Disney | Wishes And Pixie Dust

April 18, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust Leave a comment

Spring Break

Our kids are on spring break this week, and we have no real plans except to pack boxes. Boring, yes I know. But with the image of the Magic Kingdom popping into our heads, it makes it so much easier 🙂

Saturday we decided to make up for a lost field trip. When Ben was in first grade, his class went to the Children’s Museum in Appleton for their major field trip of the year. However, poor Ben was not able to go due to a stomach flu. Sadly, yes, it has taken us this long to go there, but we decided it was a must-do before we leave Wisconsin. I have posted some pictures of the kids having fun:

Ben standing by the human heart exhibit/slide:

Catie & Ben standing in the golf/physics area. We had to take a picture of them standing underneath the giant golf ball, aka Epcot.

Ben operating a crane:

And of course, suiting up to drive the fire truck!

The kids co-piloting an airplane:

And the treehouse on the way out, which reminds us a little of The Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom:

In other news, we have been slowly packing boxes, and donating unwanted items to Goodwill. While we were out shopping at Walmart today, our landlord showed our house to prospective tenants. It seemed really weird knowing that strangers were walking through *our* house! We officially gave notice April 1st, but he has known since January that our intent was to leave. He is the most awesome-ist (if that is a word!) landlord ever, and we really wanted to make sure that he had as much notice as possible. We don’t feel he will have a problem renting this house out. It really is a great house, and while we are excited about moving into a new place, we are also sad to leave our home. But our hearts belong in Florida, and that is where we must be.

April 13, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 5 Comments

100 days and counting…..

As we reach the 100-day milestone, we thought it would be fun to make a list of 100 things that we plan to do once we are settled in Florida. (We consider buying annual passes to Disney as part of being “settled”; so you won’t see it on our list!) 🙂 These are in no particular order, and certainly not an exhaustive list, just thoughts that popped into our head.

1. Resort hop. We have only ever stayed at POR-Riverside as a family, and we really want to experience each resort on property. So even though our current goal is to live 20 minutes away from Walt Disney World, we plan to do weekend stays at each resort, over the course of a year or two, and really take in the charm and uniqueness each resort has to offer.

2. Enjoy a Dole Whip

3. Attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

4. Attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

5. Go on a Disney Cruise! Right now with living in Wisconsin, the price of getting to the cruise has been a huge obstacle for us. We’re of the mindset that if we’re going to spend that much money, we’d rather spend it at WDW! Cruises are really very reasonable as long as you don’t have to travel over a thousand miles to get to one.

6. Explore Animal Kingdom Park. There are so many areas of AK that we have not discovered simply due to the intense Florida heat, or lack of time available to us. We have done the basics, such as Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, Festival of the Lion King, Nemo & Friends and Kilimanjaro Safari, just to name a few. (There are more). But it seems that there is so much more to Animal Kingdom to take in, and we are looking forward to being able to do that in the cooler Florida months, when we have the time to dedicate to it.

7. Go to Magic Kingdom in the evening just for the parades

8. Have brunch at Chef Mickey’s

9. Ride the monorails, just for the fun of it

10. Start a new tradition of celebrating birthdays at Walt Disney World

11. Ride Splash Mountain at night during Wishes

12. Ride Big Thunder at night during Wishes

13. Listen to Lou Mongello’s audio guides while on Main Street/Adventureland/Fantasyland/Liberty Square and take the time to absorb all the details

14. Have lunch at Le Cellier

15. Watch Illuminations on a winter’s night, enjoying the fact that it is warm & there is no snow on the ground

16. Go to Universal

17. Go to Sea World

18. Explore the beaches of Florida–kids have never been to the ocean before. We plan to go to both sides of Florida: The Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean

19. Dinner with FL friends

20. Being able to meet Facebook friends who do not live in Florida but come to Walt Disney World on vacation. Shelley Urick Jones , we look forward to meeting you!

21. Lou Mongello’s WDW Radio Meets of the Month

22. Exploring the city of Clermont and getting to know our new home city

23. Spending time in the Parks with Stephen and Judy Demeritt

24. Meeting Marilyn Johnson in person!

25. Go to Gatorland

26. Enjoy the Osborne lights at the Studios as many times as possible

27. Enjoy making new friendships with all our Facebook friends who live in Florida

28. Walking through the World Showcase at Epcot while our kids are in school. We have not been able to explore all the countries because of the kids not wanting to spend time there.

29. The various shopping opportunities, not only at Walt Disney World, but at the many outlet malls in Orlando and the surrounding areas. Ikea!

30. Just enjoying the whole adventure of relocating to a new state!

31. Day trips to explore Florida: cities in particular that pop into our heads for no particular reason are Tampa, Naples, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville.

32. Shelling at Sanibel Island

33. Chuckling to ourselves in February when the temperature is 80 and sunny, knowing that back in Wisconsin it is probably blowing and snowing and bitterly cold. Will we miss snow? No we will not!

