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

[Monknmom]

Hi, just got done reading! I'm a stay at home mom also! Love the family- your kids are beautiful! We aren't doing park happening either because my son has a very hard time adjusting to new ideas and surroundings- plus what fun would that be lugging a stroller around on the different buses or monorails? I love your movie nights! I am definitely going to "steal" a couple of ideas! They all look really yummy and fun! I am really happy that you got all of your ADR's- I am hoping to get all of mine- I guess that like you I will have to wake at the crack of dawn to make them! I love the way that you are going to tell them that they are going for the trip- same thing with my son, I would LOVE to do one of those surprises, but my son would have trouble accepting the change in schedule without being prepared! And I have heard from a friend that they did CRT (she has a boy and girl twin) and I think that she said her son was given a sword so he didn't feel left out! Awww, I can't believe he was crying at illuminations, it's so sweet! I really want to see that during our trip! We eat edamame all of the car, but I have never heard of chocolate edamame- where do you get that? I notice that you do a lot of EMH in the morning- what do you think is better the night or morning? I guess that with kids the morning? And for AK have you ever eaten at Tusker House? We are planning that, but if there are EMH in the morning we should go to I think that we should cancel that plan and eat there later.... I really want to try Boma's too! I love the state bags, I am going to create something like that for DS, but I am not sure about on the way home or not yet because we will be making lots of stops to families houses and such for Christmas so he might get enough? And I guess that the final decision is to tell them? If you can do it great, can't wait to hear the new way your going to tell them! So far I think that Mulan was my favorite of your theme nights so far! I am very much so looking forward to the future reports! I'm on board and looking forward to your TR also!

 

[Becc1]

Hi, just got done reading! I'm a stay at home mom also! Love the family- your kids are beautiful! We aren't doing park happening either because my son has a very hard time adjusting to new ideas and surroundings- plus what fun would that be lugging a stroller around on the different buses or monorails? I love your movie nights! I am definitely going to "steal" a couple of ideas! They all look really yummy and fun! I am really happy that you got all of your ADR's- I am hoping to get all of mine- I guess that like you I will have to wake at the crack of dawn to make them! I love the way that you are going to tell them that they are going for the trip- same thing with my son, I would LOVE to do one of those surprises, but my son would have trouble accepting the change in schedule without being prepared! And I have heard from a friend that they did CRT (she has a boy and girl twin) and I think that she said her son was given a sword so he didn't feel left out! Awww, I can't believe he was crying at illuminations, it's so sweet! I really want to see that during our trip! We eat edamame all of the car, but I have never heard of chocolate edamame- where do you get that? I notice that you do a lot of EMH in the morning- what do you think is better the night or morning? I guess that with kids the morning? And for AK have you ever eaten at Tusker House? We are planning that, but if there are EMH in the morning we should go to I think that we should cancel that plan and eat there later.... I really want to try Boma's too! I love the state bags, I am going to create something like that for DS, but I am not sure about on the way home or not yet because we will be making lots of stops to families houses and such for Christmas so he might get enough? And I guess that the final decision is to tell them? If you can do it great, can't wait to hear the new way your going to tell them! So far I think that Mulan was my favorite of your theme nights so far! I am very much so looking forward to the future reports! I'm on board and looking forward to your TR also!

Thanks so much for reading!

I do like to do the EMH, we've only done the AM ones and I think we get alot done in that hour. This year we are getting hoppers for my older DS and DN so they can do PM EMH, one night we are there MK is open until 2am! The chocolate covered edaname we get from Trader Joe's, they do chocolate everything! Glad you are enjoying the theme nights, we just had one tonight!

