OK, I've been home a week and a half and my costumes are all done (I haven't finished unpacking yet, but oh, well) it's time to tell you all about my not-always-so-magical trip to Disney. I'll try to keep it short (if I can). Fair warning, I didn't succeed on that short thing
but I hope you enjoy the pics - which, by the way, I resized all of to 250 wide, but apparently they have a mind of their own
I'll start with the one that's my fault. Have you ever paid your mortgage twice? Guess what I accidentally did while we were on vacation. It plays havoc with your vacation budget. AHHHHH
Fortunately, we had credit cards with us - that I hadn't wanted to use, but....
So, if you were following along with the fun outfits I made for Disney and Universal, you know how excited I was when my nephew (R) asked me what I was making for him to wear. I should have known better.
The first day was fine. I had made a Woody vest and tshirt - which he loved and wore happily.
My niece (M), however, wouldn't wear the Cinderella skirt. She wore the shirt and shorts and looked really cute. I guess it didn't matter so much since we never saw Cinderella anyway.

Then the second day : M wore the Snow White set - adorable

For R I had put a Crush the turtle iron-on on a striped t-shirt. He did not want to wear it and threw a screaming fit. My sister made him wear it anyway - even though I had said from the beginning that he didn't have to wear anything he didn't want to. This set the tone for every morning for the entire two weeks. Eventually even M started refusing to wear the outfits (though her meltdowns ended once she was in the clothes - until it was time to brush her hair)
The third park day was Universal in Minion shirts that I bought for everyone - Despicable me is one of their favorite movies, but... more screaming. He won that day.
My youngest and my sister in their Minion shirts (The boy in blue is R)
Then Typhoon Lagoon, I hadn't made any outfits for that day, but that didn't stop the screaming. I don't remember exactly what about.
Next: Disney Quest day - He didn't want to go, so they didn't. (The second week they did go to DQ - without us - and he threw a fit because he didn't want to leave)
Hollywood Studios day: Different themed Mickey shirts for everyone from Heather Sue's embroidery patterns (so you know they were cute). She put the shirt on him (screaming), he took it off. She put it down to chase after him; I picked up the shirt and put it back in the drawer in my room. I had been fully prepared for him not to want to wear the shirts, but hearing him yell about how stupid it was and he hated it, etc was more than I could take.
Brief pause for cute shirts that did get worn - although I didn't get pics of all of them (oh, yeah, my husband's didn't fit - I had sized it down from a 3XL and apparently went too far- but it fits me great. I wore it later)
You can sort of see the mad hatter on this one ^

and mine

After a couple of days of rest (one was supposed to be Blizzard Beach, but I was sun burnt and everyone else was burnt out), I tried a different tactic for Space Center day. I got out the shirts the night before while R was still up and showed it to him. Telling him that his shirt had an alien M on it and hers had an alien R on it. He declared that he wouldn't wear it. I said that's fine, no one's going to make you wear it if you don't want to (my sister was right there when I said it). Next morning, she puts them in the car in their jammies. It's a bit of a drive to Kennedy so we left pretty early. When we get there, we all find out (everyone in the whole parking lot) that she only brought him one shirt - guess which one. So today instead of screaming and fit throwing before we leave, it's there in the parking lot. The rest of us headed for the gate without them.

I gave up on the shirts for R for the rest of the trip - didn't even get them out of the suitcase.
M in her Hulk tutu on the last Universal day.

And finally, the outfit that got us stopped everywhere we went in Animal Kingdom.


And my sister in the vest I made for R (he did wear it for about 10 minutes in the car - seemed happy about it, but by the time we got to the park he wouldn't wear it)
My family was quite irked by all the commotion every morning (and every lunch time and bed time, etc. Unfortunately, that's not even a comprehensive list of the bad behavior.) I don't blame them. It made for a pretty stressful vacation for us. I know they think I was upset by the fact that R wouldn't wear the clothes, and my sister must have thought that he should wear them since I put so much work into them, but, truth be told, I had so much fun making them, and I knew there was a pretty good chance he wouldn't want them after all, I would have been fine with it except for the drama. It was unbelievably hurtful to listen to him being made to wear the shirts. I don't think I can explain it to them enough for them to understand, but I am sure that you all get it.
So, having said all that, I hereby resolve to only remember the good parts of this trip to Florida. Such as
My oldest is now officially enrolled in Full Sail University. He starts online in 9 days, and then moves to Florida in October. (More Disney for me) Meanwhile we have a wedding to plan because he told me while we were in FL that he and his GF want to get married before they live together there.
And Jedi Training, which was the best thing we did at Disney. Borrow yourself an under 12 if you don't have one just so you can do this.

