Laissez les bon temps Rouler...Feb 2010 2/20 MK Last part of the Night updt 9/70 pg65

[vamassey1]

Well Hi, there! It is crazy how many Louisiana people love WDW. My son and his family just returned and on their floor at the Poly there were 4 families from their small school in Lafayette, and none of them knew the others were going! It was their first trip (since my son went with us as a 6 year old) and they are now total converts. They WILL be back!

Maybe this summer we can plan a BR Dis meet at the Mall food court or something. That would be fun.

Disney does have the touch to make most people converts.

The mall would be great.

 

[vamassey1]

The When and the Where sounded great. What a fun surprise! I'm looking forward to hearing how it all came out and which plans were changed.

Changes are coming!

Can't wait to hear about the big surprise!

That's my favorite part!

 

[tinkgurl]

That is such a neat invitation!

 

[my2disneyboys]

Great introduction! The plans sound great. Funny you were there a week or so after we left. Hopefully you had better weather than us.

 

[vamassey1]

That is such a neat invitation!

Thanks! It pays to have tons of scrapbooking stuff.

 

[vamassey1]

Great introduction! The plans sound great. Funny you were there a week or so after we left. Hopefully you had better weather than us.

We didn't have any rain, but it was tooooo coooold.

 

[vamassey1]

Since this was a "surprise trip" the planning and preparation had to be done "on the down-low". On our last trip Danielle was my side kick. She helped me plan, shop, organize and pack. For this trip I had to do all these things where she couldn't see us. Michelle was a big help. She really got into planning and shopping for this trip. Normally I would have a bag on the floor in my room for at least a month and a half before the trip. This is the extra bag for all those extra things and for the snacks and stuff we bring. For this trip I had to hide the bag in the bottom of my closet under some blankets. I really missed the daily reminder being in plain sight screaming "Your going to Disney soon". I spent lots of lunch hours running around collecting trip stuff. Michelle got into shopping for the trip too. Half the snacks we brought was stuff she picked up. Of course Danielle's Belle dress was hanging in the extra bathroom at work until I brought it home to wrap. Then it was hidden in the trunk. There were so many times she almost caught us.

The Saturday before we left I spent the morning getting my hair done. Can't go to Disney with grays showing. I also had big plans on the next day, Super Bowl Sunday. Michelle had gotten us tickets to "Mama Mia" for the afternoon show. We were going to be in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. I posted on my other trip report about our adventure. It can be found here Super Bowl Sunday part one & here Super Bowl Sunday part 2.

The rest of the week seemed to fly by with preparation. We had finally worked out how we were going to tell the girls. Around Tuesday things started to not look so good. The weatherman was predicting "frozen precipitation" for Thursday night and Friday morning. We were suppose to leave on Friday morning. I wasn't worried about driving in this just what it would do to our master plan. We live in the deep south. It doesn't snow here on any kind of normal basis. Believe it or not this would be the third time since December that "frozen precipitation" was predicted. The other 2 times we didn't get hardly anything. But the problem is people over react when there is a small chance for some snow. Roads close, events are canceled and schools close. I really needed Danielle to go to school so I could pack! Up until this point I hadn't packed anything except for the extra stuff. I had tried to get Michelle to pack some stuff. We had told Danielle that Michelle would be spending the weekend in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Totally believable since she had done this the year before. So she was the only one with a suitcase out and some packing actually done. I held out hope that this would just pass and everything would go as planned. On Thursday I kept checking the weather on line and the local news to see if the announcement of no school had come. Finally at around 4 that afternoon we got the automated call...no school. What to do?

I scrambled and came up with another plan. Michelle would be responsible for Danielle since she had no school. I would pretend to go to work as normal. Since we had been promising for months to take Danielle to have breakfast with Dennis at work we would go with that. Dennis runs a La Madeleine's and Danielle loves a big breakfast. The big reveal would happen at breakfast and then we would return home to finish packing. Not exactly the neat package I had planned but we could make it work and we might get on the road earlier than we would have with the original plan.

Up next the Big Reveal!

 

[tinkgurl]

Oooh I can't wait to find out how the big reveal went!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Oh gosh, it was FREEZING that week even in WDW!!!! I have never been to WDW in weather that cold before. We thought last year was colder than usual. This one was worse. Plus the wind stayed at 20-30mph every single day so you really got beat up and were zonked by the end of the day.

So typical of La schools to shut down on that day! Can't wait to read all about the big reveal!!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Way to think on your feet! I probably would have had a meltdown...or a tantrum!!! I can't wait to hear how this big surprise went!!! I will never forget the way we surprised Madison in Jan 09. It was so awesome!

 

[vamassey1]

Oooh I can't wait to find out how the big reveal went!

Again this is my favorite part!

 

[vamassey1]

Oh gosh, it was FREEZING that week even in WDW!!!! I have never been to WDW in weather that cold before. We thought last year was colder than usual. This one was worse. Plus the wind stayed at 20-30mph every single day so you really got beat up and were zonked by the end of the day.

So typical of La schools to shut down on that day! Can't wait to read all about the big reveal!!

It was still cold and windy when we finally got there too!

I'm going to try to post the reveal Friday night if we don't get home too late. Brent is graduating from NSU on Friday so we'll be headed up to Natchitoches!

