It's been a while

I know. I know. It's been far too long since I've updated this. The day came and then life took over.  The kids reacted to the surprise as I expected. Wes pitched a big fit about not going to Texas and Jonah just had a hard time believing us. Click here for full details

Magic Kingdom was.. Well, magical. haha. The whole atmosphere was just amazing and the crowds weren't so bad. I will say that waiting in line for the Peter Pan flight was insane. Out of all the rides needing a queue update, this one is it. The boys were able to meet Mickey Mouse, Belle, Mary Poppins, Ariel, Rapunzel, Cinderella and Chip and Dale. I have to say that story time with Belle was amazing. Jonah was picked to be the beast. Easily the best memory. Click here to watch him dance with her. I can't think of a single ride that was disappointing.  The Haunted Mansion was, as expected, my favorite... But, some of that was because the boys were TERRIFIED of it. They screamed and cried the WHOLE time. What was even better was that Jonah decided to overcome his fear. By the second day we were at Magic Kingdom he rode it, voluntarily, two more times. While there we also got to see Anastasia ride the Carousel while her mother, Lady Tremaine, watched.

Next up was Hollywood studios. It was significantly smaller than the other parks but it also had lots of fun shows to watch and participate in. This was one of the easier parks to take on with the kids. The Honey I Shrunk the Kids park was a blast and the kids really enjoyed the Muppets 3D show. And, as everyone says, the Toy Story Mania game was amazingly fun... But the line was simply too long to do it more than once. With that being said, my favorite memory from Hollywood Studios is a tie between Matt being an active participant in the Hollywood Back lot tour and Fantasmic (Just as a note, the link to the Fantasmic video was not taken by me. We were far too busy enjoying it to actually video tape it. While there the boys got to meet the Army men from Toy Story.

Epcot was wonderful but, admittedly, we would have enjoyed it more without the kids. Eating our way around the world was exceptionally fun as was Test Track. There was plenty of interactive computers around the park to go with the various rides to explore. Admittedly, Soarin was boarin'.... as were some of the educational videos but, that's okay. We told the kids it was Disney School day and there is always at least one boring thing at school, right? The firework show was a bust too, however, in all fairness, we couldn't find a good spot so we barely saw any of it. I'm sure it deserves another shot. While here the boys met Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.

Animal Kingdom was wonderful. The boys joined the Wilderness Explorers and had fun earning "badges" all around the park and the animals were simply stunning. We were mean parents and made the kids go on Expedition Everest.... They were SO terrified afterwards that we ended up buying them stuffed animals. Wes was terrified after riding the Dinosaur ride but Jonah loved it so much that he and I rode it 3 times. While here the boys met Donald, Daisy, Dug and Russel.

The one downside to the entire trip was Wes. He threw fits EVERY day. Several times a day about everything and anything. His big theme was that he didn't want to wait and that he didn't want to be here, he wanted to be in Texas. Even when we were back he complained that he never wanted us to go again and that he wished we hadn't gone etc. It really was a MAJOR damper on the entire trip. Two valuable lessons were learned from this. 1. Wesley really doesn't like surprises 2. He might have been too young for this trip.

On the upside, the rest of us loved it so much that there is no doubt we will be going back. As a matter of fact, Matt and I will be going back next year for my birthday, just for a few days. Our hope is to do one day at Magic Kingdom and spend a whole day hanging out at Downtown Disney at their arcade We also will be taking the boys to Texas in 2015... It's been made apparent that we need to get that out of Wesley's system.

2 Weeks

And I haven't packed a THING!
Take that back, I have at least organized the kids things into a tote so that I could make sure I had everything and it's all neatly placed in a tote... But that's not the same thing as actually having it packed. This week will also be a bit of a busy week so I'm getting anxious about when I'll actually have time to do it.
Tonight will be Tae Kwan Do for the kids and grocery shopping. Tomorrow I go over to Som's house and make the iron on's for the kids shirts so the first opportunity I will really have to pack (without waiting until RIGHT before bed) will be Wednesday. The 1 1/2 week mark. yikes. I've also started to lose weight (yay) so I'm a bit paranoid about packing certain things of mine in case they don't fit right.

I have printed up all of the maps and confirmations.
I've printed up and put together all the activity pages for the kids.
I printed their school absence excuse letter but haven't delivered it yet.
All my packing check lists are printed and ready to make packing a less stressful task.
Luggage tags are made, scrap books ready, etc.

Things I still need to do:
1. PACK
2. Get two black washable markers for autographs
3. Drop off the letter at school
4. Pick up the kids homework

One month! Oh it's ON!

