3 Months until our Disney vacation!!

I can't believe we have 3 months until our vacation. This post is being done late because of a very busy summer. We are trying to get the 3 of us ready to go back to school. Unfortunately, we only have 1 week left.

For this months Disney countdown gift I went with travel pillows. I have always seen people with them at the airport and I am not sure why I haven't purchased these before. It might be because I remember back in the day when the airline had pillows and blankets for you to use. Now I usually just roll up my sweatshirt and use it. I was going to have my mom make them, there are several templates online, but I found some on the dollar rack at Target in the $2.50 bins. This was like an awesome bonus, I couldn't buy fabric and filler to make these for that cheap. They do seem to be a little flimsy but that's okay with us. So, for this gift I spent a whopping $12.50!!! You can't beat that. The kids were excited and even took them on their Michigan vacation as well.

4 Months until our Disney Vacation!!!!

We only have 4 more months left :) We are getting so excited. It just seems like yesterday we decided to plan this trip.

First up is I FINALLY found a white bag for Catelyn's stuff but when I printed it, I printed the wrong size and my printer ran out of ink. I went ahead and used it but I will buy more ink and replace her Minnie head for next month. Cost for the white bag was $.50. I reuse the white bags every month and the "4 month" Mickey head paint chips came from Home Depot. I just write "4 months" on the paint chip with different colored Sharpies. Silver is the only color that works on the dark chips.

This months gift was not a fun gift but something we all require on our vacation......toiletries. Having said that, my kids were excited to open up their baggies to see what they got. I have been collecting these for awhile. I scour clearance racks (especially Target), wait for sales (Meijer had buy 3 toiletries get 1 free a few weeks ago), and look for free samples online. I even save the free shampoos, conditioners, and soaps from hotels. Some of the toiletries for this trip were saved from our last Disney trip, so they get some Mickey shampoo/conditioner and soap. If you plan ahead you can do this very inexpensively. We require lots of toiletries and so when we fly we put them in our checked luggage so we don't have to worry about baggies and 3oz rules. 

Now for the breakdown:

Xander: Hair gel, body wash, brush/comb, Disney soap, Disney shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and body spray. His total was $5.75 (boys are cheap).

Eve: Toothbrush, toothpaste, brush/comb, Disney soap, Disney shampoo, body wash, lotion, body spray, and deodorant. I found Cherry Fun Dip scented lotion, body spray, and body wash at shopjustice.com and she loved it!! Her total was $9.98.

Caitlyn: Disney soap, toothbrush/toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, bath gel, lotion, and body spray. Since she is 12, I got her bath products (gel, lotion, spray) at Bath and Body Works. Her total was $8.25.

"Mammie":  Toothbrush, toothpaste, Disney soap, shave cream, deodorant, bath gel, lotion, body spray, and a razor. I also got her bath products at Bath and Body Works. Her total was $10.53.

Me: Toothbrush, toothpaste, Disney soap, bath gel, lotion, body spray, conditioner, shave cream, travel bottle (to take my expensive shampoo),  deodorant, saline, face wash, and a razor. My conditioner is expensive and can only be purchased at Ulta. My bath products were gifts in my Christmas stocking so they were free ;). My total was $16.68.

Total for this months gift is: $51.19

Here is an up close pic of all of the bags of toiletries. I kept them in these gallon sized baggies since I started buying so I knew whos stuff belonged to whom. Once we travel, we have personalized toiletry travel bags purchased at Lillian Vernon for the kids and L.L. Bean for me. I highly recommend individual travel bags from these places. They usually have a hanger hook on them so they can be hung on the closet usually next to the bathroom and so a child knows which stuff is theirs. This helps with "he used my toothpaste, gross" and "she used my hairbrush, now I can't use it". Mine from L.L. Bean even has a little bag that comes out with its own shower hook, so I can keep my items off of the shower/tub surround.

Guess who got awesome mail today.....

