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?