How did you surprise your kids?

[brasey]

We are surprising the kids with a trip for Christmas and are not telling them until the day before we leave. What way did you let your kids know?

 

[HelenePA]

well my kids know we are going.. they know its "soon" but they dont know how "soon" soon is... we wont tell them until we get to the airport... I dont wanna hear mommy are we at disney yet... mommy how much longer, are we going to disney now. are we at disney yet...

 

[Perditamarie]

Do a search for "KOTS". There was a thread a little bit ago for the Official Unofficial KOTS (keepers of the secret) -- families shared how they were revealing the surprise and updated the results. You may get some great ideas.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

We surprised our kiddos on our last trip. It was sooo hard not to tell them! My husband and I were talking about making ADR's, plane reservations, what to do which day, and we didn't say a word around the kids. I thought for sure one of us or our extended family would say something. We told the kids we were going to St. Louis for a day and would see the arch. Well, we drove to St. Louis and stayed in a hotel. The next morning at like 5a.m. we woke the kids and gave each of them a wrapped gift. They had matching Disney World tshirts, like the ones my DH and I had on, and some Disney coloring books, sticker books to do on the plane. We told them we had a flight to catch, so let's get around! They were so excited! Sure enough, from the plane we saw the arch! Now when we tell them we have a surprise, they always ask if we're going to Disney World!

 

[shellynn24]

My kids know we are going to WDW, they just don't know exactly when. They also know that Daddy is coming home from Korea, again they don't know when. My plan is to go to the airport on Aug 1 to get Daddy and not tell them why we are going. Now this is the part that gets a little mean, on Aug 5 we are going to the airport to get on the plane to go to WDW, I'm going to tell the kids that we are dropping Daddy off to go back to Korea, I know mean, but they will forgive me once they find out we are actually getting on the plane. I can't wait to see their faces and plan on taking many, many pictures.

 

[pednurse]

I went to a local paint-your-own-pottery place and made plates for both of our kids. I painted a Mickey head in the middle, with the words "Disney World" across the top, their name across the bottom, and the year next to Mickey's head ( 20 on one side, 07 on the other). When I gave them the plates, they immediately figured out we were going to Disney World. They had been asking to go for a couple of years, but it took a while to convince DH to go (he claims to have not enjoyed it the time he went as a kids.....but I think that's because his dad always over-planned every vacation....you know the kind that "Nope, can't go to the bathroom right now no matter how much you need to because I don't have a bathroom break planned until 48 minutes from now" type). The kids are beyond excited, love their new Mickey Mouse plates, and are counting the days (only 9 1/2 to go!!!!!).

 

[mama4]

Oh...I have to surprise them by being surprised myself. We are going in January 2008 and I've been blabbing away to them since DH agreed to the trip. However, Dh came to me recently and asked if we wanted to join him on a business trip to Orlando the first week of June. Uhhhh, yes!! So of course the kids and I will get 3 day play passes and visit the parks a couple of days. I haven't told them yet and hopefully I can KEEP my trap shut until the day we leave. They'll be sooo excited since they think the trip is still not for a LONG time (all they know is it's going to be after Christmas and that's forever to them). It'll be nice to be able to just convert those 3 day play passes to seasonal passes for our next trip too. So many of my friends here go every other month it seems so it'll be nice to have those passes so we can go more often too.

 

[Ellester]

We surprised our kids at Christmas, there is probably much more detail than you'd ever need in my trip report. Post #21 shows them opening their surprise. It was hard to keep the secret, but it was so cool watching them absorb the fact that they were going to Disney! Have fun planning!

 

[brasey]

ellester
I just finished your trip report. It was great. On our last trip my daughter had a fever for a couple of days. I couldn't imagine the stomach virus.

 

[klj27]

We have never suprised our kids, but some friends of ours are going to next month. They have never been. They are going to wake the kids up and tell them they are going on a trip. When they get in the van there will be a DVD in the player that tells them. (Their dad is making it.)

They also don't know that we are going to meet them there on their second night. It will be so funny when are kids walk up to them at dinner.

 

[pantherlj]

Our surprise is in my trip report here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1365315

Have fun!

 

[cybrkitn]

We went last October, but had it booked since August. We didn't tell our DS4 that he was going. Although we had a few "slip ups" where we said something accidently . But luckily DS didn't hear it or catch on (phew).

