Our 1st family trip without a diaper bag! Jan 2012 PTR

[Tickanee]

YAY!!!! ONE MONTH!!!!

I think the box idea is great! Who wouldn't want to get a Disney trip for Christmas?

 

[mandas08]

Wow one month, that is awesome! I absolutely love your gift reveal idea. I'm sure they will think it is the coolest thing ever. After looking at your picture I sure wish we had a jar lying around full of spending money... I did pretty much the opposite of that and lost my wallet last week

Looks like you are almost all ready for Christmas. I think Brian and I are going to do our holiday baking this weekend. I may even attempt to make buckeyes.

 

[princess&her4princes]

I'm still here !! Not sure why, but I haven't been receiving your updates in my Email.
Anyway .. you must be getting so excited !! It will even more exciting once the kids find out too. Then the whole house will be in on it.
I can't wait until we have dates for our trip so we can get excited too !!

Christmas shopping is slow here and I haven't gotten ONE present wrapped yet. It's just flying by and the mild weather is making my mind think I have plenty of time.

Love the books and scarf !

Hi!!! So glad you're still here!!! So funny, I never get emails anymore from DIS either! I swear that's half the reason I end up slacking here because I don't even know anyone is here! I get no notifications at all and have tried to change things to see if it works and still nothing.

I can't wait for the boys to know!!!!!! They are going to be SO EXCITED!!! I think I may cry once they know! Yes, I'm one of *those* Moms!

I hear you about the weather not being Christmasy, at all, today is raining....I may never say this again, so hold on, I wish it was little snowflakes,I think we need that to get us into the spirit a bit more! Hope your shopping and wrapping go smoothly for you! There's plenty of time!

Only one month!!!!!!!!!!!! Love the way the ticker looks...but, tomorrow it will look even better, when it says WEEKS!!!!!!!!!

You're SO RIGHT!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to tomorrow now!!!

YAY!!!! ONE MONTH!!!!

I think the box idea is great! Who wouldn't want to get a Disney trip for Christmas?

Yay!!!!! Thanks for dancing with me!!!

I think it's perfect, they are little, why drag it out, I'm going to be ready to rip into it myself Christmas morning! It will be hard to contain myself to get through all the Santa presents first!

Wow one month, that is awesome! I absolutely love your gift reveal idea. I'm sure they will think it is the coolest thing ever. After looking at your picture I sure wish we had a jar lying around full of spending money... I did pretty much the opposite of that and lost my wallet last week

Looks like you are almost all ready for Christmas. I think Brian and I are going to do our holiday baking this weekend. I may even attempt to make buckeyes.

I know, yay!!!!!!!

The jar is BEST! You need one...we've had it for about 4 years now and it's really amazing how much you can save without really trying, you know? Pennies add up and fast!!

You're the secong one to mention buckeyes to me this week! What are they?!! I need to google this...are they hard to make? You need to post pics!!!

Okay..off and running to Cole's Christmas show at preschool! Have a magical day my Disney friends! So glad to have you guys here to share all of this with !!!

 

[princess&her4princes]

Okay, so this is my random post...things I need to do! All of a sudden I feel like I'm going to run out of time, I know I have a month and all but with the holidays, birthdays, kids home on Christmas break.. It will get done, but it's good to keep a list and make sure I'm not forgetting anything!

Here goes....

1) stroller decision, do I take our McClaren umbrella stroller with the dumb, really don't work cup holders and no basket but is easy and light for the bus, in a pinch Cole can ride but once he gets out it tips....or do we save and rent for a week when we need it so we don't have to bring it every day and it's useless?!

2) order from Garden Grocer....bottled water, individual wrapped snacks for the afternoons on the park, fruit, maybe some easy breakfast items?

3) order helium Mickey Balloon for Christmas morning surprise, make sign giving boys the details!

4) order pins from Ebay!!!!! I need to do this NOW and not wait. Every time we go, we order a "lot" of pins from someone on Ebay for less than $20, we seperate them up in baggies and we give the boys a pin a day as a souvie, they can keep it or trade it for their lanyards! This has saved us MUCHO $$$$ with 3 lanyards, we'd go broke! So they get to get what they want by trading with the CM's. We usually just buy them one pin each to remember the trip by. And this year, I want my own lanyard! I've gone back and forth in the past years but this year I have my TA pins from Disney and want to display them proudly!!

