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I wanted to post a quick update tonight- we are 21 Days away and counting down quickly! I know I'm going to turn around and we will be within days of leaving.
As of now, the secret is still intact. I'm really suprised it hasn't been ruined yet, thankfully as I thought we are just so busy with life that DH and I aren't discussing it much between the 2 of us so there haven't been many opportunities to blow it. Now, if we can just keep it going for 3 more weeks, the payoff will be well worth it. The only other time we've tried to do a suprise trip was in 2008 when we took DS and DNiece down for DS's birthday. We had it planned for a loooooong time and about a week before we left, I dropped the ball big time. We were shoe shopping (for back to school) and I was pushing both kids to get comfy sneakers knowing that they would be handy for WDW. Well DS decided he was going to be difficult and didn't want to try on shoes, and when I finally got him to try some on, he had no comment on whether they were comfortable or not. So I said "we are going to be doing a lot of walking at WDW and I want to make sure you have comfy shoes..." PS- as long as baby cooperates, we should find out if we are baking a girl or a boy on Sept. 24.
As far as costumes go, I think we are all set with everyone. DS's costume was purchased 2 weeks ago at the Disney Store (Peter Pan), DH's costume has been ordered (Hook), MIL has ordered her costume (Tink), FIL basically had everything to put together his costume minus a red stocking hat and glasses (Smee), and I've purchased the materials to sew my costume (Wendy Darling.) I am hoping to get it nearly done this weekend, let's hope I get as much done as I hope. I'll post some pictures after this weekend assuming I get enough done.
Earlier this week DH said that maybe he and DS would do the Halloween 5k on Oct. 2 at MK. We had talked about doing it all together (I'm a runner so the doctor said that I should be fine to do the race even at 5 months pregnant, but probably need to stick to walking for the most part.) I decided I don't want to do it since we will be doing plently of walking over the trip and I don't want push myself too hard, and I would rather take pictures of DH and DS doing the race. Plus, in the last weeks I've had a whole new set of pregnancy fun that has started, like raging heartburn, round ligament pain and insomnia. I'm a little afraid to do anything that could make any of it worse, or start anything new. I think I'll stick with being a spectator this time. DH is still going back and forth, he hasn't ran for a long time I think he's realizing that although it's only 3 miles, 3 miles is a good distance if you haven't done it in a while. DS is very fast so I think DH would probably struggle to keep up with him (DS and I are doing a half marathon together next summer and I have a hard time keeping up with him.) So we will see, stay tuned.
The other thing DH just brought up was maybe doing one of the tours, he's been looking at the one at MK that's 2 hours long and is like a scavenger hunt (can't remember the name.) He read some mixed reviews about it so he's on the fence. My feeling is that for every negative review you will find 3 more positive ones, I think that there are probably some people who expect a night's stay in the castle for their $34 tour ticket and would be disappointed with anything less. Actually, I know that there are people like that.
Lastly tonight, I got DS's autograph book all ready and am shipping it down to Betsy tomorrow. We have countless autograph bookes from Disney (which are great, but they always end up sitting on our bookshelves and collecting dust so I decided to go a different route this trip, especially since he's going to see some characters he doesn't ususally see at MNSSHP.) He likes scrapbooking with me so I found the retired 7x7 Creative Memories Disney album and loaded it with pages. I have some old Creative Memories round tip pens in a couple colors so I used a ribbon to ties them to the album like a gift. Then when we get home, he can scrapbook and have all the autographs in one place, and I know the scrapbook will get a better workout by being looked at regularly that our poor old Disney autograph books. I thought about predecorating pages but I know DS will want to do that all so I decided to just leave all the pages blank.
Well that's a longer update that I thought I'd have tonight! I'll be back next week with some costume pictures.
Have a great weekend, and as always, thanks for reading!
