the bed! Thanks for the idea~!

 

[disney<333]

Great job with the animals! I don't think you missed a step with the elephant-- it looked like an elephant to me-- the face was just in the wrong spot, I think? Maybe the right side is the trunk?

Learning how to do this is a great idea. I am going with my nephew, so maybe I will make some for him as a "surprise" if we don't get any in our room. He will never know who made them--- just that the rooms were magically made up and there is an animal on the bed! Thanks for the idea~!

Thank you! I think you're right with the face. I moved it a little and it looks a lot better.
That's a great idea to make them for your nephew. What he doesn't know can't hurt him.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

I LOVE the towel animals- that's such a great idea It looks like a lot of fun

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Hmmmm, I wonder if there are any youtube videos for making towel animals....
Off to look right now!
Great idea!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

OK Barbara, I found a bunch on youtube.
Look what you got started!

 

[disney<333]

About a month a go I made my planning notebook. This is my first time using one and so far it has been great! I have the plans, ADRs, packing list, to do lists, etc. in it. The bonus is it fits right into my VB hipster that I bring with me to the parks!
Here it is before:

Emily got the notebook in school for doing a science project and she didn't want it so she gave it to me.
This is what I managed to do to it:

The Mickey heads are scrapbook paper and I used ribbon for the spiral. I am very pleased with it.
It has a page for phone numbers:

This is what a blank page looks like:

I made a pocket to keep little things in on the front and back.

It even has space for a pen! Although, anything I put in it is with a pencil! Plans change with a flip of a coin.

Where does the post title come from, you ask? Amy saw other diser's binders and then saw mine and said "Mommy, that is something Tinkerbelle would use!"
Coming up next: The Sweetest Place On Earth!

 

[praisehisname]

I love your notebook!!! You are so creative; I would never be able to come up with these idea on my own...

 

[leamom2princesses]

Hi Barbara! I made it over. Great start to your PTR! Love the cupcakes and the planning notebook. Great job!

 

[oboedm]

About a month a go I made my planning notebook. This is my first time using one and so far it has been great! I have the plans, ADRs, packing list, to do lists, etc. in it. The bonus is it fits right into my VB hipster that I bring with me to the parks!

The notebook looks great! I am thinking about making a journal of sorts for the parks, but haven't gotten around to it. What you did seems rather simple, so I may have to hit up Target for a spiral notebook!

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Your note book looks great, very cute!

 

[Legendofthehawk]

Subbing! Loving your PTR so far.

That is such a great idea with the journal! It looks fabulous. It looks like it always meant to be disney!

 

[disney<333]

I LOVE the towel animals- that's such a great idea It looks like a lot of fun

Thanks! It was a lot of fun to do. You should try it.

Hmmmm, I wonder if there are any youtube videos for making towel animals....
Off to look right now!
Great idea!

OK Barbara, I found a bunch on youtube.
Look what you got started!

I bet Shocker must be glad I enabled you into something free.
Great job! It turned out very cute. I'll have to try youtube next time I do it.

I love your notebook!!! You are so creative; I would never be able to come up with these idea on my own...

Thanks, Denise.
I'm an art teacher so I guess I have to be creative.

Hi Barbara! I made it over. Great start to your PTR! Love the cupcakes and the planning notebook. Great job!

Welcome! I'm so glad to have you here. Thanks for the kind words.

The notebook looks great! I am thinking about making a journal of sorts for the parks, but haven't gotten around to it. What you did seems rather simple, so I may have to hit up Target for a spiral notebook!

Oh you should so do it. I decided that when DH isn't in the mood for where I choose for us to eat I'll just whip at my notebook and there will be the menus for all the CSs in the park.
They have notebooks for very cheap now at Walmart for back to school. I need to get some more that are about the size of the one I have now for more trips.

Your note book looks great, very cute!

Thanks, Sara.

Subbing! Loving your PTR so far.

That is such a great idea with the journal! It looks fabulous. It looks like it always meant to be disney!

Welcome! Thanks for the kind words.
I love the notebook. I still have to make
- sweatshirts for the girls
-pressed penny tubes
- luggage and DIS tags
- and I know I'm missing something important.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Oh Barbara, aren't you the funny one!
I thought I would go and BUY some new towels and take them to the group house where my mom lives and make them with her and the other ladies...
Plus we'll need sunglasses or adhesive google eyes....

 

[mousescrapper]

Hi Barbara,

I'm in you have some great one-liners in here...Tink talking to the Pez and of course Elephants wear necklaces around their legs

love your mini trip book...very cute indeed!

can't wait to hear the rest of your plans and see if we have any parks days or anything else that match up...My oldest DD Bekah also 11 loves doing crafty things w/ me too

J~

 

[disney<333]

This isn't necessarily Disney related, but I figured I'd share anyway.
At the end of June we went to New Jersey to visit my mom. We have a ton of family up there and we go every year for a couple of weeks. We got back last week. I have a few things to share about the trip but, first I'll start with our mini vacation. My mom surprised us with a trip to Hershey, PA! I've always wanted to go there. We went June 28-30th and had a great time.
On June 28th we woke up bright and early, ready to go at 10 AM. Pretty impressive for a teen and tween. We couldn't leave yet, however, because my mom who has my grandmother who will be 101 next month living with her and we had to wait for my uncle to come that was staying with my grandmother. We left her house at 11 AM. Got to Hershey at 3:30. I kept comparing this trip to Disney. Here is what I noticed so far: it is the same driving distance to both, Disney is the happiest place on earth and Hershey claims to be "The sweetest place on earth!" Also, we got lost finding the resort just like at Disney.
We stayed at the Hershey Lodge.

The resort has a personalized door mat, just like at Disney.

We walked in and were amazed to smell the scent of chocolate.
This is the only picture I got of the resort at check-in for some reason.

The girls did a self portrait together.

We checked in and then went to go find our room.
The room:

There were kisses on the wallpaper!

Tink made him/herself feel right at home.

We were given these at check-in.

I completely forgot the autograph books I made for the girls!! Luckily, we were able to improvise.

We looked at the times guide for the resort and saw that they had characters in the lobby right then! We packed our park bags and went to go meet some friends.
We met Reese's

and York.

Of course they aren't Mickey and Minnie but they were fun to see.
Being the big shoppers we are, we had to go check out the gift shop. I walked in and saw a huge area with Vera Bradley bags!! My day was made. I got a coin purse in cupcake green to keep my camera and phone in for the water park. Emily got her first Vera purchase! Big moment for me. She chose a wristlet in a cute blue. I forget the print's name. Amy asked why we couldn't just use Walmart bags. I'll give her another year, I think.
Finally, we went to the busses to go find fun! Another comparison, Disney has busses so does Hershey.
First stop was Chocolate World. We had seen this on a Samantha Brown (Doesn't she have the best job?!) and on Jon and Kate Plus 8, so we were excited to see it in person.
Admission for CW is free but almost everything is additional cost. We didn't have much time here so we just did this free ride they had. It shows you how chocolate is made. It made me thing of Journey into imagination and IASW. (annoying, never ending song!)

I didn't notice anything with this picture until Mitch said something.

We get off the ride and there is a gift shop as big as World of Disney! Oh boy, time to loose children. Luckily, we were able to escape with out buying anything.

To be continued.