Mickey Always Wins, Right Mom? Updated 8/14

[sohappy]

This trip report is going to be LOADED with pictures. I am a disboutique-er, but I have boys, so this report will NOT be loaded with ruffles! I have most of it already written- I just need to load up the photobucket account.

Before we go to far, let me introduce the cast:

Me- Single mom who lives 5+ hrs from family. I also work full time (++) as a process/chemical engineer for a cosmetics company- fun stuff but very, very busy. I am an overplanner in general and love to be organized. Ummm, what else. I guess you will get an idea of my personality from the report

My mom-early 50s, one of the very best teachers I know. She just knows how to get the point across to everyone. She is a workaholic and a perfectionist. She tends to worry a lot about things that don't really matter rather than relaxing and having fun. She is crazy about her grandkids and spoils them rotten.

My dad- mid-50s, also a perfectionist. He is always right, just ask him. He likes things done his way, so he had a hard time letting me plan all of this. Both he and my mom still see me as a kid and tried to talk me out of the trip. They have a hard time seeing me as a capable adult.

Jackson- My 5 year old. Seriously the sweetest kid ever! He regularly tells me how pretty I am. He regularly says "you are the best mom in the whole world" He also tells his teacher something similar. He is pretty advanced for his age, but not smart enough to know when to keep his mouth closed!

Cooper- my 3 year old. Such a little priss! He is a sweet cuddlebug of a kid, but has attitude to spare. He and his older brother look nothing alike, but they really, really love each other. I love to watch them interact. It always amazes me how much they look out for each other.

OK so now to the details. We left from Memphis (spent the night in a hotel there) on Sunday 5/25 and stayed in adjoining rooms at POP until 5/31 and we were on the deluxe dining plan (can you say character breakfasts?!!).

Next post will be the arrival day WITH pics!

 

[sohappy]

Jackson wakes up at 5:02 literally buzzing with excitement. We (me, J and C)all slept in the same full bed the night before. I didn’t sleep much- not enough room combined with excitement. I was just laying there waiting for a reason to get up. Jackson then developed the unreasonable fear that we were going to miss the plane. He kept saying “I can’t -------, we will miss the plane”. Our flight was at 9:30 and we were minutes from the airport, so we were fine. We all got showered, ready and packed. For some reason, I didn’t pack any hair gel for Cooper in the “memphis bag”. So he had quite the fro. He has naturally curly hair, but he is a boy and it is soooo messy if we don’t keep gel in it. I didn’t have anything at all to use, so we left it au naturale. We went downstairs for the complimentary breakfast. It was pretty terrible. I had been telling Jackson that he could eat as much sausage and bacon on our trip as he wanted. He was very disappointed that there was none at this breakfast. He ate a waffle and tons of fruit. Cooper had a little bit of everything. He pretty much wants what is on my plate- whatever that is. He can have the exact same plate that I do, but he wants mine. I have no idea why he is like this. I have even tried serving him off of my plate and me eating on his, switching with him- nothing works. He just wants what I have. It can be annoying, but I know it is coming now, so I usually get 2 of something that I really want. He ate mini-muffins, biscuits and fruit. After breakfast, we got ready to catch the shuttle to the airport. My dad travels a good bit for work and gets points for staying at certain hotels. So he always stays there. He then redeems these points when he travels for pleasure. He used the points to get this room in Memphis and then they offered to shuttle us to and from the airport so we wouldn’t have to pay to park the car at the airport for the week- SCORE! So we loaded all of the bags into the shuttle and were on our way. We checked in curbside, no problems. The security line was long, but other than the million parts we had to put through the scanner, no problems.

Soon we were on the flight. Originally I booked row 16 seats ABC DF thinking that no one would choose E if they had a choice. If they did choose that seat, we could take DE or EF and be happy. There was a very nice lady in E who moved over to F for us. Cooper wanted to sit with me and Jackson sat with my parents.
Cooper showing off his fruit snack (Jackson's pic came out too dark)

