OMG! I am OBSESSED with DisBoards! Ahh - Support Group needed...

[*KeepMovingForward*]

WELCOME to our little support group!

Yes, we help stoke the fires of your Disney addiction here!

 

[Grendalynn]

I'm addicted, too. Though everyday (several times throughout) I surf all over the DIS. Always learning something new. It's great to be well informed before heading out on our magical adventure come December.

WOW. 18 months later and this thread is still going. lol I think I will be an addict also. There is SO much to read!

If you have shown any signs of being addicted to anything Disney, this is the place to be!! I hope you find the boards both useful and entertaining!

We have much of the same going on here at our house. School starts on Wednesday for the kids, but DD has orientation on Tuesday. We're all done school shopping, but still have to get haircuts for the kids.

Last night we came back from a quick trip to Newport, RI. We try and go up for a few days each summer. This year DH couldn't come because of work, so it was just me and the kids. Nice time, but as all vacations-it was much too short. I was just glad to do something nice to end summer for the kids.

5 1/2 weeks until we are back "home" at Disney. It can't come soon enough. I'm sure by the time I get through this next month I'll need the vacation. My head is already swimming thinking about the piles of paperwork I'll be filling out from the schools and then trying to jockey all the back to school nights.

Hey...anybody start holiday shopping yet? I picked up 2 or 3 things for the kids and tucked them away already. I just happened on some stuff and figured, what the heck...start thinking Christmas because it will be here soon enough.

You are waay more organized than we are!! I am just getting back into the grind for school.. Hopefully by October 1st I will be right on track for begining my Christmas Shopping!! Thats my plan anyway! Check back with me then and we will see how its going...

Hello everyone! Well we are all settled in school here now. My baby started prechool last week. We were both surprisingly tear-free!

School starts tomorrow for us! The boys were in bed early today after a day at the beach to say fairwell to Summer and Hello School year!
DS5 starts Kindergarten on Thursday - he is so ready and sooo excited!! Me too for that matter - DS9 is a pro going nto the 4th grade... I love summer so much, but I am ready to get back to the grind. A schedule, and things to do, an earlier bedtime and overall structure of the school year. It will be a great school year!!

 

[Grendalynn]

Hello Dis-adicts! Whats shakin out there? I havent been on as much as I'd like to be. Back to school/work, gives me limited time now! I actually have to amount to something during the day! School is here and that means so is a schedule! YAY! How is everyone adjusting to being back into the daily routine? My kids are loving it, weather they know it or not. DS5 is loving Kindergarten! He wanted to go all weekend, DS9 told him to give it time... he will feel differently in a few years!

How is everyones weather? Anyone in these hurricanes?? Not so bad here, rainy but overall its pretty hot still... The leaves are just starting to change. I love this time of year!! Although that means cold weather is coming. Its great through Christmas, but after that I could be done with it. Skiing through February vacation would be great, but then I'd like to flip a switch to 50+ degree weather and the warm back up again through the pring and summer.... We had a crappy summer, so cool and rainy. But now its amazing 80+ with few clouds in the sky. Hard to get back to work, but I'll take the pay checks again!!

Enough rambling for now, laundry awaits!

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

It has been pretty crazy over here with school in session for the last two weeks. My oldest is juggling high school, work and now a culinary program in the evenings. Mom's taxi service is in overdrive as a result. DS is old enough to drive, but well...I'd rather not have grey hair just yet...so I save myself the anguish and worry by driving him around still. The new schedules have been an adjustment for us all and we're still trying to get the hang of things. I actually miss the kids since they have gone back to school. Now that they are getting older I really am trying to savor every minute. For the moment they still think that mom and dad are cool to hang with, so I guess we're not as old as we thought...yet.

In 18 days we are headed to Disney! Tomorrow I plan to get the suitcases out of the attic and start piling up the stuff for vacation. Today was a lazy day with me and DD doing some scrapbooking pages. We have so much to do that we hardly made a dent, but little by little we are making progress.

The weather here has started to cool off. We have to close our pool in the next week before the chill really sets in. I hope everyone is out of harms way with those pesky hurricanes and tropical storms. We have been lucky in that we haven't had a really bad hurricane hit us since the 80's when Gloria hit the Jersey Shore. I scratch my head sometimes wondering why I want to move south and endure nature at its most wicked. Oh yeah...I'm sick of COLD and SNOW! Plus being closer to the mouse wouldn't hurt either!

One more day to sit in quiet enjoyment before going back to the grind!

