Disney World Update

So we paid off our trip and have bought our Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets!  FYI Halloween night is sold out.  My mom and brother-in-law are now joining us as well!  My kids are even more excited!  I have been trying to get them super exited about the trip by showing them rides and such.  My oldest is just chill like yeah whatever...I think he is excited but trying to be cool about it..I love the rides at Disney...I am trying to talk him into riding Space Mountain with me.  He is more excited for Kahli River Rapids...My dd is excited for the shows and wants to get to be in one!  She is my child who will break out in song and dance in the middle of the grocery store about the food we are buying.  My youngest is excited to meet Mickey and the gang.  Mickey is his all time favorite!

We are having breakfast at Kona cafe to explore a new resort one morning.  My daughter is excited for out breakfast at Be Our Guest!  I can't believe I managed to get a reservation for 7 there.  My hubby and I are also going to have a date night at Boma!  I love tying new foods and we get a 10% discount with my Disney visa!  We are still trying to decide on 2 cars or one mini van for our trip down. Probably the minivan.  The trip isn't til October and I already have the kids clothes together!  I am still working on what I am taking.  I know we are bringing lots of bottled water and snacks.  We have changed our plans on when we are leaving.  We are leaving the night before around dinner time now.  We are trying to avoid traffic in ATL.   Once we get our Magic Bands and MNSSHP tickets and all of our trip info I will post about Disney again...  I'll be updating on our home school situation this week too.

School Year Changes

Adrian was in an online charter school and I had enrolled Bella as well for Kinder starting this fall.  Unfortunately, I received an email stating that the school was closing!  I was wondering what in the world we were going to do because this online charter school was the BEST fit for our family out of the others.  They were very flexible.  Well, we have figured out our plan!  We will not be enrolling in our local public schools because I am not happy with them either. This year we are going to be traditionally home schooling!

I have figured out our school calendar.  We have to have 180 days of instruction a year.  Indiana doesn't require testing or portfolios.  We are working in 6, 6 week increments.  We are starting at the end of July and should be finished before the end of May.  I'll post about our curriculum once it arrives!  Adrian's charter is also letting us purchase his laptop for a very good deal!  Now we just need to get a printer/scanner and the rest of his math curriculum which can be ordered as he finishes each level.

$422.88, That's It!!!

$422.88, that's all we owe on our Disney package!  I can't believe it.  At the end of this month the most of the trip (package, MNSSHP tickets, and memory maker), except for car rental, stroller rental, and spending money.  The stroller will be reserved next month and the rest will be saved up over the next couple months.

This trip would not have been possible if it weren't for  a lot of budgeting and my husbands 2nd job, which he is hoping to turn into his one and only job in the future.  I hope that can happen.  It would give him at least one day off a week and he would even get a raise and be making more than he is with the 2 jobs he has now!  I am so happy he gets to go to Disney World with us this time.  Hopefully we can do this more often in the future.  Next year our goal is to get our kitchen redone and if we can go on another trip we will, maybe a longer one!

I Can't Keep a (Disney) Secret!

So I totally caved yesterday!  I didn't think surprising my kids with our arrival to Disney with our arrival to Disney World would go over well....We were going to just let them know we were going by them seeing the sign when we got there.  I am so glad I told them yesterday because my oldest as we found out (yesterday) HATES surprises!  He was not thrilled with our after dinner announcement of our upcoming vacation.  He was mad.  My daughter on the other hand was so happy she couldn't speak but just smile.  She knows how to make mama happy with out knowing it,  She always has the best reactions.  My youngest in his true form could care less and was more worried about going out to play, but hey he's too young to understand what a Disney vacation means yet.  He will LOVE it, I'm sure because when he looks at pictures of when I was prego with him and went he asks why he wasn't there.  He also says he wants to go to Mickey's home, as he calls it.

