Crafts, spreadsheets and pixie dust... oh my! A PTR for May 2014

[MeeskaMomma]

lol! i'm sure you'll find lots of new things to do. really, you can't go wrong at Disney!

i'd love it if you did a chain like ours! we got all the stuff at Michael's--just stickers and scrapbooking paper. have you seen this one? I found it on pinterest and thought about doing it. it's so cute, but looked more time consuming then the one I did.
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e4/a6/85/e4a6856efaaf58984f02591492faaf3d.jpg

I love that!! Hmmm maybe I will do a combination! Of course, it will depend on how much I procrastinate on actually putting it together. I find my Disney planning frenzies come in sports, which is why I like to start early!

The holiday one if okay for 3...most will be actually. there are some that have some violence but most are just silly and fun. The original one with a roller coaster is just cute.

Your food reservations look like fun. We are big time sit down eaters at Disney as we love the time off of the busy. For the holiday we have 2 a day as well. It will be crowded so we know we will need the down time...plus character meals are so fun for all of us.

We are heading to Tusker House this year and hear it is a great meal for breakfast ...not been to Yak and Yeti but this is another animal kingdom try

So glad I am not alone on the 2 ADRs a day. We don't really eat out much at home so it is nice to take full advantage at Disney!

I have been considering a Tuskner house breakfast. I will have to tune in to your TR and see how it goes!

this looks totally fun too! I might have to remember this for 50 day countdown....don't know if I could remember/find funny places 100 times!

http://www.disneydreamin4familyfun.blogspot.com/2012/08/100-days-of-hidden-minnies.html?m=1

(let me know if these links don't work....they seem fine, but if not I can give you my pinterest name and you can just look at it on there)

This is awesome!!!! The links did work, but I would love to follow you on pinterest! You can always PM me if you not want to post it!

 

[amazingact21]

Followed the link from your signature to this PTR. Now am subbing!

I love all your spreadsheets and lists. Don't you just feel calmer when everything is in order and mapped out? It's the cheapest form of therapy. At least, that's how I feel about it.

Your son is too cute! Love the pic of him chowing down on a pickle.

 

[MeeskaMomma]

Followed the link from your signature to this PTR. Now am subbing!

I love all your spreadsheets and lists. Don't you just feel calmer when everything is in order and mapped out? It's the cheapest form of therapy. At least, that's how I feel about it.

Your son is too cute! Love the pic of him chowing down on a pickle.

Why thank you! I do feel calmer. I am reading a book on productivity right now called "Getting things done" by David Allen. He talks a lot about the open loops we all have going through our mind and how if we can break them down into actionable steps, and into a system our mind trusts we free up our mind to concentrate on other things. It is really good a great book! There problem with Disney planning is it is so much fun that the loops never close! You just get more excited

I have a lot of other open loops right now that I should be working on, but I am taking a Disney break and focusing on that fun!

Goose loves pickle, jest like his mamma! It must be the Czech in him

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Hi Kate, joining in! Your little guy is adorable.

I think we are kindred spirits. I have a Disney box, I love spreadsheets, and earlier today I was making new labels for my pantry I had just reorganized.

Your plans look great. I'm sure John is going to love AoA.

I think your ADR choices look fantastic. Your dining plans are making me want to try the Plaza.

 

[MeeskaMomma]

Hi Kate, joining in! Your little guy is adorable. I think we are kindred spirits. I have a Disney box, I love spreadsheets, and earlier today I was making new labels for my pantry I had just reorganized. Your plans look great. I'm sure John is going to love AoA. I think your ADR choices look fantastic. Your dining plans are making me want to try the Plaza.

I thought the same thing when I read your PTR! Honestly our nursery's even look similar! Except now that Goose has gotten older it is less of a nursery and the jungle theme has been taken over by Cars, Batman, Mickey, and robots (his favorites)

The Plaza is great! I haven't seen it mentioned much on DIs. I don't know if everyone is just indifferent or if it isn't popular, but we love it!

 

[jpmom97]

I'm following along! I am a spreadsheetaholic too! I make them for everything but especially for my Disney planning!

Your little guy is so adorable!!

 

[LB1122]

Dining talk makes me hungry but so so excited. Can not wait to hear what you think of everything.

 

[MeeskaMomma]

I'm following along! I am a spreadsheetaholic too! I make them for everything but especially for my Disney planning!

