Oh, Great, Mom's on her Disney kick again - 1st time ptr

[2princesses2princes]

I wanted to do some kind of a countdown as the days and weeks go by. We only have 7 weeks left. Hmmmm? Top 7 rides, that would be so hard, top 7 characters, hard as well, top 7 places to eat, haven't gotten to try enough different places. Hmmm? I am going to go with 7 rides/attractions I am most excited about this time around

7. Phillharmagic
6. Kiliminjaro Safari
5. Soarin
4. Buzz Light Year
3. Festival of the Lion King
2. The Laugh Floor (never seen it)
1. Toy Story Mania (haven't done it)

That's tough, I am so excited about so much. The number 1 thing though is to experience it all with my kids. Yes the older 3 have been there done that, but we were looking at my memory book I made of our last trip and they were so young. Kenzie is 11.5 now and she was only 7.5, Gavin will be 9 and was only barely 5 last time, Eion is 5.5 and was only 18mos last time and Alli will be almost 3 and has never been. To see there eyes, when they see the castle, to hear their giggles when we watch the parades, and shows and ride the rides. I just can't wait!!!!

 

[20thingamabobs]

I'm really sorry about all your car troubles you've run into lately... doesn't it always seem like it happens at the most inopportune time? I wish I could offer a suggestion on renting or fixing but I don't feel qualified because we always fly. There's usually only two of us and I book during sales so we typically don't drive. Though logically, I would think that if you're going to have to fix it in the long run, you might as well just do it now and save yourself the money from renting unless putting the miles on the car would make things worse? Anyway, I really hope things work out for the best.

<-- Here's to being almost paid off though!

Also, do you have a Target near you? They always have a lot of cute Disney items in the $1.00 section right when you walk in. Or, I noticed the other day that Walgreens has coloring books that were 2 for $1.00. That could be cute, little activities to do in the car. Michaels craft store typically has stuff in their $1.00 section also!

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

I was gonna suggest to fly but then I remembered you had 4 kids which means 6 plane tickets... Ouch!!!

$700 for a rental or $700 on fixing your van... I guess it depends if you think your van will make the trip without any more issues...

Not much help am I???

Happy Holidays!!!

 

[Dunkeress]

We go through the same thing with our van every year! We always end up fixing the van instead of trying to fly or rent because 1. You will end up having to fix it anyway and with the money you spend to rent something else you can fix your own van and that's off the check list of things that need to be done! 2. There is nothing like having your own van when all the kids are tired and you've been driving for what seems like forever!

 

[2princesses2princes]

I'm really sorry about all your car troubles you've run into lately... doesn't it always seem like it happens at the most inopportune time? I wish I could offer a suggestion on renting or fixing but I don't feel qualified because we always fly. There's usually only two of us and I book during sales so we typically don't drive. Though logically, I would think that if you're going to have to fix it in the long run, you might as well just do it now and save yourself the money from renting unless putting the miles on the car would make things worse? Anyway, I really hope things work out for the best.

<-- Here's to being almost paid off though!

Also, do you have a Target near you? They always have a lot of cute Disney items in the $1.00 section right when you walk in. Or, I noticed the other day that Walgreens has coloring books that were 2 for $1.00. That could be cute, little activities to do in the car. Michaels craft store typically has stuff in their $1.00 section also!

Yes we have a target and Michaels, thanks for the tips, I may hit Target on my way home from work tonight. Thanks for the input.

I was gonna suggest to fly but then I remembered you had 4 kids which means 6 plane tickets... Ouch!!!

$700 for a rental or $700 on fixing your van... I guess it depends if you think your van will make the trip without any more issues...

Not much help am I???

Happy Holidays!!!

Yeah flying not really an option, though that is how we did it before. However now with my baby brother down in North Carolina with his fiance' we really want to drive so we can stop there for a few days on the way home. They are so excited to have us come down, I'd hate to dissapoint them.

We go through the same thing with our van every year! We always end up fixing the van instead of trying to fly or rent because 1. You will end up having to fix it anyway and with the money you spend to rent something else you can fix your own van and that's off the check list of things that need to be done! 2. There is nothing like having your own van when all the kids are tired and you've been driving for what seems like forever!

This is so true. I think we are just waiting, that's what's nice about driving we can wait til it's really close to make the final decision on what to do, unlike with airfare. We will probably just end up fixing our van and taking it unless we come across a great deal on a rental. we have to fix these issues on the van regardless, so why not.

 

[2princesses2princes]

Aren't you proud of me? I finally figured out how to respond with multi-quotes, YAY

I am so in the disney mood right now, but it's sooooo hard. I had to stop talking about the trip around the kids, we want them to be excited on Christmas and if they hear it constantly from me, it will be old news. And of course Dan isn't being very fun with it. He will talk a little bit about it, last trip he was all over it, when we planned this trip back in March he was looking stuff up, talking about it and all that jazz. Now I get nods and uh huhs. I will be nice til after Christmas, but once the kids have their Disney reveal, I am going to go Disnuts on him. I want to look at pics, talk about our plans, start shopping for necessities and start packing mid January. Yes midJanuary, the stuff we dont' need to use. I did buy some sunscreen the other day, so I guess I have started. It is after all only 49 days until we leave and 48 days until we arrive in DISNEY

 

[jenseib]

Hrd call ,but I think you probably will still need to spend the money on your van no matter waht. I would get it fixzed and keep searching for deals for rentals. You can try priceline and bid a dirtcheap price and see if you get it. If it was us, we would most likely rent a vehicle though. Just to save the wear and tear on the car.

 

[dizneeat]

Merry Christmas!

 

[2princesses2princes]

Guess What???? We are paid in full!! I made the final payment, well final if we dont' add a day, we are still considering that, but we wont make that decision for a few weeks yet. 46 days.