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

DS5 is loving Kindergarten! He wanted to go all weekend, DS9 told him to give it time... he will feel differently in a few years!

So is DS still loving school? My kids still get excited, but the thrill fades after the first day. Now the thing they look forward to the most is the new wardrobe! Kindergarden...its a great time and age for kids. They are so inquisitive and eager to learn. So different from the teen years where they already know EVERYTHING!

Enough rambling for now, laundry awaits!

Ahhhh...the never ending chore! I have to participate in that vicious cycle tomorrow. Even worse, I have to iron too.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

 

[bless7ings]

Hi everyone! Thanks for all the wishes. We had fun in Disney and took lots of pictures!!!!

Actually I pre-ordered the photo pass for $99 and we had 558 pictures in 8 days!!! Three of the four oldest put 175 pictures on it alone! We broke down on the way down and I left my camera in the van! Can you believe it!! Luckily I had four older kids with camera's taking pictures and my 18 yr old son let me share his camera with him. We only took like 884 pictures. My younger daughter took close to 400 pictures, and I am not sure how many my older daughter took. I am sure more! I am in pictures up to confussion at the moment! So with not having my camera I had a hold over my family in making sure I got every picture I wanted on photo pass! Some of the pictures show that! It was nice not having to use my camera for the character pictures and just enjoy watching the expressions instead of being behind the camera missing everything! I love the pictures and I do enjoy taking them, but I feel I also feel like I miss out.

Well, so you heard it, our van broke down in Virginia. It wasn't going to be fixed in time, so we started the look for rentals. It wasn't looking good, but short story we ended up finding a 12 passenger van and only paid $243 for 9 days!! I looked at my credit card and she must have given us credit for gas, because the charge on the cc was only $208!!! All in all we ended up, believe it or not, not spending too much extra for this adventure. I told my husband I felt like we were part of the Amazing Race and doing well! His comment was, "That would be fine, but without the 7 kids would be nicer!"

We got hot weather! It stopped raining like the day or two before we came in! We got 1/2 day of rain the day before we left and the next day the winds(which felt awesome!) from the new hurricane blowing in! So we couldn't complain about that. It was very humid though!!! Someone said 100%!!! It felt it!!! And the parks were busier than when we went in September of 2005!!! Much busier! We could walk on to anything in the mornings then. This year, the mornings were much busier and the afternoons were long waits. So, luckily because of these boards I had the plan including how to use the fast passes!!! As we know MK is got to be the busiest park. I was able to execute my plan and get 11 attractions in the morning in 3 hrs!! I did this twice! Without a plan it was horrible!

All in all we had fun, but it was not as magical as the trip in 2005.(that trip was sooooo magical!!!! We were wondering if it could be compared to?!? Maybe another year?!?)

Sorry it took so long to write in. But I think you guys can understand. We got back Sept 2 and were off and running. We had all of 4 days to get the 18 year old packed for college. I still had to brief up on my homeschooling plans for the younger 4 + a toddler. We then started the 8th. My two oldest daughters were in tears, thinking mom had given them way too much work for the year!! I am just glad the first week is over! You can just never win as a mom/teacher. The last few years I have been easing them into the schooling weeks and then they would get upset when I kept adding to their work load. So this year I pretty much gave it all to them on the first day(which they have asked for in the past) and they end up in tears! But we are all fine now! So as you can see from that I am just trying to get the photos started(before they expire on photo pass!) and a list of other things to do. I haven't even done the laundry! It was nice for a few days when we got back, but it has gotten cooler so we got into our fall clothes and the summer clothes sit in the suit cases! Guess I will be busy here soon! That is when I come up for a breather! So this is not as fun and witty as I would love it to be, just a hurried job, sorry. Well hope every ones fall is going well and have fun looking forward! Tammy

 

[Grendalynn]

Glad to hear you had such a great trip! You know whats funny about the van story - you and your kids will NEVER forget that! Its soemthing that totally sucks while its happening to you, but in the end, its an experience that makes a family vacaton what it is. I agree with your DH, it may have been a little less stressful w/o 7 kids in tow. DH and I were layed over in an airport over night once... I was prego and had 2 kids at the time - that was horrible enough!

Glad to hear everything went well... Can't wait to hear more about it - the do' and Dont's, Pros and Cons, What you learned from the disboards that were helpful, what worked great and what wasnt so amazing!