 

[Becc1]

We had an impromptu theme night tonight. The kids are on spring break this week and I've been trying to keep them busy everyday with things. Monday we went to the zoo, Tuesday we went bowling, yesterday we went to the park for a picnic then to Christian's baseball game. And this morning I decided to do a theme night, I had already gotten The Jungle Book from Netflix so it was easy to decide what movie to do! Decor was a challenge, I didn't feel like running around to the stores with the kids so I went with what I had around, The Lion King decor made a second appearance, lol. I printed a Jungle Book game off of the computer for the kids to play and they made King Louie crowns and colored coloring pages as crafts. We started off the night with the crafts and played a few rounds of the game. While I finished up dinner the kids played Disney's Sing It on Wii and sang The Jungle Book songs. Dinner was roast beef, roasted potatoes, asparagus and caesar salad, no special meal planned since I decided to do this last minute. Dessert was Baloo cupcakes! Once again after dinner we all got in our pj's and settled in to watch the movie, even big brother Christian who was totally not feeling well, stayed for the movie to make his brothers and sister happy

 

[Monknmom]

Thanks so much for reading!

I do like to do the EMH, we've only done the AM ones and I think we get alot done in that hour. This year we are getting hoppers for my older DS and DN so they can do PM EMH, one night we are there MK is open until 2am! The chocolate covered edaname we get from Trader Joe's, they do chocolate everything! Glad you are enjoying the theme nights, we just had one tonight!

I do like the jungle book! I know how you feel it's spring break here too and we haven't had the time to do a movie night so this week I think we will make it up and do 2? Not sure though DH birthday is around the corner! I will have to look at trader joes, I haven't been there in awhile because Whole Food's is closer so I will have to take a ride out! I was thinking the AM ones because my dS and I are morning/day people where as DH is a night owl so i will have to look into that! Christian sounds like my little brother in law (he's 16) and him and my DS act like brothers, he does do things to make Damien a little happier! Which I am glad for both of them because I feel as though that will keep them out of a little more trouble!

 

[momabaarjo]

Looks like another fun night at your house...those cupcakes are way too cute! I am thinking of trying to find some simple Indian dishes to try and make for dinner that night...never had Indian food (or made it) so this could be an adventure!

I have Junglebook on the upcoming list...where did you get the game at online?

 

[Becc1]

I do like the jungle book! I know how you feel it's spring break here too and we haven't had the time to do a movie night so this week I think we will make it up and do 2? Not sure though DH birthday is around the corner! I will have to look at trader joes, I haven't been there in awhile because Whole Food's is closer so I will have to take a ride out! I was thinking the AM ones because my dS and I are morning/day people where as DH is a night owl so i will have to look into that! Christian sounds like my little brother in law (he's 16) and him and my DS act like brothers, he does do things to make Damien a little happier! Which I am glad for both of them because I feel as though that will keep them out of a little more trouble!

I've been doing the theme nights every 2 weeks or so, I figure by spacing them out like that I still have plenty of movies to do post trip. At that point we'll probably only do one a month leading up until our next trip then we'll go back to every 2 weeks. I don't expect us to go back until 2013, I want to wait until everything is done in Fantasyland But I say go for it and do 2 movies in a week, heck maybe you can turn DH's b-day celebration into a movie night I know my DH would just LOVE that

Christian is a pretty good kid. It's nice when he spends time with the kids because he is a typical 15 yr old and keeps a very active schedule. Although I must admit our basement is the teenage hangout so I do get to keep a good eye on him. He has told me that one reason he loves to go to WDW is seeing how happy it makes Sam, Ben and Emily. I told him that since my DN will be with us and they will be doing PM EMH's that if he wanted they could sleep in some morinngs and meet up with us later in the parks and he actually got offended that we would think he didn't want to be with us. This is coming from the kids who could and has slept until 2pm on weekends and summers!

 

[Becc1]

Looks like another fun night at your house...those cupcakes are way too cute! I am thinking of trying to find some simple Indian dishes to try and make for dinner that night...never had Indian food (or made it) so this could be an adventure!

I have Junglebook on the upcoming list...where did you get the game at online?

Indian food sounds like fun, I never thought of that! Unfortunately my kids are not very adventurous eaters so I could never do it but I look forward to seeing what you make!