We had all sorts of distractors- leapsters, DVD player, flash cards, and snacks. I even brought gum for takeoff. I gave Cooper some gum and he promptly swallowed it- UGH! I was especially worried about Cooper’s ears. As a baby (6-10 months old), he had 9 eardrum ruptures and several more ear infections in a matter of months. We had tubes put in and still had lots of infections. When the tubes fell out, we went back to the ruptures. So we had more tubes put in and had his adenoids removed. So far, we haven’t had many issues. One of the tubes is stuck in his ear and is building scar tissue. We will have to have surgery this summer to have it removed. Anyway, with his history, I just knew he could have some trouble on the plane. So I decided that he really needed the gum and gave him another piece-the last piece in the pack. That little toot swallowed that piece too and we still weren’t off the ground. So now he has swallowed 2 pieces and we are starting to take off. So I found a fruit snack and it took him at least a few minutes to devour that. No more gum for Cooper- that is a new rule. I told him to yawn really big. He understood that and yawned away. So we were good. The flight was pretty uneventful. We just hung out for the 2 hrs. Once we landed, Jackson started complaining about his ears. He wanted me to clean them with a q-tip and peroxide RIGHT THEN. My handy dandy bag had neither. He was whiney, but I told him “no whining at Disney”. He knew the rule that we had established- If you act up, you go back to the room with a baby sitter while everyone else goes to enjoy the park- and not just any babysitter- a mean one that makes you sit in the dark.

We made our way to the ME desk. Mom took the kids while Dad and I checked in. The line moved quickly and soon we found ourselves on a bus on our way to our resort. We were having the best luck- no wait so far. We got to the resort and checked right in. My room wasn’t ready, but my parent’s was. I made the executive decision to check all of the luggage into luggage services so that we wouldn’t have to lug it to the room. My dad wasn’t much help with the heavy luggage (he had shoulder surgery 4 weeks prior to the trip) and I didn’t want to waste the time moving the luggage. While we checked in and got the baggage situation under control, mom took Jackson to the food court and got a snack lunch for them. I figured she could handle one of them by herself, but not both. After we checked in, I took Coops and Dad over and we got lunch and our mugs. We paid for the lunch out of pocket so that we would be sure to have enough credits. We were on the deluxe plan, but we had a few 2 credit meals and a character breakfast every day. I had some sort of breaded chicken with a salad. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Cooper had mac and cheese and grapes. Jackson had a hot dog and fries. My kids don’t really like fries, so no one ate those. We refilled our mugs and headed off to the magic kingdom. Our plane touched down at 12:30 and we were at MK by 2:30- great timing.

I promise more pics in the next post---

 

[sohappy]

When we got to MK, we got our first photopass card and promptly took a pic

We were meeting a friend at Donald’s boat at 3, so we hurried back to the back. I met an online friend from another board with a little girl just a few weeks younger than Coops. We were pregnant together and have watched our little ones grow up together. It was great to see them in real life. The kids had fun playing and we had fun hanging out.

We had dinner reservations for 5 PM at Whipsering Canyon Café. So around 4, we caught the train back to the front of MK and took a boat to the wilderness lodge.

(told you he was a priss)

Jackson loved the “river fountain” in the middle of the hotel. We were there a bit early and they didn’t open until 5, so we looked around the resort for a bit. We quickly discovered the pressed penny machine and so the obsession began. There are lots of times that we got pressed pennies throughout the week, but I cannot remember them. So I will just say now that we have 34 pressed pennies gathered from different times during the week. I also got the boys some pins off ebay and they traded most of them out for ones that they liked better. I really don’t remember all of the trades (any of them really). I hope it is enough to say they traded a lot and Jackson picked Stitch or Donald Duck every time. Cooper picked Chip, Dale, or Stitch if given the option. They really got into it. I should have taken pics, but I forgot.

Soon enough, they called our name and we were seated. I let Dad and Jackson in on the jokes that might happen. Jackson was itching to ask for ketchup even though he rarely eats it. He also talked my dad into drinking his drink really fast. It turns out that wasn’t necessary. Mom often asks for “the largest drink you have” and she did it again. Soooo, she got brought this lovely drink.

Jackson thought it was hilarious. Several others asked for ketchup before Jackson could, so mom caught on to the jokes especially after they threw the straws at us! We had fun. Everyone got the skillet other than me. I got some western chicken pasta thing. It was similar to chicken carbonara, which I love. Cooper started off eating like a PIG- watermelon, my chip and dip, corn bread, etc. Then he said he was sleepy. I held him and he was out. He slept the entire time. Jackson participated in the horse races- he even went around twice.

He had so much fun and took the promise to not pick his nose seriously. He said that Cooper didn’t have to keep the promise since he was asleep, but it would be nice of him not to pick his nose.

