Chasing a Dream: September Trip Report Update 12/11 FINAL THOUGHTS/TRIP FAVORITES

[tmkinney]

I am so sorry about dd's bangs!!!!!!!! I would have been !!!!!! Maybe a headband with the bangs pushed back for the church directory???? Good luck with that - let us know how it goes.

On a happy note, though, great buys at the dollar store!!! Can't wait to see pics of what you found!

Thanks. The pics went okay, I was able to comb her bangs to the side to look halfway decent. At least that way you couldn't tell they were uneven! And I don't want them evened up because then they'll be even shorter!

Hi Tammy! Oh gosh that is just the worst about your daughter's bangs.. Being I am the "cheer hair" person.. How about taking your daughter's hacked off bangs and pulling them together and doing a little twist and the clip them low on her head. It will create a little "poof" and maybe they won't look too akward for the photo. Just an idea.

I love, love love the DT rain ponchos.. I always bring and buy extras because sometimes we just use them on the wet rides and toss them. I know it's not the most "green" thing to do but hey.. it's vacation!

Good luck with the family photo... let us know how you do!

Thanks! Yes, I'm with you, the $1 ponchos are usually trashed after one use. Who wants to carry around wet ponchos in Disney??!!

Thanks for the hair idea. I did the best I could with what I had.... I'll be glad when they grow out some!

sorry about DD's bangs..
sounds like you found some things at the $ store, cool!

Yes, gotta love the Dollar Tree! I'm sure I'll be back again to pick up something else before the time comes.

Don't you just love the dollar store Sorry to hear about your daughter's bangs I am sure the will grow back in no time!

Just hoping they'll be back by Disney!

Sorry about your DD's hair . They did quite a job on Thomas hair last month and that was at a kids place. of course he does move around a bit . By time your trip comes DD's bangs will grow. I agree with the others just side sweep the bangs for the church pics, if that will work.

I'll be posting pics soon of Rachel from last night. Just one I took before we left. We get the actual pics back in 3 weeks. Talk about EXPENSIVE though! Thankfully we got a complimentary 8x10 because for 1 5x7 it was $31!!!! And that's not even the touched up version!

 

[tmkinney]

Here are some pics of my Disney buys, the matching shirts for all 7 of us, and the Disney backpack:

the matching shirts:

My $3 Wal-Mart deal:

And the Disney insulated backpack:

I put our ponchos, glow sticks, and camera case inside and there is still plenty of room for extra clothes, etc. Then it also has pockets in front, top and side that can be used for Tylenol, Cell Phone, Tripod, etc.

As you probably saw in my replies above, the church pics went okay, I brushed Rachel's hair to the side as best I could and this is what she looked like for the pic that night:

Hunter had his first football practice on Saturday from 10 - 12 and I felt so bad for him because it was really HOT and HUMID!!! So after I picked him up, we headed to the pool for the afternoon. Here are some pics of the kids at the pool:

I didn't realize until after I had taken all these pics that my dial was set on ISO instead of Automatic! I thought the pics still turned out okay though. You can really tell how short and uneven Rachel's bangs are in the pool pics though. I'm still about that!!!!!

After we got back from the pool Saturday afternoon Rachel and I went shopping for Hunter's school supplies. (He is a true man, hates to shop! ) But while we were out, we found this great buy for Rachel, a disney princess nightgown with wand for only $4 at Sears:

Tonight we were planning on making our Countdown to Disney calendar, but my in-laws dropped over for a surprise visit so we didn't have time. I need to double check the calendar but I think our 30 days starts next Sunday, so we have to get busy this week!!

Well I'm signing off for tonight, hope you enjoy the pics! Did I mention I am NOT looking forward to work tomorrow.....

 

[addicted2dizney]

The kids are so cute! Yikes about the bangs! Good thing she is so adorable and pulls them off great! I love the stuff you got! There are some great deals there!

 

[Paparazzimama]

LOVE all of your "buys". That Disney backpack is fabulous! Looks like you made the best out of the "hair situation", and she looked adorable for the pictures!

 

[heartofdisney]

Just started your trip report,and you"ve got me! Your children are adorable,and I love the picture of your little girl in her Cinderella dress. Well.back to reading so I can catch up!

 

[tmkinney]

The kids are so cute! Yikes about the bangs! Good thing she is so adorable and pulls them off great! I love the stuff you got! There are some great deals there!

Thanks! Yeah that was my thought, she is still too cute!

LOVE all of your "buys". That Disney backpack is fabulous! Looks like you made the best out of the "hair situation", and she looked adorable for the pictures!

Thanks, I love the backpack too! Yes, the hair thing turned out better than I thought.

Just started your trip report,and you"ve got me! Your children are adorable,and I love the picture of your little girl in her Cinderella dress. Well.back to reading so I can catch up!

Thanks for joining in and for the sweet comments!

