The Plan Comes Together . . .

Okay, we have now settled on the how and the when of telling the girls about our trip.  With help from . . . <sigh> . . . Pinterest, we have put together a brief scavenger hunt wherein the girls will follow a trail of clues, culminating in their hopefully finding the cache of Disney-related stuff that we have assembled.  The "clues" are so ridiculously simple (e.g., "Look where we keep the silverware.") that if they can't follow the trail, we have been seriously overestimating the intelligence of these two little girls.  Ultimately, they will discover the "surprise" by searching our guest bedroom.

As for the cache of items they will discover, we have created a souvenir savings jar for each of them as described in the prior post.  Right now, each jars just has a princess sticker with their name on it, and we have several sheets of other Disney stickers they can use to really pimp these things up.  We also have an autograph book for each of them to use to collect signatures from the Disney characters we come across in the various parks.  Amanda already had one from her last visit, but it only has "Fairy Godmother's" (and, inexplicably, Jackson's) autograph, so it's almost new.  Reagan is getting a brand new one (of a different design) which is much cheaper (I'm told) at the Disney store here than at the park itself.  Finally, we created a framed 8x10 countdown poster which will track the number of days before we leave for the trip.  Again, this was a Pinterest idea (or maybe Etsy, whatever the heck that is).  Anyway, it's a simple sheet with the outline of Minnie Mouse's head and (in "Waltograph" font) the words "Days Until Disney!"  We'll use a marker to count down the number of days inside Minnie's head.

The countdown poster idea led us to determine the when of disclosing the trip -- 100 days out.  That was such a nice round number that it made sense to start there.  And that day falls on . . . February 19, 2015!  The girls don't know anything special is coming tomorrow, and we're going to have some logistical issues to work out to make it happen.  Amanda and Susan have a Girl Scout activity at 5:30 tomorrow, and we're planning to do the scavenger hunt whenever that ends.  But we'll need to place the clues first, and that might be kind of tricky since we probably won't be able to do it earlier in the day.  I may just lock Reagan in a footlocker while the others are at Girl Scouts and do it myself.  At any rate, our plan is for the girls to discover we are going on a Big Disney Trip literally moments before we say, "Off to bed!"  Bedtime might be a little more challenging than usual tomorrow.

Getting Impatient . . .

I know I said we would wait a couple of months before telling the girls about the Disney trip, but I'm getting antsy and don't really want to wait.  Susan isn't quite so eager to spread the news, so we'll need to talk it over.  We also need to coordinate a plan with the Luskins so we don't ruin whatever their disclosure plan is.

One reason to the girls them soon is that it will give them time to anticipate the trip and to save up some money for it.  A friend gave us the idea of having each girl decorate a jar with stickers, etc. and use the jars to hold money for them to use on souvenirs on the trip.  Even though we don't give the girls allowances, we could monetize other things to help them fill the jars -- instead of giving Amanda dessert or a treat, we'll put $1 in her jar; if Reagan wakes with a dry pull-up, we'll put $9,000 in her jar (she's having issues); etc.  I really like this idea, despite the fact it probably came from Pinterest.

I'm getting close to telling them about the trip anyway.  Yesterday I was talking to Amanda about Disney (in general terms), and she asked if we were going to go over Thanksgiving.*  I put on my best "I'm so sorry" face and broke it to her that we would not be visiting Disney World at that time.  She was supremely bummed.  She asked when we could go, and I was non-committal.  If I had had a couple of beers, I'm not sure I could have held back.

*We had previously told the girls we were looking at going over Thanksgiving, and we actually did look into it.  However, between the cost and the general crowds that are expected that week, we opened it up to other options.  After considering and rejecting October (school conflicts), December (too much time off that month), and Spring Break (crowds, marginal weather), we settled on the first week of June on the theory that schools up north will not be out yet, so the crowds shouldn't be that bad.  It will also be warm enough that the pools will be fun to hang out at.  Plus, we got a good deal on our room.  Now all we need to worry about is hurricanes!

Three Years Later . . .

. . . and I'm back!

We just booked our next Disney World vacation, and I dusted off this blog to review our experience from last time.  Since it was so close to the three year mark of my last post, I couldn't resist throwing this up here on the anniversary.

And since it was fun to go back and read what I used to write, I think I'll get back to occasional posting.  I'm going to go ahead and apologize to 2025 Reagan for the short shrift given to her years two through four.  When she has a second child of her own (no sooner than age 30), she will understand how less documentation/photographs of that child in no way means the second-born is loved or cherished any less than the first.

Anywaaaaaayyyy . . . the past three years have gone well for us and the girls.  Amanda is in 2nd grade, and whats-her-name is in 4 year-old preschool with the same teachers that Amanda had.  They are both still young enough to enjoy school and not groan at the thought of returning to it every Monday.  They also both still believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, but Amanda has called bullshit on the Easter Bunny and has expressed skepticism about the others.  We don't expect the other two to survive the year for her, but we hope she will keep the truth from Reagan for a while longer.

In addition to school, the girls are also doing some other activities.  For the longest time, Reagan had to just be schlepped along to Amanda's various activities, but she is finally old enough to participate in her own right.  Specifically, she played soccer in the fall and has just started a Tiny Tots tennis clinic.  Both girls are also cheerleading, which is really cute.  Amanda also played soccer in the fall and will return to softball in the spring.  She is also in a tennis clinic and takes individual lessons, as well.  It's too soon to tell whether either of them will be talented enough to allow us to become (even more) insufferable parents, but our fingers are crossed!

That pretty much sums up the last three years.  Our Disney trip is booked for May 30th to June 6th, so if you're going to rob our house, that would be the time.  We haven't told the girls about the trip yet, but since we had talked in general terms about going to Disney in the fall, the earlier dates should delight them,  We'll probably spring the news on them a couple of months down the road so they have at least some time to anticipate it.