A couple months ago Michael texted me that there was a deal on last minute Disney hotels. I replied to his text with something to the effect of "sounds fun, lets talk about it tonight" and within five minutes I had a text back that said "it's booked and non-refundable, we need a family vacation this year." Definitely an impulse decision, but I could not be more happy that Michael decided to pull the trigger! I'm not going to lie and say that the whole trip was incredible. We definitely had some tough moments. Because with three children under the age of 5, that is bound to happen. However, I will say that we had WAY more awesome moments than we did tough ones and that is a successful vacation. This was definitely a vacation that I am sure the kids will remember for a long time!
Patrick loves Disney and throughout the past year he has been pretending to go to Disney. He will pack his suitcase and get out his autograph book and talk to the characters or "creditors" as he refers to them :) It is just precious! We decided to book this vacation since Patrick struggles with the beach and we thought this would be a vacation that everyone would enjoy. Leading up to the trip, I tried to do a few special things for them to make it even more magical. I didn't have much time to prepare, since I have been busy with the kiddos but I did make time for a few.
I made a pressed penny book (with quarters and pennies ready) and a pressed penny guide for the boys. It was a HUGE hit. I noticed that all of the other little boys were doing this as well and they were all so excited about it. If you have a little boy (or a little girl that doesn't like princesses), I definitely recommend this, since the princesses aren't as big of a draw for the boys. This provided a whole lot of fun for the kids!
Here is a little picture of what I made for them as a little surprise. I hand laminated everything myself from a couple dollar kit at Walmart, but had the little books bound for a couple dollars at Office Depot.
And after the trip, with their books all filled! The character books are the same from last year, we just added to them with the new character signatures this time.
Since we didn't book this trip 6 months in advance, all of the character meals were already taken. I checked very often and I was able to secure all of the meals I wanted. Yay!
I made them signs for each of our character meals. I also purchased Mickey items from the dollar aisle or Walmart clearance items for our days in the park. It helped so much with them asking for the really expensive toys in the park. I also packed their favorite snacks and took a bag in with us each day, which helped when we were in line and they needed a snack right away!
We left on December 1st, the same day that Chippy was set to appear. The kids were so excited to see Chippy. They loved that Chippy brought them a few snacks and fun games for the plane ride.
Surprisingly, I was ready before we needed to leave, so I was able to snap a few photos of the kids.
On the plane and ready to depart to Disney!
We arrived! This little buddy was a travel champ!
We stayed at the Art of Animation Hotel again. The boys loved it so much the first time that we decided to do it again. We did switch it up a little and stay in a Nemo themed suite this time.
Here's a little glimpse of our room. There is one bedroom, two bathrooms and two pull out beds. Both the couch and the table turn into a bed. I think it would be tough if you have older kids, but for our three small children it works perfectly.
Table above and couch below pulls out into a bed
While waiting on our bags to arrive, we walked around the resort. Just like Patrick last year, Peyton was so excited to take pictures with all of the cars.
Mater is always our favorite!
Lightning Mcqueen
He looks so big in these pictures. I can hardly stand it! He is growing like a weed!
Our bags arrived right when we were about to give up and head to the Magic Kingdom without them. The Magical Express is always great because they handle all of your luggage from the plane to the hotel without having to fool with it. But it does take quite a while to get the luggage to your room. I will definitely have to plan better next time!
Off to the Magic Kingdom and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!!
No comments:
Post a Comment