Here's the link to the site you can find the game. They also have an Alice and Peter Pan one I'm going to use for our next 2 nights!

http://disney.go.com/partners/printandplay/

 

[hurleysweety]

So I've been a bit absent lately (ugh, work!) and thank you for talking about the extended hours in May! I haven't bothered to check the hours lately. Whoops!!!

The Jungle Book night looks like fun! I love impromptu type stuff - it shows how creative you really are when you just look around the house and go, "hey...that could be...and then this could be a...and we'll use that for..." Very impressive!

The trip is coming up close!!! I bet you can't wait to tell the kids!!!

 

[Monknmom]

I've been doing the theme nights every 2 weeks or so, I figure by spacing them out like that I still have plenty of movies to do post trip. At that point we'll probably only do one a month leading up until our next trip then we'll go back to every 2 weeks. I don't expect us to go back until 2013, I want to wait until everything is done in Fantasyland But I say go for it and do 2 movies in a week, heck maybe you can turn DH's b-day celebration into a movie night I know my DH would just LOVE that

Christian is a pretty good kid. It's nice when he spends time with the kids because he is a typical 15 yr old and keeps a very active schedule. Although I must admit our basement is the teenage hangout so I do get to keep a good eye on him. He has told me that one reason he loves to go to WDW is seeing how happy it makes Sam, Ben and Emily. I told him that since my DN will be with us and they will be doing PM EMH's that if he wanted they could sleep in some morinngs and meet up with us later in the parks and he actually got offended that we would think he didn't want to be with us. This is coming from the kids who could and has slept until 2pm on weekends and summers!

I think that we can afford to do one every week because honestly- my son knows VERY LITTLE disney! I know I know I'm horrible- it's not that I haven't tried it's just that he thinks so many of them are for girls and refuses! So know I am telling him that you have to see it because you will see them in the parks and you don't want to be a rude person and not know them! I didn't realize that he doesn't go back to school on Wednesday guess how I found that one out! Well I know we can't go next year because all of the money is getting poured into the house next year when we have more money because I have a funny feeling that when we pull the walls down we will find horror! Anyway, I am looking forward to more of the movie nights and trip planning!

 

[Shannon84]

LOVE your theme nights!! DBF and I have a trip planned for October and I am thinking about doing some of these theme nights even though its just the two of us!

 

[hollybearsmom]

Your theme nights are so fun! Baloo cupcakes are very clever!

We were at the zoo monday too. We are making a return trip in June, maybe we can meet up...went to the Disney Store at Tysons Corner and bought paper clips for my scrapbook, fairly disappointed at myself.

 

[Becc1]

So I've been a bit absent lately (ugh, work!) and thank you for talking about the extended hours in May! I haven't bothered to check the hours lately. Whoops!!!

The Jungle Book night looks like fun! I love impromptu type stuff - it shows how creative you really are when you just look around the house and go, "hey...that could be...and then this could be a...and we'll use that for..." Very impressive!

The trip is coming up close!!! I bet you can't wait to tell the kids!!!

I know what you mean about being MIA, with the kids sports and spring break this past week I haven't been around the boards as much as I usually am.

Only 31 more days! Yesterday we were at my MIL's house and we had to be so careful when we were talking Disney!

 

[Becc1]

I think that we can afford to do one every week because honestly- my son knows VERY LITTLE disney! I know I know I'm horrible- it's not that I haven't tried it's just that he thinks so many of them are for girls and refuses! So know I am telling him that you have to see it because you will see them in the parks and you don't want to be a rude person and not know them! I didn't realize that he doesn't go back to school on Wednesday guess how I found that one out! Well I know we can't go next year because all of the money is getting poured into the house next year when we have more money because I have a funny feeling that when we pull the walls down we will find horror! Anyway, I am looking forward to more of the movie nights and trip planning!

I know all too well about fixing up a house! We have lived in our current house for 10 years now and we're still working on it. My SIL said once that they will never be done with their house because as soon as they think their done, something else pops up. I think we are the same way with our house!