5) Make Tshirts?!!! I have the CUTEST Boston sports themed Mickey head printables for tshirts that I would like to make so the boys match, Disney and Christmas day are pretty much the only time I can get away with this!

6) buy those essential mini items from the aisle in Target for the trip...that makes things even more exciting!!

7) think about new luggage for Todd and I, not in the budget but our luggage from when we were engaged 13 years ago has been well loved and traveled....not sure I'm going to get away with this but it's worth the try! When we went on our cruise, the zippers weren't working great, etc. We'll see....

8) shoes for me?!! I'm thinking my fit flops and jeans will be okay in Orlandos January weather? thoughts? Remember, I am a New Englander and chances are I'll be coming down from snow so it will be considerably warmer there than here for me.

So what am I missing?!!!

 

[Moodyzblu]

I made a deal with my guys .. I would rent a stroller every other day. The parks I knew we would need a stroller the most was Epcot and MK. Pushing the stroller around AK is just a pain with all the hills and pathways. Plus, it isn't a whole day park. DHS .. we don't do a whole lot of walking .. it's really not that big of a park .. and we rarely spend a whole day there.
So on the first day at MK (or Epcot) I rent the stroller for the amount of days I will need it .. I think it was 4 days in total. It worked out really well.

I never have ordered from GG .. I just pack a carry on with snacks from our grocery store (Goldfish crackers, little cereal boxes, Poptarts).

I love the idea of the Mickey shirts ! I have NO talent when it comes to that stuff so I to anyone that does that sort of stuff !

Have fun with the rest of your preparation !!

 

[princess&her4princes]

LOVING that my countdown is down to "weeks" now!!!!!

 

[princess&her4princes]

So far today I've bid on 3 "lots" of 25 Disney pins on Ebay for our trip and been out bid in the last few seconds! I'll have to try again later, it's making me crazy!

This weekend is another busy one for us, my middle son, Lucas will be 7 on Christmas morning. I always struggle on when and how to do his birthday party because I like to give him a day that is his. So this Sunday we will have a family party to celebrate Lucas' birthday a bit early. Our tradition though is to have birthday cake on Christmas morning for breakfast, some people have danish and sweets, so why not? As you can imagine ALL the boys love that! What do you have planned this weekend?

 

[princess&her4princes]

After being outbid 5 times, I decided to go the just buy route, I got 25 new Disney pins for $17.99 with free shipping! This will give each boys 7 new pins that they can do whatever they want to, keep or trade, and it will give me 4 for my new lanyard, I'll get when I get to Disney so I can start my collection! I'm excited!Do any of you collect pins?

Cole and I finished rolling our coin this afternoon for the trip! We're pretty excited to have a couple hundred of "found" money for the trip, if nothing else it just pays for some incidentals in the parks!

And last but not least, a friend of mine made this for her trip when she surprised her trip, I think it's perfect for our surprise, too! I'll attach this to the balloons for the reveal! Getting excited now!!

 

[princess&her4princes]

I made a deal with my guys .. I would rent a stroller every other day. The parks I knew we would need a stroller the most was Epcot and MK. Pushing the stroller around AK is just a pain with all the hills and pathways. Plus, it isn't a whole day park. DHS .. we don't do a whole lot of walking .. it's really not that big of a park .. and we rarely spend a whole day there.
So on the first day at MK (or Epcot) I rent the stroller for the amount of days I will need it .. I think it was 4 days in total. It worked out really well.

I never have ordered from GG .. I just pack a carry on with snacks from our grocery store (Goldfish crackers, little cereal boxes, Poptarts).

I love the idea of the Mickey shirts ! I have NO talent when it comes to that stuff so I to anyone that does that sort of stuff !

Have fun with the rest of your preparation !!

That's smart about the stroller! I should consider that! I feel like if I don't bring one, Cole will need it every day, if I do bring one, he'll never sit in it?! Just one of those things, you know? He's only 4 1/2 so he gets tired and Todd will just carry him! But I need Todd to carry the backpack!!

We love GG, our luggage is always overloaded, I'm one of those overpackers! I do really well planning and then last minute keep stuffing things in until we're over the 50 lbs!

