The planning has commenced!

[Diamondintheruff]

With 29 days to go is not the time for your Dh to say "I wish you'd wait a year". He needed to speak up earlier. Just the same I would hate to see the two of you use this Disney trip as a battleground. It is a great opportunity for Mike to have some Daddytime. I hope the two of them have as great a time together as you and the older two have at Disney.

Doing Disney as the solo adult you need to take care of yourself. Have you given any thought as to how you are going to recharge your batteries?

 

[dakjoskaimiksmom]

With 29 days to go is not the time for your Dh to say "I wish you'd wait a year". He needed to speak up earlier. Just the same I would hate to see the two of you use this Disney trip as a battleground. It is a great opportunity for Mike to have some Daddytime. I hope the two of them have as great a time together as you and the older two have at Disney.

Doing Disney as the solo adult you need to take care of yourself. Have you given any thought as to how you are going to recharge your batteries?

It's not so much that we're using it as a battleground. It just seems that way because he says things like that, then goes to bed, and I hop right on here and vent.

I really love him to death but to face facts, he's not much in the fun-for-the-whole-family department. I knew this when I started planning, so it's really my own fault for trying to stuff my poor rectangular dh into a round hole. I will have to accept that any and all trips with him will be fishing trips, and save the other fun stuff for doing with other people.

At least we all love fishing.


As for recharging....um, no. I didn't really think about it. I'm with my kids 24/7 at home, so this is pretty much the norm for me. If I'm REAL lucky, I'll be able to escape into the empty bed after they fall asleep (they've already started fighting over who gets to sleep with mom at the hotel--so I told them they both could).

 

[dakjoskaimiksmom]

27 days to go!!

Is it too early to start jumping around with glee? Because I am. A lot. I'm physically restraining myself to keep from packing already. If I didn't need the suitcases to go to Wisconsin in a couple weeks, I would TOTALLY be packing right now. But, alas, my poor baby sister is leaving for Iraq on the 23rd, so we're going up to see her off.

She is the REAL Disney fan in the family. She takes my oldest son every year. She's the greatest Auntie in the world, as well as our hero.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, as soon as we get back from Wisconsin I'm going to pack. I have about 97% of the stuff on my list, including a super-cute Tink shirt I bought for Kai today. I've been trying to curb my shopping impulse, but it was on clearance for $5 at Wal-Mart so I couldn't resist. Plus, I just love hearing Kai call her "Stinkerbell". It doesn't take much to get me to spend money.

I made a mental note to shop in Germany at Epcot. Dh spent 9 years in Germany when he was a kid (his dad was stationed over there), and he was talking yesterday about all the German candy he used to get there that he can't find here. I didn't tell him, but I'm going to stock up on whatever I can find there for him as a surprise. Maybe some German bribery will soften him up for our 2010 trip.

I still have to write "Mickey letters" to the kids for each day of our stay. I read about someone else doing them for their kids, and I thought, "Wow. My kids would LOVE that." As usual, though, it's easier said than done. I couldn't find Disney stationary anywhere around here, so I bought some today with seashells on it.

Seashells=Florida, Florida=Disney.

Just play along. Maybe Mickey goes to the beach sometimes. LOL

I also have to-- well WANT to-- make some Mousekeeping envelopes. Our printer pooped out on me, so I'll have to be a little more creative than just printing them out. If only I had time to be creative.....I see so many cute things on here that people make, like entire outfits even, and I wonder why I seem to have fewer hours in my day than everyone else.

 

[dakjoskaimiksmom]

Once again, I find I'm second-guessing myself. If I could turn off my brain, maybe I could relax!

I'm thinking maybe I should add on the QS DP after all. It would cover our resort mugs (although I was only going to buy two and make the kids share), so I'd be saving that money. Plus I KNOW we're going to go crazy at Goofy's Candy Company. I already made a list of stuff to bring home! At least with the dp, most of it would be covered with the snack credits.

I was having a hard time trying to figure out how much money to bring for food and spending. With this add-on, I just need to bring spending money--and not even much of that, thanks to the gift card.

The problem is, when I think of spending $335 on food for one week I go crazy. It's like all my Scottish-thrift genes spring up in me and convince me not to spend that kind of money. $335 isn't much less than what I spend on food at home--for a MONTH!

On the other hand, I was planning to bring $75/day for food and spending, which comes to $525. It's not much of a difference. I don't know why laying out a lump sum bugs me so much. Especially when it means I have one less thing to worry to death.

This trip needs to hurry up and get here so I can stop driving myself mad.



23 days till we leave!!

 

[dakjoskaimiksmom]

And we're back at 71 days to go.

Due to some really irritating circumstances beyond my control, I have changed our ressies to April 19th-26th. We're still staying at POP on the 4/3 deal (sans $200 gift card, darn it!).

Oh, well. At least we didn't have to cancel altogether.

Our itinerary is mostly the same:

19 Epcot

20 Epcot

21 MK

22 MK

23 AK

24 DS

25 MK

So that's all settled. I still need to cancel our ADR's, but I added on the Quick Service Dining Plan. We're good to go.

The good news is, I'll have time to accumulate spending money to make up for the gift card. The bad news? Adding another 50 days to our wait!

At least now I know we'll have warm enough weather to hang out at the pool after walking all day. A sun umbrella and a banana daiquiri sound pretty good right about now!

-------------------------------------------------------

As I was browsing through one of the shopping threads, I saw a picture of the CUTEST dress. Two of them, actually. A pink Sleeping Beauty one, and a green Tink one. I must have them for Kai.