Mel
Happy Tuesday evening- yeah, we are almost 1/2 way through the week! We are 16 days away from WDW, 10 days until our big U/S and the great baby gender mystery is revealed , and 3 days until our weekend with DMB and Jason Mraz at Wrigley Field . Tonight (and for the next couple of nights) I'm in Milwaukee for work. At least it's driveable so it didn't require a pat down from a fiesty TSA employee. Let's get this update rolling:
Costumes: I would say that I'm about 3/4 done with my costume. On Saturday I got the bodice and skirt done, so all that's left is to attach them together and attach the sleeves. I'm hoping I can finish it up Sunday (I'm thinking a hour left MAX.) It took me a little longer than I anticipated to get this far because I've taken some liberties with the pattern to make it as close to Wendy's nightgown as possible- for instance, I've used the back bodice for the front and the back so I've had to do some extra tailoring to get it to not look like the backside of a nightgown . I think I've got it pretty darn close and as good as it's going to get. I'll post a picture of the finished product, right now it doesn't look like anything except some blue random pieces. But since I have yet to post any pictures in the PTR, I am posting a picture from Saturday where Miss Wendy Darling herself (my Cavalier King Charles baby) wanted to be in my lap while I was pinning and cutting. For Halloween I'm actually making her a matching dress, although it will be a fight to get it on her little body. Here you go:
I also realized I have a picture of Tyler in his Peter Pan costume from the Disney Store on my phone, so here he is:
He has a pair of green shorts that I think I'll throw in our backpack for the party in case he gets hot in the pants (but they are very thin so he may be fine.)
Other details: Today I ordered a new DSLR for the trip (and as a backup for my photography clients)- a Canon 50D. I'm pretty excited for it to arrive so I can play with it. I went back and forth about what I really wanted, I almost went with the Canon Rebel T2i, but the grip on the 50D is just more comfortable to me (although I will say that for the cost, the Rebel T2i is an amazing camera- it has amazing shooting capability.) I needed something smaller than my big pro camera (which is far to heavy IMO to carry around. WDW.) And I knew I'd want something a little easier to handle to take candids of the baby and Tyler. Hopefully it will be delieverd by Monday at the latest.
I also stopped today on my way to Milwaukee and picked up a new backpack for DH (seems like he always wants a new backpack when a trip to WDW is around the corner . I think he feels the same way about backpacks that I do about purses- clearly we are bag people!) But we know that we can't survive any trip to WDW without a solid backpack.
DH still hasn't decided on the Halloween 5k- he's going to wait too long and it's going to be full, but sometimes there is no reasoning. I know he's second guessing because he's talked a big game about how fast he thinks he can finish. We will see I guess.
I got an email from Betsy today that she's purchased Tyler's pumpkin for his gift basket so she should be sending a photo shortly- can't wait to see it. I'm a slacker and didn't mail her the scrapbook I got him for autographs so I'm just going to tuck it away in my suitcase and give it to him when we get there (I was thinking that there's a good chance that the basket will be delivered to the room after we've hit our first park and I know he'll want to get an autograph book if he doesn't think he has one.)
Nothing has changed as far as touring plans, ADRs, etc. so there's nothing new to report there. Everyone seems to agree on everything I've planned so thankfully I'm not scrambling to get anything changed around. I'll be anxious to hear what time CM's started admitting MNSSHP guests tonight so I know if we can plan to arrive earlier than 7pm for our party or not.
That's all I got folks. As always, thanks for reading!
Mel
Sounds like everything is coming together very nicely! 3 weeks is not long at all!
I know Cam, I can't beleive how fast this trip is coming- our Jan trip took FOREVER to countdown. It probably helps that Tyler doesn't know about it so he isn't constantly asking "when do we leave." Ha ha ha!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad it's all coming together! Can't wait to see the costumes!
I can't wait to see all the costumes together either! I think it's going to be really cute in the end, but Halloween costumes are so stressful IMO. Seems like every year we can't find what we are looking for and have to make at least 1 costume (which this year is compounded by the fact that we need them a month early for MNSSHP and I really wanted to do something Disney.) The people at our Halloween store (which is huge and carries the most random costumes you can think of) didn't even know what I was talking about when I asked if they carried a Wendy Darling option. Really? We also couldn't find a Smee costume for FIL but luckily that one is easy to piece together with regular clothes.
