Parents Who Make the Magic Happen

**AnotherPixie** · 03-01-2005, 11:30 PM

I am one of those parents that leaves home around 2am, drives 408 miles to Disneyland with the arrival time of 8am. We have breakfast, head into the park, stay until 5pm, get on the road at 6pm to drive another 408 miles and arrive home about 1am. Woo hoo! I can't tell you how many times we did this over the years. I'm a Disney nut. If we aren't doing a one day trip we almost always do a 3 day one.

To make our trips special, before we leave we have a calendar on the fridge that both my girls take turns marking a day off, bringing us closer to our actual trip date. I give them their allowance in Disney Dollars. We listen to the park tracks the whole drive down. We talk about what we are going to do and work it out together so that when we do arrive at the park, it goes smoothly. Communication is the key! Make sure each kid has a chance to express what they really want to do. During the 6 hour drive, I bring their Disneyland coloring pages and they bring some Disney themed toys. All their clothes for the trip are Disney clothing, down to the socks on their feet. I believe that part of sustaining the Disney magic is to dress the part

**dsnylndmom** · 03-01-2005, 11:49 PM

You know I know it's not DL but I have a couple little things from our only family trip to WDW that the boys still talk about, so I must've done something right! :o

After arriving at the ASMo I went ahead to the room and quickly unpacked the "surprises" that I had for the boys. I had went to the disney store and got each of them Disney PJ's, a new stuffie to stay in the room so that their special stuffed animals would not get lonely, and action figure each and some coloring books and treats like that during down time and a magic towel for each for their stay, their "wdw towels" they called them

I set them up on the bed from "mickey" for Shawn and from "goofy" for Kyler. They were sooooooo excited!!

Also during that trip, we did the things they wanted to do most FIRST and made sure to do the things they wanted to do most. Such as trekking across MGM in a freakin' monsoon because my oldest wanted to eat at Sci-Fi soooo bad, it was worth it, he still talks about that place. We also took them to get their haircuts on MainStreet on their last day as a "treat" and they still talk about that too (mom, mom remember when we got our hair cut ON MAIN STREET

)

One thing I did recently for my youngest is write to DL before his birthday and I got an autographed picture of Peter Pan(his hero along with Prince phillip)for his birthday and I gave it to him on his Birthday trip this past nov.

I think the thing that always makes it the most special for the both of them is when we are just running around the parks together and I get as excited as they do to ride Haunted Mansion or see Fantasmic! again and again or to clap and yell to get the turtle's attention in the MSEP. (they love that)

**Cousin Orville** · 03-01-2005, 11:59 PM

My parents, especially my mother patiently lived through my Disnetologist years of being a Disneyland freak (5 - early teen). It was an obsession and they should have gone insane. They were supportive and hoped I would grow out of it. I did till we had kids. I thank my mom for saving Green Stamps and taking me to the park all those times, or when I was sick we'd just ride the Monorail round trip from the Hotel. One time I saved for a Schuco Monorail and she matched my bag of coins to afford it. That was magic. Shes gone now, but I appreciate all she did for me.

Now as a parent, I can try to do the same for my kids and relive it with them. That cycle is what is magic to me about parents and Disneyland.

**DISNEYJUNKIE** · 03-02-2005, 11:15 AM

my girls apprecitated that one year when we spent Christmass and DL, I took along one of those little 2' high fake trees, set it up in our room and , brought some miniature Disney ornaments and decorated so our room looked festive and Christmassy!
Also a bigger suprise on Christmas morning Santa had found us , the little tree, had presents for the girls under it. How I so miss those days.

**Tinkerbelle** · 03-03-2005, 11:58 AM

Oh, I just thought of another one...

we start the magic well before we leave....

I have learned my lesson and do not tell the kids until 2 weeks before we go (I had to cancel one year and it crushed us all) so now I wait until nothing cn stop the trip.
I love to come up with different, fun ways to tell them we are going... last time we watched the a Disney planning video (not an unusual occurance in our house, our son watches them for fun) and at one point my youngest asked if we could go sometime. I replied with , how about next week (or whatever it was I forget), my then 3 year old just beamed the biggest smile, our 8 yr old, just stared at us for several minutes silent, then when she finally realized what was happening she started bouncing off the walls.

This time I think I am going to fill tons of helium balloons in a small room, hide clues in a few balloons and have them 'pop' their way to the surprise.

messy, but effective. (plus, that would just be fun to watch)

or I may do a treasure hunt for the vacation destination with clues around the house, but I think I like the Balloons best.

**Ghostbuster626** · 03-03-2005, 02:42 PM

The title of this thread sounds kind of gross

**wolfy** · 03-03-2005, 03:14 PM

Surprising my daughter by pulling her out of school (yeah, teaching the kid to ditch), and heading to DL for the day! First time we did that was the 1st anniversary of 9-11, nobody was there and we had the time of our lives! Just wish she wouldn't say she wants to go to "Space Mountain" and then "Splash Mountain" then "Thunder Mountain" and in that exact order....drives me nuts, running from one end of the park to the other all day long!