Leaving Hubby Behind! Its all for the kids. And Mom!!

[littleboss]

First let me say I only joined a few months ago when I started planning our very first trip to the most magical place on earth! You guys are the BEST group of people. Spreading pixie dust all around from Disigns for tee shirts to helping to map out days in the parks. I just love it!!!
Okay, so this is going to be a very challanging trip for me some off you may already know my husband can't get time off work to come so we are leaving him behind. 8 days with the kids and no dad that could be a mistake I can already see now what they will get away with!!! I have decided to bring my mother with me to be a help with 4 kids. Yep 4!!
DD13, DD12, DS8, DD6, see what I mean 3 girls and only 1 boy. I could be in trouble, DRAMA is in store for sure.
Oh did I mention my mom (who I love very much) can tend to drive me Crazy! She a riot though, have you cracking up one minute and pulling you hair out the next. Oh and let me mention that she like to spend a lot of money and I mean my money after she spends all of hers, so with that said I will be budgeting her along with the kids each day.
Let me introduce you to the kids!
First up this is the oldest her name is Cory. She is a DRAMA Queen! Likes to keep the other kids in line commando style. At the same time she is very helpfull, sweet, and caring.

Next we are on to number 2 we will call her Shy beings she is pretty shy and she is a good kid. She get straight A's and is very clever. I think is likes to hide things though or she is just a very good finder! Things seem to come up missing then Shy seems to always be the one to find them a couple days later. It very strange and I mean like keys, school ids, Nintendo Ds's, get my point. She is a tom boy for the most part but like the girly things too.

Next on the list is going to be Trevor. The best kid most of the time. Poor boy lives with all girls except Dad who works alot. they put him through a lot. He doesn't complain much goes with the flow.

Last but not least Jersey. Now she is sooo much like the first DD13. Which means they don't like each other very much. When havack happens it is always those two going at it. Yep a 13 year old and a 6 year old. Belle is very cute but okay she is a Monster!!

So there are my wonderful kids and you can see I have my hands full so WDW without dad could be trouble.

 

[littleboss]

To sum it up I love my kids ofcoarse and they are my life! We had booked a Disney trip in 2006 and had to cancel because my husband had a mild stroke and some issues with money so that was the end of Disney dream. So we decided to plan for 2009, which ofcoarse I did! April26-May3rd. We will be Grand Gathering with two other families. When my husband told me he could not go those days (after we already booked) I said then we will be going without you. After all we cancelled once because of him right!!?? Plus we planned with two other families and we are not going to rearrange their schedules. He is okay with it. I almost think he is happier now hen when he was going. After all hes not the amusment park type of guy. Doesn't like rides, heat, or walking! But he will miss seeing the kids reactions, so he went and bought me a new camcorder to tape it all. Oh and let me show you what we will bring with us!

Yep!! I made a Flat Standley of him, because he says he wants to eat dinner and take pics with his family. I need to try and fix his head still, can't seem to get it the right size. I guess that means he will be at Disney after all. So when one of the kids get out of line I will pull him out of my fanny pack and make them carry him around. Punishment thats right the one who has to carry around dad will look like a fool!!

 

[littleboss]

So we will be staying at POP Century doing the buy 4 get 3 free. Man that is a good deal, so we added the regular dining plan. One sit down meal, one quick service meal, and one snack. I can't book my dining ADRs until January 24th I think it is, but I do have two Grand Gatherings and a Chef Mickey's booked so far. We will be doing the Safari Celebration and the Good Morning Character breakfast. As for Chef Mickey that will be a dinner. The other reasurants I would like to book is Ohanas, Crystal Palace, Akershus Royal Hall, we will do T-Rex, and I was thinking about Le Cellier.
As for our park days heres what I'm thinking so far:
Day 1- Arrive at POP check in eat luch at resort, unpack then off the Magic Kingdom for EMH. Cryastal Palace for dinner.
Day 2- Animal Kingdom for rope drop. Lunch at Flame Tree, explore Discovery Island,and Africa, and maybe the conservation station on this day. Then go to DTD for shopping and dinner at T-Rex.
Day 3- Epcot all day! EMH till Illuminations it will be a long day. Akershus for lunch and Sommerfest for dinner.
Day 4- DHS for rope drop. We will do two quick service meals this day maybe Toy Story Pizza and Flat Bread Grill? We want to see Block Party Bash and Fantasmic!
Day 5- Animal Kingdom again this is our Grand Gathering day so we will explore Dinoland and Asia before checking in. Dinner at Tusker House.
Day 6- Magic kingdom dinner at Chef Mickeys
Day 7- Magic Kingdom again Good Morning character breakfast at Tony's Town Square.
Yes we are doing Animal Kingdom 2 days! I've heard from different people that AK is a 1 day park. We are zoo folks and really like the animals. I want to take my time going through this park. So I figured if I just did Africa and Discovery in one day and Africa and Dino in the 2nd we would see everything.
As for MK we are going 3 days! Day 1 train to Frontier Land and do Adventure land also that day. The 2nd day we will do Liberty Square and Fantasy land. The 3rd day will be Tommorrow land and Toontown. I think we should be able to see all!!

