Can I Really Keep My Mouth Shut For The Next 6 Months? Update 6/4 Link to TR

[Becc1]

We headed over to Main Street and did a little more shopping while Chris went over to check and see if we could get into Crystal Palace a little early. We were not in the stores long when Chris called to tell us that we were able to be seated so we rushed over. This was our first time eating at the Crystal Palace, we had reservations last year but ended up canceling them so we were all excited to be going here especially Ben who loves Winnie the Pooh. Food was fantastic, definately everyone's favorite buffet that we ate at and one of the best meals overall.

Ben with his buddy

Tigger was so cute, he taught Emily how to bounce like him

Sam said before Eeyore came around that he was going to give him a big hug because he was always so sad and wanted to cheer him up.

After dinner we walked back down Main Street, stopping along to shop a little, I got a couple prints from Disney Animation. Then we headed out, it was ready to pour at any moment and we just made it to our car when it started. Back to the resort, Christian spent some time in the arcade and we got the little ones to bed a little after 9pm.

 

[Becc1]

Day 9 Epcot

The next day was sadly our last, we slept in a little. Today was our second day at Epcot which we had planned on spending the majority of the day in World Showcase so we were not in a huge rush to make it to rope drop. I didn't keep notes on my last day so I'm just going in order of the pictures that I took this day. Got to the parks around 9:30, the guys wanted to ride a few rides before WS opened so we first headed to Test Track, Chris, Christian and Sam rode while my mil, Ben, Emily and I waited in the TT store. Then we went over to The Land so my mil, Christian, Ben and Sam could ride Soarin. While we waited Chris got a muffin and Emily got a bag of chips to munch on, we had a ton of snack credits that we had to use up before the end of the day. We then went over to WS, starting in Canada.

We just kinda strolled by Canada, unfortunately we did not stop to see any movies in any of the countries, next visit I'd like to but still not sure if my kids would sit through them or not. Onto England, we had no real plans for lunch today, just thought that we would eat when we got hungry so Chris and Christian got a fish and chips meal at Yorkshire County Fish Shop while my mil shopped and I took the kids in to do their masks. Pooh was coming in while we were leaving but since we had just seen him the night before we decided not to wait in line again although the line was not long at all.

I always have to get a shot of Christian in the phone booth, I don't think he finds it amusing anymore though, lol.

Gotta have a beer to go with the fish and chips

Next it was over to France, mil went to get some pastries and shop a little, Chris and I took the kids to do their masks and we found Belle with a small wait. The cm told us that the Beast would be out in 20 minutes so we decided to wait while snacking on some strawberry and chocolate crepes and a Grand Marnier Slushee for me! Aurora was also here in France but we decided to skip her since we had seen her twice already.

Beast came out and we got right in line to see him, Emily has a Disney nickname for everyone in our family and she calls Chris the Beast so getting a picture with him was a must.

 

[Becc1]

We heard Jasmine and Aladdin were out in Morocco so we rushed over to see them since we were trying to see all of the princesses for Emily. After seeing them Chris, Christian, my mil and Sam went over to Japan to see some performers while I took Emily and Ben to do their masks and takes some pictures in Morocco.

It was starting to rain a bit so I ran over to Japan to meet up with everyone, we walked through the shops for a bit, did the kids masks and then headed over to America. It started to pour at this point so we decided to take a break in Liberty Inn and got lunch. My mil and I split the chicken caesar wrap, Chris and Christian split a bacon cheeseburger and of course the boys and Emily got chicken nuggets. I never thought I would be eating American food in WS when there are so many different types of foods to choose from but everything was really good. While eating we got a nice treat.

 

[Becc1]

2009 mini TR continued


It stopped raining and we lingered a bit while the place emptied out. Which was a smart move because by the time we left we went to the right outside of the restaurant and came upon a bunch of friends and nobody was in line to see them. When do you ever see Mickey just standing there with noone around him?

Being the crazy character hunter that I am, I was in heaven! The kids got to spend lots of time with the characters. We left our friends and went on to Italy, watched some comedian's, got some yummy wine and shopped a little.