One more just for fun. For some reason my youngest is wearing his Christmas shirt from two years ago (it says Merry Smithmas)


I'll start with the one that's my fault. Have you ever paid your mortgage twice? Guess what I accidentally did while we were on vacation. It plays havoc with your vacation budget. AHHHHH

So, if you were following along with the fun outfits I made for Disney and Universal, you know how excited I was when my nephew (R) asked me what I was making for him to wear. I should have known better.

My niece (M), however, wouldn't wear the Cinderella skirt. She wore the shirt and shorts and looked really cute. I guess it didn't matter so much since we never saw Cinderella anyway.

Then the second day : M wore the Snow White set - adorable

For R I had put a Crush the turtle iron-on on a striped t-shirt. He did not want to wear it and threw a screaming fit. My sister made him wear it anyway - even though I had said from the beginning that he didn't have to wear anything he didn't want to. This set the tone for every morning for the entire two weeks. Eventually even M started refusing to wear the outfits (though her meltdowns ended once she was in the clothes - until it was time to brush her hair)
The third park day was Universal in Minion shirts that I bought for everyone - Despicable me is one of their favorite movies, but... more screaming. He won that day.

My youngest and my sister in their Minion shirts (The boy in blue is R)
Then Typhoon Lagoon, I hadn't made any outfits for that day, but that didn't stop the screaming. I don't remember exactly what about.
Next: Disney Quest day - He didn't want to go, so they didn't. (The second week they did go to DQ - without us - and he threw a fit because he didn't want to leave)
Hollywood Studios day: Different themed Mickey shirts for everyone from Heather Sue's embroidery patterns (so you know they were cute). She put the shirt on him (screaming), he took it off. She put it down to chase after him; I picked up the shirt and put it back in the drawer in my room. I had been fully prepared for him not to want to wear the shirts, but hearing him yell about how stupid it was and he hated it, etc was more than I could take.
Brief pause for cute shirts that did get worn - although I didn't get pics of all of them (oh, yeah, my husband's didn't fit - I had sized it down from a 3XL and apparently went too far- but it fits me great. I wore it later)



You can sort of see the mad hatter on this one ^

and mine


After a couple of days of rest (one was supposed to be Blizzard Beach, but I was sun burnt and everyone else was burnt out), I tried a different tactic for Space Center day. I got out the shirts the night before while R was still up and showed it to him. Telling him that his shirt had an alien M on it and hers had an alien R on it. He declared that he wouldn't wear it. I said that's fine, no one's going to make you wear it if you don't want to (my sister was right there when I said it). Next morning, she puts them in the car in their jammies. It's a bit of a drive to Kennedy so we left pretty early. When we get there, we all find out (everyone in the whole parking lot) that she only brought him one shirt - guess which one. So today instead of screaming and fit throwing before we leave, it's there in the parking lot. The rest of us headed for the gate without them.

I gave up on the shirts for R for the rest of the trip - didn't even get them out of the suitcase.
M in her Hulk tutu on the last Universal day.

And finally, the outfit that got us stopped everywhere we went in Animal Kingdom.


And my sister in the vest I made for R (he did wear it for about 10 minutes in the car - seemed happy about it, but by the time we got to the park he wouldn't wear it)

My family was quite irked by all the commotion every morning (and every lunch time and bed time, etc. Unfortunately, that's not even a comprehensive list of the bad behavior.) I don't blame them. It made for a pretty stressful vacation for us. I know they think I was upset by the fact that R wouldn't wear the clothes, and my sister must have thought that he should wear them since I put so much work into them, but, truth be told, I had so much fun making them, and I knew there was a pretty good chance he wouldn't want them after all, I would have been fine with it except for the drama. It was unbelievably hurtful to listen to him being made to wear the shirts. I don't think I can explain it to them enough for them to understand, but I am sure that you all get it.
So, having said all that, I hereby resolve to only remember the good parts of this trip to Florida. Such as
My oldest is now officially enrolled in Full Sail University. He starts online in 9 days, and then moves to Florida in October. (More Disney for me) Meanwhile we have a wedding to plan because he told me while we were in FL that he and his GF want to get married before they live together there.
And Jedi Training, which was the best thing we did at Disney. Borrow yourself an under 12 if you don't have one just so you can do this.


One more just for fun. For some reason my youngest is wearing his Christmas shirt from two years ago (it says Merry Smithmas)
