Four Connecticut Yankees in King Mickey's Court - New DBoC stuff 2/4! (Feb '11 PTR)

[1308Miles]

Hi! I am thrilled you chose to take a peek at our PTR...the story of our very first family vacation to WDW!

Let's begin with introductions:

Me: I'm Leah, 35. A School Psychologist on hiatus while I care for my two sweet children. I love photography (and as such, this thread will be quite pic-heavy!), digital scrapbooking, bad reality TV, and crafting.

DH: Colin, 37. An attorney with a major insurance firm. Loves the Chicago Bears, Guinness, and leaving the toilet seat up so that his poor wife falls in in the middle of the night.

DS: Liam (aka Schmoopie or Schmoop), 5, a vivacious kindergartener and lover of all things Toy Story. He has been known to watch the Toy Story trilogy back-to-back at least once a weekend. Loves swimming, reading, and playing outdoors.

DD: Molly (aka Tootsie or TeeTee), 16 months. Completely obsessed with Cinderella ('Rella') and Aurora ('Rora'). A total girly-girl princess...loves to wear tiaras, sunglasses, and feather boas.

A few shameless pictures...
Molly & I on Halloween

Colin & Liam at the beach

Liam on the first day of kindergarten

Molly the diva

 

[1308Miles]

The countdown calendar which hangs on our fridge...Liam LOVES to cross off Mickey ears as the big day draws closer!

Our trip details:

We'll be staying at the Wilderness Lodge in late February to early March. We were hoping for a monorail resort but the prices were exorbitantly high! Hopefully next time we'll have a pin code...

We will be in the World for 5 days and 4 nights with a 5 day MYW ticket and free standard dining. I was so excited when we booked our trip in September that I started researching ADRs immediately after hanging up the phone with the WDW rep.

Since we have young kids, we wanted to do a character meal almost every day.

Our ADRs are as follows:
Day 1: Dinner @ Crystal Palace
Day 2: Chef Mickey's Breakfast Buffet
Day 3: Teppan Edo (okay...not a character meal, but our family LOVES Japanese teppanyaki!)
Day 4: Tusker House Breakfast Buffet
Day 5: 1900 Park Fare

Thoughts?

 

[1308Miles]

So, after spending hours lurking around the boards and compiling hundreds of tips (I have a 70+ page document filled with info thanks to everyone here at the DIS ) I realized that we should probably have a spot where we can keep all of our acquired Disney crap....and so the bottomless Disney Box o' Crap (DBoC) was born. It is getting fuller by the day!

Here's DBoC:

What's in DBoc? Glad you asked.

First, the utilitarian stuff...

8 disposable ponchos (2 for each of us)
2 travel size bottles of hand sanitizer
3 packages of wet wipes for dirty hands & faces
1 package of antibacterial wipes for swiping dirty tables & chairs (can you tell I'm a germophobe?)
3 mini LED flashlights on keychains (for the kids on dark/spooky rides)
1 book of stickers for each kid
1 box of crayons for each kid
Toy Story travel game
tiara
10 glowsticks (2 for each kid for each day where are at WDW...one for a parade, one for fireworks per day.)

Then there's the fun stuff...

a pair of PJs for each kid (they'll receive these wrapped on the day of our arrival with a note from Mickey)

Then there's my crafty stuff...
Pressed penny containers for each kid made from empty M&M minis and Mentos gum containers (again, thanks to the creative folks here on the DIS)

(continued next post...)

 

[1308Miles]

...continued

of course, our planning binder

a vacation journal for Liam:

the obligatory autograph book:

An Epcot/Animal Kingdom passport:

...I'll continue to update this as the box fills up!

 

[1308Miles]

While we sat snuggled up by the fire waiting for the blizzard to end, I finished a fun little shirt for DS5:

Into the DBoC it goes!

 

[jbmckenzie]

WOW! I love love love all of your disney crafts. You did such a good job on them. I have a ton of stuff downloaded from the "creative" board, but haven't started on anything yet. If you don't mind me asking...how did you do the cute shirt with Mickey tie on it? Is it a transfer or material? I think it is the cutest thing! Have fun planning and I'll be waiting on your next update. Becky

 

[1308Miles]

Yay! My 1st follower!

