Countdown to Disney

I'm A Bit Excited

So we are going to Disneyland in roughly two or so weeks. I. Am. So. Excited. You have no idea. We have sort of been making plans for it all summer(ish). But then we actually bought the tickets and booked the hotel and I almost lost my damn mind. Eeeeeeeee! Disneyland! Basically we figured that we are so close that there is no reason not to go and with the benefits of a $99/ticket military special we could not pass it up. Even better? Some really good friends of ours are going with us. They were planning to take their son (who Link has proclaimed as his best friend... though I think he just has a crush on his mommy) to see the new Car's Land in the fall so we combined our trips. As an added bonus I get to meet up with a good friend of mine from Alaska that will be there. As if Disneyland were not magical enough I get to share it with my two amazing guys and some of my other favorite people! Winning.

My elaborate, unnecessary and way fun countdown.

So once I realized this was real -because once you shovel out money, it's real- my inner "7 year old only child, rainbow loving, unicorn obsessed, magic is real, princesses are awesome and cars can really talk" got right to work. I created a countdown calendar with Disney related activities to do every day until we leave. Some were more elaborate that others and I knew when I added "go out for donuts" and claimed they were related to Disney because they would look like tires on cars that I was starting to reach! But that didn't stop me. I believe we had a total of 40 days worth of activities.

I don't know if anyone recalls my post about how  craft time is not always as amazing as it appears on facebook pictures? You can view that here: Craft time is the devil. I saw a comment one of my friends made the other day when someone said something about her being a really fun mom. She said "Remember, this is just the highlight reel." I love that. I have no doubt I am a good mom. Or, rather, I have no doubt I am the mom that Link needs. I very much enjoy doing fun things with him. He's my sidekick. So when you see the following activities don't assume they all went as amazing as it looks. I will try my best to also share anything that might have gone terribly awry. But for the most part the activities have been geared toward his current level of attention and ability. My biggest problem is always getting the picture. After 3+ years of a camera in his face, Link has finally had enough!

And now a few of our activities.
Each card has an activity on it. Some were really simple. We had some Mickey Mouse tattoos. So we put them on. Here's my tattoo artist and our eager client:

 Very proud of his tattoo. Now, as promised, the downside. These particular tattoos basically come off when you look at them. This pissed off our kid and when D washed it off in the bath the world ended. Did you feel it? That was caused by Mickey Mouse and his crappy tats. True story.

Some days were just to watch a movie. I usually try to incorporate some sort of activity into movie viewing as well but it doesn't always work. We were slated to watch Snow White so I figured we would eat apples while watching. Because who doesn't want to pretend to be poisoned by a piece of fruit!? Here's Link's wicked witch impression:

 

 And here's his Snow White impression. These are funny because guess what? We didn't even end up watching Snow White (and still haven't as I write this). A friend let us borrow Cinderella and we watched that instead. I didn't actually remember the mice being that annoying. It's amazing the things you can overlook when you a little. Like the fact that that crazy bitch decided she was in love after dancing with the prince and that she was just going to marry him. Don't get me started on Sleeping Beauty or The Little Mermaid. Seriously. Animals talk to you and your hormones are out of control. Moving on.

We did actually watch Sleeping Beauty and he's really good at taking direction as a model. Here he is as Aurora:

 I had him color Maleficent as the dragon for his activity. He's getting much better but I was still working with him to grip his writing utensils correctly so I have him color with markers and such as often as possible.

Watching Beauty and the Beast. Did I mention I printed out "movie tickets" for our movie viewings? I did. I'm an overachiever (it's a nice word for OCD). Also, Belle is cool. At least she got to know the dude before she decided she was going to marry him. And am I the only one that thinks Beast is way more handsome than his prince self?

 

We watched A Bug's Life (I love this movie) and this one was easy to plan an activity with. Link has a bug catcher thing so we ventured out to our yard jungle to looks for some bugs. We eventually found a spider that he thought was "so cute." My kid is strange. The crappy part about this one? We eventually had to let the spider go and I think he cried. 

One of our activities early on was to make a Disney collage. We had some brochures we cut up, some pics I printed from the net and some stickers. I had no idea he was going to love making a collage as much as he did. 

We had a few friends over for this activity. This one was making "tennis equipment." Basically some paper plates, popsicle sticks and a couple balloons. Here are the "rackets" that Link and I made. 

 Above is me helping Link staple some ears on. And yes, I am wearing the outside of a plate around my neck. It's all about accessories.
Below is some tennis in action. This would have worked a bit better had the balloons actually stayed inflated. This was awesome until Link decided it was a weapon. But then again most things in our house lately end up as weapons.

 Yes, yes she is doing what you think she is.

 My tennis star with our friend's "racket." They decided to make them duel purpose and cut out some eye holes.

 And Link and his buddy Stewart watching Lady and the Tramp when we had one of our family dinner nights. I had no activity planned with this. They just watched the movie. But they looked cute doing it.

Wall-E was an awesome viewing. Link sat there through the whole thing and loved it. I had forgotten how much I love that movie as well. I'm going to go ahead and say it's my fave of the newer ones. 

 As an activity we set out things he could gather to recycle and collected them, sorted them and recycled them.

Even dogs can help recycle. Save the planet!

 Then there was the dog treat baking. I was reaching. I called it "Pluto Doggy Snack Baking" so it counts as a Disney activity.

 Bowser was happy we included him. The downer of this activity? Bowser got into the container a few days later and ate every last one of them. Yup.

The Lion King! Love it. 

 I made Link a "Circle of Life" activity board and D helped him arrange all the little dude on there. They come off with velcro.

Gettin' some Ratatouille time in.

 We made a Remy chef hat.

 And then everyone had to wear it!

There are plenty more activities but since this post is already longer than most people will read I leave you with this one. Because Link thinks Ariel is the shiz.

A Time I Had