Time for me to hit the hay! I am wiped out!! A few more sips of wine and I will sleep great! DH had to go away for business for the night this afternoon unexpectantly. DS9 had parent/teacher night and football practice (overlaping of course -Thank goodness for carpools), our pupppy got out of her crate today and reeked havoc on a bag of pull ups, lunches are made, house is cleaned and vaccumes, Laundry is rolling, I have a 2 field hockey games to coach tomorrow after work, My house needs to be cleaned before everyone gets into town because My sister is getting married on Saturday, for which I am the MOH, SO much to do and no time to do it in.... And I still need to get DS9 and DHs outfits situated! I am SOOOO ready for BED!! Does anyone else have days/weeks like this??

 

[Grendalynn]

So is DS still loving school? My kids still get excited, but the thrill fades after the first day. Now the thing they look forward to the most is the new wardrobe! Kindergarden...its a great time and age for kids. They are so inquisitive and eager to learn. So different from the teen years where they already know EVERYTHING!



Ahhhh...the never ending chore! I have to participate in that vicious cycle tomorrow. Even worse, I have to iron too.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Yes, DS is still enjoying Kindergarten. Not as much as the idea of it this summer, but i think in his own little way he is loving it. i think it is def wearing him out a bit! He is more than ready for bed by 8:30PM. No complaints here on that though. I think once he is full swing into PE, Art, Library and Music, he will love it. DS9 is in that Know iT All Stage these days. We cal himt he human sponge too as he is always listening to our conversations and putting his 2 cents worth in. Not impressive at all. Used to be that we could spell or use code words, but he is to smart for OUR own good! LOL It just stinks when he spits stuff back out about a conversation that we had previously and said whatever it was about a family member or soemthing... We quickly learned to keep our mouths shut and had the "FamilyBusiness" talk with him!

 

[AUDramaQueen]

Welcome back!! What a way to start a trip. But I'm glad it worked out for you!

Good to know everyone is doing well still and getting back into the school groove We had picture day today and my poor DD has a black eye thanks to her brother and an unfortunate light saber incident. I don't wear a ton of make-up so I didn't really have anything to cover it up well.

Well the Oct/Nov trip is being pushed back to December 2009, I think. My sister said there may be an issue with the November dates. So no F&W or MNSSHP, but we will be there for Christmas decorations. And Pop Warner Oh joy.

 

[pillow]

We had picture day today and my poor DD has a black eye thanks to her brother and an unfortunate light saber incident. I don't wear a ton of make-up so I didn't really have anything to cover it up well.

Gotta love those light sabers. May the force be with you!

Jodie

 

[bless7ings]

Welcome back!! What a way to start a trip. But I'm glad it worked out for you!

Good to know everyone is doing well still and getting back into the school groove We had picture day today and my poor DD has a black eye thanks to her brother and an unfortunate light saber incident. I don't wear a ton of make-up so I didn't really have anything to cover it up well.

Well the Oct/Nov trip is being pushed back to December 2009, I think. My sister said there may be an issue with the November dates. So no F&W or MNSSHP, but we will be there for Christmas decorations. And Pop Warner Oh joy.

Well I'm sneeking in during my lunch break!

We homeschool so I have the kids pictures taken on their birthdays. We just had two photo shoots this week! One on my oldest daughters birthday and my other older daughters birthday was in Disney!(Aug. 25th) She was so excited!

What I was going to say is, we have a terrific photographer who customizes for the client and you can have a shoot that she takes over 100 pictures! (our family shoot was over 300 pictures!) She then will take any blemishes out for us!! When I had my 4 yr olds pictures, wouldn't you know she got some cut or something on her face! No problem, I can still take her on her birthday instead of waiting until picture perfect day! It's awesome! Her prices are reasonable and she now does same day printing! Oh what a joy to find a photographer where there is not all these rules,(Walmart and most studios!) but the customer gets what the customer wants!

Too bad on your trip. Keep us updated on your trip.

 

[AUDramaQueen]

I think in the end December will be nicer anyway. Cooler weather. Practically zero chance of a hurricane and I haven't been to Disney around Christmas time since I was in 4th grade! My first trip actually

I really wanted to go to MNSSHP, but beggers can't be choosy. The idea of the Christmas party doesn't excite me that much. Not sure why Have any of you been? What did you think?

Oh and we'll be there for our 12th anniversary so that's another plus!

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

The idea of the Christmas party doesn't excite me that much. Not sure why Have any of you been? What did you think?

Your not missing anything that great with MVMCP. We've done that and MNSSHP many times and we like the Halloween party much better. In fact, we are going to be in Disney for Christmas itself this year. We could have done the last MVMCP they are having, but we decided to skip it. It's not that terribly exciting.