We got a banana dessert, smores cheesecake and an apple dessert. All of them were GREAT. I liked the apple one best followed closely by the banana one. We all passed the desserts around and all had a few bites of each one. Jackson didn’t eat any of his ice cream- for some reason my kids don’t really like it. He had already eaten ½ his weight in pink shrimp (as opposed to brown/fried shrimp). I told our server earlier how much fun Jackson was having with the jokes. Before we left, she poured mom’s drink into the other cups so it looked empty and shouted, “hey everybody! Someone over here just finished a large drink. If you see them running to the bathroom get out of the way and if you see them in the pool, I wouldn’t go in there!” Jackson could barely breathe from laughing so hard. He repeated that line at least 20 times that night.

After dinner, we took the ferry back to the MK. It was a nice quick trip. We weren’t sure what we wanted to do, so we gave the boys a few options. They picked Buzz Lightyear. It had a long wait, so we grabbed some fastpasses and went to the Laugh floor. It was a pretty cute show. My kids love Monsters, Inc, so they thought it was funny. Cooper wanted to know where the “guy with two eyes was” aka sully. You know because 2 eyes is such a distinguishing characteristic. Afterwards, we went to ride Buzz. Cooper rode with me and Jackson rode with Mom. Dad rode by himself and used both guns. We all did pretty miserable score wise, but we had a lot of fun. Cooper screamed with terror at first, but afterwards said he loved it- “we got those bad guys didn’t we mom?”

Now it was time to catch the parade. We headed across the frontierland bridge and got a spot. The kids enjoyed it so much more than I expected. I honestly didn’t think they would like it at all. I was so happy to see the “I’m-a-boy-and-I-don’t-like-girls-esp-princesses” façade wear away from Jackson as he jumped up and down waving at Cinderella. It really melted my heart for him to take a step back and enjoy the magic without a care in the world as to what someone else might think. I thought I might explode with happiness. After the parade, we slowly made our way down a very busy main street to leave. I wasn’t sure how the fireworks would go over and the boys were fading fast. We made it back and got to bed by 11:30- a very long day indeed.

 

[notsosnowwhite]

I love the part with the babysitter who will make him sit in the dark! You're my kind of mom.

We last visited this past December with my boys, 6 and 3. We told them that the Tower of Terror was the Time-Out Tower and anyone who acted up had to go sit in the lobby. Worked like a charm.

 

[sohappy]

I am going to remember that one!! Later in the trip it progressed to "well, we might need to go back to the room for a babysitter, do you think that Cruella would be available? Or maybe the evil stepmother?" Straightened them up QUICK!!

 

[Alex&Evan'sMom]

I told my boys the same thing. They knew that if they acted up they would be stuck in the hotel room with a sitter while we had fun. Worked like a charm! Loving your report!!

 

[twob4him]

Yaaaaaa I am so glad you decided to do a trip report! Jackson and Coops are just darling~ and you are too! Glad you got there and everything went smoothly...you all did sooo much on your first day! Can't wait for more!!! Great start!

So how was POP??? You know if we go to this Dismeet in Feb, I was thinking we could stay there. They have their own bus right...oh well, I sure hope it all works out.

 

[mommyof2princesses]

Love it! I am going to use the babysitter line! I think it is hilarious! ya'll look like you had a great time at whispering canyon. We got a horrible waiter and no jokes. Dh said we will never eat there again.

Can't wait for updates!!

 

[HeatherSue]

I'm going to take notes on your TR because I always forget what I want to comment on otherwise. Since I started writing my own TR, I know how nice it is to have people comment!

Jackson sounds a lot like Tessa in that she always tells me I'm pretty and that I'm the best mom in the whole world. It's nice to know someone thinks so! She also LOOOVES bacon!!

I feel you on Cooper wanting the food on your plate, even if he has the exact same thing on his. Sawyer does this, too!

It's hard to capture in a picture how truly HUGE that drink is at Whispering Canyon cafe. Isn't it fun?!

How sweet that Jackson was excited to see Cinderella!

I don't remember the "don't pick your nose" promise. If Tessa promised that, she has severely broken her vows!!



Your boys are just too adorable. They melt my heart with their extreme cuteness!!

 

[thumperbelle3]

I love the name Jackson!! Your boys are adorable. Coopers curls are too cute! Looks like your trip started off to a great start. Is Laugh Floor fun for adults too?

 

[jham]

I am loving your TR! The boys look so cute! I love Cooper's hair, especially when it's wet! That is so cute about Jackson jumping up and down waving at Cinderella! I'll have to remember the babysitter that makes you sit in the dark and the no picking your nose promise for our next trip! Glad you had fun at WCC! We ate there and...well...that's coming up soon in my TR, but let's just say it wasn't pretty. AT. ALL.

