"But Mommy, how do we get to Disney World?" A Nov/Dec 2011 PTR Update 8/8!

[Villainess]

Hi everyone!

Since our trips are usually booked closer to the 100 day mark, we have some (too many) extra days to countdown for this trip. I decided to change up our usual Mickey ear countdown and make a paper chain, although DD and DS wish I made the old faithful one like this:

I'm second guessing myself at the moment as well since the so-called permanent glue dots I tried to adhere the Mickey heads and paper to did not work - I have little puddles of Mickey heads all over the floor to clean up and repair. Note to self: do not use these glue dots again!

A new addition to our traditional countdown will be surprise Disney Days. I'm planning on making a cute little postcard announcing "Disney Day" that Tinkerbell can leave while we are sleeping in Neverland. During the day, there will be a few crafts and/or activities themed to the movie that we will watch that evening. I plan to introduce DD and DS to some movies that they have never seen or have only seen a handful of times as well as mix in the family favorites! Dinner will also be themed to the movie, at least as best as possible. Originally, I planned to attach stickers or pictures of the movie to be seen on the back of certain Mickey's of the chain. I decided against this because it would require me to figure out which days DD and DS would not be at their dad's, whose weekend is which, etc. and in the event that we have to switch days at the last minute it could mess up things. This way, I know week to week what is going on. So when is the first Disney Day, you ask? TOMORROW!!!!!! Our first themed night will be ...

LADY & THE TRAMP!!!!

I will definitely have pictures of our Disney Day to share! Have a great day - off to plan our Disney Day!

 

[annmarieda]

Wow, I love that countdown calendar! I might have to copy it when I go to make one!

Cant wait to hear about movie night.

 

[poisonapple_PRINCESS]

Oh Lady and the Tramp. Such a good movie. (My brother's fav) Have fun with your Disney day tomorrow!

 

[Kari-B]

Cute countdown chain! Lady And The Tramp is a fun movie! We did a movie night of it, also.

 

[Villainess]

Wow! It looks like you throw AWESOME parties! And I personally have no kids myself, but I have read (on the disboards of course) the horror stories of taking infants! Must not have been to bad if you did it twice! Your kids are super cute! Cant wait to read more plans! Hope you have a great trip!

Thank you! I have seen many families having the worst time of their lives in WDW with infants. From what I've witnessed, they are trying to see the World like they used to, pre-kids. Many meltdowns are from parents not wanting to stop and see things the kids find interesting (they find magic in the smallest things) or wait to meet a character, or just plain tired kids.

Congratulations to your DD for her performance in the recital and the invitation to the audition. She must really enjoy what she's doing and be very good at it!

I'm glad that your ex was at least decent enough to keep her away from your family so that the situation didn't have to be any more awkward than necessary. Still, I'm so sorry you had to deal with any of that.

Thanks so much! I'm quite proud of her and we are waiting for all the paperwork to see which discipline(s) of dance she will be competing in.

Recital pics are super cute! Congrats on your little dancer making the competitive team!!

Thank you!

YAY DD!!! That is soooo awesome she made the team

She looked adorable and the pictures are great, especially you and DD after the recital outside! That is so sweet that DS was so proud and the bouquet is beautiful!! I am glad to hear that everything went drama free as well

DS is a wonderful brother and he really loves his sister. I'm glad that although certainly not planned, DD and DS are so close in age!

Really? That's awesome! If she had held on five more minutes her birthday would of been the 30th. lol.

Oh wow - DS was born at 7:51am but he was a scheduled c-section.

Another Nov traveler joining in! We're waiting on discounts to decide on specific dates but the week after Thanksgiving is looking like the most likely option right now.

Your kids are cuties and those are some birthday parties you throw!

Good job surviving the recital with a minimum of drama. It really stinks when the new GF is so insecure that she needs to force herself into family situations rather than trust her man around you! We've had a few of those moments with my ex and his GF and it is never fun, even though I'm long past caring that she was the other woman a million years ago.

I may just have to steal your "walking to Disney" challenge idea. I've been walking more now that it is warm but I'm not so good with motivation and that seems like something that would keep me going (and smiling while I do it!).