 

[vamassey1]

Way to think on your feet! I probably would have had a meltdown...or a tantrum!!! I can't wait to hear how this big surprise went!!! I will never forget the way we surprised Madison in Jan 09. It was so awesome!

Meltdown and tantrum avoided for now.

Surprise coming up hopefully on Friday night.

 

[orangecats2]

Hi! Signing on for the ride! I saw you on Jordan's TR and liked the title. I read your TR from last year first so that is why I'm a little late to the game.
I keep thinking DH and I should try Cape May Cafe for dinner one day so I'm looking forward to your review of that. Also can't wait to hear how this sister is different from your other one.

 

[vamassey1]

Hi! Signing on for the ride! I saw you on Jordan's TR and liked the title. I read your TR from last year first so that is why I'm a little late to the game.
I keep thinking DH and I should try Cape May Cafe for dinner one day so I'm looking forward to your review of that. Also can't wait to hear how this sister is different from your other one.

and thanks for joining in! I'm honored you read the other report. I have to read up before I'll post too. We really liked Cape May and would do it again. Thank goodness everyone is different, Jada is way more laid back. Jordan makes a small appearance in my report.

 

[vamassey1]

It had finally arrived...our departure day. The news had predicted that we would start getting "possible snow" late Thursday night or early Friday morning. To be honest it really wasn't cold enough for snow. We got rain but when I woke up Friday morning there was no snow.

I don't have to be at work until 9 on Fridays but I still get up at my regular time because I still have to get Danielle up and ready to be out for the bus for 7:30. This gives me a little quiet me time after she catches the bus and I have to leave for work. On this Friday I wasn't going to work at all, but Danielle didn't know this. I got up really early so I could get some packing done while she was still sleeping. We had planned for the girls to leave around 8:30 to go meet Dennis for breakfast. The suitcases had been hidden in the storage room outside. Before Dennis left for work at 4:30 a.m. he had brought them inside to hide in our closet. I started getting ready and pulled out my suitcase. I kept in out of view of my bedroom door in case she passed by my room. I like to pack as I'm getting ready, after I use it I pack it. As I was getting ready I kept looking out the window to see if the rain had turned to snow. Sometime after 7 if finally started to snow. I had been worried how I was going to get the girls up and moving so we could stay on our timetable, here was my answer. About the same time I noticed the snow Dennis called to tell us it was snowing. I went to the girls room and told them to get up and come see the snow. It didn't take them long to get up and out the door still dressed in their nightclothes.

Snow falling in the backyard.



A few pictures of the girls enjoying the falling snow in the front yard.







Because Michelle hadn't "put her face on" yet all pictures of her were taken from a distance as per her request.

After a while I rushed the girls inside to get dressed so they wouldn't be late for their breakfast with Dad. After they were dressed we took a few more pictures.









It was still coming down and starting to stick. I had the girls leave for around 8:30 and called Jada and told her to head out too. I was going to wait around for a little while so it would be more of a surprise when I got there, plus I had the gift in my trunk. I packed a few more things then headed out. It was so pretty driving in the snow! Big flakes were falling at a steady pace, but they weren't sticking to the road at all. When I got to La Madeleine's the ground and cars were covered. Dennis had put the girls in the Wine Cave, this is a separate room they have that is used by groups for meetings. When I got there Jada still wasn't there. Michelle and Danielle were eating their breakfast of eggs and bacon. I asked for a croissant and blueberry muffin, I was to excited for a big breakfast. Not too long after that Jada and Lauren arrived. Danielle didn't know they were going to be there. Once the girls saw the presents they wanted to know what was up. I told them that this was there reward for both making honor roll, breakfast and a present. Lauren's food was ordered and we told both girls they had to eat before they could open their gifts. The presents had been wrapped just alike. Danielle was almost finished by the time Lauren got started. Poor Lauren doesn't eat enough to survive unless it's junk food. After she had eaten half her eggs and her bacon we agreed that was enough. Finally the presents were given to the girls.









Up Next...What's in the Box?

 

[vamassey1]

Once the boxes were opened the girls had different responses. Danielle was totally surprised to see her dress, while Lauren was a little disappointed. She had already seen and tried on the dress.



We told them to keep looking there was something else in the box.

Here's Danielle reading her invitation.



I love the look she's giving Lauren as she begins to understand what she's reading.



Here's Lauren reading hers.



Here's the girls screaming bloody murder "We're going to Disney World" as they're jumping up and down!



It was so perfect. Danielle read out loud she was leaving now and then Lauren read out loud I'm leaving tomorrow. After all the screaming we had several workers come to the door to make sure everything was okay.

Both girls were beside themselves with excitement. I told Danielle we had to hurry and get home and pack. We were leaving as soon as we were done. We told Lauren she had to hurry home to pack too since she was leaving in the morning. We gathered ourselves and headed out the door. Dennis was going to be staying at work and heading home around 11. He still had to pack too, but it doesn't take him near as long as us. We needed to be packed and ready when he got home, he doesn't have much patience for waiting around for us females.

Up next...On the road again.

 

[mom2rtk]

AWww..... Vanessa.......... that's AWESOME! What a memory. I really wish I had it in me to keep a secret like that!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

That was AWESOME!!!!!!
I wish I had someone to surprise but the 3 of us go every year so we are not surprised in the least bit.

I love all the thought and planning that you did. Looks like the girls were very greatful!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

That is such a great reveal!
So did that sticking snow make you a little nervous?