 

[timandlesley]

Great start. I am glad I could inspire you, writing these are so much fun, almost as fun as reading them : ) Loved all the pics, purchases for the trip, etc. Your kids are adorable!
Lesley

 

[dddisrunner]

Your daughter looked adorable for her church picture! You did a great job combing her hair. Yes, they are short, but I really don't think they'll take long at all to grow Glad your DS got to cool off! LOVE all the Disney purchases!

 

[morgtroy]

Hey, just got caught up on your TR. I can't believe they did that to her bangs. I understand they can get the length wrong, but why they didn't notice they were uneven. She still looked cute for the pics.
The Mickey shirt is cute and $3.00.
You'll have to send me the ebay seller you got 50 cent pins from, that's a super deal.
I love the princess gown, too cute.
Glad Hunter is liking football, you'll have to let me know when his first game is.

 

[tmkinney]

Great start. I am glad I could inspire you, writing these are so much fun, almost as fun as reading them : ) Loved all the pics, purchases for the trip, etc. Your kids are adorable!
Lesley

Thanks for coming over Lesley! And for the nice comments! Yes, the TR's are so much fun to read - I'm loving yours, hate that its coming to an end soon....

Your daughter looked adorable for her church picture! You did a great job combing her hair. Yes, they are short, but I really don't think they'll take long at all to grow Glad your DS got to cool off! LOVE all the Disney purchases!

Thanks! Yes, I think by the time we leave for our trip her bangs will be just right (maybe then I can take her somewhere to have them evened up - by someone who knows what they are doing! )

Hey, just got caught up on your TR. I can't believe they did that to her bangs. I understand they can get the length wrong, but why they didn't notice they were uneven. She still looked cute for the pics.
The Mickey shirt is cute and $3.00.
You'll have to send me the ebay seller you got 50 cent pins from, that's a super deal.
I love the princess gown, too cute.
Glad Hunter is liking football, you'll have to let me know when his first game is.

I know, someone asked me if the lady who cut Rachel's hair was drunk! How could she not notice how uneven it was?! I'll send you the link to the ebay pin seller. I lucked up and won some cheap bids in the final seconds, ranging from .50 to $1.27, and with combined shipping it was a deal! Yeah when we get a schedule I'll let you know!

 

[ampc3]

your kids are soo cute! your DD's hair isn't that bad, really she is soo cute, nothing would look bad... you must be getting soo excited for your trip, can't wait to read all about it... wish I knew when we will be able to go back!

 

[lmillercrew]

Sorry to hear about your bad hair cut. I wouldn't have noticed though had you not said something. Although I do feel your pain with a bad haircut. We've had several of those around this house.
Yay for being 30 days out!!!

 

[tmkinney]

your kids are soo cute! your DD's hair isn't that bad, really she is soo cute, nothing would look bad... you must be getting soo excited for your trip, can't wait to read all about it... wish I knew when we will be able to go back!

Thanks Annette. I think it has already grown out some (either that or I'm used to it now! ) We are getting very excited!!!

Sorry to hear about your bad hair cut. I wouldn't have noticed though had you not said something. Although I do feel your pain with a bad haircut. We've had several of those around this house.
Yay for being 30 days out!!!

Yes I think I'm over the initial shock now and it doesn't look so bad when its fixed right. In 30 days it should be good though!

 

[tmkinney]

31 Days and Counting!!!!

I can't believe the trip is coming up so quickly!!! I have been trying to put together a more detailed itinerary, which rides to go to first, etc., and Alan sees me doing this the other night and looks at it and was like "are there any bathroom breaks scheduled here, Drill Sergeant??" Too funny. I think he is actually starting to look forward to it too, even though he doesn't want to admit it!

Saturday at practice Hunter got his football pads and helmet so he's been wearing them around the house since then. Last night there was a preseason Panthers game (which we won btw - ) and of course Hunter has to put on his gear, so then Rachel goes and puts on Hunter's Panther uniform. It was so cute, here is a pic of them:

Then we put together our Mickey Countdown Calendar!!! Here is a pic of it - nothing extraordinary, but we had fun making it:

Here are the kids posing with it, Rachel with her Ariel sunglasses on:

Tomorrow the first sticker goes on, and we flipped a coin to see who got to put the first sticker on. Hunter won, he is excited.

 

[tink1957]

Just discovered your PTR today & I'm enjoying it so far. Sorry about your DD's haircut but I had to laugh a little as it reminded me of my own DD's self-inflicted haircut when she was 5. This happened about 5 minutes before we had to leave to get our own chuch pics, so there was no time to correct it. She had about 2" of 1/2" bangs right in the middle of her forehead & the rest were around 2". I have the pic above our mantle & still tease her about it. She's 22 now.

We also discovered WDW for the first time last year & I became addicted, my DD calls me Disney crazy & she's right. What a sweet addiction. We are getting there 5 days after you leave for a mother-son trip & can't wait. Is it Sept. yet?

