Telling the kids tonight.

[mook3y]

Last trip, we surprised our kids with the news that we were going to WDW when we arrived at the airport.

After a lot of consideration, this year, we decided that we kind of missed talking and planning the trip with our kids plus watching the excitement build as we get closer to the trip.

So, we told the kids (DS9, DD7, DS3) yesterday we had a surprise for them today after school.

We are going to take them out for dinner and have arranged for the manager to bring out with dessert, a postcard from Mickey (THANKS Dopey's Girl!) that is going to tell them they are going to WDW in September.

Then when we get home, there will be a paper chain hanging from the wall that we will remove 1 link every day until we go!

133 links to go! I think I am more excited than they are going to be!

will be interesting to see how much of a "scene" this will make.

[MNMickeyGuy]

Very cool plan - - - have fun!!

[Belle of the Ball 051411]

How fun! Can't wait to hear about your kids' reactions!

[TinkerbellT421]

Awwwww! That sounds so cute! Great idea! Can't wait to hear your report on how it went!

[disneymom15]

How fun, can't wait to hear their reactions.

[minnie04]

Very Cool !!! Love the idea of the paper chain..

[CajunDisneyDad]

Great idea

[DVC2004]

Very cool! I am sure it will be so exciting for all of you. Love the idea of the paper-chain countdown.

[faline]

It's still a surprise - just issued a bit earlier!!

[mook3y]

SO - I had created a small chain that i gave each kid when the older 2 got home from school. The neighbor kids get picked up, so I underplayed it a bit till they went home.

I had called the manager of the restaurant we were going to and arranged for a "special" dessert. We had a great meal and it was fun to see the staff excited for our kids.

They brought out a pizza baked chocolate cookie and balloon's that were each tied to a gift card for each of our kids and presented the post card from Mickey.

It took a moment for the kids to realize what was going on. But as they realized they were going to Disneyworld, they were super excited and could not contain their excitement.

Our 3 year old after realizing where we were going started repeating i get to see Mickey over and over.

The only sad part was our 3 year old realizing that when we got home, that we were not going to see Mickey right away. He did listen very patiently as we explained the paper chain would help us keep track of when we actually got to go see Mickey.

It was a great night for our family!

[Donald]

That was awesome! Happy planning

[j2k]

That sounds like such fun!! We haven't told my daughter yet. She overheard me telling someone and asked me if we're going to Disney World and I told her "Maybe one day". So that's my response when she does ask about it. ;-)

We're driving there and plan to tell her we're going on a road trip. Along the way, we'll tell her if she asks. She likes surprises and may not want us to tell her.

Have fun planning!!

[minnie04]

Awesome!!!

Have fun counting down the days. My DS8 keeps asking "when are we going back". Everytime the commercial comes on.I tell him "hello!! we just got back (March)" His response "SOOOO we can still go again!!!" I think we might go up for the night in October. The older kids want to do Horror Nights, so I might take him to MNSSHP.

[ledudes]

I agree, planning and looking forward tot he trip is half the fun. I would much rather know in advance.

[DVC2004]

Aw, the little one! Well it's fun leading up. We used to watch the vacation planning DVD when mine were younger leading up to the trip. On the first trip, when we got there my then 3 year old kept asking when we were going to Disneyworld. LOL poor guy, he didn't quite connect the video with the place at first. We kept telling him, "We're here! This is it." LOL you wonder what they think when they are little like that.

Well what a great surprise you planned to announce and now you can enjoy the anticipation together. How fun! You are making nice memories for your family!

[spoiledraf]

We will be visiting my daughter in Atlanta in three weeks. Sunday morning we'll get around the table with our three grandkids to discuss what we are going to do that day. We will all write down what we want to do on a small piece of paper, fold up the paper and put it in a cup. The youngest will pick one of the suggestions from the cup and the oldest will open and read it. Obviously at some point the papers will all be exchanged so they say Disney. At that point we will pile in the car and away we will go!
Polynesian Club Level in 26 days!

[mook3y]

We will be visiting my daughter in Atlanta in three weeks. Sunday morning we'll get around the table with our three grandkids to discuss what we are going to do that day. We will all write down what we want to do on a small piece of paper, fold up the paper and put it in a cup. The youngest will pick one of the suggestions from the cup and the oldest will open and read it. Obviously at some point the papers will all be exchanged so they say Disney. At that point we will pile in the car and away we will go!
Polynesian Club Level in 26 days!

sounds fun! Especially the Poly part

[j2k]

We will be visiting my daughter in Atlanta in three weeks. Sunday morning we'll get around the table with our three grandkids to discuss what we are going to do that day. We will all write down what we want to do on a small piece of paper, fold up the paper and put it in a cup. The youngest will pick one of the suggestions from the cup and the oldest will open and read it. Obviously at some point the papers will all be exchanged so they say Disney. At that point we will pile in the car and away we will go!
Polynesian Club Level in 26 days!

How fun! What a surprise that will be!!! Have a great time!!!

[minnie04]

We will be visiting my daughter in Atlanta in three weeks. Sunday morning we'll get around the table with our three grandkids to discuss what we are going to do that day. We will all write down what we want to do on a small piece of paper, fold up the paper and put it in a cup. The youngest will pick one of the suggestions from the cup and the oldest will open and read it. Obviously at some point the papers will all be exchanged so they say Disney. At that point we will pile in the car and away we will go!
Polynesian Club Level in 26 days!

Great Idea!!! We used to do this when choosing Resturants. hmmm I wonder if I could pull it off with a Disney trip. I would love to record their reactions, but I know as soon as they saw the camera they would know..lol..

[Dopey's Girl]

Yeah!!! I'm so glad I got to play a small part in such a big surprise!