The t-shirt was REALLY easy and a lot of fun to make. I just found this tutorial:
http://www.crapivemade.com/2009/03/appliqued-tie-onesie.html
and tweaked the pattern in Photoshop to fit a 6-year old's plain white t-shirt. I used Heat-N-Bond lite to bond the fabric with the t-shirt and just hand-embroidered the tie with embroidery floss. I also added a contrasting Mickey head on the bottom (found him online, enlarged in Photoshop, and cut out of fabric.) The embroidery step is purely optional...I only did it because I was totally bored sitting inside on a cold, snowy day! The Heat N Bond secures the fabric to the shirt pretty well.

I have two more projects in the hopper - a personalized shirt for each of the kids...more pics forthcoming!

 

[Becc1]

Love the crafts, I so wish that I had the time to do such cute things! I too have a box like yours, it sits in my closet and I fill it up between visits. And your ADR's look great, with little ones we tend to do lots of character meals too.

 

[jessica52877]

Love DBoC!

 

[pinkxray]

Hi

I saw CT in your title and had to join in.

I love all of your crafts, you did such a great job! I made an autograph book last trip but might have to try the passport this time.

Looking forward to hearing all about your planning.

 

[DisneyKings]

I LOVE your autograph & passport books!!! Any tips?

 

[jeniamt]

Your autograph books are amazing. As I mentioned on Disboutiquers, I would love to know how you made them!

Looking forward to more of your TR!!

 

[jessica52877]

I love the books too! I wish I wouldn't have waited so long to decide what I was going to do. I would love to use artscow now that I let my free kodak book expire but I don't have enough time!

Did you make all the pages yourself or use someone else's? I really like the cover and the passport pages! I assume you did the passport. I am not too crafty with the online scrapping. I have to stop taking up new hobbies!

 

[1308Miles]

Love the crafts, I so wish that I had the time to do such cute things! I too have a box like yours, it sits in my closet and I fill it up between visits. And your ADR's look great, with little ones we tend to do lots of character meals too.

Hi

I saw CT in your title and had to join in.

I love all of your crafts, you did such a great job! I made an autograph book last trip but might have to try the passport this time.

Looking forward to hearing all about your planning.

I LOVE your autograph & passport books!!! Any tips?

Your autograph books are amazing. As I mentioned on Disboutiquers, I would love to know how you made them!

Looking forward to more of your TR!!

I love the books too! I wish I wouldn't have waited so long to decide what I was going to do. I would love to use artscow now that I let my free kodak book expire but I don't have enough time!

Did you make all the pages yourself or use someone else's? I really like the cover and the passport pages! I assume you did the passport. I am not too crafty with the online scrapping. I have to stop taking up new hobbies!

Thank you so much for all your kind words! I did create all of the pages of the books myself...all in Photoshop! It's so much fun to sit around all night after the kids go to bed and fiddle around on Photoshop. Are you familiar with digital scrapbooking? I became hooked on that in 2006 and I've amassed over 100 GB of digital scrapbooking background papers, elements, etc in the interim...it's quite embarrassing, really. I designed most of the elements and papers that you see in the books myself...I'm kind of a control freak and need things 'just so' once I have a vision! I began the books in September and finished them in December. It is quite time consuming, but definitely worth it!

I had the autograph book printed at Artscow (definitely would NOT recommend them...story forthcoming), the travel journal at Picaboo, and the Epcot passport/AK travel journal printed at Shutterfly. I used free photobook credits for them and all I paid was the S+H! Such a score. (Once you get to know me, you'll find out that I'm a bargain hunter, too! )

Anyway...more stuff to add to DBoC!

Uno cards for the hotel room ($1 at Walgreens!) and glow bracelets for the kids for parades and fireworks...I wanted to buy extras to RAK other kids standing around us! ($1 at Target)

Trading pin lanyard and pins (Christmas gift from his beloved cousins)

The newest creation (inspired by the 'sticky' on the Disney for Families board...an activity book for the plane!