 

[carissanboys]

Hi! You most definitely are brave taking your 4 kids without your dh!

I love your "flat dh" that you'll be bringing along!

I've never heard of the good morning character breakfast at Tony's Town Square. I'll have to look into that.

Can't wait to hear more.

 

[littleboss]

The character breakfast at Tony's is a Grand Gathering. I was suprised after hearing that Tony's Town Square no longer does a breakfast, but I guess only for Grand Gathering. Thanks for stopping by.

 

[deedee3]

When I seen "Leaving Hubby Behind, Its all for the kids (and Mom), I just "HAD" to click and read, and It just happened to be you!!!

I just saved "the Plans" into my computer and Yes, I can edit them!!!!!
So excited, Cant WAIT!!!!

 

[Villainess]

Joining in! We'll be there the same time as you!

 

[littleboss]

Oh cool! Were are you staying? I'm going to post this pic in my resort window!

Thanks to the Disigners I'm making shirts for everyone. That has been fun. I will post shirts that I have made soon. This disign I want to hang in my resort window I have seen pics with windows all decorated and loved it.

 

[littleboss]

When I seen "Leaving Hubby Behind, Its all for the kids (and Mom), I just "HAD" to click and read, and It just happened to be you!!!

I just saved "the Plans" into my computer and Yes, I can edit them!!!!!
So excited, Cant WAIT!!!!

Yah!! Okay now we can have a two sided trip report now. so everyone can know she is one of the other families Grand Gathering with us.

 

[littleboss]

2 months ago I had started making shirts from the disigns I got from other dis-members. Thank-You sooo much I had decided to make front and backs of each shirt, probably not such a good idea beings I was making 8 shirts per person. Yes 6 people = 48 shirts front and back! Which is okay but have only made about half and I already use 4 or 5 printer inks and dozens of transfer papers. Both light and dark transfers. Here are just a few I have made so far. Notice DH is on the yellow safari shirts so thinking of redoing those.

I'm trying to convince myself I don't need to do front and back of each shirt its just a waist of money that could be going towards Disney! Let me tell you I have messed up alot of shirts with puting names upside down and burning the transfers and other stupid mistakes. My DH thinks I'm crazy, he'll just say "take a break from shirts" and I'll say "no I want to get them done" then right after that I'll mess up 2 in a row. Oh well the kids just use them to sleep in now they love them. My DS even wore one to school the other day without me knowing, when he got home I was sooo embarest because it was one that I spelled his name wrong on!!! I know bad. Not only is it spelled wrong but it was missing a letter and the R was backwards. I know his teacher was thinking what the!! Anyways I try to be more carefull plus the disigners have new bubble character names which I've decided is better then the iron on felt letters. I will post more pics tomorrow.

 

[carissanboys]

Wow! I can't believe how many shirts you've made/are making! They look great!

Do you just print out the graphic onto special iron transfer paper and then iron? If I wanted to just make 5 shirts, would it be a fairly inexpensive and easy project?

 

[Villainess]

We are staying at OKW.

Great shirts; I don't have the patience to make them and while I think that the group would wear them for a night; I definately couldn't get them to wear matching or even coordinating shirts for the entire trip!

 

[littleboss]

Wow! I can't believe how many shirts you've made/are making! They look great!

