Disneyland or Bust!

Our family is headed to Disneyland next month!!!

We went about 3 years ago and left Locke home (one of the best decisions I ever made).  We had a great time, but vowed we wouldn’t go back until Locke was 40″ tall and Croft was 48″ tall.  Those are the two magic numbers if you want to ride the fun rides at Disneyland.  Well, luckily everyone grew, so we booked our trip.

To get ready for the big trip we had a “Disneyland Vacation Kick-Off” last night for Family Home Evening.

First, I reminded the kids about our financial expectations.  Dad and I will be paying for their Disneyland tickets, housing, and 3 meals a day.  We will also have snacks available while we are at the park like apples, cheese, pretzels, and water. However, the kids are responsible for anything else they want – turkey legs, face painting, toys, T-shirts, pineapple whips, magnets, etc.   The kids will need to pay for anything “extra”.

This plan is a tweak on our financial plan from our last Disneyland trip. You can read about what we did back then in this post. The kids are 3 years older now, and we felt that the kids could handle more responsibility.

We announced our revised, higher expectations plan last month in our Family Council so that the kids had ample time to earn money.  One month later, not one kid had earned one cent, so we revisited our expectations.  We brainstormed ways they could earn money, but this time I recorded their ideas on a “Disney Dollars” poster.

After our money pep talk, we divided up to complete a few tasks to enhance our month of waiting.

Afterall, “The pleasure isn’t in doing the thing, the pleasure is in planning it.” or “The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.” 

I mean think about Christmas.  Is it really just about December 25 or is it also about the 3 weeks before as well?

You get the idea.

Anyway, I wanted us to have a countdown chain that would help us countdown the days ’til we left. The girls went to work on a black and red one.  They measured and cut and stapled.

Crew went to work on a “Disneyland or Bust!” poster. Look how he dotted the i.  Is that the cutest or what?

The girls asked Crew to add a Minnie bow. And Crew was brave to let Locke color the exclamation point.

 When everyone was done, I hung up their work in a little Disneyland shrine that is in a corner of our front room.

 

I’m hoping that this visual reminder gets them making some money and gets them excited for our family trip.

Disneyland or Bust!