ME!! Don't you love mail days where you get fun mail and not bills? Well, today I got the best mail, Disney mail :)(It makes me want to sing the old Blues Clues "Mail Time" song)!! I got my discount pin numbers in the mail today for my fall travels. I have been anxiously awaiting this pin number so I could book my vacation.  Here is what the outside looked like:

You know its something good when Minnie Mouse is on the outside!! When I opened it I found 2 different offers: End of Summer 30% off and Fall Free Dining. This is what the inside looked like:

(Sorry, but I had to cover my name, address, and pin number)

When I looked at the offer on the website it said it was for returning guests. I called my cousin who has been before and she got the offer as well. 

After receiving the offer I have decided on the Art of Animation as our Resort of choice for our fall trip. When booking a free dining offer with a value resort you only get the quick service dining, my family loves to try restaurants and feel like we are getting a $30 steak for free, so we will be paying an upgrade for  the Disney Dining Plan. This includes 1 table service meal, 1 counter service meal, and snack per person per day as apposed to the quick service where you get 3 meals per day but they are all quick service. We love sit down restaurant/relax time. We have used these meals as our character meals in the past (Akerhaus, Garden Grill, 1900 Park Fare, Cape May Cafe) because character meals are so expensive but we are not doing character meals this time due to the ages of the kids.

We have stayed value before, at Pop Century and liked the resort. Our only problem was the room size. We had 2 adults and 2 children (DS 10, DD 7). My son was 5'1" that year and it felt as if we had 3 adults in there and it was cramped. My cousin had 1 adult and 3 small children and she could barely get her stroller in and out of the room. Since that trip, I recommend value resorts to travelers with 2 adults and 1 child.  When we stay Art of Animation we will be staying in a suite which will give us much more room considering we have 2 adults and 3 children (DS 12, DD 9, DN 12). 

I really wanted to stay at the Polynesian this time but I feel we will be able to get more for our money with the Art of Animation and we will also have more room with 5 people, including 2 bathrooms.

This weekend marks 4 months until our Disney vacation and I will be posting then what our gift is!

5 Months until our Disney Vacation!!

This has been a busy week! We had field day at school and, of course, our 5 month Disney countdown gift. This month I got the kids a Disney pencil pouch from the Walmart dollar rack for $1 each. These will be to hold the pressed pennies they make. These pencil pouches have 2 holes punched in them and are made to fit into a binder but my thought is that they will fit nicely into those nice 3 ring binder photo albums you can purchase at Walt Disney World. I'm also hoping that they will fit into the kids pockets so they can carry it themselves. I have bought the pressed penny books at Disney before but they don't fit into the photo album and I don't know which child made which pennies. So, I thought this would solve my problems. I got Perry the Platypus for my son and Tinkerbell fairies for my daughter. We will know who made each set by which pouch they are in for years to come. I had to get Disney Princesses for my 12 year old niece because they didn't have any other characters.

I decided to make this a less expensive purchase month to counteract how much I spent last month. So, my total spent for this months gift is $3! :)

I keep reusing the same white bags with Mickey heads already on them every month. The "5 months" Mickey heads are paint chip samples from Home Depot. The plain white bag is the back of my white bag for Caitlin. I am anxiously awaiting my Dollar Tree to get more white bags in. They still only have yellow and brown right now. I have purchased brown and will make it my bag and give Caitlin the white one if they don't get some in by my next Disney countdown gift day.

6 Months until My Disney Vacation!!

Today marks 6 months until our Disney vacation. This months countdown gift was pressed penny tubes. My kids love to spend money and make pressed pennies but inevitably I am digging in the bottom of my backpack for 2 quarters and a penny for each kid to make one. Instead of that hassle I made these tubes.

These tubes should easily fit in pants pockets and the child can make what ever penny they want, when they want to make it. I made 3 pressed penny tubes, one for Xander, one for Eve, and one for Catelyn. The Orange tube for "Mammie" is a laundry tube (I didn't have time to make a new label for it).  Newly attached to the bags from last month are the "6 Months" Mickey heads. These are paint chip samples from Home Depot (a big thanks to my cousin Kristin for getting these for me, our closest Home Depot is 60+ miles away). I think they turned out cute and have loads of colors to use over the next 6 months. I don't have Catelyn's bag done yet, that's why she has a plain white bag.