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Great start, you are almost there. Good luck with the surprise.
We did this 3 years ago for my youngest DD for her birthday in Oct. We ended up telling her a week out because her birthday party ended up being a bust. What we didn't tell her was that my mom and dad were going too. They always go with us and I told her this time it was just going to be me, her and sister. When we got off the plane my mom and dad were waiting for us. She was so excited. She said, "Mom, we can't go to Disney without Grandma and Grandpa!"
I know he will be so excited.
Congrats on your new addition too!
Hey Mel, Just got caught up on you TR. You've got so much excitement going on, I'm glad you've been able to keep up with the BIG secret.
Can't wait to see your Wendy costume, I bet you'll look adorable in it. I bet pple will be wondering who's Wendy's "baby daddy" LOL
Tyler is handsome in his PP costume, and looking very proud I might say.
How was Dave? Our friend didn't make it, I hope it was a great concert.
Big week for you......Good luck on the 24th.
Have a wonderful trip. looking forward to seeing your pic. I bet Tylers reaction will be priceless when he finds out you're going to Disney and see's Gramma show up.
Have a great week it will be gone before you know it.
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Sorry, still too new, there is so much to see and do here !!
We didn't tell our girls we were going 2 years ago. To them, our vacation was driving to SC to stay with my DH's dad and step mom for a week. They weren't too thrilled about seeing the ocean considering their cousins were going to WDW!! They didn't suspect a thing, even when I told them to pack 2 weeks of clothes.
Before we left home, I (being a tad bit crafty) personalized the Disney luggage tags with their names and favorite character on them. I was going to put them on their bags at a gas station or something odd like that, of course pretending they had been there the whole time or maybe it was "magic". I got suckered into sneaking them on the bags before we left dad's house because they wanted to see their reactions and get pictures
It took all of them a minute because it was 5:00 am, my DD looked at me (then 8) and said "when are we going to DW?" Then we heard from his DD (12) "I love Tinkerbell, where did this come from? Are we going to DW??!!"
Sorry, I'll shut up now..... congratulations on everything, it is hard to keep DW a secret! Sounds like you are ready to go and the costume is adorable! Have a great trip!!
Thanks!! It's really thin too so he should be good in the heat!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
with your Wendy costume! Love the Peter Pan costume! Congrats on the new camera, too! Can't wait to see the pictures it takes.
Thanks Cam- I LOVE the new camera- I think it's light but DH thinks it's really heavy (of course, he's not used to shooting on a camera like this- he likes our little P&S.) I'm excited to use it at WDW- now I'm just deciding which lens I want to take- trying to limit myself to 2!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
Great start, you are almost there. Good luck with the surprise.
We did this 3 years ago for my youngest DD for her birthday in Oct. We ended up telling her a week out because her birthday party ended up being a bust. What we didn't tell her was that my mom and dad were going too. They always go with us and I told her this time it was just going to be me, her and sister. When we got off the plane my mom and dad were waiting for us. She was so excited. She said, "Mom, we can't go to Disney without Grandma and Grandpa!"
I know he will be so excited.
Congrats on your new addition too!
Somehow the suprise is still in tact- I can't believe we haven't blew it by now! I think he knows something's up (hello, I've been searching for maternity shorts the last few days- goodness knows it's not to where them around here!) but I'm confident he has no idea what exactly the trip it or when it is. He's going to just fall over when he sees MIL- he thinks she coming here for Halloween (because we've been talking about costumes so we had to tell him something) and he's counting down the days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disney Dream'n
Hey Mel, Just got caught up on you TR. You've got so much excitement going on, I'm glad you've been able to keep up with the BIG secret.
Can't wait to see your Wendy costume, I bet you'll look adorable in it. I bet pple will be wondering who's Wendy's "baby daddy" LOL
Tyler is handsome in his PP costume, and looking very proud I might say.