Welcome! I'm glad you are joining in and cannot wait to hear when your dates will be!

Thanks - it wasn't easy but I did it; I wish I could get to the point of not caring who she is. Oh well ...

I'm not doing so great with the walking at the moment. I stopped going to the gym when this allergic reaction thing was so bad; now that it is getting better I'm going to head back I think on Wednesday.

 

[Villainess]

Wow, I love that countdown calendar! I might have to copy it when I go to make one!

Cant wait to hear about movie night.

Glad you like it! Copy away!!!!

Oh Lady and the Tramp. Such a good movie. (My brother's fav) Have fun with your Disney day tomorrow!

Thank you! I'm trying to get a few activities ready and made the postcard - keeping it simple as I would like to do one of these every week or so; want to keep it budget friendly!

Cute countdown chain! Lady And The Tramp is a fun movie! We did a movie night of it, also.

Thanks! I'm planning on making cupcakes that look like spaghetti & a meatball on top for our dessert with DD and DS. We'll see how they turn out!

 

[Villainess]

DD & DS are with their dad this evening and I'm bored, so it gives me the perfect excuse to chat on my PTR - mostly non-Disney stuff!


Dee Dad's surprise party was this past weekend. We successfully managed to keep it a secret from both Mom Mom and Dee Dad, and despite the misty rain that prevented the party from being outdoors, a wonderful time was had by all! I will share pictures soon!

On Sunday, we had our church's picnic. The pastor is relatively new and is trying to reach out and get more of the, unfortunately not-to-visible younger families involved. In general, it is an old parish set in their ways, so this is no easy feat. Still, everyone had fun and with a turnout of about 130 - we declared it a success! I played volleyball - first time in 11 years! Wow was I rusty! I can still serve, but spike - not so much.

DD began her summer dance schedule today. She has graduated to the afternoon classes, so this will take some adjustments both to her and my schedule as I am used to having all activities in the morning with our afternoons free. I just received her schedule for dance and it looks like she will be competing in lyrical and production (which from what I understand is the entire team dance). Right now her summer schedule is 1 hour Monday, 1 hour Tuesday, possible 1 hour Wednesday, 1 hour Friday. Her first competition will be in November and I am thinking it is the weekend before Thanksgiving and our trip. The remaining competitions are in January, February and March.

I also discovered that my favorite Britcom is back on TV - Absolutely Fabulous!!!!

I love this show and had the entire series on VHS, but since I no longer have a VCR, I haven't been able to watch them in years! This began my addiction of Britcom's - Waiting for God, As Time Goes By, Fawlty Towers, Keeping up Appearances, Are you Being Served, and Last of the Summer Wine are personal favorites.

OK, enough chatting ... DD & DS will be home soon!

 

[Shannon84]

YAY for theme nights, we love doing them at our house

I LOVE Absolutely Fabulous!!! I need to see if I can find it on sometime soon!

 

[21hearts]

Yay for themed nights! Were going to have our first one in a week or two I'm still trying to figure out what my schedule with the our churches VBC is. They've had me working a little bit of everything these last two weeks.

 

[afwdwfan]

I'm starting to crave some spaghetti for some reason.

 

[lbuzz52]

Hi there!

leaving on black friday woudl be so HARD! i couldn't survive without shopping the whole week before- you know, when you should be be packing.

your kiddos are so cute! i've fallen in love with the pictures in minnie's sink and the donald with the stroller.

Here's hopign that DS grows 1 1/4' !

Your parties are amazing! I want to come

i hit that gymboree 12.99 sale too! the sales ladies at my local store told me that they were told not to throw away the signs; the sale was a success and they will have it again some time. i hope so, great price on dresses!

we got the same "okapi" dress. dd picked it out and i would have passed right over it, but i LOVE it on her.

 

[Villainess]

YAY for theme nights, we love doing them at our house

I LOVE Absolutely Fabulous!!! I need to see if I can find it on sometime soon!

I found it on some channel LOGO. Never heard of it until the other day!

Theme night went GREAT! I'm uploading pics as I type.