It's great that you are inducing your DS to the characters with the movie nights. We have a Disney character encyclopedia that my kids have read cover to cover many times and we watch all of the movies that come on the Disney channel. I recently signed up for Netflix which has been awesome with getting us some of the older movies that we don't own.

 

[Becc1]

LOVE your theme nights!! DBF and I have a trip planned for October and I am thinking about doing some of these theme nights even though its just the two of us!

Thanks for joining in! You should totally do the nights with your DBF, my college roommate and I used to have themed viewing parties with our friends in our room long before I had kids!

 

[Becc1]

Your theme nights are so fun! Baloo cupcakes are very clever!

We were at the zoo monday too. We are making a return trip in June, maybe we can meet up...went to the Disney Store at Tysons Corner and bought paper clips for my scrapbook, fairly disappointed at myself.

Thanks! I admit I can't take credit for the idea for the cupcakes, I get most of the ideas over at the Family Fun website!

We should meet up in June, are you going to be doing any of the museums? We visit them every year, my kids favorites are the Natural History and Air and Space and my older DS, DH and I love the American History museum. Jefferson memorials at night you should, they are really beautiful and not alot of people are there as oppsed to the daytime.

 

[Becc1]

I'm doing the 30 DAYS dance

I don't know why but when you get down to the 30 day mark it seems so much more real to me. And of course I have noone at my house to share my joy with because DH and Christian are too cool to get excited about it and the little ones don't know! So maybe someone here can share in my excitement

It's been a long week here at my house, the kids are finally back in school today, all except Sam who woke up with a fever so I had to keep him home Thankfully he's a good kid and when he's sick he is more than happy to stay in bed all day, so I should be able to get something productive done. Now that we are only 30 days out I am finding my to do list is still quite long. While I have bought most everything I needed to get for the trip with the exception of snacks, I still have to get a few things. The little guys got new Crocs in their Easter baskets but I still need to get Emily a new pair and myself a new pair of Croc flip flops, I live in those things. So I need to head over to the outlets for those, while there I must try to stay away from the Disney outlet, I really am trying to be good I also need to get some new sunglasses for Christian and I and a couple organizational things for the hotel room. One good thing we just found out is that DH is getting his quarterly bonus check the week before we go, generally he doesn't get it until the last Friday of the month but for whatever reason they are giving them out early, which I am happy about. Now DH really can't give me any grief about what I spend in Disney

So last Monday I took the kids to the National Zoo in Wash DC, we only live about 45 minutes away so we like to take the kids there at least once a year. This year I braved it alone and made it out alive and didn't even lose any kids The day trip was a test of sorts for Disney. We had gotten a new stroller for Ben back in December but since he usually walks everywhere we had yet to use it. The stroller is wonderful! It's a Maclaren Major special needs stroller, it basically looks llike an umbrella stroller on steriods, lol. It's just awesome, so easy to push unlike most umbrellas strollers and a perfect fit for Ben. It's holds up to 155 lbs so we will have it hopefully for years to come. With these stollers everything is an add on so we got the sunshade (which I didn't end up using that day) and the basket for underneath, the basket is plenty big enough for the small cooler we'll be bringing into the parks for water and the new back pack I got for the trip fits nicely on the back of the stroller. Speaking of the backpack, I love it! It is really lightweight and not too bulky, the only thing I didn't love about it was that there are no pockets for little things. I am used to my diaper bag packpack I've been using for the past 8 years that has a million pockets, so for WDW I'm going to have to bring a small bag with essentials like bandaids and stuff to put inside the backpack. The one major thing I learned at the zoo was that we will absolutely need to be bringing 2 strollers to WDW. I had been telling DH that Emily was not going to want to walk the whole time in Disney but he kept saying "no she'll want to walk", DH really didn't want us to have to push 2 strollers around. Well 10 minutes into the zoo on Monday Emily was fighting Ben for his stroller. This continued the whole day, Ben and her back and forth over the stroller. I told DH that unless he wanted to carry his daughter around the parks then we were going to have to bring a second stroller. We have a nice Jeep stroller that I got when Ben was born but really wasn't used much before Sam came along and we needed a double, so we'll be bringing that with us.