 

[pmama]

I'm having so much fun reading your PTR since we leave the same day! We also put up our 30 day calendar today. We took pictures w/ the kids next to it as well. This morning we had Mickey pancakes for breakfast and the kids opened up a few more presents I'd been saving for them to celebrate only 1 MONTH left! I'm glad I read your post though. We were planning on tearing one Mickey head off each day. I like the idea of stickers much better. I saw some Mickey stickers at the Dollar store yesterday! Another thing we are going to do (that I read about somewhere on the Dis) is fill a small bowl w/ 30 hershey kisses and let one child eat one each day until they are gone. That way, one child can do the calendar and the other can eat a candy each day

 

[vdarrell]

I am loving your pre-trip report.Loving the pictures of your children they are so adorable.(even with uneven bangs).
I own a pair of shears if you want me to I'll come and help you give the hairdresser a LITTLE haircut she'll remember

I'll be waiting for your answer and also for more of your report.

 

[tmkinney]

Just discovered your PTR today & I'm enjoying it so far. Sorry about your DD's haircut but I had to laugh a little as it reminded me of my own DD's self-inflicted haircut when she was 5. This happened about 5 minutes before we had to leave to get our own chuch pics, so there was no time to correct it. She had about 2" of 1/2" bangs right in the middle of her forehead & the rest were around 2". I have the pic above our mantle & still tease her about it. She's 22 now.

We also discovered WDW for the first time last year & I became addicted, my DD calls me Disney crazy & she's right. What a sweet addiction. We are getting there 5 days after you leave for a mother-son trip & can't wait. Is it Sept. yet?

Thanks for reading/posting! That is funny about your daughter! I guess you laugh later, right? Rachel got a hold of the scissors about 2 years ago, which is the reason she even has bangs now! I hope you guys have a great trip! It won't be long now!!

I'm having so much fun reading your PTR since we leave the same day! We also put up our 30 day calendar today. We took pictures w/ the kids next to it as well. This morning we had Mickey pancakes for breakfast and the kids opened up a few more presents I'd been saving for them to celebrate only 1 MONTH left! I'm glad I read your post though. We were planning on tearing one Mickey head off each day. I like the idea of stickers much better. I saw some Mickey stickers at the Dollar store yesterday! Another thing we are going to do (that I read about somewhere on the Dis) is fill a small bowl w/ 30 hershey kisses and let one child eat one each day until they are gone. That way, one child can do the calendar and the other can eat a candy each day

Sounds like you are doing some fun things for the kids to get excited for the trip! Thanks for the idea about the hershey kisses, I may have to do that too! (The only thing would be keeping Rachel from eating more than 1 a day - she loves chocolate! ) She would definitely pick eating the chocolate over the stickers anyday! I got the stickers we are going to use from the Dollar Tree - you can't be the price!

I am loving your pre-trip report.Loving the pictures of your children they are so adorable.(even with uneven bangs).
I own a pair of shears if you want me to I'll come and help you give the hairdresser a LITTLE haircut she'll remember

I'll be waiting for your answer and also for more of your report.

Thanks for reading/posting! Thanks for the sweet comments. Yeah that would be funny - although that should have been my first tip, the hairdresser's hair wasn't great to begin with!

 

[tmkinney]

This weekend Dawn & Ray came over to go over our itinerary. We needed to make some decisions on our reservations, we had a couple of TS meals that we were going to have to pay for OOP, so even though I'm a little about it, we've decided to cancel our Ohana's breakfast. Instead we are going to do breakfast at Crystal Palace and not do a TS on our last day as we originally planned. If we just grab a snack or CS on our last day, that will give us a little more time at the parks, our ME bus will be picking us up at noon. And with the Ohana's breakfast, we were scheduled at 8:10 so there is no way we would make rope drop at MK. So our Crystal Palace ressie is for 8:10 and if we ask to settle the bill up front, we should be able to make it out for rope drop.

Sad to say that my travel documents still have not come!!! I am hoping maybe this week since we are at the 23 day mark!!!

Last weekend we took the kids to play Putt Putt, below are a couple of pics from that:

You will notice Hunter has on his lanyard here, he was showing Hadley all of his pins.

Rachel cheated a little - she scoots her ball into the hole:

Here is a pic of Rachel & Hadley, it had been a while since they had saw each other so they were happy:

Hunter started practicing with football pads this week. So he got to tackle and got tackled. He still likes it, so I guess we're in for the season...

(he does look so cute in uniform though... )

Dawn made a countdown calendar this weekend too, since its a little late she started with 24 days:

She also really liked Hunter & Rachel's lanyards, so last week we ordered a starter set and some pins for Hadley off ebay:

So anyway, other than canceling a couple of TS meals, our itinerary pretty much stayed on track. Dawn & Ray are in the middle of building a house, so they are trying to save $$ and Lord knows I need to save too, so I guess cutting out an $80 breakfast will help!

 

[addicted2dizney]

Hi!
Sounds great! your daughter's bangs are coming in a bit! The kids look so cute! yes, you won't miss the breakfast. Ohana's is nice but when they place that skillet in front of you and you look into it you will not see $80! You can spend your $ better ways there! I would give a call about your paperwork. Me and my friend are at 30 days and we got ours a week ago. I'm sure it is fine but Murphy's law for me is as soon as I call and ask, it arrives!
Dana