The faceless children take a top-secret trip to WDW...

[Charlefours]

for extra money--that is a good thing!

flights: I checked our flights and why there are decent times (no nonstops) we are going to drive. DH said to stop looking when I told him SWA came out today.

I will have to see if I can get a hold of that book to flip through. Glad the site came in handy and I would love to see the cards when you find them again.

 

[gatormommy07]

First, I am slow about getting to these things!! I have to say that I LOVE those dresses, they are so cute!! I really want to make some for my daughter, but she is almost 8!! I don't care though, it could still be cool!

p.s. I can't wait to read more!!

 

[lexmas]

Don't worry about airfare yet! When we go in September I usually don't get tickets till late June. They'll add more flights and have sales before in the next couple months.

I love all your doing as far as character pages and AK cards. You are very creative!

Look at you, being the voice of reason! No, it is true, we have awhile...we were just really hoping for that flight since they have it every Sunday through August 15th! Oh well.

for extra money--that is a good thing!

flights: I checked our flights and why there are decent times (no nonstops) we are going to drive. DH said to stop looking when I told him SWA came out today.

I will have to see if I can get a hold of that book to flip through. Glad the site came in handy and I would love to see the cards when you find them again.

Haha, we're not willing to take days off our vacation to drive. Anywhere else, sure. But not at Disney!

I think it might be a hard book to find...I went looking for a picture online before I decided not to be lazy and went to find my book, but I couldn't find one. I would be more than happy to mail you the book to lend it to you, as long as you'll mail it back to me! It really would only cost like, a dollar or two. Let me know if you can't find it elsewhere!

I found the cards, I'll post them in a minute!

First, I am slow about getting to these things!! I have to say that I LOVE those dresses, they are so cute!! I really want to make some for my daughter, but she is almost 8!! I don't care though, it could still be cool!

p.s. I can't wait to read more!!

so happy to have you here! I'm sure I'll still be shoving Sydney into dresses that I made when she's 8, so I say go for it!

 

[lexmas]

DH found our cards! I was very happy, and now I need to make a box for all my stuff for disney, so I don't lose them again!

I made 23 of them, just the big ticket animals, or the ones I thought he'd be most interested in. Then on the back I put where they were from (generally, most of them are like, "Africa" but J.J. is 3, so I figured that was good enough) and a "fun fact" or two about them. Since J.J. is 3, he's very into babies and such, so when I could find something about families or babies or nursing, I put that on there for him. I actually learned some interesting things myself! I also tried to get pictures of the animals that were actually taken at the park when that was possible. Not that it matters, but it mattered to me at the moment I was making them.

I just laminated them and put them on a ring...the gray ring is actually a free bracelet that we got at our zoo on "elephantastic day" that says "I love the elephants" so I thought that would be appropriate.

Anyway, here are the pictures!

 

[BabyEeyore]

Those cards are awesome!! What a great idea! I may just have to steal that idea one day.

 

[lbuzz52]

i'm really late to the party but loving it so far!

I got my dd a pink princess baseball hat at AK, and saw it online as a reward for disney movie rewards. its really cute! i'm not sure what sizes it comes in, but if your dd is anything like mine, she's always had to upsize do maybe it would work for dd?

one of my favorite airplane toys is a travel sized etch-e-sketch.

 

[DrMomof3]

Those cards are awesome!!!
I'm stressing about the flights for August. It's either terribly expensive or at bad times.

Amanda

 

[-Hope-]

Those cards are awesome! Such a great idea- I may have to steal it if I run out of things to plan. :

 

[Charlefours]

Haha, we're not willing to take days off our vacation to drive. Anywhere else, sure. But not at Disney!

I think it might be a hard book to find...I went looking for a picture online before I decided not to be lazy and went to find my book, but I couldn't find one. I would be more than happy to mail you the book to lend it to you, as long as you'll mail it back to me! It really would only cost like, a dollar or two. Let me know if you can't find it elsewhere!

I found the cards, I'll post them in a minute!

We are still spending as much time in Disney as if we would fly--we picked our week than added days to account for driving!

I may have to take you up on that offer!! I will PM you.