On Easter my BIL made an announcement. They were going to WDW.........just not with us! My BIL and SIL in law are the luckiest people I know, they really make me ill They got a 4 day, 3 night all inclusive trip to WDW, staying at the Grand Floridian! My BIL owns a bar/restaurant and his food purveyor gave him the trip. And the kicker is they are going 2 weeks before we go! My poor DN, she is a bit annoyed, but I told her that even though her parents get to stay at the Grand Floridian and get all of these extras, she gets to go with us and we'll have far more fun than they will, lol. My DH is also a little annoyed that they are going, he really wanted them to join us for a few days on our trip but they said they couldn't get away from work. I actually am a bit relieved they aren't joining us, although I love my SIL, we have vastly different touring styles, she doesn't do rides and stops at every shop she sees and I will ride anything and I don't necessarily need to venture into every single gift shop. Also they are not morning people, BIL and SIL don't wake up before 12pm and even on vacation 10am is pushing it, while we are up at the crack of dawn to get to rope drop! So anyway, I told them that I'm here for advice, but they aren't big planners so I can just see them showing up at the parks and winging it!

Here's a few pictures from our week

The kids at the zoo

Easter egg hunt

The Easter Bunny brought bags of goodies for the trip he heard we were taking this year

I almost forgot to add that I got Mickey Mail the other day. We got our info packets and Christian's ME information. They didn't include the luggage tags which my MIL got in her packet so I'll wait a couple of days and if they don't come I may call about them. I know their just cheap plastic tags but I still want them!


Leading up to my trip I thought that I would give 30 things I am looking forward to on our trip, I will try to get on here everyday and list a new thing.

Day 30

Seeing the castle for the first time

I don't know about anyone else but I just turn into a kid when I see that castle. The excited on my kids faces when they see it just brings tears to my eyes!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Hi joining in just in time before you guys leave. Happy 30 days out. It will go by quick. Your PTR is exciting. A SURPRISE. Can't wait to see how it goes. Your kids are adorable and I can't wait to read your Trip report. I'm sure it will be lots of fun.

I have a 7 yr old Sam too. (But a Samantha) I also have an Emily.

 

[Becc1]

Hi joining in just in time before you guys leave. Happy 30 days out. It will go by quick. Your PTR is exciting. A SURPRISE. Can't wait to see how it goes. Your kids are adorable and I can't wait to read your Trip report. I'm sure it will be lots of fun.

I have a 7 yr old Sam too. (But a Samantha) I also have an Emily.

Thanks so much for coming aboard! It's funny because the closer I get to the trip the more I am stressing about the surprise. Like I think they will be super excited but what if I don't get the reaction I'm hoping for? At this point they know they are going this year but just not when so I wonder if they will just be like oh okay great or will I get the jumping and screaming I'm hoping for? I know silly things to add to my stress

How old is your Emily? I'll have to read your reports tonight once I get everyone in bed!

 

[momabaarjo]

I'm doing the 30 DAYS dance


Leading up to my trip I thought that I would give 30 things I am looking forward to on our trip, I will try to get on here everyday and list a new thing.

Day 30

Seeing the castle for the first time

I don't know about anyone else but I just turn into a kid when I see that castle. The excited on my kids faces when they see it just brings tears to my eyes!

Yet another thing I may "steal" from you...what a great idea. I too turn into a kid when I see that castle. I don't know why!

 

[hurleysweety]

30 Days!

Wow, it seems like yesterday I was doing that dance. Now its 11 days - oh it goes by so fast.

My new philosophy (for our next WDW vacation, cuz like any good disboarder, I'm already planning it...) is that you can never do anything too far in advance! I kept putting things off, thinking I'd have plenty of time. But it sneaks up.

LOVE your 30 day countdown idea. I may incorporate that on my PTR. How many theme nights do you have left, then? Just two?! And then the surprise - oh I can't wait to read about that. I'll be back from WDW by then, and using the disboards to medicate my emotional struggles...