first trip do-over

[STLMickeyMom]

I love shirring, it is really fun and fast! I would recommend you google shirring with your brand of machine. It seems like each type of machine has a few tricks that makes shirring easier. When I hand wind my bobbin I don't pull it tight. It takes a few practice tries but, once you get the hang of it you won't want to stop! It makes the best summer dresses for little girls!

thanks so much for the tip on shirring. I'm excited to try it and will see what I can google about it. I think I'll be making a fabric store run over the holiday weekend! Have a fun 4th!!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

resort reservation.....I can't believe I haven't posted this yet, cuz you can bet i'm excited!! I made a room only reservation for our stay the other night! we are staying at port orleans-riverside in a royal room. I seriously can NOT wait for this trip. I can't believe we get to stay at a moderate! maybe we'll have to always go in January if it means we get to stay at POR. so I made a room only res because I was having anxiety about not getting a room we wanted. I found out then that july 10 is the day 2014 pricing comes out, so I just have to call back that day and change to a package. then I can make all our ADRs, and pirate league reservation and tomorrowland terrace desset party res! this is going to be an awesome trip.....

 

[Jackiemarie21]

How exciting! Janurary will be here before you know it. I always get antsy about making my reservations too! I just like knowing we are going for sure! And making the reservation does that for me. I love officially booking my trip.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

July 10.....oh, glorious july 10th! the day pricing for 2014 starts. the second I had some free time this morning, I called Disney to change my room only reservation into a MYW package! I am so excited to actually have everything booked!
july 9 was actually our 180 day mark, so I spent a lot of time yesterday making our ADRs. I don't know if it was just my computer or what, but I was having a horrible time making reservations online. I ended up just calling...then calling back to change a few things. I spent a lot of time on magical calls yesterday! so here's what we got and didn't get....
*sunday I tried to get a table at t-rex, but no luck. i'm actually ok with that, not a huge deal. we might try to just walk in when we get there, but i'm totally fine with just going to earl of sandwich.
*Monday, as of right now, we have no ADRs. I think we're going to walk over to PRFQ for beignets--I've heard they are delicious there. then I think we'll do lunch at dinner at pizzafari and yak and yeti local foods café.
*Tuesday I got an 8:10 at crystal palace!! so excited to get into the park early! can't wait for a family picture in front of the castle on an almost empty street! then we're hotfootin' it over to tinkerbell after breakfast. wish us luck on no line there. we skipped it last time and I promised the girls we would not skip it this time. we're going to Pinocchio village haus for lunch cuz we've never been. I wanted to get an ADR for dinner at the plaza restaurant, but they were having trouble with the reservations for that. I might keep trying back, or we might just grab something where ever we end up when we're hungry. that night we are hopefully doing the fireworks and dessert party. it won't book for awhile yet though.
*Wednesday we're going 'ohana in the morning, then lunch at tangierine café and dinner at the garden grill. I really could not decide on a place for dinner. i'm not as excited about garden grill as I thought i'd be. we'll see if we keep it.....
*Thursday is a fun day. I made an appointment for the girls to do the pirates league. I'm sure they'll love it--especially our youngest, queen of the dress up clothes! I'm hoping we'll get to do lunch at Tortuga tavern and dinner is BE OUR GUEST!!! i'm so excited to eat there! i'm hoping we get done with dinner in time for the MSEP.
*Friday we are having lunch at pizza planet and dinner at 50s prime time café. i'm excited for that one. it looks like a lot of fun!
so that's the ADRs for now. I don't think anything will change, but we'll see. i'm happy with it for now though!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

CrAaAAzy people.....so you know in princess and the frog (one of my FAVORITE movies! Love ray and louis!) when Charlotte says she "was startin' to think that wishin' on stars was just for babies and craaaazy people"? Well, I'm starting to feel like one of those craaaazy people! Yesterday I was happy with our ADRs and today I already called to make some changes! I'm driving myself nuts. And the disney website isnt helping. Maybe its just me, but i cant get anything to work on there or on the my disney experience app i put on my phone. Its supposed to be an easy way to have all your plans in one place and i really want to use it, but im constantly getting "server is down" Or "cant access plans now". making me craaaazy!! again!
anyway, I just canceled our garden grill res cuz I just was not excited about it. Also we have plans to see characters other places and we're not huge chip n dale fans, so I don't feel horrible skipping this one. Instead I changed us to lunch at chefs de France. We got a 1:00 spot so I'm hoping we'll get to see Remy! My husband loves ratatouille and I think the girls will think it's funny to have a rat at the table. Hopefully we'll see him! I heard that his handlers are hilarious so I'm looking forward to that, too!
Hopefully that will be the last change I make for dining reservations! Oh, and if anyone wants to know, the plaza restaurant will be closed for refurbishment the month of January, so don't try to make an ADR there that month.