 Hopefully, I can get my oldest excited about it somehow before hand.  He is going through this phase where he is driving me nuts with his attitude.  He is otherwise a happy and good kid, that just needs to be more POSITIVE instead of negative.  We are working on it.  I am so happy to have revealed the trip to the kids.  Next time it will have to be some kind of gift for me not to spill the beans!  I also found out a cousin of mine works at a car rental place and can get us a much better price than a non family member.  I think we may go with an SUV, but we may get a minivan instead if the price is right ;) .  Does anyone have any ideas of getting a child excited about a trip or is he just at that age where boys are just blah to everything. All well at least I have one Disney enthusiast, and maybe another in the making.

Disney Planning

Planning a Disney World vacation can be overwhelming, stressful, and exciting.  I  have been to Disney in June the end of August, and now we are going at the end of October from the 28th to November 3rd.  This is a surprise trip for my 3 kiddos.  They will not know where we are going til we get there.  We will be driving down from a chilly Indiana to a warm Florida.  16 hours with stops for gas a the bathroom.  We will pack a cooler with drinks and sandwiches.  We will have snacks and things to munch on.  I am NOT stopping for food when I can bring some with us and save money on the way down.  We are leaving the night before and driving straight through.  I may stop for coffee at Starbucks, but that's not food.  I am a night person so for me it makes since to get going at night and not have to deal with as many drivers on the road. 

Here is how I plan out my trips, keep in mind my children are home schooled so we are not limited to when we can vacation.

1.  Go when its cooler.  We chose October because it isn't as hot as the other summer months in Florida.  Next time we will probably go in Jan or Feb.  This also means its not as busy as in the summer due to children being in school.

2.  We always go when there is a deal.  Some people say free dining is not worth it but even with us getting free quick service this time it is saving us $400.  That is an extra car payment for us, so this was a win.  

3.  If your wanting to experience a particular event plan for that time of year even before the dates for it are announced so you can be prepared.  

4.  Pick a hotel that fits your family.  We are staying at a Value resort.  This will probably be our last time doing this because our kids are getting older and we will need more room for them the older they get.  We don't spend much time in our hotel room anyway so right now the smaller room won't bug us.  Port Orleans is our next choice.  The Deluxe are too expensive  for us.  We would have to plan a couple years in advance for that option. 

5. Save, Save, Save.  The more money you save up the more choices or longer stay you can have.  Plus You can have extra money to play with or have it to put back for emergencies when you get home.  We are trying to save as much money as possible so when we get back we still have a cushion and money for new bedroom furniture.  

6.   DON'T STRESS!  Planning fast passes, dining options, tickets, which parks to visit on which days, and transportation can be overwhelming.  Just relax, but not too much.  You don't want to forget to make ADRs (180 days before your trip) , fast pass selections (60 days before), and online check in (60 days before)!  

7.  Have FUN!  If things don't go smoothly it is O.K.!  Things happen.  You can only control what is in your power.  You can't see or do every thing at Disney World in one trip.  Who would want to anyway.  I want us to come back and be able to experience new things each time we go.

We budget a certain amount weekly to pay for our trip.  I go to Kroger and buy gift cards to pay for our trip.  This helps us save money on gas.  It saved us $60 this month. This month we didn't put much into our savings but we paid a big portion of our trip off.    

When planning out our trip I use a notebook to keep all of the info.  I keep a tab on the whole cost of the trip( rental car, gas, trip insurance, hotel, food, tickets, and spending money).  Right now have half  left to pay for our trip without the rental car and spending money.  It should be paid off at the end of this month as long a no surprises come up.   The rest of the money we need we will slowly save until the day we leave.   Find out which hotel building you prefer and right it down in your notebook.  When online check in rolls around you want to remember so you don't have to research it again.  Write down any questions you may want to ask a cast member before you go.  

Next I make a rough schedule.  I say rough because we like to do spur of the moment things too and it is more fun to just go.  Here is ours so far:

Tues, 10/27

 leave at 10 pm

Wed, 10/28

 arrive at the hotel between 3 to 6 pm.

