Is he going to make us all do the hula? - Now with Tie Dye pics!

[tiffrobyn]

We will be at Disney the same week for DD's MAW trip. Maybe we will say hi and !

That would be fun! Stay tuned because I'll be talking about our outfits pretty soon! Then you'll know how to spot us!

 

[tiffrobyn]

I wish I had something more exciting to write about Saturday. For now, I think we just plan to sleep in, which for my kids probably means 7:30 then pack up our belongings. We are moving out of our DVC digs and Ali and Mark are moving out of Art of Animation. We're all going to stay in the Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside! I have a late breakfast scheduled at Whispering Canyon Cafe. I'm calling it brunch actually because it is for 11:00am. I guess we'll figure out the logistics of moving everyone and luggage once we are all up for the day.

I'm looking forward to brunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe. It was originally going to be dinner on Monday night so I've already professed my love for the Wilderness Lodge but it is worth noting again. Such a gorgeous resort and I love the ambiance. I'm hoping to be able to spend some time exploring since we have no other concrete plans for the day. The breakfast menu at Whispering Canyon Cafe looks pretty tasty to me too!

At some point we'll need to check in at Port Orleans. I also would like to spend some time exploring the resort. Maybe we'll pop over to a park for a couple rides, depending on what the kids still want to do. Ali & Mark will have to make it an early night since they will have a Mickey Bus pickup at around 5:20am! We have it a little better. Our flight doesn't leave MCO until 2:50pm. That's nice because I'll be able to wake up lesiurely on Sunday morning and by check out time we'll just about need to head to the Mickey Bus anyway.

Up next... TIE DYE!!

 

[tiffrobyn]

Ok, I lied. I didn't get around to my tie dye post this weekend. Instead, I'll bring you Hawaiian shirts!

The name of this pre-trip report came about because of my husband's sudden obsessive love for Disney Hawaiian shirts. When we last visited the world in April, I suggested he buy one. It looked really comfy. That was all it took! When we got home, he began scouring eBay obsessively. He set an upper price limit for himself and began bidding! He has also taken to hunting in thrift stores for discarded Disney Hawaiian shirts and even came across two a few weeks ago that he got for $5 total! There's a post about that up above! So, this morning, I went into our closet to take a picture of our "Disney tote" and the accumulation already on top of it.

It is about to get much larger as I swap out summer clothes for winter clothes. I'll just add the appropriate number of shorts and skirts to this pile instead of packing them away. But then, after I took the picture I noticed Dave's Hawaiian shirts all hanging neatly on his side of the closet. I decided to pull them down for some pictures so we could take a real good look at decide our actual chances of being forced to do the hula. He's up to 8 total shirts! For your viewing pleasure:

The last two aren't exactly Hawaiian but they're of the same style. Maybe they'd be more aptly called bowling shirts? In any case, the bottom one is my favorite of the bunch!

 

[tiffrobyn]

I remember perusing some Disney internet forum, may have even been here, sometime last year and coming across a post with a family wearing Tie Dye Mickey shirts. Well, then, OF COURSE I had to make some for my family! So, when we went in April I made these:

This time, there are ten of us going so naturally we have to have matching tie dye Mickey shirts on one of our trip days! I think we’ve settled on Dave’s birthday as our day to match. So, I started with my cardboard Mickey head stencil. Sorry for the shadow!

I used the stencil to trace the Mickey head in the center of the chest of the shirt

I then used waxed dental floss to sew around the outline of the Mickey head. I read somewhere that making the stitches close together makes a better defined Mickey head. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I do it anyway!

After I sew all the way around the Mickey head, I pull both ends of the floss taut and tie them in a knot. You end up with a small Mickey head shaped poof on the front of the shirt.

I go ahead and rubber band the area under the Mickey head next. Make sure all the floss is above the rubber bands.

Next step, I soak in soda ash. It says you only have to do it for 20 minutes, I think, but I let mine sit overnight.

When I take them out of the soda ash I wring them out just a little then I begin the spiraling process. Put the shirt down on a flat surface with the Mickey head sticking up then twist until you’re satisfied with the cinnamon bun shape it’s produced.

Wrap in rubber bands until you’re happy it’s secure. For an adult shirt, I use about 4 rubber bands.