Another interesting thing that happened. I made autograph books and sent the out to be printed. they were suppose to arrive on Friday, Christmas Eve, well they didn't so I emailed the company and complained. Last night I noticed a credit in my accoutn and I flipped, I emailed and asked why they cancelled my order. Well come to find out they shipped it today and are not charging me for my order. So Free photo books, YAY. But I feel bad for complaining when they were going above and beyond.

So needless to say my kids still don't know, they were suppose to get the big reveal on Christmas but we wanted the books to be part of it. So next Saturday when we do Christmas with my inlaws we will do it. I can't wait.

 

[jenseib]

I wouldn't feel bad about it. If they were supposed to be there a certain day, then they should've been there.How did you do them? It is an interesting thought to do for my DD.

 

[2princesses2princes]

I wouldn't feel bad about it. If they were supposed to be there a certain day, then they should've been there.How did you do them? It is an interesting thought to do for my DD.

It took a little work. I tried 2 different ways. The first way was on disboards there is a post that has links to others photo accounts that have done this and I saved each page I wanted on my computer and then pasted them into Microsoft Word flipping every other image so they could be printed at home on a printer and then bound at Kinkos or something. But I didn't like the way that looked so I made my own and saved them and then downloaded them onto Snapfish website as 4x6 photos, then used them to create a photobook and walla. If I remember I will take pics of them tonight and post them on here. I haven't even opened them yet, i worked til after 10 last night and was exhausted.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Hello!! I am joining you from my PTR!!! I am all caught up...can't believe what you guys have been through to get this far!!! Between your back, the car and all...whew!!! But you're here now and almost there!!! JEALOUS!!! Can't wait to hear more!!!

 

[Colleen27]

I followed you "home" from ash-n-brensmom's PTR. I can't wait to see how the drive works out for y'all. I hate to fly but haven't been brave enough to had time enough to attempt the drive from Michigan (we're about 50 miles NE of Detroit) to Orlando yet!

I'm looking forward to seeing your autograph books. I usually make autogrph/scrap books for my girls, but I'm making more outfits than usual for this trip so I'm looking for something less time consuming than from-scratch and I'd love to see how the Snapfish photobooks come out.

 

[2princesses2princes]

Totally forgot to take pics of the books last night, I will shoot for it tonight. I did finally look at them, they turned out decent. Some of the cropping was bad, but that's my fault for not taking my time with it, I was in a hurry when I found out the discount code I had expired that evening.

2 more days til we reveal to the kids, I am so excited. So far in their disney box they will be opening we have a Monopoly travel game, a personal dvd player (we have an old one as well) new ear buds for each of them, 2 disney world books for kids, their autograph books, and I think that's it. I was hoping to come up with some other small stuff for the box before then, but we'll see. I really like the idea of the mickey balloon though, might have to snag that one. Any suggestions on other trip oriented stuff I could add to the box? Oh and I made disney bingo games for the road.

 

[2princesses2princes]

We leave 6 weeks from today, can you believe it? I can't. 6 weeks and I have soooo much to do. I am waiting to begin my list writing and shopping until after we make it known to the kids so they can join in the fun.

I will be missing for the weekend but I hope that Sunday night I will have 2 special treats for you all. A video of the big reveal and pics of their autograph books.

I think the reason that this wait is driving me crazy is because the first 2 and only 2 times we have gone we have booked our trip with less than 45 days to go from day of booking til day of arrival. So this whole booking a year in advance is for the crazy man

 

[jenseib]

It took a little work. I tried 2 different ways. The first way was on disboards there is a post that has links to others photo accounts that have done this and I saved each page I wanted on my computer and then pasted them into Microsoft Word flipping every other image so they could be printed at home on a printer and then bound at Kinkos or something. But I didn't like the way that looked so I made my own and saved them and then downloaded them onto Snapfish website as 4x6 photos, then used them to create a photobook and walla. If I remember I will take pics of them tonight and post them on here. I haven't even opened them yet, i worked til after 10 last night and was exhausted.

Thanks for that info. By chance which board (or thread did you find the templates at? I am really thinking of doing this.

 

[pinkxray]

I am so glad you got your books! I can't wait to see pictures of them. I used the creative boards last trip and it just seemed like it took forever. The book came out nice though.

I can't wait to hear about the big reveal.

 

[jenseib]

I ended up making a free flip book on Vistaprint. It's only 19 pages for autographs, but I didn't want to spend extra on extra pages. I'll buy a regular book at the parks, but this will be a little extra special for her too.

 

[2princesses2princes]

So we did it!!! First of all I spent hours putting together Epcot Passports for the kids and we wrapped all of their stuff, put it in a big box and wrapped that too. Inside was their passports, autograph books, near ear buds for each, a portable dvd player, 2 disney world guide books, a folder full of road trip games including a disney bingo game a made, and a few other things, oh yeah and the girl's pearl cage necklaces. We gave them the box last, they opened each gift, we made them wait to open the autograph books. They all knew we were going sometime next year so they knew this all was for our trip and they were happy about it. Then they opened their autograph books, they were excited about them, Dan pointed out the back of the book so my oldest Mackenzie read it out loud "Mackenzie's autograph book, Walt Disney World February 2011" she was quiet and then all of a sudden she started screaming and yelling, and then Gavin realized it too and they were high fiving each other. It was AWESOME, Dan and I both got really teary eyed. I have it on video but unfortunately I am an idiot and recorded it on my camcorder which I cannot hook up to my computer without some fancy card, so Dan is working on that for me now.

 

[dizneeat]

First, sorry I haven't posted here in a long time! But I DID read!!

I love the reveal of the trip! No wonder you got all teary eyed - hit me too!
Your kids must be so excited by now - not very long to wait!