I found lots of cute coloring pages online that I printed out and also went to Dollar Tree and found a few Disney activity books...tore the pages out and added them to the book. I went to Staples and had them bind it and add a clear front cover and solid back cover. Total cost: $7 for the dollar store books and binding!

Lastly, a picture of tonight's uncompleted project: a new custom shirt for Liam!

These cute blank 'ringer' shirts were on sale this week at Walgreens for $1 each. I only wish they had them in Molly's size!

Be back later to show you the finished product!

 

[1308Miles]

Oooh...forgot to mention...if you are looking to have a autograph book/passport printed, now is the time to do it! Kodak is offering a free 5x7 photobook (just pay $1.99 S&H)
Here's the linky.

Be back later!

 

[1308Miles]

So, I spent an hour in the freezing cold basement searching for my fabric stash...I haven't used it since Liam was born in 2005 so you could imagine how badly it was buried! I could have sworn I had some brown fabric but I was totally wrong. I used the closest thing I could find...some brown suede I had from when I tried to make Robeez for him (those didn't turn out well, BTW.) I wasn't sure if would work with the Heat N Bond but it did! I'm thrilled with how this came out.

What do you think...should I embroider the letters/Mickey bar so that they stand out a bit more?

I have a similar idea for DD...but I can not find plain white tshirts for toddlers. I've tried EVERYWHERE (Target, Walmart, etc.) All I could find were onesies. Any ideas or leads?

 

[jessica52877]

Oooh...forgot to mention...if you are looking to have a autograph book/passport printed, now is the time to do it! Kodak is offering a free 5x7 photobook (just pay $1.99 S&H)
Here's the linky.

Be back later!

Oooohhhhh! You sound like me! I LOVE free! I had a kodak photo book started and got aggravated so stopped. I didn't realize I could still get it for free. I was looking just last night for another free code! Thanks!

I love the newest journal! Glad to know how much it cost. My friend does most of that stuff for me, but she just moved back to NC!

I LOVE the mickey bar. I love names with good letters! The kids are going to look adorable!

 

[babynala]

Hi, came over from the Disboutique to follow your pre-trip report. I love all the things you created. The autograph and passport books are awesome. 100 GB of scrapbook stuff The activity book came out really nice. Can't wait to see what else you put in your box!

Liz

 

[1308Miles]

Whoa...I've been neglecting my PTR!

Honestly, I haven't exactly bought anything or made anything lately for DBoC. (although I've been trying just about every night to make those ruffle bottom jeans for DD!) American Idol has begun and just about everything comes to a grinding halt in my house from 8-10 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays. No talking, no phone calls, no crafting. We've been absolutely inundated with snow over the past three weeks. DS has only gone to school 5 out of the last 10 days due to weather closures. It's enough to send me to the nuthouse.

Anyway, lookie what arrived in our mailbox this afternoon (yeah, I pretty much blurred everything out...even the bar codes. I'm paranoid like that.):

DS just about lost his mind when he saw the picture of Mickey on the envelope and realized it was 'Mickey mail' frm Disney...he begged me to let him open it. So, of course, I grabbed my camera and away we went!

Tearing in (it's very serious business):

What's this?

Yay! It's our ME luggage tags!

I think he was a bit disappointed...he LOVED the customized maps that arrived a few weeks ago and I suppose luggage tags just pale in comparison.

Next up: the ruffle bottom jeans!

 

[1308Miles]

I've had this project on my to-do list for about 2 weeks now and I FINALLY got around to doing it.

I feel like Dora the Explorer (probably because my DD watches it nonstop all day)...I swear, I've been singing "I did it! I did it! Lo hicimos! I did it!"

Anyway - it was a lot easier than I tought and practically idiotproof. It only took me about 2 hours to finish this (I'm very slow and deliberate when I sew.)

Here it is...ta da!

I may even try this again...next up - a pilowcase dress for DD!