 

[Denovagirl]

Awesome PTR so far! Loving it!!

I have a suggestion!! I was reading in someone elses blog a while back about how awful the time slots are that you can get ADRs for at TRex....at the time I had an ADR there for like 9pm!! Ugh...well anyway, they said if you call TRex directly the restaurant itself also books its own reservations! So they were able to get a prime dinner spot! So you should def try that! I am not sure how far out and such, but a call wouldn't hurt!

Chefs de France looked so cute, but I am not into French food, which I think Be Our Guest is also...so I couldn't get excited. In the end we decided on Biergarten in Epcot so the girls could dance and the Hubby likes German food. If I had my way we would have been at Via Napoli, but Chefs was my 3rd choice, that Remy does look like soooo much fun, I am sure your girls will love it! We also are gonna try BOG for lunch bc we couldn't get a dinner ADR, which was fine, the lunch menu had lots of sandwiches and stuff that seemed more my taste anyway. I just hope they do the "Grey Stuff" at lunchtime, since we will be celebrating my bday, make sure you ask for it also since it will be your bday!!!

Oh, one other thing, doesn't AK close early, like 5, the dates your going? You mentioned taking a nap break, but it may not leave you much time? We plan to just go straight through that day and if we get done with all we wanted well leave early and nap before dinner instead of the traditional after lunch nap we are planning most days.

Finally, you're so lucky you have the talent of sewing, I really wish I did so that I could make awesome clothes The stuff in your other pictures, like the tutus and bows, is adorable. Brava! I love it, those girlies are lucky!! So funny that we both have a Maddie

Can not wait to read more!!!!! Keep it coming!!!!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

ADR changes... I have the hardest time leaving mine alone. I still keep trying to change mine, I mean really what is my problem!
We LOVE chefs, this will be our first trip we don't eat there, we are actually doing Garden Grill instead. I just wanted to branch out a little bit.

I love Charlotte in the princess and the frog. I think she is so cute! I swear I wanted to name my dd Charlotte long before that movie came out, but after seeing that movie, I was sold!

I am so happy you have a package booked, that means this is all real!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Awesome PTR so far! Loving it!!

I have a suggestion!! I was reading in someone elses blog a while back about how awful the time slots are that you can get ADRs for at TRex....at the time I had an ADR there for like 9pm!! Ugh...well anyway, they said if you call TRex directly the restaurant itself also books its own reservations! So they were able to get a prime dinner spot! So you should def try that! I am not sure how far out and such, but a call wouldn't hurt!

Chefs de France looked so cute, but I am not into French food, which I think Be Our Guest is also...so I couldn't get excited. In the end we decided on Biergarten in Epcot so the girls could dance and the Hubby likes German food. If I had my way we would have been at Via Napoli, but Chefs was my 3rd choice, that Remy does look like soooo much fun, I am sure your girls will love it! We also are gonna try BOG for lunch bc we couldn't get a dinner ADR, which was fine, the lunch menu had lots of sandwiches and stuff that seemed more my taste anyway. I just hope they do the "Grey Stuff" at lunchtime, since we will be celebrating my bday, make sure you ask for it also since it will be your bday!!!

Oh, one other thing, doesn't AK close early, like 5, the dates your going? You mentioned taking a nap break, but it may not leave you much time? We plan to just go straight through that day and if we get done with all we wanted well leave early and nap before dinner instead of the traditional after lunch nap we are planning most days.

Finally, you're so lucky you have the talent of sewing, I really wish I did so that I could make awesome clothes The stuff in your other pictures, like the tutus and bows, is adorable. Brava! I love it, those girlies are lucky!! So funny that we both have a Maddie

Can not wait to read more!!!!! Keep it coming!!!!

thanks for the tip on t-Rex! I don't know what to do yet. It looks like a cool place to eat but now I'm sort of excited about earl of sandwich. Why are there so many good places to eat?!?
We're not big French food eaters either. Their menu looks like it has some "normal" stuff so hopefully we won't leave hungry. Oooooo, I'm hoping for some grey stuff too!
No, we won't take a nap break on animal kingdom day. When I wrote that I didn't realize how early they closed in January. I'm hoping we'll get everything done, have some dinner then go back to the resort for some swimming and an early night.
I do really like to sew. I'm no professional but I can follow a pattern thanks to my home ec teacher from back in the day! I haven't attempted the petti skirt yet because the site I want to order material from is on vacation but if they turn out I'll post some pictures.
Thanks for reading!

