Vegan mom takes on Disney..... Dec, 2011 PTR

[momabaarjo]

Sounds like you have had a great couple of days in relation to your trip...can't wait to see and hear about all of it!

 

[veggiemama]

I have all my pictures ready to go!

First up.... Going to back track a few weeks and update on a number of activities from June/July. (side note.... I can't believe how fast summer is going!)

Just a couple of pictures from the June recital. Recital went great, the kids did fantastic and we had a great turn out. Somewhere around 75 people!

This is me, my dd and my ds

Next came my birthday. I'm ashamed to say that I had a melt down on my actual birthday. I thought no one remembered. My DH and kids did say happy birthday but no cards, no nothing. I want to say lack of sleep had a part to play but who knows, maybe I was just out for a pity party!

So on the Sat after my birthday my DH and kids surprised me with cards and a very, very special present. One of those things that I have drooled over but never been able to actually decide to spend the money on and buy. Don't know if it was guilt or not.... but I sure appreciated the gift!

OH and please excuse my appearance, I was given no advance warning and was still in my pj's!!!

Just in case you don't know what this is, it's a VitaMix. The best mixer, blender, juicer, hot soup maker, cold ice cream maker out there!! I have been making, soy milk, rice milk, soy ice cream, hot soup, peanutbutter and even found a recipie for vegan Nutella. Yum Yum Yum!

Next was Canada Day. Don't know if I have mentioned before that my husband is in a band. They play Christian Rock and do fundraising concerts all over the city and surrounding communities.

Here is my Rockin Hubby!

And a fun one of me and my DD. We had on the coolest earings that day. They said "I'm with the band"

There, some pictures of our summer fun.

As mentioned before, the kids went to camp last week and DH and I went to the states to do some shopping. Next post...

ALL the Pictures!!

 

[MamaPotts]

Happy belated birthday and congrats on the VitaMix... I love, love, love mine! And please share the recipe for the vegan Nutella!

BTW, what a great looking family!

 

[Monknmom]

happy belated birthday! I'm glad that DH and the kids finally celebrated with you! I love the vitamix- I have had one (my grandfather bought me because I couldn't see spending the money on it either) and I LOVE it! If you go online they have some great recipes! My son's on a special diet so that's been great to make nutella and peanut butter and everything else! The concert looked good! Your kids are cute!

 

[veggiemama]

Happy belated birthday and congrats on the VitaMix... I love, love, love mine! And please share the recipe for the vegan Nutella!
Nutella was really easy. I will grab my recipie and share it tomorrow. It was not cheap to make only because hazelnuts are expensive to buy, but it is so much healthier than the store bought.

BTW, what a great looking family!

Thank you.

happy belated birthday! I'm glad that DH and the kids finally celebrated with you! I love the vitamix- I have had one (my grandfather bought me because I couldn't see spending the money on it either) and I LOVE it! If you go online they have some great recipes! My son's on a special diet so that's been great to make nutella and peanut butter and everything else! The concert looked good! Your kids are cute!

thank you! I have been checking online and I am constently finding new recipies.... it's going to take me months to make them all
Because of my allergies Vita mix has been on my list of 'wants' for a looong time So glad my DH loves to spoil me.

 

[veggiemama]

Finally!! I have some time to share my finds from my mini holiday. Here's hoping for some that I don't get interrupted and side tracked again!

Ha ha ha ha! Would you believe that just as I finished writing the above sentence my Dh yelled from upstairs..... "Laura the dog just puked!" Somehow there is this understanding that the 'boys' in this house are very high maintenance!! I am constantly dealing with one of them somehow!

So, once again.... Let's try to get these photos online

Dh and I went off to the states while the kids were at Camp. I had a number of things that I was looking for.... all Disney of course! It is really hard to find Disney clothes here and there is very little Disney 'stuff' at a good price. PLUS I was still looking for new guide books for my kids to study and use this coming trip and I figured Barnes and Noble would be the place to find these hard to find books.