Each tube was done in a different character. The blue is Ariel, red is Minnie, and green is Pluto. I chose an old fashioned Magic Kingdom map for the orange tube. I loved this old map of MK and it was my computers wallpaper for many months. You can find the map here: http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/10/40th-anniversary-commemorative-map-of-magic-kingdom-park/

The labels are found here: http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/r132/donatalie/Pressed%20Penny%20Tubes/Large%20Tube%20Labels/ She has loads of choices and even some for laundry tubes. These are designed for the long M & M mini tubes but I purchased the short tubes and had to alter their length on my computer. Most of the people on the blogs make the long tubes. I didn't think they would fit in my kids pockets as easily AND they would be heavier because of the amount of money in the tube.

I know this seems like a lot of quarters to part with. You can either get rolls of quarters at your local bank or do what we did and collect them over time. My kids were eager to sell me their quarters from their Easter Egg Hunt at the G'parents house. I told my kids that it was for my  "quarter project" and I wouldn't explain any more than that.  It was killing them to know why I needed all of those quarters.

Directions for gift:
      Supplies needed:
         M & M mini tubes
         plain paper
         contact paper
         quarters
         pennies (I used the pennies my daughter and I cleaned in a previous blog post)

       Directions:
            Open mini tubes and empty of contents. Pull off the current M&M label, it is glued on but fairly easy to rip off. After selecting the label you want, print it on plain paper. Cut label to desired size for your tube. Glue on the label. After glue is set, I covered my label completely with contact paper. I am hoping this will help it stick better and it will help with water damage in the parks.  After that you start filling your tubes with the following pattern of money: 2 quarters, 1 penny.....2 quarters, 1 penny....2 quarters, 1 penny, until your tube is full. Mine took a total of $9.18 to fill each SHORT tube.

The cost of this gift was fairly expensive.
        4 M&M mini tubes= total $4.76 at our local CVS (The short tubes are hard to find)
        quarters and pennies = $27.54
        paper, I already had at home
        labels = free to print online
        contact paper =$1 at Dollar Tree
        quarter for laundry tube = $12

TOTAL SPENT: $45.30

Catelyn's going with us!!

My mom has decided to take my sweet, 12 year old niece with us to Disney this time. She has never been to Walt Disney World, so it should be lots of fun for all of us showing her our favorite things. Eve is excited that another girl is going but Xander is not so thrilled that another girl is going, haha. He realizes, though, that he will now have someone there his age to hang with. This makes our party of 2 adults, 2 pre-teens, and one child.

We are still hoping that the Wilson family can join us. We had a blast with them in 2010 and hoping they can go again. When they travel it is 1 adult, 1 pre-teen, and 2 children.

Got word that the Pulley family might want to go, as well. They are Disney newbies and went for their first time over spring break this year. They fell in love, of course, with Disney and want to return soon. They also want to check out Sea World and Islands of Adventure. Their family consists of 2 adults and 1 child.

We can't wait to see what the next few months hold for us and others traveling, or possibly traveling, with us. We would love to travel with a large party and to see if there are any offerings left for Disneys Grand Gatherings.

Making Mickey Cookies

Well, my daughter and I finally had time to make her Mickey cookies. My son hasn't had time to make his yet. When I decided to give these cookie cutters I also decided to just buy the refrigerated cookie dough from a local store. I wanted them to enjoy the rolling out of the dough and using the cookie cutter more so than having to mix cookies from scratch. Because of this decision, the cookies are somewhat dark and not as good tasting as homemade ones would be but fun to make nonetheless. Following are pictures of her cookie making experience.

The cookie cutter came with 2 kinds of gel icing and a packet of sugar sprinkles. She didn't like the flavor of the gel icing so we didn't use them. As for the sugar packet, she poured all of the packet on one cookie and ate it that way. She's nine, what can you expect?