The cards are fantastic! So appropriate to use the elephant bracelet. Has JJ flipped through them or are you saving them for Disney (or both)?

 

[lexmas]

Those cards are awesome!! What a great idea! I may just have to steal that idea one day.

Thanks! We had more ideas yesterday, I'll post in a minute.

i'm really late to the party but loving it so far!

I got my dd a pink princess baseball hat at AK, and saw it online as a reward for disney movie rewards. its really cute! i'm not sure what sizes it comes in, but if your dd is anything like mine, she's always had to upsize do maybe it would work for dd?

one of my favorite airplane toys is a travel sized etch-e-sketch.

I will have to look on disney movie rewards to see! We always just get the kids big hats and adjust them as small as we can to fit their little heads, so whatever size will be fine.

Those cards are awesome!!!
I'm stressing about the flights for August. It's either terribly expensive or at bad times.

Amanda

Flights are no fun. They have to have some sales between now and then. I'm hoping for both of us!

Those cards are awesome! Such a great idea- I may have to steal it if I run out of things to plan. :

Lol, you'll never run out of things to plan, you have the best ideas ever!

We are still spending as much time in Disney as if we would fly--we picked our week than added days to account for driving!

I may have to take you up on that offer!! I will PM you.

The cards are fantastic! So appropriate to use the elephant bracelet. Has JJ flipped through them or are you saving them for Disney (or both)?

Yeah, then that's the way to go with driving. DH only gets so much vacation and we're using every minute of it at disney!

J.J.'s looked through them, but I'm going to pack them away soon for disney. He's still young enough that he probably won't remember them, but if he does, it really doesn't matter.

 

[lexmas]

Alright, this is just our idea, we'll get to the execution later. Maybe soon, even, because we're excited about it!

DH and I were talking yesterday, and I was saying how I wanted to make cards with the characters on them for Sydney so she won't feel left out when J.J. has cards. But as I was sitting next to her in the car, I was thinking that instead, I want to make cards with pictures of the attractions on them that she can go on. She won't be old enough to talk (well, I would assume not, but Jay was a late talker) but if she's anything like Jay, she'll be old enough to point to a picture of what she wants to do. So I think she'd really like that, I know J.J. would have really liked it.

Then DH was saying that he really wants to make cards for J.J. with each of the rides on them, but he doesn't know what to do with them. J.J. really loves collecting little things like that, so we know it would be a good idea. So I came up with the idea of making them as "trading cards" and we can give him one every time he rides a ride for the first time. Then he can have a ring to put them on. Because really, this will only occupy our time for the first few days, and he would completely love it. We figure we'd carry all the cards for one park at a time, and then after we've been to every park we can just carry all the cards that we have left. Also, I think it would be helpful to him being able to flip through his cards and say what he wants to do again, because remembering all of the rides would be too much for him at this point...if you ask him what he did all day he either remembers one thing or just makes something up!

So that's the idea...any suggestions for it? Should we make cards for the hotel, or the countries in Epcot, or stuff like that? Any suggestions for Sydney's cards? Those of you who have had 17 month olds more recently than I have, what do you think of the idea? Waiting to hear your imput!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

What a cute idea! I think you could do both attractions and characters for her, but I bet she'll choose the characters once they are on the cards! Think about it, if you saw a picture of a big tree or minnie mouse at 18 months, which would you choose?

I really like all your ideas!

 

[-Hope-]

Another great idea! I agree w/ Karen that characters will be much more fun for a toddler.

 

[DrMomof3]

All of your ideas are good! I think character cards would be great at that age. Unless she's afraid of the characters...

Amanda

 

[lexmas]

Haha I never thought about her being afraid of the characters! That would really just make us bad parents making that her "toy" then!

 

[DrMomof3]

Haha I never thought about her being afraid of the characters! That would really just make us bad parents making that her "toy" then!

At age 12 months my youngest LOVED the characters. At age 19 months he was terrified. And we had planned lots of character meals. He would sit in his highchair and shake his head and say, "No, no, no" in a pathetic little voice. I felt SO bad!