How was Dave? Our friend didn't make it, I hope it was a great concert.
Big week for you......Good luck on the 24th.
Have a wonderful trip. looking forward to seeing your pic. I bet Tylers reaction will be priceless when he finds out you're going to Disney and see's Gramma show up.
Have a great week it will be gone before you know it.
I'll post a picture of the costume- I made it really large just to make sure I would fit and now I'm wishing I would have used elastic around the empire waist so it would be a little more fitted. I tried it on last night and DH assured me I look pg and not just plump in it (lol!) It's so funny that you mentioned that about who's Wendy's baby's daddy because when we were picking costumes, I told DH that I didn't want to wear anything that would be overtly obvious and form fitting becuase I think it would be weird for kids to see a pg tinkerbell or something- lol!
Oh, Dave was good- this is so random but the 2nd night it was really cold (before the show started and we were dancing) so Dave came on in a blazer, which for whatever reason I . I'm going to miss him next year but it will just make 2012 that much more fun. I was hoping for some different songs but both nights were fairly standard sets (although they closed N2 with Last Stop- I just don't really care for that one so I wasn't falling over with excitement like a lot of people around us.) I'm also not a huge fan of the shows at ballparks but it was Wrigely, we had to do it!
I got your PM and just haven't had a chance to get back to you, but I didn't want you to think I was avoiding it- just crazy around here!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
You're nearly there!
Yeah, this time tomorrow we will be en route! So excited!
Quote:
Originally Posted by davishomeschool
Great PTR, I can't wait to see yours when it's done!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by RunningPrincess
Sorry, still too new, there is so much to see and do here !!
We didn't tell our girls we were going 2 years ago. To them, our vacation was driving to SC to stay with my DH's dad and step mom for a week. They weren't too thrilled about seeing the ocean considering their cousins were going to WDW!! They didn't suspect a thing, even when I told them to pack 2 weeks of clothes.
Before we left home, I (being a tad bit crafty) personalized the Disney luggage tags with their names and favorite character on them. I was going to put them on their bags at a gas station or something odd like that, of course pretending they had been there the whole time or maybe it was "magic". I got suckered into sneaking them on the bags before we left dad's house because they wanted to see their reactions and get pictures
It took all of them a minute because it was 5:00 am, my DD looked at me (then 8) and said "when are we going to DW?" Then we heard from his DD (12) "I love Tinkerbell, where did this come from? Are we going to DW??!!"
Sorry, I'll shut up now..... congratulations on everything, it is hard to keep DW a secret! Sounds like you are ready to go and the costume is adorable! Have a great trip!!
Yeah, these secrets are awful to keep- it's so easy to say something mindless and unintenitionally give it away. Thank goodness we only booked this trip about 3 months ago so we haven't had that long to wait- if this would be like a normal trip that we plan 6-12 months before- I wouldn't be able to keep the secret. Hope you're having fun on the boards- you're right- there's so much to read here. I only just found the other section of the boards for non-WDW topics- like scrapbooking (although a lot of discussion is around scrapbooking WDW- lol!) I could easily spend all day here- I have use a lot of self control so I actually get work done!
I've been meaning to get here and post an update before we leave, which we do in less than 24 hours now! I think the fact that we can't talk about this trip too much has made the time fly by- I honestly am shocked that it's here (but I am SO looking forward to some time off work, and if that isn't enough, spending that time off work at WDW!)
Part of me is a little sad because we probably won't make it back to WDW until Jan. 2012 for the marathon, but I know it will probably go by really fast since we will have our hands full with a baby GIRL! As you've probably guessed, we did have an ultrasound last Friday and she thankfully fully cooperated and both the MD and tech were pretty confident that we are baking a girl in there. Tyler is so excited- he has said from the beginning that he really wants a sister (we'll see what he thinks about that in a few years though .) We've been in baby overdrive since then because we haven't bought anything yet really. We picked our nursery furniture and we are probably going to order it when we get back because it looks like it's on backorder right now. I had a dream not too long after we found out that we were having a baby that it came and we had nothing ready so now I'm really worried about it all. And this pretty much goes without saying but I can't wait to shop for her this week at WDW- it's going to get ugly (for our bank account!)