Thurs, 10/29

 Disney Springs from 10am to 2pm.  Go back to the hotel and get ready for MNSSHP from 4pm until 12am.  The party doesn't start until 7pm, but they do let guests that are attending in starting at 4pm, Imagine the commotion if they didn't. 

Fri, 10/30

 7;30 am Kona cafe @ the Poly (breakfast reservations)

Magic Kingdom 9 am - 10 pm

FP+:

Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3 pm

Electrical Parade: 9 pm

Wishes: 10 pm

Sat 10/31

Epcot 9 am - 10 pm

FP+:

Illuminations: 10 pm

Sun 11/1

Animal Kingdom 9 pm - 6 pm

FP+:

Hollywood Studios:6:30 pm - 9pm

FP+:

Fantasmic: 7 pm

Mon 11/2

Magic Kingdom 8 am-10 pm

Chrystal Palace Breakfast 8 am

FP+:

Tues 11/3

Leave for home

If you have any questions let me know.  I'll fill in the blanks and update this post as I get things done.  While at The World I will be taking pictures of our hotel and I will give more info on our trip when we get back.  

Summer

My oldest has asked"Is summer here yet?" a lot over this past week.  He knows we will have 4 months of no school.  He finishes his school year about 2 weeks early and his school calendar doesn't start til the VERY end of August!  I love it.  We love his online charter school!  B my dd will be starting Kinder with the same school this year!  I am soooo nervous.  A didn't start online charter til 2nd grade.  We knew the P.S system was failing him.  He was being punish for finishing his work first, even if the answers were all right he would get points taken off.  Not fair.  He was also being bullied with no help from the school.  Since we made the switch I have a much happier child with out crying over home work and waking up early.  No he still doesn't LOVE school and we still have hard days but it is much easier to manage than before.  Right now we are knee deep in writing book reports and short stories so he's not too happy because he HATES writing.

We are taking it easy this summer because I have a surprise planned for my kids at the end of Oct!  We have to save so we can have an extra special trip.  We are going to drive down to Disney and let them do MNSSHP and have a nice family vacation with my hubby which have have yet to do! My very loving and hardworking husband has yet to go on a family trip and this will be his first trip to Disney.  I hope he loves it as much as I do.  I will post all about how I planned it the price and break everything down.  I haven't posted much in a while but I am trying to figure out how I want this blog to be.

Life Right Now

    We are ready for Spring...We had fun playing in the snow the other day!  I haven't went out to play in the cold in FOREVER! It was fun to get to watch my children play in the snow.  We turned our deck stairs into a mini snow sledding hill...It was perfect for them!  They slept really good that night.                                   

This is why we are thinking ahead to the summer.  We want to make new memories and do thisngs we have never done before.  The kids decided that we should give tent camping a try so...Right now I am in the middle of trying to come up with a summer vacation idea...We are going to go camping or the 1st time this summer...I know what basics I need.  We are going to a campground with flushing toilets and showers.  No primitive stuff for us at this point, maybe later on.  We are going to Missouri.  We have never been here before so it will be another state off of list of ones we have NEVER been to!  I am excited.   There are a few things I want to do while we are there.  The City Museum and arch and we may travel down to Branson and hang out there.  We are still trying to get our camping gear together...We have a tent and one tarp....I need sleeping bags, chairs, another tarp, grill, stove, air mattress for the hubby and I and some more lanterns for sure...I can't forget the cooler!  Does anyone else have camping tips?

     Adrian has a sleep study and MRI coming up!  We are nervous and hope everything is OK.  He has been having sleep issues and migraines lately so we want to make sure there are no underlying causes.  We have been on a roller coaster ride since he was born.  Prematurity isn't a joke!  We are so blessed that he is normal.  He should be mentally and physically disabled.  He was on the brink of death more than once.  He had a PDA that went undetected for more than 4 yrs.  He had that fixed, his adenoids and tonsils removed, asthma, and now this!  Praying he is fine!  We won't know the results until May unless it is something serious I suppose...