Months of planning = finally book a trip! A March PTR. - 3/29 update - we're home!

[Becc1]

Just wanted to pop in and say I'm loving your report! Love your theme nights, we've been doing theme too, aren't they so much fun. Great job on the t-shirts too, I wish I could talk my family into matching but my DH and older Ds won't go for it

 

[ksl5f123]

Just wanted to pop in and say I'm loving your report! Love your theme nights, we've been doing theme too, aren't they so much fun. Great job on the t-shirts too, I wish I could talk my family into matching but my DH and older Ds won't go for it

and Glad that you stopped by!

The theme nights are lots of fun! It was one of the first things my kids asked for when we told them we were going back to WDW.

about you guys not letting you do the shirts. I know mine will outgrow it some day, so I am going to take advantage while I can!

 

[ksl5f123]

I *think* I finished my sewing projects today. DD7 isn't interested in any fancy princess dresses this time. She asked that I make a simple dress for her. So, when DD5 is wearing her Rapunzel dress, DD7 will wear:

It is a basic pillowcase dress. I made 2 for each of them the last trip and they were very comfortable for the girls.

I said I *think* I am done sewing because when DD5 saw DD7 try on this dress, she got very jealous. She doesn't know I have the Rapunzel dress, but she really wants a pillowcase dress out of Rapunzel fabric. Rapunzel fabric is ridiculously hard to find! There is one seller currently on ebay that has some, but they want $16 for 1 yard of fabric! DH thinks I ought to buy it. I am concerned that a) it won't get here in time, b) even if it does get here, I won't have time to make it into a dress, and c) that I already have 6 outfits for a 4 day trip - how much clothes does she need? I need opinions. Would you buy the fabric?

 

[pinkxray]

The pillowcase dress is so adorable!

I would buy the fabric and make the dress. (As long as you think you will have some time to make it) DD might want to wear it after wearing the regular Rapuzel dress.

 

[ksl5f123]

The pillowcase dress is so adorable!

Thanks! She recently changed her favorite color from pink to blue, so I was very excited when I found blue fabric with Aurora on it.

I would buy the fabric and make the dress. (As long as you think you will have some time to make it) DD might want to wear it after wearing the regular Rapuzel dress.

This was just the push I needed to go ahead and bid on the fabric. We'll see if my bid holds. If it does, I will make the dress. If not, she will do without.

 

[ksl5f123]

This week is our town's HUGE children's consignment event. I went shopping on Saturday and spent $77 on 28 new items for the kids! That is an average of $2.75/item! Basically, they have all outgrown all of their summer clothes. So, everyone needed a new wardrobe.

I got a few things that will be making the trip with us. I got this dress for DD7. It is a Disney Parks dress that I got for $4.50.

I got this great shirt for DS2 for our MK day (the day we are hoping to meet Woody for the 1st time). It cost $3 and came with a pair of shorts!

I also got these pajamas for DS2 for $3.

I am also consigning at the sale and so far have sold $44.75 worth of my stuff. So, my out of pocket expense is $32.25 at this point. However, I will be going back on Thursday for 1/2 price day!!

Only 15 days to go!!!

 

[pinkxray]

I can't believe you found so much stuff for so little $. I am so jealous. I went to Old Navy, Target and Justice today. I probably got half the amount of stuff you did for like 3 times as much. I need to come to your town on Thurs.

 

[ksl5f123]

I can't believe you found so much stuff for so little $. I am so jealous. I went to Old Navy, Target and Justice today. I probably got half the amount of stuff you did for like 3 times as much. I need to come to your town on Thurs.

That would be fun! I love our town consignment sale. We have 2 per year - one in October and one in March. Almost all of my kids' clothes come from them.

 

[ksl5f123]

Well, there is nothing like a laptop that suddenly won't power on to bring a PTR to a screeching halt with 12 days before we arrive at WDW.

What have I been doing for the past couple of days? I finished up the hairbows for our Toy Story shirts and for DD5's Rapunzel. I will post the pictures when I figure out how to do it on this computer.

At pinkxray's suggestion, I did bid on the Rapunzel fabric. I will know tomorrow morning if I won it or not.

Today, I put out all of the kids' outfits and decided which to bring. In my exuberance, I had set aside 8 outfits for each child for a 4 day trip. I just can't justify packing that much extra clothes. The girls helped me pick their favorites so we are now bringing only 5 outfits (plus 2 swimsuits and 2 pajamas) for each of the girls (6 shirts and 8 pants for DS2).