 

[Becc1]

We walked by Germany because that was where we had dinner reservations and continued over to China, just missing Mulan, who was going in for a break. Walked around the shops then it started to rain so we decided to head back over to Germany and see if we could get into Biergarten early. We walked in the shops while we waited and were called in. Food here was great, I haven't been here since my grandparents took me. My grandfather was German so we would go to Oktoberfeasts every year and I love German food but don't really eat it very often anymore. We were seated front row, center and the band was great, kids went out and danced, we all had a wonderful time.

My mil Camille , it was officially her birthday today

We proabably look like a bunch of lushes with all this alcohol but believe me it was a treat for us, we rarely drink but decided to have a little fun while in WS this day.

After dinner we headed out of the park, the rain was really starting to come down once we got past Mexico.

That picture in Mexico was the last one I took, I slipped in the rain (gotta love them Crocs) and fell and dropped my camera in a puddle. At first the camera worked right away so I though I was ok but later on when we got back to the resort it wouldn't turn on. A crappy way to end the vacation but at least it happened on the last part of our last day. We went back to Pop, finished packing up (I had done alot the night before) and went to bed around 10pm. My mil and Christian were up early for their flight, ME was taking them to the airport at 5:30. Chris and I slept a little later, got up about 6:30 and were on the road. Trip home was uneventful besides the crazy amount of traffice we encountered on 95. And there was no construction or major rain so all I could attribute the traffic to was maybe everyone was on their way home so their kids could start school on Monday like ours were. We didn't get home until 10pm which still isn't bad for the drive, traffic probabaly held us up 2 hours or so.

So that's the end of my mini TR from our last trip. Can't wait to continue with my PTR, I have a Mulan party in the works, trying to figure a day to do it this week while the kids are out of school so I'll post pics of that hopefully later this week. And for those of you who are reading, remember don't be shy, I'd love to know someone is out there

 

[Becc1]

So we've finally gotten back to our theme nights! December was so busy that we only got 1 in and that was in the beginning of the month.

Our movie tonight was Mulan, quite an easy movie to do dinner for. I made orange chicken, sweet and sour chicken, dumplings and white rice. It was a blast watching the kids try to eat with the chopsticks! For dessert we had fortune cookies and panda cupcakes. We had won an asian themed basket in a raffle at the kids school winter fair so we had a few cute things for decorations and we were joined by Mulan and Li Shang! For a craft we made Chinese lanterns and did some Mulan coloring pages. It was a fun and pretty easy night to arrange, next up is Finding Nemo/The Little Mermaid!

 

[Disnewbie76]

Very cool! Enjoyed the trip report, although not sure why I wasn't able to see most of your pics for the last few days of the reports.

 

[Becc1]

Very cool! Enjoyed the trip report, although not sure why I wasn't able to see most of your pics for the last few days of the reports.

Thanks so much for reading! I don't know what is up with the pictures, they are working on my page now so I hope it was only a fluke

 

[AKL LOVER]

I'm following along too!

Man, you are brave--driving to Disney from MD! We live in Fredericksburg, VA (1/2 way between DC and Richmond--you pass us on 95!) and we always fly. I'm rather scared to drive that far...it just doesn't strike me as the best way to start my vacation. I guess I'm too afraid of how much the kids would hate it!!

We are also doing Disney theme nights until our trip in the beginning of May. We have just started though. Our first was Aladdin. Isn't that family theme night thread the best? That's what made me decide to start doing our own. And now my kids are hooked after just one!

 

[Becc1]

So as I previously said, I have this sick problem with shopping for my trip WAY too far in advance. I was trying to organize my closet today and combining all of my purchases I've made so far. I thought I'd share what I've gotten for the trip.

These are for Ben and Sam, we are a Crocs family and I love these for the parks, unfortunately they didn't have Minnie in Emily's size so I'll have to keep a look out for them in the Crocs outlet near my house!