DH was going to be down there for a business conference so DS came with us to drop daddy off at the airport. We also told him that he would come with me to pick daddy up from the airport. So he knew he was going to go inside the airport. The last day of DH's business trip was the day DS and I were going down to meet up with him for our first real family vacation.

At 4:30/5 am on 10/25/06 I get the video camera all set up to get his reaction to being told he was going to Disney World. And wouldn't you know it, the stupid camera wasn't giving me a picture . I went into my room to try and fix it and about a minute later, DS knocks on my door. I open it and there he is, rubbing his eyes, groggy and upset that I woke him up (can't blame him there). I then tell him that he isn't going to the airport to pick up daddy today, that we're going to Disney World to meet up with him. Didn't phase him at all. All he wanted to do was go back to sleep, and who can blame him.

I get him ready to go. He didn't know it, but I also had a Disney Enchanted Call from Mickey scheduled for 7 am. By that time, the camera was working (yeah!) and was all set to record. The call comes in and I immediately put it on speaker phone give it to DS4 while I'm recording him. He's there listening so intently as to was was being said by Mickey. Then I see this big smile about a mile wide forming on DS when Mickey says "I'll see you real soon." I believe that's when the realization hit him that he was going that day to see Mickey Mouse, because right after the call was done, he looks up at me and asks, "Can we do that again?" Then proceeds to start jumping up and down asking. He was so excited at that point. It was priceless and daddy got to see the video with DS's reaction once we got settled into Pop.


One thing I have to mention here. Everytime DS saw a Disney commercial or went to the web site he kept asking to go. Before actually booking our vacation we were talking about it going and DS got his hopes up. After we had actually booked it and DS asked about going, I felt like a mean mommy telling him we couldn't afford to go. I could see the disappointment and the tears forming when I would tell him we couldn't. But seeing his face when he realized that he was going on that day made up for it.

 

[ortegah]

We're going for our first WDW trip on June 23rd and it's going to be a total surprise for the kids(if we can keep from slipping for another 29 days!!!) Anyhow, we have a timeshare/campground membership in Virginia and they think we are going there. But we're taking my mom and dad and my mother in law and sister in law. They think we're renting cabins at our place. So the day of we're going to pack our suitcases and drive down to my MIL's house to get them and get ready. When we get down there, we're going to be met by our aunt and uncle that live across the street and they are going to drive us to the airport. I'm guessing at some point we're going to have to explain that we're not going to our timeshare but instead are going somewhere else that is a surprise. We're either going to blindfold them til we get to the airport or we're going to come up with a word search puzzle or something like that for them to try and figure it out own their own.

Now IF we can continue to say "Virginia" instead of "Disney" we'll be just fine. We've slipped in front of them a few times but luckily they haven't noticed yet. The hardest part is planning all of this without them knowing any of it and also coming up with a fake story that the whole family can agree on so our stories don't get mixed up and make them suspicious.

We've managed to keep this a secret since last November and it's just killing me! I can't wait to see their faces

 

[klj27]

We're going for our first WDW trip on June 23rd and it's going to be a total surprise for the kids(if we can keep from slipping for another 29 days!!!) Anyhow, we have a timeshare/campground membership in Virginia and they think we are going there. But we're taking my mom and dad and my mother in law and sister in law. They think we're renting cabins at our place. So the day of we're going to pack our suitcases and drive down to my MIL's house to get them and get ready. When we get down there, we're going to be met by our aunt and uncle that live across the street and they are going to drive us to the airport. I'm guessing at some point we're going to have to explain that we're not going to our timeshare but instead are going somewhere else that is a surprise. We're either going to blindfold them til we get to the airport or we're going to come up with a word search puzzle or something like that for them to try and figure it out own their own.

Now IF we can continue to say "Virginia" instead of "Disney" we'll be just fine. We've slipped in front of them a few times but luckily they haven't noticed yet. The hardest part is planning all of this without them knowing any of it and also coming up with a fake story that the whole family can agree on so our stories don't get mixed up and make them suspicious.

We've managed to keep this a secret since last November and it's just killing me! I can't wait to see their faces

Sounds like a great surprise. We will see you there!! We are there from the 25th - July 9th.

 

[ortegah]

I'm so happy to hear that I'm not the only crazy person going during the hottest, wettest and busiest time of the year there