We're Going to Disney World!!!

That's right!  We're heading to Disney World!  The last week of countdown is on and we are all super excited for this grand adventure!  We've been planning this trip since the summer, and now it is less than a week away!  We kept it a secret from the kids until Christmas, and had them do a big scavenger hunt to discover what their surprise present was.  

Here's what we did:

Being that I have a 5 and a 3 year old, reading is definitely not their forte.

So, I had to come up with a way that they could figure out the message 

without us actually saying it to them...

I took several pictures of things from around our home that spelled out a secret message.  

Then placed a picture at each clue that would lead them to the next clue, 

ending with them returning to the living room, where they would put all the clues into order 

(I numbered them on the back, so they put them in order by number and then flipped them over) 

to reveal the message!

Here's the clues:

The Wii from the living room... 

A picture in Aria's room...

A page from a book (a helicopter was the closest thing I could find to an airplane in our house!)...

The clock in the kitchen...

The "C" from Roscoe's name in his room...

The Mickey ornament that I made (but no one could figure out that it was Mickey's torso.  

I think its cute, and I found the idea here)...

I circled the "in" from King on Jer's dart board in the basement 

(Aria figured it out way faster than I thought she would)...

The calender flipped to January that I staged in the kitchen...

I'm not sure who was more excited: 

the kids or the crowd of family and friends 

running around the house chasing them as they solved the puzzles!  

It worked out so well.  

I'm still waiting for the video footage from a couple of the "aunties", so I'll post that later!

  

It was funny, because after they solved the puzzle, I don't know if Aria totally "got it".  

I mean it is a pretty crazy concept to think that we'll be traveling all the way 

down to Orlando to hang out at WDW for a week!  

And with Grandma and Papa, the cousins and their parents!

After the kids solved the puzzle there were some surprise gifts under the tree.  

We had bought a Mickey and Minny stuffy for each of the kids, 

and I had made a countdown calendar, and an "I Spy" game for the trip.  

The countdown calendar has brought me much sanity, because I was tired of counting everyday to answer the question of "how many days until Christmas?".  

And this has made it so that Aria can always see how many days are left!

I had made some travel "I Spy" games for Aria and Roscoe, 

but I also made some for their two cousins that are coming on the trip.  

Before Christmas, when we were putting together the package to send to the cousins,  

I had to explain that the cousins were going to WDW in January.  

And Aria said "Oh, that's nice.  Some day we'll go when we're older."  

And I was thinking "Yeah, like a only a month older!"  

Aria and Roscoe are VERY excited to see their cousins.

I knew the reality of the trip had settled in on Aria when she came to me later on Christmas day and said, "Mommy.  This is the BEST gift you and Daddy have EVER given us!"  And she was a little choked up, which made me a little choked up!

So that's it!  The count down is almost over!

Check out my Disney Trip Pinterest Board for more ideas!