 

[The Moonk's Mom]

Love it so far! I LOVE the babysitter line...must remeber for next trip! It looks like you were haveing a great time!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Also going to steal the babysitter line....what a bunch of mean mommies we truly are

 

[sohappy]

I told my boys the same thing. They knew that if they acted up they would be stuck in the hotel room with a sitter while we had fun. Worked like a charm! Loving your report!!

Thanks for joining in! So glad that others like the mean babysitter line. It really is priceless- and it wasn't an empty threat- I was fully prepared to get a sitter if need be.

Yaaaaaa I am so glad you decided to do a trip report! Jackson and Coops are just darling~ and you are too! Glad you got there and everything went smoothly...you all did sooo much on your first day! Can't wait for more!!! Great start!

So how was POP??? You know if we go to this Dismeet in Feb, I was thinking we could stay there. They have their own bus right...oh well, I sure hope it all works out.

We did so much everyday! This was our "relaxing day"!! Really, the parks weren't too busy and we had a plan, so we got to do a lot.

We LOVED Pop. We weren't there much, but the kids like the pool, it wasn't too loud. In general it was great. I will probably stay there in the future. For as much time as we spend in the room, I can't really justify spending more.

Love it! I am going to use the babysitter line! I think it is hilarious! ya'll look like you had a great time at whispering canyon. We got a horrible waiter and no jokes. Dh said we will never eat there again.

Can't wait for updates!!

I am sorry you had a bad time! I have found that reviews seem to be hit or miss. Our waitress wasn't great, but Jackson was so bursting with excitment, even a little interaction was great. I probably wouldn't go there again. I think that the food was just OK, and well, we have seen the antics, so it wouldn't be that funny a second time. . .unless we had someone else with us that didn't know what was going on.

I'm going to take notes on your TR because I always forget what I want to comment on otherwise. Since I started writing my own TR, I know how nice it is to have people comment!

Jackson sounds a lot like Tessa in that she always tells me I'm pretty and that I'm the best mom in the whole world. It's nice to know someone thinks so! She also LOOOVES bacon!!

I feel you on Cooper wanting the food on your plate, even if he has the exact same thing on his. Sawyer does this, too!

It's hard to capture in a picture how truly HUGE that drink is at Whispering Canyon cafe. Isn't it fun?!

How sweet that Jackson was excited to see Cinderella!

I don't remember the "don't pick your nose" promise. If Tessa promised that, she has severely broken her vows!!

Your boys are just too adorable. They melt my heart with their extreme cuteness!!

How funny! Yes I think Jackson and Tessa would be great friends- I said friends, no need to worry Luke!! They could eat all the bacon and tell us how awesome we are! And Sawyer and Cooper could eat all our food!

I have another pic of the drink, but it is blurry. It is in my scrapbook pages that I will try to post too. I will try to post the pages that go with each day as I go along- just need to get all that loaded to photobucket.

The lady that did the horse races made them promise a bunch of stuff- not to pick their noses, and to never, ever, ever, ever step foot into universal studios.

I love the name Jackson!! Your boys are adorable. Coopers curls are too cute! Looks like your trip started off to a great start. Is Laugh Floor fun for adults too?

It was kind of corny, but I liked it. I think that you can submit jokes. They also highlight some people in the audience and then put captions like "has the urge to get up and dance". some people cooperated, some didn't. I was hoping Jackson would get picked. That is right up his alley, the little ham that he is.

I am loving your TR! The boys look so cute! I love Cooper's hair, especially when it's wet! That is so cute about Jackson jumping up and down waving at Cinderella! I'll have to remember the babysitter that makes you sit in the dark and the no picking your nose promise for our next trip! Glad you had fun at WCC! We ate there and...well...that's coming up soon in my TR, but let's just say it wasn't pretty. AT. ALL.

I love Coopers hair too. I have stick straight hair and my mom made me wear mine curly every day- seriously every night I slept in sponge rollers every.night. I love my straight hair now, but Cooper's hair is just irresistable. I will have to load the pics of him with straight "girl" hair from this week. He wanted straight hair like his brother, so we straightened it. Soooooo funny.

Love it so far! I LOVE the babysitter line...must remeber for next trip! It looks like you were haveing a great time!

Another babysitter convert! Disney babysitting should give me royalties or something, doncha think?