As previously mentioned, I did go to the 1/2 price sale tonight at our town consignment sale tonight. I didn't buy anything for the trip, but I did get 16 more items for $38 or $2.38/item average!

Tomorrow, my kids are off of school for a teacher in-service day. A friend of mine who is a professional photographer is going to do our Easter pictures at a local daffodil field. I hope it is warm enough in the morning that the girls are comfortable in their dresses.

 

[TinksThree]

We have a Consignment event like your town's here...it is awesome!!!! It is hard to believe you only have 11 days left! My ticker is quickly counting down too!!

We have Spring Break next week and it is colder now than most of February. That Ground Hog was wrong!!! I hope your girls are warm enough for the pictures...but I bet they will be beautiful surrounded by the daffodils!

 

[ksl5f123]

We have had a couple of more busy days around here. The photoshoot at the daffodils went pretty well. My friend said she got great individual shots of all of the kids, but DS2 was being difficult trying to get a group shot. Oh well.

All of our clothes are packed for the parks! They were the easiest things to pack first since DH and I don't tend to wear our Disney clothes at home very much. We are doing 3 suitcases - 1 for Disney, 1 for the condo, and an overnight bag for the drive down. All of the girls clothes is picked out, washed, and ready to go.

We won the bid on the Rapunzel fabric so now we are just waiting to see if it arrives before we leave.

Tonight was our 10 day party. We watched 101 Dalmations. Supper was a black and white theme, so we had frijoles negros (black beans and rice - Cuban style) and cookies and cream ice cream - yummy! I will try to post pictures tomorrow.

I have been working on my travel notebook. It has all of our touring plans, driving directions, reservation numbers, etc.

We also started going through the autograph cards for characters we didn't meet on our last trip. The girls have chosen the characters that are most important to them. I still need to make some cards for the characters that are new (Rapunzel, Flynn, Vidia, Duffy). DD7 has decided she doesn't want another set of cards for characters we met last time. DD5 does want to get new autographs. I am trying to decide if I can make them for one girl and not the other.

I started assembling the girls' welcome surprises on Friday. The only other time I have with them out of the house is Wednesday morning and Friday morning - we leave Friday afternoon! I am starting to worry about getting them ready.

I am watching the park hours like a crazy person. Cheshire Figment mentioned on another thread that MK was going to open at 8 AM everyday for the rest of the month, but no other website shows this. If it becomes official, I am going to have to convince someone to stand in the Rapunzel line for an hour for us. I can't imagine giving up the 1st hour of the day for one Meet & greet, but I hear that even with 8 AM opens, people are going straight there at rope drop. Ugh.

I can't believe that we leave in only 6 days and will be there in 10!!

I hope you all remembered to "spring forward" tonight!

 

[pinkxray]

Yay, you got the fabric I hope you get it in time. If you don't DD will have a cute dress for the summer.

I haven't been paying attention to the March hours but opening MK at 8am everyday stinks. All the people who have 8am Crystal Palace or CRT ressies won't be happy. Plus, it throws you plans for the meet and greet. Maybe DH will volunteer to stand their for an hour? I know that meeting Rapunzel is pretty much #1 on Caitlin's list so we are going to head there first thing too. No Dumbo or die for us. It does kind of stink to give up the first hour of the day to stand in line, but I don't want to miss it.

You must be so excited that you only have 2 more days to get the surprises ready, it shows how soon the trip really is. I hope you have enough time to finish everything.

Good luck getting everything together!

 

[pinkxray]

I just re-read your last post and saw you are leaving today Your tickets says 4 days so I'm all confused!

Anyway, have a great trip and take tons of pictures!

 

[amandaluvsgoofy]

Hey! You're leaving today!!!! Hope you guys have a wonderful trip!!

 

[TinksThree]

Missed saying "Have a Good Trip!" due to being away! I hope you guys have/had a great time!!!! Can't wait to hear all the details!!

 

[ksl5f123]

Hello everyone!

Yes, we are in Florida now. I am currently sitting in my in-law's condo while they are taking the kids for a walk on the beach. Ahhhh....Silence....

We had a great drive down, but I will save that for the TR.

I few more planning things came up at the last minute. First, the Rapunzel fabric did not arrive before we left. Hopefully, DD5 will have such a great time meeting Rapunzel that she will still want the dress made to wear this summer.

I also ran out of time to make a dress for DD5's American girl doll. I expect to have to buy her one in the parks.