I was right.... I found these for the kids

And then much to my surprise and delight, I found this one for me.... not that I needed it of course, but I can't resist another planning book

I have been enjoying this book very much!

Then we went off to Target ( or Walmart, can't remember exactly) And I found the coolest thing to use on our big Reveal day!

It's a cupcake holder that comes with the paper cups and even the Mickey ears on top! I love love LOVE this!

And then.... right beside it.....

the thing that made me squeel with delight.... much to my husbands embarresment

Can you see what the are... the black ones?

They're MICKEY HEADS!!!!! This one had me giddy for hours.... my DH thought it was hilarious that I got soooo excited about this one.

Last find in this store was this

My plan is to use these as holders. I have mickey chocolate molds to make chocolate suckers so I am going to put them in these cups and sometime AFTER the big reveal I will fill them up and put them in the kids rooms for them to find.

I like doing these little surprises while we are counting down to the big day.

Don't know how many images I've posted so I'm going to start another post with more pictures..... so far so good.... no more interruptions!

 

[veggiemama]

Ok, next post.... Just noticed that my pics are sideways, don't know why, I flipped them before posting them. hmmmmm

Next we went to the Dollar tree. I CLEANED up here! i wanted some cheap stuff to use as fun stuff. Nothing expensive since I know my kids are really too old for toys and they will only have fun with it for a few minutes... but still.... It's Disney... so that should make it automatically cool.

Fun little countdown chalk boards for them to hang up.

Don't know why, but these are still favorites for my kids.

Fun little stuff to give them at the reveal and some for during our countdown weeks.

Then off to another store.... I've kind of lost track to what store we were in but I found a great game! My kids play this game with friends all the time and have been asking for it for a while. How cool is it that I found the game as DISNEY!!! They are going to be very excited to get this one!

can't wait to play this with them.

Went to Hobby lobby to try to find stuff for work. No luck there but I did find this for B.

My plan is to make a memory book with the kids after our trip. My mom made one last time but I want to do it with the kids this time. I think they will have a lot of fun with it.

And last but not least. Again Can't remember the store but found some great shirts. Still only one for my son... why oh why can't I find Cool! 12 year old shirts.... he's not into 'cars' or any of those animated movies.... I found him one shirt which I think he will like..

and then found two $3 shirts for B

That's it! That's all my Disney finds. I did find a bunch of other stuff for me and work stuff and even found a really nice set of golf clubs. So all in all it was a good! trip.

Now to finish planning my big reveal day and figure out what day to do it on.

 

[annmarieda]

First, happy belated birthday!

Second, yay on the gift you got from your family.

Third, very cool Disney finds!!! You are going to have such a great reveal!!!!!

 

[Monknmom]

YAY for the Disney finds! They look really good! Your kids are going to love it!

 

[veggiemama]

First, happy belated birthday!
Thank you
Second, yay on the gift you got from your family.
Definetely the best gift ever..... almost better than the kitchen aid mixer he got me for Christmas.
Third, very cool Disney finds!!! You are going to have such a great reveal!!!!!

Can't wait to do the reveal. I'm still hunting for a couple of specific things and then I just need to figure out the day

YAY for the Disney finds! They look really good! Your kids are going to love it!

Thanks, I had so much fun hunting for all these things. Any excuse to do more Disney stuff the better! I have no idea how much the kids will love this stuff but my DH has reminded me that a lot of there reaction is going to come from me and the more excited I am the more excited they will be too.

 

[Monknmom]

Oh they will like it!

 

[veggiemama]

Crossing my fingers here..... good vibes needed!

prices of my ideal flight have come down. there are only 6 seats left and my hubby is not home right now so I can't book them!......



please,please please come home soon! I don't want to miss this flight!

magic needed

 

[veggiemama]

I booked our flights! I booked our flights!

 

[annmarieda]

I booked our flights! I booked our flights!