Also going to steal the babysitter line....what a bunch of mean mommies we truly are

And another one- Off to call and see what I can work out for commission!

Thanks everyone for reading. I will probably post an update tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

[sohappy]

I am going to include the scrapbook pages that I did for each day as part of the trip report. I will try to add them to the end of each day as I go along, but no promises. I am making a shutterfly book for my parents for mothers/father’s day (I know it is already passed, I gave them a gift certificate for the book for the actual holiday, hmph) Anyway, I had to bust it to get all 40 pages done quickly. Here is the first part of the book.

Title Page of the book (5 mickey heads- one for each traveler)

I did summary pages like this for each day. This is the condensed version of my TR (with all of the negative things that I might say about my parents removed)

And scrapbook pages from our first day

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

So great!!! You are really making me want to get Elements!

 

[Twins+2more]

I love your scrapbook pages. Love the mini trip report right in there.

 

[Disney Brat]

Just found your TR!! Great job so far! I love the scrapbook pages. can't wait to read more!

 

[mommyof2princesses]

Love your scrapbooking pages. I really should start doing it digitally. I would probably get more done!

 

[sohappy]

Monday started early- 6:15 for me. I got up and dressed while the kids were asleep. I made sure that Tink left some treats and I set out some Disney covered Hershey nuggets (the kids saw me making these so they couldn’t be part of the tink treats). I woke the groggy kids up. I really don’t understand why they were so groggy. They don’t ever sleep anyway, so this trip shouldn’t be much different. They wake up at 7 everyday no matter what, usually earlier. When I mentioned that Tink had been there, they both bolted out of bed to see the treats. I think it was pooh and tigger silly putty and something else small- maybe glowsticks. They saw the prizes, grabbed them, went straight back to bed and pulled the covers over their heads. I finally got them up, covered in sunscreen (can I tell you how much I love the Kiehls sunscreen- so waterproof and so good), and dressed in their Pooh finest.

We had an 8:05 reservation at Crystal Palace. We got the Magic Kingdom a little early and had to wait outside. As we made our way in, we stopped to take a few pictures of the park and of the boys with Walt and of the castle.

And this lovely pic of an almost empty Main Street?

We then headed over to crystal palace for our very first character breakfast. We waited a bit and it started to drizzle a little. It didn’t last and no one got really wet. And that would be all of the rain we saw the entire trip- I swear, we were soooo lucky the whole week.

Within a few minutes we were called to our table. Being a single mom who eats out a lot, I know that they will clear your table if you leave. I didn’t realize that Disney and their buffets were different. I figured it out after a few days, but the first day, I sent my mom and dad to make the kids plates while I placed drink orders. I could hear my kids screaming with excitement whenever they saw a character come out. I think that Jackson even chased Eeyore down at one point. They finally came back with the kids’ plates full of things that my parents like to eat. I wonder if they even asked the kids what they wanted! Both kids had eggs on their plates (which we don’t eat) so I know that they didn’t ask about that at least. I let my parents run to get their own plates while I waited with the boys. Now it was my turn, but first I had to remake the kids’ plates with stuff that they would eat (yogurt, fruit, bacon, waffles). I made my own plate and got a small plate of pooh’s breakfast lasagna- you have got to try this. It was GREAT! I didn’t know if I would like it. I can be picky, but thought I would give it a try. I am soooo glad that I did. Then the characters started to come around. The kids loved the characters. Tigger first, then Pooh, then piglet and finally Eeyore. We got all of the signatures and a few pics. I wish that I had gotten better pics, but the kids had a blast and that was all that counted, right?

This picture of Jackson cracks me up. It looks like he is looking lovingly at Eeyore (who he really does love). In reality, he was checking out the mesh eyes. He said he wasn’t sure if Eeyore was real. I told him that I thought he was, but maybe he had something to protect his eyes from the babies that might poke him. He liked that.

Here is the pic taken immediatly after- see, checking him out

A little side note- Jackson takes whatever I say to be true. We have been learning to ride a bike without training wheels (I say we because it is my butt chasing him around out there, I get a little credit, right?). I have been telling him “if you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you won’t be able to do it”- trying to do the power of positive thinking with a 5 year old is hard. He was sooooo mad at me at the pool this weekend- He wondered if he could touch the bottom (he couldn’t, it was too deep). He said, “but Moooooommmmm!! You SAID if I think I can, I can and I thought really hard, but I still can’t” Yeah, told off by my kid!