Tees for Emily

And for Ben and Sam, I got 2 of each shirt, I like them to match

On 1 of the days we will be in WDW I thought it would be fun for us all to wear our favorite baseball team

So for Ben and Sam I got this

For Chris and Christian I got this for them this to wear

And for Christmas I got this

I'll also wear one of my Yankees tees that day. I got Emily a really cute Yankee dress but I can't find it anywhere

For Christmas my MIL got me some new bags for the trip that she knew I wanted

The Vera Bradley Hipster

A matching cooler that I may use to hold juice boxes or water

And finally a new backpack, I have a diaper bag one that I absolutely love but it's 8 yrs old and dying (strap is ready to go) so I've been looking for a new one. My MIL actually got me a messenger type bag that I thought I liked but once I got it I realized it's not what I was looking for so I exchanged it at the LLBean store for this bag which I love! It's really lightwieght and not too big, perfect for the few things we'll need to keep in the stroller!

I've also done some shopping for myself but they haven't come in yet, I got a gift card to Old Navy for Christmas so I took advantage of their after Christmas online sales and bought a ton of new tees I think I am truely done shopping for the little guys, I wanted to get Emily a couple of custom made dresses but I don't think that I'm going to. To be fair I will get Christian some new clothes for the trip, it will be the beginning of summer so he'll be needing some stuff anyway.

So now that the clothes shopping is done, it's on to the other things, I put all of the toiletries that my MIL filled our stockings with away for the trip already but I'll start getting things here and there for the trip soon!

 

[Becc1]

I'm following along too!

Man, you are brave--driving to Disney from MD! We live in Fredericksburg, VA (1/2 way between DC and Richmond--you pass us on 95!) and we always fly. I'm rather scared to drive that far...it just doesn't strike me as the best way to start my vacation. I guess I'm too afraid of how much the kids would hate it!!

We are also doing Disney theme nights until our trip in the beginning of May. We have just started though. Our first was Aladdin. Isn't that family theme night thread the best? That's what made me decide to start doing our own. And now my kids are hooked after just one!

Thanks for reading! We are crazy for driving but have done it in the past and it's gone well so far. But of course my kids now have been bickering everytime we get in the car so I must admit I am nervous about 14 hours of it!

Just read your PTR, loving it so far and I loved your Aladdin night!

 

[hurleysweety]

Like many others, I too just love your theme nights! I especially like all your creative cupcake decorating.

So I might have missed it, but did you decide on the surprising part yet? I'm such a sucker for surprise trips as my parents did it to my sister and I back in the day (once for Disney!). I can't wait to read about their reaction and your, what I'm sure will be, super creative way of telling them!

 

[Becc1]

Like many others, I too just love your theme nights! I especially like all your creative cupcake decorating.

So I might have missed it, but did you decide on the surprising part yet? I'm such a sucker for surprise trips as my parents did it to my sister and I back in the day (once for Disney!). I can't wait to read about their reaction and your, what I'm sure will be, super creative way of telling them!

Thanks so much, we are really enjoying the theme nights! In fact last night the kids had the dvd album out and were making suggestions for movies for us to do. Our list has gotten so long that I think that even after our trip we'll continue doing the nights!

Still not sure on how we are going to surprise the kids yet. I keep going back and forth whether I was to do it a month before, the night before or the day of! My older DS Christian really wants to surprise them on the morning we leave but after talking with Sam's teacher I don't think it's the best idea. Sam is a bit OCD and really likes to know what we are doing. His teacher thinks that he may be upset about missing a few days of school so maybe if she made it clear to him that it was ok to be absent and gave him work to do for the week that he won't be worried the whole time we are gone. He's also a big stickler for schedules and the calendar so if we threw something out there at the last second he may not be pleased. So that leaves us with doing it a month ahead, maybe at Easter, or a week ahead and we could do a WDW theme night. I'll be sure to keep everyone up to date!

 

[AKL LOVER]

You have found the best Disney t-shirts--I love them! And you find them all at the Disney Store? Makes me wish I had one near me Are there any other stores besides the Disney store that you have had luck finding them at?