Yay for themed nights! Were going to have our first one in a week or two I'm still trying to figure out what my schedule with the our churches VBC is. They've had me working a little bit of everything these last two weeks.

I'm so glad I opted not to include the movie nights on the countdown chain, especially with DD's new dance schedule. If we go see Cars 2 next Friday, I may do a mini theme night since I still have some checkered flag plates & napkins from DS's 2nd bday party.

I'm starting to crave some spaghetti for some reason.

Oh wait until you see the pics then!!!

Hi there!

leaving on black friday woudl be so HARD! i couldn't survive without shopping the whole week before- you know, when you should be be packing.

your kiddos are so cute! i've fallen in love with the pictures in minnie's sink and the donald with the stroller.

Here's hopign that DS grows 1 1/4' !

Your parties are amazing! I want to come

i hit that gymboree 12.99 sale too! the sales ladies at my local store told me that they were told not to throw away the signs; the sale was a success and they will have it again some time. i hope so, great price on dresses!

we got the same "okapi" dress. dd picked it out and i would have passed right over it, but i LOVE it on her.

Hi! Welcome.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Gymboree has another $12.99 sale b4 the trip. That would be awesome!

I'm not a big Black Friday shopper or early bird Xmas shopper; I prefer 2nd - 3rd week of Dec. after I have the house decorated. Then I can really get into the spirit of wrapping and shopping. I'm sure I will be at the malls the week b4 but shopping for the trip! I also plan to do some Xmas shopping at World of Disney.

 

[Villainess]

Yesterday was our first 'official' family movie night.

I waited until DS woke up (he is my sleepyhead) before I placed the postcard announcing the day in a spot where they would soon find it. They were a bit confused by it as neither one of them can read, but they did recognize the characters.

I kept the postcard design simple and literally threw it together in about 5 minutes the night before.

Upon reading the postcard, both DD and DS were very excited, and DD asked if we would be eating at Tony's!

During the day, they colored some Lady & the Tramp coloring pages I found via Google, and played "Doggie Doggie, where's my bone?". After lunch which consisted of hot dogs, we had to run a few errands for my business.

When we returned home, DD and DS helped me make homemade meatballs, sauce, and our dessert for the evening.

While the meatballs and sauce cooked, they opted to take a drive with Pop Pop to do some errands, one of which included dropping off a deposit at a minor league baseball field. DS was very upset to leave as the game was about to begin.

In the meantime, I set the table, printed out the menu and finished getting dinner ready so we could sit down shortly after everyone was back home.

Dinner consisted of: Appetizers (Pepperoni & Cheese), Garden Salad, Tony's famous spaghetti with meatsa-balls (as my great-grandmother always called them!), and Joe's cheesy garlic bread.

What better way to serve up spaghetti?

After full bellies and quick baths for DD & DS, it was time for our feature movie! DS was a bit disappointed as he realized that this was not the 'puppy movie' aka 101 Dalmations, and immediately declared the movie, "for girls." Still he sat still and cuddled with me on the couch.

About halfway through, it was time to serve up dessert - Bella Notte Cupcakes!

Before running our errands, I did a quick Google search for spaghetti cupcakes since Nonna and Pop Pop do not like tiramisu, although I think DD may like it, I wasn't going to make 2 different desserts. I found a few pictures online and guessed at what they used. During our errands, we hit the food store to purchase a box of cake mix, buttercream icing, Ferraro Rocher chocolates (I like that the are not smooth or perfectly round as most meatballs are not), and raspberry preserves to use as sauce. I had a bar of white chocolate home that I grated as the 'parmesean cheese.'

The verdict: a bit too sweet but definitely fit the theme and the kids loved it. If I were to make this again I would make my own vanilla cake batter and buttercream. I chose raspberry since Nonna doesn't like strawberries and I really do not think it would have made much difference.

Our first family movie night was a success! DD asked if we were having another one today. I told her we have to wait for Mickey to send another postcard!

When will our next movie night be, you ask? Well ... it may possibly be next Friday, when Cars 2 premieres. We have some gift cards to the movie theater that we haven't used; they should buy 3 of the 5 tickets. Then the popcorn, candy, and drinks Anyone else think it is ridiculously expensive to go to the movies anymore? Anyway, I still have the decorations from DS's 2nd birthday so I can hang the racing pennant and use his cars as centerpieces for dinner, then we can go to the movies. If not, then I'm not sure and haven't picked which movie yet. Suggestions?