 

[AUDramaQueen]

Your not missing anything that great with MVMCP. We've done that and MNSSHP many times and we like the Halloween party much better. In fact, we are going to be in Disney for Christmas itself this year. We could have done the last MVMCP they are having, but we decided to skip it. It's not that terribly exciting.

Yeah that was the feeling I got. Pretty sure we won't fork over the extra money for it. Only problem is we love to be in the MK at night. Hopefully we'll have 2 nights out of 5 that don't have parties. They seem to add more and more every year.

 

[Grendalynn]

HELLO Out There!! How is everyone? And their Dis-addictions? Mine is FULL Speed into overdrive for some reason these days!!?? Thanks to DH and DS2... And since I applied to be on the Mom's Panel it has got me thinking... The kids are only little for so long, we need to soak up their love of Disney and innocence as much as possible!! Right??

Sunday DH and I spent the day doing house stuff- chores, cleaning the carpets where our NEW PUPPY has pee'ed and what not, general cleaning, picking up toys from teh yard and just overall organizing... a little halloween/fall docorating... things like that. We we shut off the TV (the Patriots had a buy week) and put on some music from the computer. Well I added a bunc of Disney stuff to the playlist... Yo Ho, a pirates life for me, songs from Toys Story, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Bear in The Big Blue House (which DS2 LOVES LOVES LOVES these days) and songs from rides - like the Splash Mountain meledy, Carosel of Progress and things like that! Yikes! WHAT A MISTAKE!!! When we saw DS2 singing along to all of that stuff it made me/us SOO HAPPY! We dot on the computer that night and started pricing thinsg out!! AHHH! I was all good waiting to do our every 2 years thing! We even looked into Disney Cruises! A bit more $$ than I was wanting to spend!!

So, to no evail, my Disney Obession is in high speed again! Being on a budget this year after spending a good chunk last year we ran a few scenarios... a 4 night DCL cruise, a week at a MOderate with DDP, a 6 or 7 night non-DCL cruise or stick to our original plan -a week at the inlaws and a few days at Universal?? I even went as far as to run the idea of a Disney Vacation Club by him - thinking it was a long shot - but he is open to hearing more about it and watching the VIDEO!!??

All these things will run w/i our budget or what I was hoping to spend... DH doesnt knwo what saying those sorts of things can do to an addict - now I have been on the DisBoards WDW websites and internet looking into these things and reading up on all kinds of stuff!

So whats everyone up to out there??

 

[pillow]

HELLO Out There!! How is everyone? And their Dis-addictions? Mine is FULL Speed into overdrive for some reason these days!!?? Thanks to DH and DS2... And since I applied to be on the Mom's Panel it has got me thinking... The kids are only little for so long, we need to soak up their love of Disney and innocence as much as possible!! Right??

Sunday DH and I spent the day doing house stuff- chores, cleaning the carpets where our NEW PUPPY has pee'ed and what not, general cleaning, picking up toys from teh yard and just overall organizing... a little halloween/fall docorating... things like that. We we shut off the TV (the Patriots had a buy week) and put on some music from the computer. Well I added a bunc of Disney stuff to the playlist... Yo Ho, a pirates life for me, songs from Toys Story, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Bear in The Big Blue House (which DS2 LOVES LOVES LOVES these days) and songs from rides - like the Splash Mountain meledy, Carosel of Progress and things like that! Yikes! WHAT A MISTAKE!!! When we saw DS2 singing along to all of that stuff it made me/us SOO HAPPY! We dot on the computer that night and started pricing thinsg out!! AHHH! I was all good waiting to do our every 2 years thing! We even looked into Disney Cruises! A bit more $$ than I was wanting to spend!!

So, to no evail, my Disney Obession is in high speed again! Being on a budget this year after spending a good chunk last year we ran a few scenarios... a 4 night DCL cruise, a week at a MOderate with DDP, a 6 or 7 night non-DCL cruise or stick to our original plan -a week at the inlaws and a few days at Universal?? I even went as far as to run the idea of a Disney Vacation Club by him - thinking it was a long shot - but he is open to hearing more about it and watching the VIDEO!!??

All these things will run w/i our budget or what I was hoping to spend... DH doesnt knwo what saying those sorts of things can do to an addict - now I have been on the DisBoards WDW websites and internet looking into these things and reading up on all kinds of stuff!

So whats everyone up to out there??

