disney, here we come!

well, we are officially headed to disney! the cookies are iced, the travel plans are ready, and now we just have to pack! (first things first, you know.) we are so so excited for the kids to see disney world. it was just two years ago that we went to disney without ethan and caroline... and a little over a year ago, the kids rode the monorail and saw downtown disney. they knew we would actually "go to disney" when they were older (but i don't think they really understood what "going to disney" meant).

thanks to major florida resident discounts, we can enjoy our days at disney without breaking the bank! we thought this year was a good time to go, so we started planning this vacation after christmas. we knew better than to tell the kids too early. we kept it a surprise for awhile, but i just couldn't take it anymore. i was the one who thought it'd be really fun to just wake them one morning and say, "we're going to disney today!" but i caved. big time. i mean, half the fun of a vacation is anticipating it, right!? (well, it is for this lil' travel planner!) anyway, so one saturday morning we brought the kids in the living room and announced that we had a surprise. we told them to close their eyes, and we cued up the disney planning dvd that we loved to watch in anticipation of our 2007 disney trip. the kids were trying so hard to keep their eyes closed while i got my act together with the dvd... well... at least ethan was....


at least she's honest, right!? i eventually got the dvd going, and we let the kids open their eyes. i expected them to go WILD when we told them, but ethan's unenthusiastic "yay" was as good as it got that day...


wasn't that pathetic?! :) we were kind of hoping for a reaction a little more like this....


but that was over a month ago... in the last 4 weeks, their excitement has exponentiated. we've watched rides on youtube and have sung "hakuna matata" and "be our guest" more times than i can count. we are ready for the Mouse! ethan helped me make a disney countdown, which i must say looks much more disney-ish than the last one! the kids have been 100% dedicated about moving the mouse to the next day. it's been a great tool for them to somewhat understand how much longer we have until our trip.


now our mouse has one more day to move, and then we are on our way! i cannot wait to watch their expressions and see their looks of amazement and surprise as we soak in all of disney together as a family. i missed them when brian and i went without them, and i know that every little detail will make for an exciting experience. everybody has their own opinion on when kids should go to disney, and i'll let you know what mine is when we return! but for now, on the eve of our disney packing day, we are all pretty giddy. and i'm loving it. see you when we get back!