Your little guy is so adorable!!

Hooray for spreadsheet lovers! (and people who don't think I am crazy or over planning )

And thank you! He is a hilarious little boy! His new game is getting "stuck" or "stutscht" as he calls it. He is pretty committed and won't move until you un-stick him. Sometimes it is kind of convenient, sometimes it is cute, but right now it is mostly getting really old!!! I am kind of ready for him to get tired of this game, but then I know I will be like, awwww remember when her would pretend to be stuck to everything?

Dining talk makes me hungry but so so excited. Can not wait to hear what you think of everything.

It makes me hungry too! I can't wait to try all the new to us restaurants! We were talking about Disney food on our walk tonight. We have taken 3 "Disney" walks this weekend! Go us! It feels great to get moving again.

 

[katriscari]

I am following along too...planning our first trip for May 2014
I know I wil not be that ambitious, but it looks like I will be getting a binder

 

[katriscari]

I have tried to start looking at places to eat, and I did not even look at The Plaza. I will have to check that one out! Thanks!

 

[MeeskaMomma]

I am following along too...planning our first trip for May 2014
I know I wil not be that ambitious, but it looks like I will be getting a binder

Hooray for May!!! Do you know where you are staying yet? Please share your trip details as it comes together!

I have tried to start looking at places to eat, and I did not even look at The Plaza. I will have to check that one out! Thanks!

Last year that was really hard for me because it was our first trip! It is also one of my favorite parts. Peter (my DH) and I are already talking about the food for next year.

I got recommendations from friends and family that had gone before which helped. I wish I had read more trip reports on Dis because you find a lot of great information about restaurants there. The Plaza was actually recommended to me by the cast member booking our ADRs! I hear they are refurbishing it in January but it should be good by May. It is not food that you can't get anywhere else, but it was really relaxing and yummy, which is great for a lunch break in the parks. I also liked that I could get a fresh, crisp, and filling salad.

 

[Amunet]

Wow! I thought I was organized! We do the spreadsheets for budgeting for Food & Wine, but that's usually about it. Though, we do print out stuff and put it in a folder
I imagine the extra planning is very helpful with a little one though ^_^
Do you keep lists and spreadsheets to remember everything? I have some memory problems and that's why I write a lot of stuff down too.

I agree with you! ADRs are the most fun to plan .. so much fun, my gosh
As with AK ADR, we love Yak & Yeti! We have another reservation there Though, I heard Tusker House is a good restaurant in AK too

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in!

Your son is so adorable!

I love your Disney box. And I have a Disney binder too!

Your ADRS sound great, especially since you will be doing favorites and some new places!

 

[MeeskaMomma]

Wow! I thought I was organized! We do the spreadsheets for budgeting for Food & Wine, but that's usually about it. Though, we do print out stuff and put it in a folder
I imagine the extra planning is very helpful with a little one though ^_^
Do you keep lists and spreadsheets to remember everything? I have some memory problems and that's why I write a lot of stuff down too.

I agree with you! ADRs are the most fun to plan .. so much fun, my gosh
As with AK ADR, we love Yak & Yeti! We have another reservation there Though, I heard Tusker House is a good restaurant in AK too

I am not going to say we do spreadsheets for everything...but we do use A LOT of spreadsheets in our household. My husband has a master "life" spreadsheet where we have all our long term investment goals, college savings goals, hypothetical cars (he was trying to figure out how many we would need in our lifetime), and other major expenses taken into account. It goes all the way into old age and includes hypothetical children we don't even have yet. He created it when we were engaged. People have said, "and you still married him!" my response was "that may in fact be why I married him!" It just helps us think long term. Life throws so much at you that you cannot plan for, we like to plan for what we can.

We really liked Yak & Yeti last time, but it isn't one that we were like "oh we must return!"

Joining in!

Your son is so adorable!

I love your Disney box. And I have a Disney binder too!

Your ADRS sound great, especially since you will be doing favorites and some new places!

Thanks for joining in! I see your trip is soon!! How exciting! Glad you like the box! My ADRs may change, but for now I think we have a good balance

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Finally got a chance to check out your PTR. I love all your spread sheets. I too am a little OCD about planning my Disney trips. My DH says since I quite teaching I need an outlet for my organization skills so I transferred them to Disney vacations! I got this idea from other Disers. But did all of my plans as powerpoint slides and then saved them as jpeg. files and had the slides printed as 4x6 photos. Then I purchased one of those cheap small photo albums and put my slides in there. That way I could carry it to the parks and it was light weight and did not take up much room in my backpack.