Don't be impressed by the talents yet, and besides i'm not that crafty, they are just iron ons!! And they are REALLY cute....now what I need to decide on is do I do short sleeve, layer underneath if it's cold? HELP!!

Thanks for reading!!!

 

[danimaroo]

How have I MISSED this PTR?! You are from a town RIGHT near where I grew up! I lived in Abington until I moved out to Seattle, so close! PLUS we'll be down in Disney World the same week as you. Now I need to catch up!

 

[princess&her4princes]

How have I MISSED this PTR?! You are from a town RIGHT near where I grew up! I lived in Abington until I moved out to Seattle, so close! PLUS we'll be down in Disney World the same week as you. Now I need to catch up!

Hi there!! So happy you are here!!! And what a small world, huh?!! Do you ever get back home?

Are you doing a PTR? Where are you staying? details, details!!! Thanks for being here!!

 

[danimaroo]

Hi there!! So happy you are here!!! And what a small world, huh?!! Do you ever get back home?

Are you doing a PTR? Where are you staying? details, details!!! Thanks for being here!!

I know, it cracked me up when I saw "Plymouth"... I do get back home, sometimes I try to once a year! I think we're going to try to make a trip back in June, to spend some time on the South Shore and also at my mom's place up in Maine, since my DH has never been to Maine.

And yes, I am doing a PTR! There is a link to it in my signature. We are staying at Beach Club Villas, which I am EXTREMELY excited about. Between Storm Along Bay and the prime location, there's not much else I could ask for! We went on our honeymoon last January and spent a weekend at Grand Floridian before moving over to Old Key West, and while I loved both of those resorts, we thought it might be fun to give a new resort a shot. Beach Club looked absolutely beautiful so we're excited to stay there. We're also giving ourselves an extra day, as during our honeymoon we did 9 days, which was great but having the 10th day will help allow us to be even more relaxed during our stay.

 

[danimaroo]

So I've entirely caught up, and funny enough, I think we'll be in MK the same night as you! The 19th, we will be there that evening (it's our first night), as we have an ADR at Crystal Palace for 6:10pm.

Hoping to catch a little bit of the final MSEP before it closes down, and then to just enjoy MK that night until we are too tired to do anything else. We are doing a red-eye from Seattle the night before so we will be pretty tired I'm sure, unless we catch a nap when we get to our resort. I'm kind of hoping our room is ready but we get in around 8am, so I highly doubt it will be. If it is, great we can take a nap! If it's not, we're just going to do Epcot until we get the text that our room is ready.

 

[Lcaemom]

After being outbid 5 times, I decided to go the just buy route, I got 25 new Disney pins for $17.99 with free shipping! This will give each boys 7 new pins that they can do whatever they want to, keep or trade, and it will give me 4 for my new lanyard, I'll get when I get to Disney so I can start my collection!

I love that you do this! I've been meaning to tell you that! Even though, you did the "just buy" thing...that is STILL a great deal!
Getting so excited to hear the details coming together for the big reveal!!!

 

[princess&her4princes]

Good Morning my DIS friends!

I hope you all had great weekends! Was it just me or did it FLY by?!!

We had a very nice one, Todd & I got out for a Christmas dinner with his boss and yesterday we celebrated Lucas' birthday with my parents. With his birthday being on Christmas day, I like to give him a seperate celebration all of his own. Thought I'd share just a few pics with you of his special day. So hard for me to beleive he'll be 7! Where does time go?!

Me & Lucas

One of his favorite gifts from us to go with his monorail set! He gets a new piece every year, so far we have the Contemporary, Epcot and now Space Mountain! When he opened it he said, I've never been on this before, I hope next time I go, I hope I'm brave enough! Little does he know, it's less than month from now!

Awwwww

His favorite gift was a Nintendo DS

And here is Todd & I with him and his Harry Potter cake!

It was a fun day and he went to bed a very happy little boy!

Thanks for letting me share!

 

[princess&her4princes]

I know, it cracked me up when I saw "Plymouth"... I do get back home, sometimes I try to once a year! I think we're going to try to make a trip back in June, to spend some time on the South Shore and also at my mom's place up in Maine, since my DH has never been to Maine.