ADR changes... I have the hardest time leaving mine alone. I still keep trying to change mine, I mean really what is my problem!
We LOVE chefs, this will be our first trip we don't eat there, we are actually doing Garden Grill instead. I just wanted to branch out a little bit.

I love Charlotte in the princess and the frog. I think she is so cute! I swear I wanted to name my dd Charlotte long before that movie came out, but after seeing that movie, I was sold!

I am so happy you have a package booked, that means this is all real!

im so excited to know chefs is a favorite of yours. We've never eaten there, so I'm excited. I could not get jazzed about garden grill even though I've heard it's great. Can't wait to see what you think of it! Maybe that'll have to be on our list for the next visit.
I love Charlotte in the movie too. well, really, I pretty much love everything about that movie! I think I can recite the whole thing. And I think it's a beautiful name for your little cutie too!
I can't tell you how excited I was to FINALLY be able to book everything. We've been talking about this trip since January so I was ready to book it for real!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

new clippies.....made the other clippies for the girls this morning. I think they turned out pretty good.


please excuse the glue gun and papers in the photo. the papers are actually our Disney plans!!

I wish I would have gotten more of the ribbon with the characters on it, but that's ok. they are going to wear them with shirts i'm going to make. I haven't ordered the iron ons yet, but these are the ones we're getting.






I also ordered the chiffon this morning to make the pettiskirts. can't wait for that to come!!
now i'm going to clean the house up (who the heck makes all the messes around here? I swear they appear overnight!) and then work on rompers for the girls. if they turn out i'm going to do Disney ones for the trip!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

paperchain.....I just can't seem to stay off here today! just felt like posting a pic of our paperchain countdown. it started way back in January with about 325 days......crazy, I know!



sorry about the picture quality. as much as I love our crazy paint, it makes it hard to get good pictures in this room.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

sewing sunday.....I got all the pattern pieces cut out last night and spent today sewing these cute little rompers for the girls. I think they turned out pretty cute! I got the pattern from the website youcanmakethis.com. thanks, jackiemarie!!

excuse her messy face. she just came in from "helping" DH clean out the garage and was getting in the shower but had to try on her "outfit"!

excuse our crazy floor too. the girls spilled water and we took the carpet squares up to dry them. one good thing about carpet squares--easy clean up while the kids are little!!


kiddo number two fresh from her bath. not crazy about the blue ribbon on the bow by her waist, but it's what she picked, so i'll roll with it.


just a closer picture.

I think i'll make them more from some Disney-ish fabric closer to our trip. they were pretty easy, although my machine does not like shirring. i'll have to try something a little different next time I think.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

JACKPOT!.....so I haven't added much on here for awhile, mostly because our trip is still quite awhile away and there isn't much going on right now. I'm know it's been lonely here, but I see that the views i'm getting keep going up, so thanks to people who are still reading! i'm glad you stopped by!

anyway, I wanted to put this picture on here, because I was so excited with the total Disney JACKPOT at party city I found today! some of it's stuff for the parks and some of it's for their backpacks on the plane ride. I don't think i'll have to get anything else for their backpacks.



would you look at all that Disney wonderfulness?!? I found crowns, cars and toy story playing cards, mickey shaped pencil sharpeners, little green men pens, mickey silly bands, about a zillion different character stampers, tiny coloring books, Minnie colored pencils, tinkerbell glow in the dark necklaces, notebooks, and my favorite thing.....little tiny cameras that are like teeny viewmasters.....too much goodness! now, I just have to find a spot to hide all of it so the girls don't find it before the trip.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

pettiskirt.....so I've made a couple of these to give to friends daughters and have liked how they turned out. i finally finished one for one of my own kiddos. She is going to wear this one with a princess tshirt. I just have to order my iron ons yet.
Here's the skirt---lovin' all those ruffles!



This is the iron on, except hers will have a blue glitter crown.



The day the girls wear these shirts and skirts is the day DH will wear his "princess protection agency" shirt, at Magic Kingdom, of course!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

pettiskirt.....so I've made a couple of these to give to friends daughters and have liked how they turned out. i finally finished one for one of my own kiddos. She is going to wear this one with a princess tshirt. I just have to order my iron ons yet.
Here's the skirt---lovin' all those ruffles!