 

[Becc1]

You have found the best Disney t-shirts--I love them! And you find them all at the Disney Store? Makes me wish I had one near me Are there any other stores besides the Disney store that you have had luck finding them at?

Thanks! I found all of the boys and most of Emily's at the Disney Store and Disney online. The Thumper, Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket and red Mickey and Minnie tees I found at Walmart the other day for $3 a piece! They had other ones but I had to control myself because she has so many Disney clothes already! The Mickey dress is custom made, but it's actually so big on Emily, I'm not sure she'll be wearing it. And the Yankee tees I found at Modells online.

 

[Becc1]

Well I feel like I've been at a stand still with the planning. Originally I was going to be much more relaxed on this trip but with my neice now coming I feel like we should have a plan so we can show her as much as possible since she hasn't been in 9 years and doesn't really remember a whole lot about the last time she visited. We've also been working on trying to get her parents, my DH brother and his wife, to come down for a few days. My SIL jokingly mentioned it at Christmas and my BIL said he thought it was a good idea. I don't think they are going to be able to swing it though, they own a restaurant/bar and are already taking some time away in July to go to Aruba. When they leave for more than a night or two they close the restaurant and they just don't want to have to do that twice in 2 months. It's probably a good thing because I do recall after our last trip to WDW with them I said I would never do it again, lol. We are kinda the opposite when it comes to our vacation styles, we are early risers and like to get to the parks at rope drop, they are night owls and like to take it easy in the morning. We love vacationing with them at the beach but Disney is a different story.

So on with the plans.

Day 1 will be our travel day, as I think I mentioned before, Christian, Cassandra and my MIL will be flying down and my DH, the 3 little ones and myself will be driving down. We actually like having the car down there and don't mind the drive. It's a 14 hour drive so I will have plenty planned to entertain the kiddos, that's my job on the trip, entertainment coordinator. DH prefers to drive the whole way and I just try to keep the kids happy The plan is to get up around 5:30am, get everyone dressed and ready to hit the road by 6:30am. We are having Christian attend school for a half day so we will wait until he gets on the bus at 6:30 to leave. We usually drive for 3 hours at a time so we'll probably stop around 9:30 for breakfast and to stretch our legs. Will most likely get food to go so this stop should last only about 15-20 minutes. Then back on the road again for another 3 hours or so, stop for snacks or lunch, back on the road, dinner maybe 5/6pm. I am really hoping we make it down to Orlando by 9pm. Last year we left later in the morning so we didn't quite make it all of the way down before DH had to stop for the night. I didn't make a reservation for this night at POP just in case we don't make it so we'll probably just find something outside property for the night.

In the meantime my MIL will pick up Christian from school around 12pm and head out to the airport for their 3:10 flight out of BWI. They arrive at MCO at 5:30pm, after taking the ME to POP and checking in they will most likely head to DTD for dinner and shopping. My MIL is a little nervous about taking the buses (she's never had to before) but DS and DN keep telling her she'll be ok, lol.

And those are the "plans" for Day 1, barring no crazy traffic or horrible thunderstorms we should all be in Orlando by the end of the day

 

[Becc1]

We did an Under the Sea meal with Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid as our movie selections. Since we were watching 2 movies we started the party early. Finding Nemo was up first, we watched the movie, took a break and had some snacks which were goldfish and dried apricot Nemos and then moved onto The Little Mermaid. When we were finished with the movies it was craft time, the kids made jellyfish decorations and colored fish cutouts. Then it was time for dinner, on the menu was Flounder's fishsticks, Sebastian's crab claws, Dory's chicken fingers, Nemo's shells and cheese and for dessert Ariel Ocean blue jello and Crush's cupcakes. It was a fun afternoon, we all had a great time and are already planning our next dinner!