And yes, I am doing a PTR! There is a link to it in my signature. We are staying at Beach Club Villas, which I am EXTREMELY excited about. Between Storm Along Bay and the prime location, there's not much else I could ask for! We went on our honeymoon last January and spent a weekend at Grand Floridian before moving over to Old Key West, and while I loved both of those resorts, we thought it might be fun to give a new resort a shot. Beach Club looked absolutely beautiful so we're excited to stay there. We're also giving ourselves an extra day, as during our honeymoon we did 9 days, which was great but having the 10th day will help allow us to be even more relaxed during our stay.

You're vacation sounds so wonderful! And congrats on your upcoming anniversary! I hope we cross paths and if you're brave enough to talk to us with 3 boys running around you'll stop and say hello!

So I've entirely caught up, and funny enough, I think we'll be in MK the same night as you! The 19th, we will be there that evening (it's our first night), as we have an ADR at Crystal Palace for 6:10pm.

Hoping to catch a little bit of the final MSEP before it closes down, and then to just enjoy MK that night until we are too tired to do anything else. We are doing a red-eye from Seattle the night before so we will be pretty tired I'm sure, unless we catch a nap when we get to our resort. I'm kind of hoping our room is ready but we get in around 8am, so I highly doubt it will be. If it is, great we can take a nap! If it's not, we're just going to do Epcot until we get the text that our room is ready.

Oh how funny!! I wonder if we'll run into each other! Hoping the crowds should be low so there may be a chance!!

You guys are going to be so tired, that's a long trip for you! How long is the actual flight from Seattle? Pixie dust that your room is ready when you get in!!

After being outbid 5 times, I decided to go the just buy route, I got 25 new Disney pins for $17.99 with free shipping! This will give each boys 7 new pins that they can do whatever they want to, keep or trade, and it will give me 4 for my new lanyard, I'll get when I get to Disney so I can start my collection!

I love that you do this! I've been meaning to tell you that! Even though, you did the "just buy" thing...that is STILL a great deal!
Getting so excited to hear the details coming together for the big reveal!!!

Thanks Leighan! It saves us SO much money with the 3 boys and the pins at $8 each in the park! They all loved trading our last trip and Im' sure they will be even more into it this trip! It gives them new souvies without breaking the bank!

I revealed the surprise a few posts up, take a look! We are on countdown!!!!!

 

[danimaroo]

You're vacation sounds so wonderful! And congrats on your upcoming anniversary! I hope we cross paths and if you're brave enough to talk to us with 3 boys running around you'll stop and say hello!

Oh how funny!! I wonder if we'll run into each other! Hoping the crowds should be low so there may be a chance!!

You guys are going to be so tired, that's a long trip for you! How long is the actual flight from Seattle? Pixie dust that your room is ready when you get in!!

I hoope it will be wonderful! We don't get a ton of vacations during the year, so a long 10-day one in Disney World is going to be wonderful. I would love to say hello if we cross paths! 3 boys running around isn't too scary, especially when they're so cute!

I'm hoping the crowds will be low; I'm a little worried that it'll be a bit crazier than normal since it's the last time MSEP is showing for a few weeks. Fingers crossed it'll be a big quieter though!

It is a long trip. The flight there isn't too awful, the flight back is like 6 1/2 hours. I think last time we got there iiiin like 5 hours? Can't remember exactly, I just know that we got in a half hour earlier than expected. It's long but so so worth it!

Okay, also, your update was too cute! Lucas looks SO happy about his gifts! That monorail set looks so fun; I hope one day when we have kids they'll be into something like that. Also, I can see why he's so excited for his DS! It's a lot of fun to have... and will be GREAT for the plane ride. I myself have a 3DS (DH and I are totally video game dorks), and I plan on using it on our flight when I can't sleep/don't feel like watching any movies. I am getting excited for you guys revealing your trip to your boys!

Oh and that photo of the boys hugging is too cute for words!!

 

[Moodyzblu]

Time sure flies .. I can't believe my guys are almost 7 1/2 already !

Love the Harry Potter cake ! (I might have to get one for Jayden before we go on our trip )
Love the Space Mountain too .. so cool !
Looks like he had a great party.

 

[princess&her4princes]

Look what Todd brought home for me tonight! Aren't they the cutest?!! They are like bobbles, once you touch them they can't stop moving! So cute!! If anyone would appreciate them, I knew it would be you guys!

 

[Moodyzblu]

Ha .. those are so cute !!