Countdown to Disneyland {Days 25-32}

Day 25:  Make Mickey shaped cookies

We pulled out our cute cookie cutters we bought earlier in the month for the Mickey shaped brownies and made some Chocolate Chip Rolled Cookies.  This was a new recipe for me.  The dough was delicious, however, the baked cookies tasted a bit floury to me.  I may have added too much in the rolling process.  You can find the recipe here, and try it out for yourself!

Chocolate Chip Rolled Cookies
1 c unsalted butter
1/3 c granulated sugar
1/2 c light brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 c all purpose flour (start with 2 c and work your way up)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c semi sweet mini chocolate chips

Day 26:  Have Disney Dinner and a Movie {UP}

This was our menu.

The recipes we used:

Dug's Corndogs - I went easy and bought microwave corndogs from the freezer section of my grocery store.

Carl's Cheetos - My kids always like the Cheese puffs...you decide for yourself which you prefer.

Grape Soda -  I bought the store brand grape soda, since my husband and I don't really like grape soda.

Kevin's Chocolate S'mores - Remember how Kevin loves chocolate...well we used those chocolate bars in some microwave s'mores.  We used our micro s'mores maker.  

Here is how we decorated our table.

Day 27:  Tell Disney Jokes

I searched the internet up and down for clean Disney jokes.  Ones that didn't involve a meme.  Ones my kids would 'get'.  Just some good old fashioned jokes.  These are what I found.  I put them all on cards so you could take turns with your kids reading them.  My kids are still a bit young for some of these, but they laughed along just the same.

download here

download here

download here

Day 28:  Read Disney Books

We have lots of Disney books laying around the house that we could have read for this day, however, kids love new...it's evidenced in the basement full of old toys that no one will play with anymore.  haha.  just kidding...well maybe not.

So, I found some Disney books at my local dollar store for each of my kiddos.  We read them all together and then we pulled out some of those old books and they became new again.  :)

Day 29:  Buy a Disney Balloon

I took the kids to the local dollar store to each pick out a mylar Disney balloon.  They were very, very excited for this day!  My kids love balloons, and I think that most kids do love them.

In case you were wondering, Spiderman is now part of the Disney family.

 We had to have the Princess balloon for our princess.

Day 30:  Have Disney Dinner and a Movie {Ratatouille}

 Here was our menu.

The recipes we used were:

Linguini Alfredo -  I made linguini noodles with jarred alfredo sauce.

Remy's Garlic Toast -  I just bought garlic bread from my local bakery. 

Co'lettuce' Wedges -  This is a pretty simple recipe really...just buy a large head of iceberg lettuce, cut it into wedges and serve with whatever toppings you desire (i.e., tomatoes, avocado, bleu cheese, bacon bits, dressing, etc.).  I love a good lettuce wedge!

Gusteau's Chocolate Chip Cookies -  I made the most delicious pudding chocolate chip cookies.  I ate most of them, seeing as how we were leaving for 11 days soon.  I was under a lot of stress and took after those cookies.  :)

The recipe is from Six Sister's Stuff.

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies
3/4 c butter, softened
3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 (3.4 oz) pkg instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
2 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flour and baking soda and set aside.  In a large bowl, cream sugars, pudding mix,  and butter together.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Add flour mixture until combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Roll into 1" balls (or use a cookie scoop like me) and place on greased baking sheet.  Bake 8-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Here is our decorated table.

Day 31:  Make Disney Characters out of Playdoh

My kids LOVE playdoh!!  I was planning on making homemade playdoh for this day, however, we were getting ready to leave the next day, so we used store-bought instead...much easier.  :)

My kids love the playdoh tools.  It has been a tradition for the last few years that the Easter bunny brings them playdoh and tools each year.  We have collected quite a few now.

Here is a Minnie Mouse head complete with bow.

My daugher created this version of Olaf.

My son depicted Mike Wazowski...no surprise there.

This was actually a good activity for the day before leaving because it kept my kids busy for 45 minutes while I packed and cleaned the house.  If you have time, this is a good one to include!

Day 32:  Leave for Disneyland!!!

We were so excited to be going to Disneyland for our kid's first time ever!  This was also going to be their first time ever on a plane...so I wanted it to be as successful as possible.

I packed each of them a backpack full of fun stuff to keep them busy.  This is what was included.  Only the backpack, blanket, and plush was more than $1.

For my son,
-his small Mickey plush
-blanket for sleeping/cuddling
-Dinosaur coloring booklet
-Bubblegum(this was a BIG hit with my kids)
-Disney board books
-Disney themed work books (one for numbers/counting and one for alphabet practice)
-Jake and the Neverland Pirates Play Pack (if you haven't seen these yet...CHECK THEM OUT!  My kids love them and they are only a dollar for a sheet of stickers, a small coloring book, and 4 crayons)
-Granola bars, dum dums, and fruit snacks
-A travel Guess Who game (which we got from Wendy's a while ago)
-Twist up crayons

For my daughter,
-her small Minnie plush
-blanket for cuddling/sleeping
-Doc McStuffins coloring booklet
-Bubblegum
-Disney board books
-Disney themed workbooks (one for phonics/reading and one for practicing alphabet handwriting)
-Sophia the First Play Pack
-Granola bars, dum dums, and fruit snacks
-A travel version of Pictureka (also from Wendy's)
-Twist up crayons

Here is a close up look at some of the items.  I got most of them from Target, Walmart, and our local dollar store.

I also got my kids some new pajamas from Disneystore.com for the night before we left.  My kids LOVE pajamas...just like me.  Plus, Disney pajamas are extra fun!  They slept in their new jammies the night before and packed them into their backpacks in the morning, so we would have them for our vacation as well.

 

Overall, the plane ride wasn't too bad.  We did learn a few things about traveling with 3 small children.  First off, since we couldn't all sit together, we needed to sit across the row from each other instead of in front of or behind each other.  Also, whoever had the baby needed to be alone with the baby and the other parent would sit with the other kids.  It's too hard to keep a baby on your lap and bend over in that confined space to get things in and out of backpacks for other kids.  :) 

 

My kids weren't bothered or frightened with the plane taking off or landing.  They just played on the ipad and used the items in their backpacks to keep them busy.