Our snacks

 

[Becc1]

Just thought I'd pop in to say hi to whoever may be reading. I've been in research mode for the past couple of days. I'm trying to read as much information as I can about Star Wars weekends. We plan on going on Friday, the first full day we'll be down there. I am kind of nervous because I've read some great things about SWW but have also read how crowded and crazy it gets. Sam loves anything SW as do Chris and Christian so this will be mainly for them. I also am feeling a little guilty about spending a good chunk of our first day in the parks doing something not everyone may love. I told my MIL about how early we need to get to DHS this day and offered to have her and my niece meet us up in the park later in the morning but she said no she wanted to be with the kids. The only things we want to do are see the characters and get pictures and autographs but not sure I am willing to wait in line for an hour to get Darth Vaders autigraph We are not interested in meeting any celebrities or attending any of the events, we would like to see the parade. Both Sam and Emily want to do the Jedi Training but I am thinking it will be a bit less hectic if we try for that on our second day at DHS later in the week.

Other than SWW research I've been thinking of ways to surprise the kids with the trip. I think we are going to do it at around 30 days out. I was really thinking of doing it on the day of our trip but after talking with Sam's teacher we thought it would be best to give him a heads up. Sam is a bit OCD and likes to know what we are doing at all times. We are afraid that if we spring the trip on him he may be upset about missing school and soccer. His teacher said she would be happy to go over with him about it being ok to miss school and will give him a packet with things they will be doing in class so he won't feel like he's missing out on anything. So I'm thinking of doing a WDW day. The kids will just think it's another one of our Disney theme nights. I'll start with breakfast, we have a waffle maker that makes Mickey, Minne, Pluto, Goofy , Donald and Daisy mini waffles. For lunch I'll serve them homemade Mickey shaped pizza and for dinner Mickey Mouse shaped chicken pattys, Mickey shaped mac and cheese and some other WDW related foods. After dinnner when they think we are going to sit down and watch our movie instead we will play the WDW planning video and tell them about the trip. I'll also have the countdown calendar all made and give each of the kids a gift, not sure what yet. I still need to come up with some crafts for the day.

Having another theme night this weekend. The kids keep telling me movies they want to do so we may be doing a few weeks in a row rather than every 2 weeks like we have been doing. We have a very busy weekend ahead but going to squeeze in Monsters Inc for the little ones

 

[Becc1]

Today was the Disney Store's Princess Garden Tea Party. I surprised Emily this morning with a new Princess Aurora dress for the occasion, she was so excited! Being the princess fans that Ben and Sam are, they were a little bummed that they were staying home with dad but got over it once Chris sat down to play Wii with them, lol. We got to the store around 10:40, the party started at 11am and there were a few girls already there. By the time 11:00 came around there were probably about 25 or so princesses there. It was funny how patient all of the little princesses were while waiting for the party to begin, another parent commented that had this been 20 boys they would have all been playing and wrestling on the floor but the girls just sat there quietly and waited.

CMs Princess Crystal and Princess Lisa hosted the party, they started off by crowning each of the girls. After that they did a princess trivia game which was quite funny, one clue to the "Which Princess am I" game was "I have a very mean stepmother" and a little girl raised her hand and said "Chelsea" That got a good laugh from the parents! Since all of the girls did so well in the game they got stickers as prizes. They then got to make their own jeweled tea cups which Princess Lisa told them was only for pretend tea, lol. They were plastic cups so of course no real hot tea could go in them. After the tea cups were made the princesses got to dance a little then they posed for pictures before the party ended. As we were leaving they got Belle bookmarks and coloring pages to take home.

It was a fun event, the girls were all so adorable. There were alot of Auroras which is funny because at the Disney Stores Halloween Dress Rehearsal party, Emily was dressed as Snow White and that was the most popular princess costume then. Next month they will be having a Mickey Valentines Day party which we won't miss. I love doing these events, just one more thing to help us get through until our next WDW trip!

Emily, before we left the house

After being crowned

3 Auroras in a row

Emily's tea cup

 

[Becc1]

We had Monsters Inc night over the weekend. Our menu was kept simple with Boo's Door pizzas and Mike and Sulley cupcakes. For crafts the kids made monster creations from Playdoh and colored doors to use as decorations. After dinner the kids took turns on the microphone telling jokes at the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor!

Doors