So as far as trip specifics go, here's a peek into that world for us right now:
We are checked in with the airline and boarding passes are printed. Our flight leaves at 6am tomorrow morning so I'm hoping that DH and I get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a long one!
We are taking the dogs to the doggie hotel this afternoon- this is the first time my baby Wendy Darling is going and I'm really nervous. We have 3 dogs (I know, it's crazy, but honestly our 2 big boys barely count because they are so low maintenance- they just need food and soft place to lay their heads and they are happy dogs!) The boys are fine at the kennel, they get excited when we pull up, so I know they will be fine. They are going in their own run and then Wendy is going in a seperate one because our Aussie likes to play with her and gets too rough and since they won't be under a watchful eye all hours of the day, I think it's best for them to be seperate. She's very attached to our lab though so I'm going to see if they can put them together part of the day. We are taking her a blanket and pillow too to make it more like home (the big boys have chewed through too many blankets at the kennel so we no longer take one for them...) No kidding though I'm have some serious anxiety about leaving her . In case you are wondering how we are doing this with Tyler catching on...this is where our dogs go to get groomed too so we are telling him that they are going for the night because they are supposed to get groomed tomorrow and there is no way I can handle all 3 dogs alone tomorrow morning. He seems to be buying it (we've done this before too so that helps.)
Costumes are DONE!!!Here's a picture of Allen and Tyler last night (it's little blurry because it's taken with my phone and they were moving around!)
I'm a little worried that Allen is going to get hot in his costume but it's actually very very thin and he insists that it will be fine . I told him he should throw a t-shirt in the backpack in case he gets hot and wants to take the jacket part off. It is really funny though because the whole thing is seriously silk- it reminds me of bad 80's sheets- lol!
Here's a picture of my costume, which I'm calling the couture Wendy dress:
Why the name? Well about 2/3rds of the way through attaching the 2nd sleeve, my sewing machine decided it was done with this costume. I'm not a great sewer in the first place, I can work a machine and do basic things but I'm no seamstress. I must have spent 3 hours fiddling with it to try and get it to cooperate to no avail. SO I had to hand sew the rest- hems, attaching the skirt and the bodice, attaching the ribbon...there's a solid 8 hours of work time into this darn costume. But it's done...finally! MIL is a very skillful seamstress and kept telling me to just overnight it to her and she's finish it but I wanted to do it myself- even if I had to do it by hand. I am probably going to reinforce some of the areas tonight because I really have no idea how sturdy my hand construction is and no one wants to see my in all my glory should the costume accidently fall apart. The last thing I need to do is cut some fabric for a ribbon for my hair, but I'm taking the easy way out on that and using hem tape on the edges.
Betsy sent me the picture of Tyler's basket, looks great! It has a Jedi Mickey stuffed animal, a Jedi Mickey pin, Halloween Mickey Ears and a bucket he can use at MNSSHP. I ordered him about 10 pins off ebay that I'm just tucking into my carry on that he can trade (the ones he has collected over the past few trips he doesn't want to part with) and then I also have the 7x7 CM Disney album that I'll filled with pages for him to get autographs with (and then he can scrapbook in when he gets back.) I came across these old CM pens that are going to be fantastic for autographs (they are the old thick ones where you actually have to press down to fill ink in the tip.)