That's right, 30 days until we go on the BIG trip... The one I've been tirelessly planning and obsessing over for 3 years! Now that we're coming down to the wire, I suddenly can't stop finding things that still need to be done.
1. Get the house clean (so my buddy doesn't have to endure our yucky house for the whole 5 minutes she'll be spending in it, watering our plant and bringing in the mail)
2. Create packing lists/check lists
3. Go through these lists and actually verify that we have everything that we need
4. Buy the things we don't have yet
5. Get my hair done
6. Get a mani-pedi (This is important stuff people)
7. Get a massage scheduled (best to be as relaxed as possible before the kids have a giant meltdown at the park)
8. Get the kids and hubby's hair cut
9. Officially pack
10. Organize the kids busy bags
11. Print copies of all the paperwork needed and maps everywhere (just in case the Tom Tom fails)
I could keep going, seriously.. It's ridiculous.

On a super bright side.. This also means I can finally post the NUMBER ONE thing that I'm super excited about for this trip.
Drum roll please.......

That's right! I'm SUPER excited to see how the kids react to the news.  Now keep in mind, I'm not expecting weeping, wailing and screams of joy. I'm not expecting fainting... But whatever their reaction is it'll be good. The oldest one will probably jump up and down while repeatedly asking "really? You really mean it? We're going right now?" while the youngest one will probably have a complete meltdown because we're not going to Texas to see his cousin... That's REALLY what he wants to do. Disney, sure that's fun, but his cousin... Now that's an AMAZING good time in his book. So the thought that he might actually have a meltdown over that cracks me up and I actually look forward to it. 

30 days... 30 days and then we get to tell them! WOO HOO!

7 weeks and counting

So we're down to 7 weeks left. I'm oddly calm. Scrap books are basically done. Luggage tags are done. Suitcases purchased. Travel packs for kids toothbrushese etc. ready to go. I also just ordered a bunch of boxers and t-shirts so the kids have basic pajamas for the trip. Yeah, that's right, I ordered them. It was just way more convenient to have them delivered to my house than to try and explain away why the kids can't have what I brought home from the store. Plus, I've kind of reached a point where I'm lazy and I simply don't want to bother going to the store to get it. Spring break has been a great temper towards my need to pack. Since the boys go to their daycamp everyday, they need their swim trunks everyday. Clearly I can't pack what they're using. Plus, I'm finally content with waiting until about 2 weeks ahead of time. The hubs is right, if I pack now, I'll have to unpack it and re-pack it all later to be sure it's all there.

2 months left to go

And you know what that means. Time to add another picture to the countdown:

That's right, Splash Mountain.

You know this has to be an amazing ride when you've only ridden it ONCE (the year it came out) and you've been dying to ride it again and again ever since.

Yes, that's right, I rode this at Disneyland the year it debuted (1989). Yes, I WAS at Disneyland in 2004... So why didn't I ride it then? Was it closed? Was it too cold? No, neither (not that the cold would have stopped me anyways). Why didn't I go on it then? Oh, that's a fun story... Because I couldn't convince my husband of how AMAZING the ride was. No matter what I said he seemed to ignore me and was convinced it was just another flume ride... As if Disney does ANYTHING that's just another _fill in the blank_ ride. 

When we first started saving up to go to Disney World we "rode" rides on YouTube for fun. It gave us a heads up on what kind of rides the kids would really like and gave us something to look forward to. When my husband actually sat down and watched Splash Mountain he paused... Looked at me... And said "Wait a second... This? This is Splash Mountain."....... "Yeeeeessssss"... "This is Song of the South. I loved that story when I was a kid.. Why didn't you tell me this was Song of the South?" ....... "Okay, A. I didn't know it was called Song of the South and B. I distinctly remember telling you that it was the story of Brer Rabbit and had the Zippedee DoDa song in."

Yeah he swears he doesn't remember any of that. He now owes me the opportunity to ride this ride a MINIMUM of 3 times... Maybe more! ;)

It's a sign.

Haha! Look what I found in my husband's bar of soap this morning:

Really makes me look forward to May.

3 months to go

It's so hard for me to comprehend. 3 months. It's so close yet so far away. It can't get here fast enough yet I still feel so ill-prepared.
I have one mini M & M container filled and ready to go for the penny presses but I need to do 3 more. Yes I want to pack the kids stuff, but I also realize it's WAY too soon. In the meantime.. I like to think of what #3 is on my list:

Until the ride shown at #2 on the list came around this was, by far, my favorite ride. I loved the music, the scenes of pirates chasing each other around, the beautiful bayou at the beginning. I recognize that I lose the bayou scene at Disney World and, for that, I'm pretty sad... But I know it will be a fun ride none the less. Plus, now I get to look around for Capt. Jack Sparrow. That'll be fun pointing that out to the kids.