Surprise Trips

[rdominy]

My DD9 thinks we might go to Disney world next year after her brother turns 3 but we are actually leavin Christmas Day for two weeks.

Since we will be leaving from my parents house and shuffling some Christmas activities I knew there was no way to keep the trip a secret all the way up until we leave. So when we take their Christmas pictures during thanksgiving, I will have what she thinks is a prop present but really it will be full of Disney stuff. She's a lot like me and doesn't show excitement much even if she really is...but I'm hoping to capture the moment while taking pictures.

On to the even more exciting part...my DD doesn't think we are going to get to go to Universal until her brother is about 7...so 5 more long years. She's a huge Harry Potter fan...movies, books, Halloween costumes.

On Christmas Day, the last present she opens will be the reveal that we are also going to spend time at universal!

 

[5ofus]

We surprised our boys with a trip to Disneyland three years ago when they were 2, 4 and 6. The 2yo was completely oblivious (and mostly still is ), the 4 and 6 year olds were completely clueless while we were planning, even though the eldest is extremely bright. I actually thought that he'd caught on a couple of times, but nope he was sooooo surprised and excited. We are from Australia and we went to Vegas for a wedding. I think the lack of geography knowledge helped in our case and the extra young age of the kids. I have to tell you that we were totally underwhelmed by their response to the news that we were going to Disneyland TOMORROW too. DS6 was pretty good once he worked out that it was so close, but DS4 actually threw a tantrum and sulked for the rest of the day. We had tshirts made up with "I'm going to DISNEYLAND" on them and wrapped them up. When we handed them to the kids, DS4 declared "I hope they're dinosaurs!" and when they weren't, even the news of Disneyland TOMORROW wasn't enough to bring him out of his disappointment of no dinosaurs LOL

For this trip, they are fully aware. They've been able to help with bits and pieces of planning and middle DS (now 7) is much more excited, but they're still not into it as much as I'd like I'm sure your daughter will be crazy-excited when she finds out about her 16th birthday present - it's an amazing gift!