I did get our surprise baskets done and got pictures of those. Unfortunately, DH's laptop (that I am using right now) doesn't have an SD slot, so I can't upload them until we get home.

You may recall that I got a Duffy for DD5's basket. Well, wouldn't you know that since I printed our autograph cards for this trip which included one for Duffy DD7 has become obsessed with him. Some days, a mom just can't win. DD7 has managed to save enough money ($30) to buy her own, but I think she will still be when she sees her sister get one.

Most of you probably aren't watching March park hours, but it became official on Thursday that MK has extended its hours from 8 AM to 11 PM (instead of 9 AM to 10 PM) for the day we will be there. So, I have a new touring plan:

- rope drop
- DH to get fastpasses for Splash and then meet
- FIL at the Rapunzel line
- everyone else to Dumbo
- Pooh
- Snow White
- carousel
- everyone in the Rapunzel line by 8:45 - some people have been saying that the first show has been at 9 AM instead of 9:15, so we don't want to be late. If our fastpass window opens, we will send someone to grab a set for Peter Pan
- it's a small world (if line is still under 15 min)
- Pirates
- Big Thunder mountain for anyone interested, Aladdin for everyone else
- Splash Mountain (use fastpasses)
- get fastpasses for Jungle Cruise
- 11:30 lunch at CP
- Jungle Cruise (use fastpass) - if possible
- get Buzz FP
- Break
- get a 2nd Buzz FP
- Return 5 PM for supper at Columbia Harbour House
- Peter Pan (use fastpass)
- small wold if we missed it in the morning
- Monster's inc
- Tomorrowland Transit
- Carousel of Progress
- Buzz x2
- Electrical Parade
- Wishes
- one or two more rides if we missed anything

 

[ksl5f123]

I just re-read your last post and saw you are leaving today Your tickets says 4 days so I'm all confused!

Anyway, have a great trip and take tons of pictures!

Sorry to confuse you. We left on Friday and drove to Birmingham, AL. Then, yesterday, we drove to my in-law's condo in Vero Beach. We are here at the condo today and tomorrow and then we will drive the 1.5 - 2 hours to WDW on Tuesday morning.

The girls are extremely excited!! They are enjoying the beach and the pool here at the condo but are talking constantly about WDW! (I may still have them hooked for at least another year or two )

 

[pinkxray]

An update from Florida I am so jealous!

Have a great time

 

[ksl5f123]

We're home!!! Ok, actually, we got home on Sunday afternoon, but the mountains of laundry took precedence over getting on the DIS.

We had a great trip, and I will be starting my TR later this week. I will post a link to it when it is up.

Anyway, I still owe you all some pictures! So, here we go:

From our final party night - 101 Dalmations. We had black and white food (black beans and rice for supper and cookies and cream ice cream for dessert). DD5 drew Dalmation spots on paper to decorate the table and then added her plush Dalmation who in our house is named "Christmas tree lights". She is a creative child.

The girls' hairbows for our DHS day.

DD5's Rapunzel hair bow. This was my first ever attempt at a bottle cap bow and I think it turned out pretty nicely.

Some of the things I added to DD5's basket. The photo album was $2 at Big Lots. It holds 2 4x6 photos on each page, so we will put a picture of her with the character at the top and our autograph card at the bottom. The water bottle was a clearance find - I think I paid $1. The cookie was on clearance at Walgreens after Valentines day - I paid $0.10.

The welcome baskets (and bag) ready to go!

A close-up of DD5's basket

Aren't these adorable?!? I found these on clearance at Target for $2.48 each. They contain some coloring pages, markers, and crayons. I love them!

Disposable cameras (bought for $12 for all 3) decorated with stickers. These were given to the kids in their trip bags during the drive.

A bunch of Color Wonder packs for their trip bags. The big ones were $5 on Black Friday at Walmart and the little ones were clearanced at Target for $2.48.

Some more clearance finds for the drive. The fairies were from after Christmas sales at Target for $7 each. The DS cartridge for DD7 was $10 at Target the week before we left. The Handy Manny play set was $4 at Disneystore.com during the Twice a Year sale.

I picked these up at Walgreens for $3 each which is more than I would ususally pay, but they were really cool. The bottom is a giant bubble wand and the top is a spinning light up toy. Too cool!

 

[amandaluvsgoofy]

Welcome home!! I can't wait to hear about your trip!

And super cute stuff for the kids! Those prices are amazing!!! I need your shopping skills!