Amanda

 

[lexmas]

At age 12 months my youngest LOVED the characters. At age 19 months he was terrified. And we had planned lots of character meals. He would sit in his highchair and shake his head and say, "No, no, no" in a pathetic little voice. I felt SO bad!

Amanda

Oh no. Really cute, but so sad! At least we figure she won't be afraid of mickey, because my brother bought J.J. this HUGE mickey mouse (you know the ones, you've seen them at the stores...the biggest one they make, we now own it) for Christmas the year before Sydney was born (and my sisters baby too, it was his last year of being the only nephew so he got spoiled!) and she loves that. So we figure she'll be okay with the real thing. Who knows what will happen in the next 6 months, but I suspect that if she's going to have a problem it will be with the face characters, because she's always hated strangers...when anyone tries to talk to her she just screams. If she knows you then she loves you, but when like, the cashier tries to talk to her, no way. So all those princesses that I'm dying for her to meet, that might not go so well!

 

[lexmas]

Since Free Dining did NOT come out this morning......DH and I had some time to discuss our plans, so we poured over our schedules and got a rough idea.

Thursday 9/23- we get in at about 7 or 8, I don't remember which, so we just plan on spending the evening exploring the resort, maybe swimming, or playing in the pop jets, or the playground...we'll just play it by ear.

Friday 9/24- MK in the morning- we want this to be our first park this trip! After spending as much time as we really want at the MK, we're going to take the monorail over to Epcot because there are evening EMH's here this night...until Midnight!

Saturday 9/25- We have to get to AK next. J.J. will love it so very much. We will probably spend all day here, and then go to the MK since it's open until 11.

Sunday 9/26- DHS. Back to Pop for dinner since we know we want to eat at the food court, and maybe some swimming or something like that. Then on to MK for their evening EMH.

Monday 9/27- AK morning EMH, spend the day there. Then to DTD for dinner at WPE and dessert at T-Rex, or to POFQ for dinner and take the boat to DTD. Not sure, we'll get into where we want to eat later.

Tuesday 9/28- Epcot morning EMH. We want to do Kim Possible today!

Wednesday 9/29- No plans.

Thursday 9/30- No plans for the morning. Want to go back to the hotel to get a nice nap in, and change for MNSSHP. Evening at MK for MNSSHP!

Friday 10/1- No plans. Is this the potential soft opening for F&W?

Saturday 10/2- No plans.

Sunday 10/3- No plans.

Notes:

*Our kids get up really early and stay up really late. They just nap for a long time during the day, so J.J. may very well be awake for evening EMH the first few days...we were really exciting to see how it worked out, because while he'll be able to be up until 11 or 12 the first few days, he'll never be able to keep up that pace! We were cracking up envisioning this little 3 year old living it up on Pirates at 11 at night. But we plan on taking it easy after that.

*We're planning on having the kids nap in the stroller (potentially in the sling, in Sydney's case) if J.J. won't nap in the stroller (no problem with Sydney, she naps in the sling every day! She wouldn't know how to nap laying down. ), we'll have to change things up and go back to the hotel for naps. I don't foresee it being a problem, but you never know.

*We like not having plans later in the trip because we like to wing it. So no concern over our lack of plans later.

*Still not sure if we're having friends with us for any part of the trip, so that could make us re-plan everything!

*I think we're going to end up skipping fantasmic this trip, because we get in too late for it on Thursday, Sunday we'd rather do MK EMH and the next Thursday we're doing MNSSHP.

*Hoping to hit F&W during naptime one day. Not sure when yet.

Alright, that's all we have for now...any input?

 

[DrMomof3]

I totally understand leaving a few days open. Last May my DH showed no interest in trip planning. A few days into the trip he grabbed Unofficial Guide and made plans for the last few days. It was good to have him excited and involved.

Amanda

 

[-Hope-]

These look great! It would drive me insane to have no plans but I know that's my issue, not because it's necessary. If we were springing for hoppers I'd definately be hopping over to take advantage of the PM EMH.

I'm pretty sure that 10/1 is the official opening of F&W, not the soft opening (which is then potentially Thursday). Check with Karen to be sure but I'm almost positive about this.