I think that fares finally came down a bit today. I vow to not look back... you too? I wonder if they might come down more than they did today... but... I couldn't risk it. So... that "perfect" flight opened at the rate I wanted...and jumped on it. I am glad that you were able to do the same. Now... lets just not look back!!!

 

[veggiemama]

I think that fares finally came down a bit today. I vow to not look back... you too? I wonder if they might come down more than they did today... but... I couldn't risk it. So... that "perfect" flight opened at the rate I wanted...and jumped on it. I am glad that you were able to do the same. Now... lets just not look back!!!

So glad I am obbsessed on flights. and Soooooo glad we booked yesterday. Went back on today to see and the cost went up and went up even higher than it was before.

As my DH said..... Good thing you are anal about finding deals

we did miss the deal through my DH work but now with the price hike I'm glad we didn't wait a day to see if his work stuff would be finalized today. We may try for some Disney Magic and see if the work discount comes through today and if our flight agent may still honor our discount price.... who knows, my hubby is fabulous at getting these kind of flight deals

 

[veggiemama]

Oh boy, I think I made an error in my planning. Yikes!!

I was checking the EMH for December and I realized that I have my park days wrong! Which means that for everyday, expect our MVMCP day I have made my ADR's on the wrong day!!


I know, I know, it can be fixed and I will have to do this today because I was already having problems getting good times to eat but what a pain in the but this is going to be.

Good thing I had no plans for today, I think I will be doing the Disney thing ALL day!

 

[veggiemama]

Need opinions please...

Here is the debate:

Right now there is no free dining for December BUT if it does happen (and I'm thinking they would be announcing that soon) staying at POP only would give us a quick service free plan, QS does not help us at all since we are doing a lot of TS meals.

BUT to stay at moderate... thinking PORFQ, we would get a deluxe plan free and that would end up costing less then Pop with the deluxe plan.

BUT if free dining doesn't happen for dec then POR would be more expensive than Pop and would not help the budget, especially since though I got a deal on our flights it was about $500 more than I was wanting to spend.


So, do I change and book for POR and hope and pray that free dining comes through for Dec or do I keep POP and IF dining happens then try to change to POR.


Opinions?

 

[veggiemama]

Not being one of those people who enjoy being in a state of limbo Decisions have been made!!

Talked with my DH at work today. Thank goodness it is very quiet at his office so we were able to chat for a bit and things are settled....


I think....


No, no. They ARE settled!

Dh insists that this is the ONLY way that make sense regardless of free dining.




So I kind of forgot that Pop has double beds. I kind of remember talking to him about this and thinking that it would be ok if we slept with one kid together. (they won't share a bed anymore - go figure!) But when I started talking about options and debate today and got onto the bed size he was very shocked that we were going to sleep in double beds.

No Way! he says We won't fit on beds like that. We are not small people Dh is over 6ft tall and I'm almost 6 ft. My dd B is not a lot shorter than me anymore so I can imagine by christmas she will be as tall as I am. There is just no way we would fit on the beds.... width or length wise!!


So whether or not free dining comes out we have officially moved to a moderate hotel.... which one?






Port Orleans French Quarter!!!



I'm very excited to be staying here. I love the idea of the boat to DTD and what seems like short bus rides to the parks.

I'm so glad I decided to book this today. When I called the CM couldn't find a standard room at first for the dates we are going.... she kept me in suspense for a bit but she did manage to find one!

Now I am keeping my fingers crossed the FD will be announced soon. I have heard rumors that they may announce things by the end of July. That would be wonderful and would take a huge budget load off my mind.

I was also able to change my ADR's and booked Boma for our first night because now that we have flights booked I know when we will arrive and it will be early enough to enjoy dinner at Boma and walk around enjoying the sites.

Going to make it official in my next post with my new (pretty sure official) itinerary.