I have I feeling I'm going to be doing some serious commando shopping on our trip.

 

[dakjoskaimiksmom]

65 days left!

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One less thing to worry about! I found a new Photopass Share. I joined one for March and had it all paid for, then our plans changed. Obviously I'm not going to pull out of that one with a only a couple weeks to go, but it's worth $22 not to inconvenience the Share leader. Anyway, it'll be one less cd for her to mail out.

I was worried that I wouldn't find a new one this late in the game, but apparently I'm not the only procrastinator hanging out here. So that's all taken care of.

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My ever-changing itinerary has taken a new turn. I've been hearing so much about cheerleading and Twirling and Brazilians and Grad Night and spring break in general, that I got a little worried. I went to the Unofficial Guide website and checked out all the crowd predictions for April. They also had "parks to avoid" and "parks to hit on such-and-such a day". Neurotic, yes, but it worked out for our trip in 2001. We had Epcot, MGM (then), and Animal Kingdom all to ourselves. MK was a little crowded IMO, but I had no basis for comparison, so maybe it wasn't crowded by MK standards.

Anyway, here's where we're at:

18th -- drive down, check-into Gator motel

19th -- check out of Gator, drop luggage off at POP, Animal Kingdom, back to POP for a rest, Downtown Disney

20th -- Epcot

21st -- Epcot

22nd -- Magic Kingdom

23rd -- DS, Fort Wilderness for Chip n' Dale's Singalong and to check out the place for our 2010 trip

24th -- Magic Kingdom

25th -- Magic Kingdom

26th -- Check out of POP and head home

This is the week AFTER Easter week, so we should be ok as far as crowds go. At least that's what I hear.
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Think I'll go join the kids for a nap now. We were up at 5 am to get the cat from the vet's office. We are not a "5 am" kind of family. LOL

More later!

 

[dakjoskaimiksmom]

57 days!!

It's a bit annoying, really, to think that we were supposed to leave next Saturday. Oh, well.

Nothing new on the planning front, but we ARE doing something fun this weekend. Dh and I get to have our semi-annual, kid-free date night!

Seriously. We NEVER get a night out without kids, except MAYBE once or twice a year. We live in IN, my family is in WI, and his is in TN. Anywho, this weekend is Food and Froth at the Milwaukee Public Museum --beer from around the world!-- so we're going. My mom will watch the kidlets (I primed her by keeping them away for 2 months. ). So it'll be me, dh, my dad, my BIL, and 2 of my sisters -- but not the sis married to the BIL, cuz she's pregnant and can't drink.

I can't wait! You get a souvenir glass, about 6 oz, and you take it all over the museum getting refills and getting hammered. It's quite enjoyable. It's only open to museum members, so it's fun to see how it turns into a drink-fest. It IS Milwaukee after all!

There's tons of food too, and live music. Plus all the cool exhibits, which are always more interesting when you're tipsy. Especially the one we call "Miss Big Bottom" (a statue), and the big creepy shark at the end of the tunnel.

Eh, I guess you'd have to be there to know what I mean.

More later!!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

I'll be there at the same time.

I'll be at MK on the 24th and 25th too.

We'll have to look out for each other. Pop over to my trip report for pictures of me but I always have a limegreen mickey head on my park bag.

 

[dakjoskaimiksmom]

I'll be there at the same time.

I'll be at MK on the 24th and 25th too.

We'll have to look out for each other. Pop over to my trip report for pictures of me but I always have a limegreen mickey head on my park bag.

There are a LOT of Dis people going when we are. I have a feeling it's going to be crowded, although maybe I'm wrong. I just assume that Dis folk know the best times of the year to go to avoid crowds, but maybe crowds aren't as big a deal as I make them out to be.

Either way, I'll be sporting a lime green head, too!

 

[dakjoskaimiksmom]

50 days!

Today was supposed to be the-day-before-we-leave. Right now, we are supposed to be TRYING to sleep so we could leave in the morning for our 11 hour drive.

Oh well. I'll get over it.

On the plus side, we have more time to anticipate our trip, and it won't be over and done with as quick. I'll just keep reminding myself of the plus side this week, and I'll be fine. **sniff, sniff**



Anyway, I bought Kai some Tinkerbell artificial-Crocs today for our trip. VERY cute, and she loves them. I also bought her a pair of Tinkerbell tennis shoes, in the next size up (gotta love clearance sales!). She's kind of mad that I wouldn't let her have them today, but I explained that they just wouldn't fit her yet. She just got new Hannah Montana shoes from grandma, like 2 weeks ago. She LIVES in them. I'm sure that they'll be falling apart by the time she grows into Tink.


So Kai is good to go. I need to buy Joshy a few things, just to be fair. He's already got every Cars shirt ever made, and POTC swim trunks and hat. Eh, I'll think of something, but it sure is easier to shop for girls!



I am such an idiot. I ordered our planning DVD for 2009, and put it on this morning. It lasted all of 2 minutes, which made me mad. Then tonight, Kai wanted to watch it again, and I discovered that it really ISN'T only 2 minutes long--here we were, watching the intro and not the actual movie. Now I just wonder if I haven't been doing that all along, since I ordered last year's--I seem to recall that one being 2 minutes long, too.

Sometimes I scare myself.

 

[dakjoskaimiksmom]

46 days to go!

How is it that I always seem to end up posting in the wee hours of the night?

 

[Diamondintheruff]

46 days to go!

How is it that I always seem to end up posting in the wee hours of the night?

Woo Hoo!

because it's the only time of the day (albeit night) that we have to ourselves.