Now it’s time to get messy! For these shirts I used regular tulip brand dyes. I put them in ketchup and mustard bottles I found at the dollar store and labeled the outside so I could see what colors they were.

I didn’t get any pictures of the actual coloring process because it’s so messy! I will tell you that I always hold the shirt upside down first and squirt the Mickey head, then cover the mickey head in saran wrap with an additional rubber band. Then, I go on to color the rest of the shirt. After it’s all colored, you’ll want to wrap the whole shirt in saran wrap.

I put the saran wrapped shirt into a plastic grocery bag for good measure. Then I put all the shirts wrapped in grocery bags back in the bucket.

The bucket sat in my laundry room for about 5 days before I got to them again. I take the bag and saran wrap off and start rinsing the ball. After the initial deluge of dye is gone, I cut the rubber bands off and rinse the rest of the shirt until it runs clear. Back in the bucket with the rinsed shirts then I dump the whole bucket in the washer. I throw an old towel in with the wash to soak up any stray dye.

Here’s the end result of the shirts from this batch!

After the matching shirts were done, I bought a multicolor tie dye kit at WalMart and went crazy dying everything white I could find! This is my favorite shirt from that batch:

And this is one that I did for Kate that the Mickey head didn’t come out quite right. After it was out of the dryer, I used a bleach pen to draw a Mickey head then put it through the wash again.

 

[tiffrobyn]

Well, I have to make a change to my plan of Bus Roulette on 11/11 but for a very good reason! We got into the AP previews of the Fantasyland Expansion! Well, the kids and I did. For some reason it wouldn't accept Dave's AP? Grrrr.

So, new plan:

Check out of Coronado Springs. Either let the resort handle our luggage transfers or pile everything up in the rental. Kids and I will head to MK to partake in the Belle version of the preview. Dave will go check us in at Animal Kingdom Villas. Then, he has the afternoon to himself! He gets to do WHATEVER he wants until 4pm! I assume he'll meet us at MK when the preview ends. Or maybe we'll go get everything in the room if it wasn't ready at check in. Then we'll still head to 'Ohana for 6:40pm dinner!

I'm excited about the preview! I know it is in unofficial previews now but this will be fun! We get to ride Under the Sea, experience Enchanted Tales with Belle and have a tour of Be Our Guest!

I feel bad that Dave's AP wouldn't work. There seemed to be a lot of people on the Passholder facebook page saying they had the same problem.

 

[tiffrobyn]

19 days until Disney!!


I can’t believe we are in the teens! It is SO close now!

Seeing as how I am a crazy over-planner, with lists and spreadsheets, I was starting to panic a little last week because I knew I still needed to make some purchases for the trip and get everything together.

The few custom outfits I had made for the girls are shipping today, so that’s one less thing to worry about. I need to match the shirts up with shorts/skirts/pants but I also need to wait until it gets closer so I can get a weather forecast. At this point we are thinking shorts and t-shirts with jackets for the mornings evenings but I want to wait until we get closer to make a final decision in case Florida gets a random cold snap the second week of November.

We are also getting an Owner’s Locker on this trip so I need to stock that. We have trips planned in January and April of 2013 and I have a Jan/Feb 2014 trip in my head so we have decided to bite the bullet and keep our stuff there instead of in the proverbial “Disney tote” in my bedroom closet!

This is my inventory list as of now and I’ve purchased all but two things off of it:

2 baby blankets
Coffee filters
Individual packs of coffee
Toothpaste
Toothbrushes
Hair brush
Baby shampoo
Sunscreen
Shaving cream
Razors
Power strip
Lotion
Deodorant
Ziplocs
Chapstick
Advil
Kids Tylenol
Qtips
Nail clipper
Nail file
Laundry detergent
First aid kit
Dental floss
Batteries
Pop up hamper
Trash bags
Stroller lights
Bath/pool toys
IPhone charger


I'm having trouble finding the single pot packs of coffee. I feel like they used to be EVERYWHERE but I guess with the explosion of Keurig pods they're no longer necessary. I found a huge CASE at BJ's but I really don't need 50 pots worth of coffee, ya know?

After my shopping this weekend I feel much better and much more prepared for this trip! I'm so excited!