Disney Trip Prep - Part I

So anyone who knows me, knows I am a planner.  I don't just need it in order to be organized - I love it.  It is a pass-time for me.  My absolute favourite things to plan are holiday get-togethers and trips.  I liken the process of fleshing out all the little details to getting into a really good book or snuggling way down in a big fluffy blanket.  I can get thoroughly absorbed by it, if I am not careful.
As you can imagine, our first family trip to Disney World has absolutely had this effect on me.  Upon getting the email from Aeroplan that our flights were booked, I started daydreaming about where we'd eat and what we'd do in the parks, where we'd stay and what little things I was going to do to make this trip special for everyone.  I've spent hours scouring the internet for everything from tips on saving money to Disney trip themed crafts.  I joined DISboards (an internet forum dedicated entirely to Disney parks) and have been learning everything I can about how to best tackle the parks during the holiday season (the busiest time of the year).  Needless to say, I have a lot of things floating around in my head (how to use FastPasses to our advantage, how to make sure Orin stays well-hydrated throughout the trip, how to feed the boy in a world laden with salt, how to announce the trip to the kids, whether or not to do things other than Disney while in Florida and do we even have time....the list goes on), so I am going to attempt to jot things down here as they are decided or being considered, so they are all in one place.
Overview
We are flying out of Halifax at 8:35am on Christmas morning and are arriving in Orlando around supper time.  We have stop-overs in Boston and Cleveland.  I have a bag of goodies planned to get us through the day of flying and the lengthy stop-overs.
We are staying at a hotel off-site called Maingate West Comfort Suites.  I chose this locale because they have fridges and microwaves in every room by default (unlike other places that only have fridges and often for a fee).  They also offer a free shuttle to the parks at scheduled intervals throughout the day.  The final plus (that will only affect us to a limited degree) is the free hot breakfast buffet....love me some make-your-own waffles.
We are staying for nine days.  Currently, I'm toying with whether to do exclusively Disney or to try to throw some other stuff in there to water down the Disnification and just for the opportunity to try something else.  There are pros and cons for both plans.  The jury is still out.  The decision has been made though that we will have at least one day of rest in the middle of the vacation.  On this day, I see us sleeping in (in-so-far as a 5- and nearly-3-year old will), lounging by the pool and in the games room at the resort and hitting the outlet mall up the road from our hotel.
To Do:

• Buy park tickets
• Book rental car (maybe)
• Speak to Special Diets at WDW about Orin's dietary needs
• Make dinner reservations (June 28th)
• Book shuttle from airport (if no rental car)
• Buy kids backpacks from LL Bean
• Buy a second backpack water reservoir
• Buy Child ID/Allergy Alert temp tattoos for the kids

The Little Things
I love making stuff.  I love doing stuff that makes my loved ones feel special and smile.  This is what fuels my cake-making.  This is what fuels my creativity in general.  For these reasons, I started thinking right away about what sorts of crafty stuff I could put together to really personalize this trip for us.  Here's what I've come up with so far (this part has been assisted IMMENSELY by the existence of Pinterest....I would never remember all of the cool stuff I found if it weren't so easy to just Pin it to my boards).

• Autograph books-inspired initially by this, but it has gone beyond the initial design now...wait until you see
• Travel Day shirts-like this, with "First Family Disney Trip in Disney font around Mickey's silhouette
• Team t-shirts-using this concept; the kids will be asked to draw a pic of their favourite Disney character.  This will be put on the front of the shirt and "Team Ourlastname" will be on the back....if I can think of something cute to put on Isabel's, I will put "waterboy" on the sleeve of Orin's because it is hilarious *lol*)

I have a couple of more things on the docket, but I am not going to let all my secrets out at once.

Working in Christmas
So this trip will be our Christmas gift to us and the kids.  That said, they are little and, Isabel at least, maybe disappointed to not have anything to unwrap.  I am going to fix this by using  a gift to announce the trip to the kiddies and by wrapping and giving the crafts (and some other nifty little things) over the course of the travel day. 

• The announcement will come Christmas Eve, I believe. The plan, at this point, has a large box showing up and being discovered by the kids. I am not going to reveal what will be in the box...you'll have to wait for the video for that part ;)
• While we are driving to the airport, I will give them each a gift that includes the travel day t-shirts, so we can change into them before we start flying.
• There will be a gift from Santa waiting in our room for each of them (because obviously Santa and I would have been in cahoots with regard to the trip). This will have their autograph books, a small container of pennies for the presses and fountaines and some glowy Disney stuff (for parades and fireworks)
• They will get the t-shirts with their own pictures on them the first morning we are heading to the parks so they can wear them then.

Any suggestions from the peanut gallery? Man I love this stuff...lol. Alright, I am heading to bed.