We did Tusker House before we had DD and liked it. There really isn't a lot of options for TS in AK. We liked Y&Y better than Tusker House.

I really enjoyed having two TS a day. There were times it was a little stressful with DD, but I think its the way to go. You will love 'Ohanna! it is amazing. If you all like Lilo and Stitch the breakfast there is great too.

I can't wait to see what crafts you come up with, I might have to steal some of your ideas!

 

[MeeskaMomma]

Finally got a chance to check out your PTR. I love all your spread sheets. I too am a little OCD about planning my Disney trips. My DH says since I quite teaching I need an outlet for my organization skills so I transferred them to Disney vacations! I got this idea from other Disers. But did all of my plans as powerpoint slides and then saved them as jpeg. files and had the slides printed as 4x6 photos. Then I purchased one of those cheap small photo albums and put my slides in there. That way I could carry it to the parks and it was light weight and did not take up much room in my backpack.

We did Tusker House before we had DD and liked it. There really isn't a lot of options for TS in AK. We liked Y&Y better than Tusker House.

I really enjoyed having two TS a day. There were times it was a little stressful with DD, but I think its the way to go. You will love 'Ohanna! it is amazing. If you all like Lilo and Stitch the breakfast there is great too.

I can't wait to see what crafts you come up with, I might have to steal some of your ideas!

Thank you for reading! Disney is a great outlet for organizational skills! I love the photo book idea!!! I lugged my binder all the way to Disney World last year but we didn't take it in the parks with us. The photo album idea is genius!

Your Tusker House is very helpful! I think we may skip that one. We wouldn't mind Yak & Yeti again, or maybe try QS in Animal Kingdom.

I know your huge Stitch fan, so I hate to admit this but... I have never seen Stitch!! I decided we need to watch it after reading your TR. We are looking forward to Ohana for Dinner.

I am very ready to start crafting I am also trying to come up with some ideas to bring some educational aspects into the countdown activities. We do a lot of Montessori based activities in our home, I am sure I can make some that are Disney themed!? I think by the time we get to the countdown Goose will be at a point where we can use it to talk more about time, calendars, days of the week etc. He is starting to understand sequences of events. Now that I know I have at least one teacher reading, I may post some ideas early and see what suggestions I can get

 

[LB1122]

the photo book idea is very very cool. Thansk for sharing.

 

[MeeskaMomma]

Happy Friday everyone!

17 days until Southwest releases flight info for May and we can get this puppy booked! Hooray!!!

I have some ideas brewing for our countdown, I cannot wait to get started, but that is a ways off and there is a lot of real life between now as then.

This week had been mostly about our churches fair or "drink with the Catholics weekend" as my friends call it (it is very Oktoberfesty)

The mom's club has been working on our ring a duck booth this week. We are doing a Duck Dynasty theme which should be pretty funny (I am even going to wear a beard). We had our kids paint duck pictures to hang on the walls, and I had to slip a Donald Duck in there (hehehe)

Goose decided to use his hands to pain instead of the brushes. Donald almost looks like he is in camo.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

waiting for the southwest flights was torture for me! I kept checking in hopes that they would magically appear earlier!

your church's fair sounds fun. I hope someone gets a picture of you in your beard! that's a funny idea! we're doing a trunk or treat in a few weeks at our daughter's school and i'm trying to decide how to decorate our car for it. so fun! I love those church/school events!

and hey--it's not an art project until someone's covered in paint, glitter or marker!

 

[MeeskaMomma]

waiting for the southwest flights was torture for me! I kept checking in hopes that they would magically appear earlier!

I do the same thing!

your church's fair sounds fun. I hope someone gets a picture of you in your beard! that's a funny idea!

I think it should be pretty entertaining. I just may post a picture.

we're doing a trunk or treat in a few weeks at our daughter's school and i'm trying to decide how to decorate our car for it. so fun! I love those church/school events! and hey--it's not an art project until someone's covered in paint, glitter or marker!

That does sound fun! I have never heard if a trunk or treat! It sounds fun though! Maybe you could do a Mickey not so scary theme?