 

[veggiemama]

The Official Disney Plan

Day 1 - Dec 10

Arrival day:

Plane leaves at 7 am. Not to excited about this because we have to be at the airport at 5am which means leaving our house at 4 am. OUCH!!
On the up side, we arrive at 11:45am. So much better than last time. Last time we had a layover and so it took almost 7 hours. This time is non stop and just under 4 hours of flying. My kids and I are not great flyers so only having to do one flight is a HUGE blessing.

ME is booked

Dinner this night has been booked. Even got my prefered time

6:00pm at Boma
Again, I am really looking forward to this one. I have always wanted to stay at AKL but since I can't afford to stay there, this is the next best thing

Day 2 - DHS

This was one of the days I had to change. Looking at EMH made me realize that this was the choice that made more sense. EMH is for PM which I think will be much better for us

Dinner: Sci-fi 4:25pm
It was a nice easy change in my ADR for this one though it is an hour earlier than before. That's ok though, we would prefer earlier than later. DH and DD have problems if they get to hunger - low sugar/hypoglycemic

Day 3 - MK

I really wanted to go to MK on our first full day but again looking at hours, that would have been a MVMCP day so we would have to leave at 7 pm. NO thanks! Now the day we are going has the EMH in PM as well as no party so it should be a great day to be there.

Dinner: The Wave 5:00pm

Day 4 - Epcot

This is the only non booked ADR. Can't book my CP dinner package till the 26th but my plan is to book for Coral Reef. It won't be a great place for me to eat but DH and the kids will enjoy it. I think I will be packing food that day, just in case.

Day 5 - AK/MK split MVMCP
This is our park hopper without a park hopper day

AK as EMH AM that day so that is perfect for us! Little extra time in this lovely park, which is my favorite park to go to.

Lunch: Yak and Yeti - 11:30am

Dinner: Kona @ Poly 5:15pm

I'm still not sure I like the time for Kona, though everyone has assured me it is enough time. I just hope I can relax and not get all anxious about wanting to get to MK for the party too quickly.

Day 6 - DTD

This should be a fun day. I still have to get tickets for DQ and if free dining comes through than I am hoping to get Circque tickets. We'll have to wait and see on that one.

Dinner this night will probably be Planet Holleywood. Not because it is fabulous place to eat but I think the kids will enjoy it. Lunch will proabably be in DQ since I expect we will spend much of the day there.

Day 7 - ?????

This is still our free day. No dining reservations at this point though if the kids want and I can convince everyone I may try to book a character meal... might be too late for that already though.

At this point we will still have 2 days of tickets left so we can even split our parks for one in morning and one in afternoon. We probably won't decide until we are there though. I think this will be the - We want to go back here - or We didn't get to do _________ and have to go there- type of thing.

Day 8 - Departure day

Our plane does not leave till 8pm so that give us plenty of time to pack up and enjoy our last moments. I think we will end up hanging out in DTD again though if we still have tickets left we may spend time in one park... I'm thinking MK.... Can't have enough MK in my books

There we go, there are my plans.

Now that flights are booked, resort has changed, I am feeling a lot more settled and no looking back now

I'm getting ready to tell the kids soon, might even be this weekend. Too many close calls and I know my DD B is suspicious. She keeps looking over my shoulder when I am on my computer (and today that has been almost all day!) and she found my planning book - not a disney one! but my notes book. So I'm thinking I better tell them soon.... Don't think I can wait much longer!

Once they are told and we start planning together i will start putting together our wish list and ride plan. I love doing that part! It seems so close once I starting figuring out what ride and when.

Just over 4 1/2 months till we go!


EXCITED!!!

 

[annmarieda]

Your plans look great! And how awesome that you will be staying at POFQ! I think that may be the next resort I want to stay in. Honestly, I kinda want to stay there in December. However, dh really wants to stay in a deluxe..so .... but... I did sneak in a couple nights at Pop.

I can't wait to read about how your reveal goes. There are times I wish I had made ours a surprise too... but with only one person other than myself truly into this trip... it probably wouldn't have been as much fun.

We are definitely getting down to a time frame to really start counting down...and that will be fun!