 

[poisonapple_PRINCESS]

About halfway through, it was time to serve up dessert - Bella Notte Cupcakes!

I have a cupcake book and they have these in there. I'm making corn on the cob ones for my brother's grad party..with jelly beans.

You're Disney Day looked like it was super fun! (and super yummy!)

 

[afwdwfan]

Oh wait until you see the pics then!!!

Um, yeah... looks absolutely delicious. It looks like your Disney Day was quite a success.

As far as your Cars 2 question... we don't do movies too much anymore. We actually have a drive in theater near here that we go to. They do 2 movies each night on the weekends, so we can go and see 2 for less than it costs to see 1 at the regular theater. On top of that, DS can make noise, be squirmy and not bother anyone else and we could smuggle in our own snacks easy enough, but the snack bar there is actually very reasonably priced. I guess they have to be to sell anything. The only downside to that is that the first movie doesn't start until a little after 9, so it makes for a very, very late night. Our last drive in visit was Memorial Day weekend. We saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean and Fast Five.

 

[21hearts]

Your movie night looks awesome!!!

 

[Shannon84]

OMG!!! I am put to shame with your amazing theme night!! We are coming to your house for theme night from now on!!

I have a book with those cupcakes in them, but its so awesome to see someone actually do them because I was thinking they wouldnt come out looking as nice and yours are amazing!

 

[Villainess]

I have a cupcake book and they have these in there. I'm making corn on the cob ones for my brother's grad party..with jelly beans.

You're Disney Day looked like it was super fun! (and super yummy!)

The corn on the cob cupcakes sound fun! Are you using Jelly Belly jelly beans? I think those most resemble kernels.

Um, yeah... looks absolutely delicious. It looks like your Disney Day was quite a success.

As far as your Cars 2 question... we don't do movies too much anymore. We actually have a drive in theater near here that we go to. They do 2 movies each night on the weekends, so we can go and see 2 for less than it costs to see 1 at the regular theater. On top of that, DS can make noise, be squirmy and not bother anyone else and we could smuggle in our own snacks easy enough, but the snack bar there is actually very reasonably priced. I guess they have to be to sell anything. The only downside to that is that the first movie doesn't start until a little after 9, so it makes for a very, very late night. Our last drive in visit was Memorial Day weekend. We saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean and Fast Five.

I so wish there was a drive-in around here; there is one somewhere way out in southwest NJ but it is 2 hours away.

Your movie night looks awesome!!!

Thanks!

OMG!!! I am put to shame with your amazing theme night!! We are coming to your house for theme night from now on!!

I have a book with those cupcakes in them, but its so awesome to see someone actually do them because I was thinking they wouldnt come out looking as nice and yours are amazing!

I'm missing the boat with this awesome cupcake book. What is the name of it? I guessed at ingredients by a picture so I'm pretty pleased how they turned out.

I haven't decided on our next movie night yet. I'm also trying to think of one for around July 4th. Is there really not a patriotic type Disney movie? I must be blanking on something?

 

[poisonapple_PRINCESS]

The corn on the cob cupcakes sound fun! Are you using Jelly Belly jelly beans? I think those most resemble kernels.

I will probably use Jelly Belly's. I just need to make sure they have all the colors I need. (dark yellow, light yellow, and I believe some sort of white one)

There are actually two books with lots of fun cupcakes. Hello, Cupcake and What's New Cupcake. They are so fun.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I love your Lady and the Tramp movie night!! Everything looks great, and I love how helpful your little ones were! I hope that Mickey sends them another postcard! lol

And I do agree that the movies are ridiculously expensive! Last time DH and I went out to dinner and a movie, we had a gift card for 80$ (50$ for dinner and 30$ for the movie) and we spent about another 20-40$ out of pocket! And we only had one drink each with dinner, and got 2 movie passes, popcorn and a drink! Sorry for the slight hijack lol