Wardrobe issues: this has been probably my 2nd biggest concern, mainly for myself. I do NOT fit in any of shorts or pants now, even with the band thing you can wear with them. My plan has been to just wear gaucho's, which Target has a great maternity option. So last week I go over to Target and all they have is XS- ok, well folks XS is NOT going to wrap about this body so then I went into frantic mode and let me tell you that the pickins are slim around here because summer clothes are GONE. I managed to find a pair of shorts on clearance there so I snagged those, and then I've been searching every place I could think of that sells maternity clothes. Honestly, who wears booty shorts when their pg because that's all I have been finding- my goodness!! Last night as a last ditch effort, I went to Penny's and all the sudden there was an entire rack of bermuda maternity shorts on clearance So I snagged a pair of those to go with the pair I got from Target, plus a pair of maternity gauchos I already had, and then I found a pair of regular gauchos on clearance (they are actually really big on me, but thankfully you can't hardly tell because that's the look of gauchos anyway, and there is plenty of room around the belly.) So I *think* I'm set. I might throw a dress in just in case and I could wear that after we swim one afternoon. The other issue I had was finding Tyler a new pair of crocs- they are gone around here! Someone then suggested I check out Hallmark of all places and wouldn't you know- they have 2 huge racks of crocs! So if you are ever searching and can't find crocs, go to Hallmark .
Well folks, I think that's about it. We haven't packed a single item and won't until Tyler goes to bed tonight, but I'm been hiding stuff in my room so he doesn't notice. I'm going to try to get his picture when he realizes what's happening so hopefully we can capture that moment forever!
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Thank
Pixie Dust
I know I'm going to turn around and we will be within days of leaving. 
I'm really suprised it hasn't been ruined yet, thankfully as I thought we are just so busy with life that DH and I aren't discussing it much between the 2 of us so there haven't been many opportunities to blow it. Now, if we can just keep it going for 3 more weeks, the payoff will be well worth it. The only other time we've tried to do a suprise trip was in 2008 when we took DS and DNiece down for DS's birthday. We had it planned for a loooooong time and about a week before we left, I dropped the ball big time. We were shoe shopping (for back to school) and I was pushing both kids to get comfy sneakers knowing that they would be handy for WDW. Well DS decided he was going to be difficult and didn't want to try on shoes, and when I finally got him to try some on, he had no comment on whether they were comfortable or not. So I said "we are going to be doing a lot of walking at WDW and I want to make sure you have comfy shoes..." 
PS- as long as baby cooperates, we should find out if we are baking a girl or a boy on Sept. 24. 
. Tonight (and for the next couple of nights) I'm in Milwaukee for work. At least it's driveable so it didn't require a pat down from a fiesty TSA employee. Let's get this update rolling:
. I think I've got it pretty darn close and as good as it's going to get. I'll post a picture of the finished product, right now it doesn't look like anything except some blue random pieces. But since I have yet to post any pictures in the PTR, I am posting a picture from Saturday where Miss Wendy Darling herself (my Cavalier King Charles baby) wanted to be in my lap while I was pinning and cutting. For Halloween I'm actually making her a matching dress, although it will be a fight to get it on her little body. Here you go:
. I think he feels the same way about backpacks that I do about purses- clearly we are bag people!) But we know that we can't survive any trip to WDW without a solid backpack.
Congrats on the new camera, too! Can't wait to see the pictures it takes. 
Liz 
We leave TOMORROW! 
As you've probably guessed, we did have an ultrasound last Friday and she thankfully fully cooperated and both the MD and tech were pretty confident that we are baking a girl in there. Tyler is so excited- he has said from the beginning that he really wants a sister (we'll see what he thinks about that in a few years though 
so I'm hoping that DH and I get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a long one!
. In case you are wondering how we are doing this with Tyler catching on...this is where our dogs go to get groomed too so we are telling him that they are going for the night because they are supposed to get groomed tomorrow and there is no way I can handle all 3 dogs alone tomorrow morning. He seems to be buying it (we've done this before too so that helps.)
. I told him he should throw a t-shirt in the backpack in case he gets hot and wants to take the jacket part off. It is really funny though because the whole thing is seriously silk- it reminds me of bad 80's sheets- lol!
Honestly, who wears booty shorts when their pg because that's all I have been finding- my goodness!! Last night as a last ditch effort, I went to Penny's and all the sudden there was an entire rack of bermuda maternity shorts on clearance 
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