Murphy came by for a visit and behaved like the crotchety old fart that he is

Some of you may know how firmly I adhere to the belief that Murphy (of the Law of the same name) thinks we are BFFs and visits me far more frequently than others. I am sure that it sounds melodramatic to most and elicits a handful of eye-rolling. For all the cynics out there, try this one on for size.
Just before I was headed back to work from my maternity leave, just after Christmas 2010, I bought Orin a medical alert bracelet. I wanted to make sure that, since he was going to be out of my care at daycare and he was bipedally mobile, his medical needs were visible to anyone in an emergency situation.
It took about two weeks for the bracelet to arrive. It was a little big - I knew it would be - and we planned to remove a couple of links, replacing them as he grew. It spent a few weeks drifting around the kitchen - sometimes setting on the island, sometimes the lazy Susan and occasionally the window sill. In this time, my in-laws came to visit and my mother-in-law tidied up the kitchen. A couple of weeks later, it dawned on me that I hadn't seen the bracelet in quite a while. I chocked it up to being tidied someplace by mother-in-law and casually looked for it/kept an eye out for it for the next couple of weeks. It really did seem to be well-hidden, whereever it was.
Weeks turned into months and the bracelet was nowhere to be found. Dave was certain that it had ended up in the trash, since Orin had just come through a phase where he was quite proud of having learned to use the garbage can and put more than a handful of non-garbage items in the can. I was just disappointed, since it was $25 down the tubes AND we didn't have, what I considered to be, an important piece of our sense of security about Orin's condition and keeping him safe. That said, I just couldn't shake the feeling that it was still somewhere in the house.
Dave's persistence that it was gone finally wore me down last week - over a year after the bracelet disappeared. In preparation for a summer of fun and our upcoming trip to Disney World, I purchased not one, but two pieces of medical jewellery for Orin - another bracelet and a dog tag in case he has an aversion to the bracelet. As I hit the submit button on Friday night, I was hit by the feeling that now that I had placed the order, we would probably find the bracelet when we start moving things downstairs into the newly-finished basement over the next couple of months.
Fast forward to this morning, I am sweeping the living room. I move the recliner, the same way I do nearly every week, and find some toys and things under it, as usual. As I lean down to pick the items up, I realise that one of them isn't a toy, but a tiny medical alert bracelet. I immediately burst into a crazy, flailing fit that Dave likens to the typical reaction to being swarmed by wasps. I fly over to him, thrust the bracelet into his hand and hiss "less than 48 hours!!!!" It takes him about 30 seconds to catch up - "you placed the order already, didn't you?" and he starts laughing. He then exclaims, "insanity dance, justified", as he clues in to what my fit had been about.
I may have to tell Murphy that he is no longer welcome in my home - it works for vampires; it can't hurt to try it.

Seven months in pictures

I'm baaaaack!

Whoa Nelly! So much has happened since I blogged last, I don't think I remember it all, but I will do my best to give a recap: ~Isabel has lost two teeth...big fan of the tooth fairy (who became reacquainted with her sewing machine during a 4-hour marathon to make a tooth fairy pillow about two years earlier than she expected). ~Orin could give most public speakers a run for their money...little chatterbox that he is. ~As per his doctors, Orin is still doing smashingly well! ~We have lost one of our family members-Goliath, our oldest cat-very recently. :( ~We can see the finish-line in the effort to finish the basement and are expecting to put it to full use come the summer (if not earlier). ~Isabel has been registered and assessed for kindergarten (or her five-year-old-school, as she likes to call it). ~We got rid of cable television and use a Boxee box for our television fix...it has revolutionized our lives. ~I've gotten into cake baking and decorating - haven't done a ton since Christmas, but Orin's birthday cake caused a bit of a stir. ~I am back at school, taking a diploma program in Autism Intervention - I am finding it fascinating and so incredibly valuable. ~My face is slowly coming around after my surgery in July and the lengthy recovery period that follows. I expect to get the braces off in the summer. ~Dave continues to fly model airplanes and amaze me with his ability to create solutions to problems that, at times, I didn't even know we had. ~I've joined a Zumba class and have a fantastic time at every session. ~Isabel continues with her dance classes - she is now doing tap and jazz. I very much look forward to the dance show in May. ~We discovered that Isabel loves roller coasters and that Orin is a little daredevil after a trip to Crystal Palace. ~Orin has developed a love of robots and trains. ~Isabel, when asked by her teachers what she wanted to be when she grew up, revealed that she aspires to be a Princess Firefighter Mom Teacher. ~Orin is potty training. ~Isabel is learning to read. ~I've begun reading again - oh, how I've missed reading for fun. PS: e-readers are awesome! ~Most recently, the excitement has been the trip to Disney World we are planning for this Christmas. It will be a surprise for the kids, so *shhhhhhhhh*. I have been having *the best* time planning how we will surprise them, all the fun stuff we will do and all of the wonderful crafty endeavours that will accompany the trip (I am making some personalized t-shirts, the kids' autograph books, pj pants and a few other things). I've also been stealthily prepping/testing things out on them via YouTube and the WDW website...so sneaky! That is, most definitely, not a comprehensive list, but it gives you some idea as to what we've been up to. I think my next post will be a picture collage of the last few months, but it will have to wait until tomorrow because it is time for me to head to bed.