This is the iron on, except hers will have a blue glitter crown.



The day the girls wear these shirts and skirts is the day DH will wear his "princess protection agency" shirt, at Magic Kingdom, of course!

I love it! It turned out fantastic! Your family will be so cute. I can't wait to see them in front of the castle and with the other princesses!

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Dat countdown! I must make one! Where did you keep that in your house?? lol

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Dat countdown! I must make one! Where did you keep that in your house?? lol

i'm glad you like it! We have an empty wall right by the front door so that's where I stuck it. We can see it all the time (our front door opens right to our living room) but it's out of the way too. It started up in the 300's so it was really long when it started! I was obviously having some Disney withdrawals when I made it!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Hello! I just read through your PTR and your plans sound so exciting!

Your girls are too cute! Sorry to hear your first trip wasn't how you wanted to be!

I think you guys will love going in January. Honestly, I think you're going the perfect time. When we went in January, we definitely noticed the crowds drop off as we got further from the New Year and kids were going back to school so pulling your daughter out of kindergarten for a week is probably a good decision as far as crowds go!

I'm jealous of how crafty you are! Love all the bows!

That's a great haul from Party City! I don't know if you guys are planning to get into pin trading or anything while you're there but I got a Disney princess lanyard from Party City for 99 cents (at Disney world I think they're like $9.95 !)

Can't wait to read about the rest of your plans!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

hi Courtney! Thanks for reading my PTR! I love reading yours-I'm glad you found me.
I'm excited to try January. I've heard from several people that its a good time to go. I'm a little nervous about the huge tour groups I've read about. We've never seen them, so I'm hoping we can avoid them or stay ahead of them. Maybe they'll see us coming with crazy children and avoid us!
The girls haven't really shown an interest in pins yet, and I'm not sure i want to start cuz I'm pretty sure I'd spend a small fortune on it , but thanks for the tip on the lanyards. That's a huge savings!! And I love a bargain!
Thanks! I'm no professional seamstress but I do love making stuff for the girls. Figure I should enjoy it now because pretty soon they won't want to wear anything I make, I'm sure. Let me know if you need a bow! I'd be happy to make something for you! What I really wish is that I could make one of the fluffy, twirly pettiskirts for myself! I'm pretty sure I'd get some crazy looks though....
Hopefully I'll have some more to post as we get closer to our trip. Hope you'll be back to read more!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

hi Courtney! Thanks for reading my PTR! I love reading yours-I'm glad you found me.
I'm excited to try January. I've heard from several people that its a good time to go. I'm a little nervous about the huge tour groups I've read about. We've never seen them, so I'm hoping we can avoid them or stay ahead of them. Maybe they'll see us coming with crazy children and avoid us!
The girls haven't really shown an interest in pins yet, and I'm not sure i want to start cuz I'm pretty sure I'd spend a small fortune on it , but thanks for the tip on the lanyards. That's a huge savings!! And I love a bargain!
Thanks! I'm no professional seamstress but I do love making stuff for the girls. Figure I should enjoy it now because pretty soon they won't want to wear anything I make, I'm sure. Let me know if you need a bow! I'd be happy to make something for you! What I really wish is that I could make one of the fluffy, twirly pettiskirts for myself! I'm pretty sure I'd get some crazy looks though....
Hopefully I'll have some more to post as we get closer to our trip. Hope you'll be back to read more!

We saw a few tour groups but we always just made sure to go the opposite way as them and never had any problems!

I totally understand about the pins. I haven't even started trading yet and I just want more. This could be a problem!

I bet you could get away with a fluffy, twirly pettiskirt in Disney! Maybe not so much outside though!

I'll definitely be following along!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

the proposal.....i haven't had a lot to post on here so i thought i'd post a couple pictures from when my wonderful husband proposed. why would i put that on here, a place for all things Disney? well, because we got engaged at Magic Kingdom!!! it was one of the best days of my life! he said so many sweet things that i do not remember because i was so busy crying. people clapped, cast members congratulated us and i totally spent the rest of the day looking at my ring and not fully enjoying being at Disney! but....so worth it! we went into the Christmas store and got an ornament with our names and the date on it. they wrote just engaged on it too. when we picked it up, one of the cm's saw what it said and started looking at my ring and calling other cms over and asking when he proposed, etc. Disney is THE best place to get engaged! i sometimes wish we would have gotten married there....but anyway, on to the pictures!









now it's 10 years later, but seems like yesterday.....