Do you just print out the graphic onto special iron transfer paper and then iron? If I wanted to just make 5 shirts, would it be a fairly inexpensive and easy project?

I buy most of my shirts from Micheal's Crafts and they are usually 2 for $5.00 and they are comfortable!! The transfer papers which I also buy from Micheal's are the cheapest priced I've seen the light transfers are 10 for $10 and the dark transfers are 5 for $10. I love the dark transfers they look great. The light transfers can only be used if you have white or pastel color shirts plus you have to mirror the image or flip it because it will need to be printed backwards. Here are some pics of shirts with the light transfer on darker shirts. They kinda look like vintage material.

 

[carissanboys]

Cool - thanks for the info!

 

[littleboss]

Trying to budget my kids. I live about 45 minutes away from a Disney store and have been there quite a few times buying gift cards and disney dollars for my kids. I also went to Big Lots and bought some index card holders for them to store them until we go. So for X-Mas I gave them each a small bookbag for the plane with activities such as magnetic play sets for the two little ones, sun glasses, disney pens, journals, well each bookbag had a disney envelope with $30 in disney dollars and my sister gave each kid a $25 dollars gift card. For each birthday they got a $25 dollar gift card, and they have been earning the rest of their disney dollars on odd jobs chores.....
Well I should say Coryann has been making alot of money, as for the rest they will be mad when she has lots of spending money and them not so much. Lazy kids. I've told them many times already I will buy their Mickey ears and some candy at Goofy's candy store, plus Build a Dino at T-Rex, so other than that they are on their own. I just counted and guess Cory is not that far ahead! She has $107 all together so far, Shy has $95, Trevor $86, and Jersey is at $83.
Anyways I'm trying to decide how much money I should let them bring into the parks each day. Their two $25 gift cards will be for DTD for shopping that day. I was thinking $15 a day into the parks should be good for them or is that not enough? After all they are only kids and don't need to buy for other people as I will take care of that. Any advice on that subject. I thought I'd submit another photo. So you can visualize.

 

[carissanboys]

Sounds like they're making quite a nice little amount for themselves.

I don't really have any advice. We don't buy a lot of souvenirs and I never really give my kids any money to spend per se. On the last trip we did buy them the light sabers and I bought them each a stuffed animal. I think that was about it (their grandparents got them some pins as well).

I would think $15 a day would be plenty - especially for the younger ones.

 

[littleboss]

Thanks I thought that should be plenty but wasn't sure ofcoasre because I've never been. Remember with DH not going I'm sure they will think that I'll give in and give them more $ those sneaky children of mine.
Like the other day my mom who will be coming to Disney with us told Trevor to do something (not sure what because she was babysitting them) and he could make a couple of disney dollars. Well he told her "we will already have $270 dollars to spend" WHAT who in the world told him that!! I believe I've told them about a million times what you earn is what you'll have besides the money they got for b-days and x-mas. What a riot he is!

 

[littleboss]

While I'm writing out day plans I'm wondering if 3 days at MK is to many. Should we do 2 days at MK and 2 Days at Epcot? After all it will be Flower and Garden Festival so....a lot to see. I know I would spend more money going through the worlds though.????

 

[carissanboys]

Personally, I'd do two at MK and two at Epcot. There's A LOT to see in the World Showcase, but then there's also Future World.

 

[littleboss]

I think your probably right I should talk it over with my Grand Gathering partners. Who by the way are supossed to be writing on here too... but they are procrastinators which I guess is why I'm the planner!!?? I feel like going clearance shopping right now. My favorite thing to do lately. I have bought the kids so many pairs of shorts for $3 dollars a pair. Disney crocs for $7.50 and disney pjs for $5.00 and its addictive. Been about a week or so and I'm feeling ready to see just what I can find. I think what I still need to get for disney is Coryann 3 pairs shorts or capris, new swim suit, and a pair of crocs. Shy needs swim suit, and 2 pair shorts. Trevor needs 1 pair shorts, 1 pair pjs, and something else I can't remember right now, Jersey needs 2 pairs pjs, and maybe a new swim suit. I need a few pairs short/capris, a new swim suit for sure, I would like a new pair sun glasses, and a new pair of crocs. DH needs to let me shop. Plus its time to go back to Disney store!! I think I'll get my mom and myself some dollars this time.