Hi there. We were actually at Disney this past weekend. We ran the Everest Challenge at Animal Kingdom - lots of fun. Then we hung out at Epcot all day Sunday for the Food and Wine Festival. It was just my DH and I; we ate and drank and listened to great bands all day long. Great weekend!

By the way - the cruise is FABULOUS! Yes, its pricey, but well worth it. My kids actually like it better than WDW.

I'm gonnna PM you about DVC.

Jodie

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Hi there. We were actually at Disney this past weekend. We ran the Everest Challenge at Animal Kingdom - lots of fun. Then we hung out at Epcot all day Sunday for the Food and Wine Festival. It was just my DH and I; we ate and drank and listened to great bands all day long. Great weekend!

By the way - the cruise is FABULOUS! Yes, its pricey, but well worth it. My kids actually like it better than WDW.

I'm gonnna PM you about DVC.

Jodie

We are headed to Disney tomorrow. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the festival! We are really looking forward to it.

I agree about the cruise (although not pricey for us since DH gets the agent rate), but we enjoyed DCL immensely. We still like Disney better, so we differ there. I think if the ports of call were different and not places we had done many times before, perhaps I'd feel differently and it would be more exciting for us. The ship is great and very family oriented though.

Grendalynn-DVC is definitely a great thing if you can swing it. It was quite a few years before I convinced DH to take the plunge. Best purchase we ever made (ok...well, aside from our house). We own at AKV, but there is a resort to suit everyone. Resale is also a great way to go-you pay closing fees, but you may wind up paying much less than what Disney offers and you are not mandated to buy a certain number of points for your buy-in. You can buy a tiny little 25 point contract through resale and then add on later when the money is there through Disney or resale again. We actually added on to our existing contract this past year and didn't go through Disney because we got a much better deal through resale. Anyway, just something to think about. In the end, no matter who you buy from you still get all the same perks and benefits.

 

[Grendalynn]

We are headed to Disney tomorrow. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the festival! We are really looking forward to it.

Have a great time!! I cant be jealous without showing it!! I thinks thats what makes it so amazing when we go every 2 years or so is that magic and longing to be there! Not sure if it would have it if we went every year. Doesnt mean I do want to go any less, it just makes most sense.

Hi there. We were actually at Disney this past weekend. We ran the Everest Challenge at Animal Kingdom - lots of fun. Then we hung out at Epcot all day Sunday for the Food and Wine Festival. It was just my DH and I; we ate and drank and listened to great bands all day long. Great weekend!

By the way - the cruise is FABULOUS! Yes, its pricey, but well worth it. My kids actually like it better than WDW.

I'm gonnna PM you about DVC.

Jodie

WAY TO GO on the run! We went to WDW this time of year in 2005 - so amazing! I love Fall and was tickled to see all of the Mickey Pumpkins and decorations that Disney had. So fun! Not that I expect anything different fron Disney!

We did the DCL in '05 and had a blast. At the time DS9 was 5 and DS5 was free I think , so it wasn't quite as pricy... We also went in the "off season' so it was more affordable, thought it was right after Hurrican Katrina and Wilma had just hit southern Florida. It was a bit iffy and many attarctions were still close don the islands. Still soemthing to consider... I have no quams taking the kids out of school. I come from an education back ground and am sure the boys keep up on their lessons...

Glad to hear you guys had a great time and Thanks again for the DVC info!

 

[pillow]

We did the DCL in '05 and had a blast. At the time DS9 was 5 and DS5 was free I think , so it wasn't quite as pricy... We also went in the "off season' so it was more affordable, thought it was right after Hurrican Katrina and Wilma had just hit southern Florida. It was a bit iffy and many attarctions were still close don the islands. Still soemthing to consider... I have no quams taking the kids out of school. I come from an education back ground and am sure the boys keep up on their lessons...

When did you go in 05? We went the week before Christmas. Amazingly, it was value season since the cruise ended on Christmas Eve. It was very very cheap compared to the cruise prices now! Due to the damage from one of those hurricanes (can't remember which), we were diverted from Cozumel to Costa Maya.

These days, I have a harder time taking my son out of school. He started middle school this year, and its just too hard for him to miss a week of school. I'm pulling him out for 2 days over Thanksgiving for the 3 nighter, but thats about as much as I'm willing to do at this point. I wish we had one of those year round school systems so that we could cruise at odd times when the rates are low!!

J

 

[bless7ings]

We are headed to Disney tomorrow.

Thats exciting!! Have a great time!!