34. Taking in Bob Jackson’s show at the Port Orleans Riverside resort!

35. Staying at the Port Orleans Riverside resort for old times sake!

36. Christmas shopping at Downtown Disney

37. Riding down the Sassagoula River from Port Orleans Riverside to Downtown Disney (and vice versa)

38. Exploring the cities of Lake County

39. Visiting Celebration for leaf drop (to replace the Fall we will be missing in Wisconsin)

40. Being there for opening day of the new Fantasyland

41. Resort hopping at Christmas to see all the different Christmas decorations

42. Counting garbage cans to make sure the Demeritts caught them all 😉

43. Trying on every hat that is sold on Disney property

44. Food and Wine Festival

45. Enjoy a carrot cake cookie

46. Visit Star Wars weekend

47. Dinner, lunch and/or breakfast with Lou Mongello

48. Movie at the Downtown Disney AMC theatre

49. Trying all 500 flavors in the Coke Freestyle Dispenser

50. DisneyQuest

51. Enjoying the streetmosphere entertainment

52. Festival of the Masters

53. Going to the Night of Joy

54. Flower and Garden Festival

55. Holidays Around the World at Epcot

56. Sounds Like Summer at Epcot

57. The Candlelight Processional

58. Finding a good Friday fish fry!

59. Visiting the Kennedy Space Center

60. Riding TTA during Wishes

61. Sit at each of the Parks and take time to “people watch”

62. MLB Spring Training

63. Pick a fresh Florida orange from a tree

64. Go swimming on a warm December day

65. Enjoy a “work at home day” with Craig Petermann at Epcot

66. Take a family Christmas picture at WDW

67. Earn all the Gowalla WDW stamps and pins

68. Be one of “those people” checking in all over Lake Buena Vista with Foursquare

69. Move in to our new apartment in Clermont

70. Find the best pizza places in the area

71. Our first Saturday library visit to our new “home” library

72. Stroll the Boardwalk

73. Share a Kitchen Sink at Beaches & Cream with the family

74. Wild Africa Trek at AK

75. Pirates and Pals Fireworks

76. Backstage Magic Tour

77. Family Magic Tour

78. Get a haircut at The Harmony Barbershop on Main Street USA

79. The Pirates League with Ben

80. Keys to the Kingdom Tour

81. Walk through Fort Wilderness Campgrounds at Christmas to see the campers’ decorations

82. See a University of Florida football game

83. Stay in the Magic Kingdom until the wee hours of the morning to enjoy the peace

84. Orange Bowl Parade on New Year’s Day

85. Have a holiday sandwich at the Earl of Sandwich

86. Have a diabetic friendly treat at Babycakes

87. Go to Butterfly World

88. Swim with the manatees

89. Explore Florida’s state parks

90. Visit the Everglades allligator farm http://www.everglades.com/

91. Hearing the word blizzard and knows it only refers to a waterpark or a DQ dessert!

92. Go to Port Canaveral and watch the Disney ships leave port

93. Finding all of the local arts and crafts shows and fairs.

94. Getting to see the White Sox play in Tampa Bay.

95. Being able to get more exercise by taking walks and biking the trails of Lake County year-round.

96. Enjoying the scenery of Florida, knowing that it will stay green year round, and not become brown and dead for six months out of the year.

97. Enjoy a hot dog at Casey’s whenever we want one

98. Sit at Cosmic Ray’s and enjoy an entire Sunny Eclipse show

99. Take a yearly family picture in front of Cinderella Castle.

100. A family picture and mini-celebration immediately after we cross the Florida state line on our way to becoming Florida residents!

April 11, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 1 Comment

38

Today the number 38 is significant for us.

Why 38?

Because we have 38 boxes packed as of today! And yes, we counted them, and we not only counted them, but we have an itemized list on the laptop. It’s all in the details, my friends!

We are slowly moving forward. Mark found a video on YouTube, which gives a tour of the apartment complex we are most interested in: The Gardens at Citrus Tower. We really like what we see, but we still need to wait until the end of May to submit our application and finalize details.

Yesterday it was a beautiful day in Wisconsin, and we took the opportunity to drive to Sheboygan and go by Lake Michigan. Needless to say, it was significantly cooler by the lake, so we only stayed for a short while, but still managed to snap a photo of the kids:

We also did a little shopping in Kohler, Wisconsin. We found this fab little lamp that was clearanced down to $20 from $45, and snatched it up. It will probably end up being a bedroom lamp, but it was just so much to walk around and look at the items and think about how we plan to decorate our new home!

As this post goes through, we have exactly 102 days and 50 minutes until we leave for Florida! Be sure to check back in two days and check out our fun post for our 100th day out!

March 23, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust Leave a comment

Itinerary

As I listen to the freezing rain hitting against our house, it feels weird knowing that this is our last winter in Wisconsin. While this is one of the awesome things about our move (no more brutal winters), it also hits home that we are leaving everything we know. The second half of Ben’s IEP meeting was today, and as team members left, individuals I have known for years, it occurred to me that I would probably never see them again. It’s a bittersweet feeling knowing that we are achieving our dream, but with it comes the cost of familiarity of our surroundings, in both material possessions as well as friendships.

We have set our itinerary for our trip down and wanted to share it here. When we drove down to Walt Disney World in 2009, we had three drivers and looking back, we pushed ourselves by driving far more miles in a day than we should have. In July we will be at two drivers, and because we are looking at this as an adventure and not a marathon driving experience, we will be taking three days to arrive in Clermont. All of our hotel reservations (except the arrival day in Orlando) have been secured, using our AAA discount.

Thursday, July 21 : As the movers will arrive by 8am on Friday, July 22nd, we decided the best option is to spend the evening in a hotel in Fond du Lac. Today will be spend finalizing any last minute details.

Friday, July 22 : Our goal is to leave Fond du Lac by 5:00 pm and spend the night in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Our original thought was to spend a second night in Fond du Lac and leave early Saturday morning, but decided that this at least gets us to the Illinois border and a jump start on our travels. We estimate the movers will be completed by 1:00 pm, and a 5:00 departure time allows us to make sure the house is in check-out condition, with still time to deposit the security deposit check in the bank (that we’ll get back from our landlord).

Saturday, July 23 : We will leave Wisconsin by 9am, travel through Indianapolis by approximately 2pm, and stay the night in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Sunday, July 24 : We plan to leave Kentucky and enter Tennessee by 8:30am. We hope to be able to stop along the way and take scenic pictures of the landscape. We were awed by the beauty of the mountains, and are looking forward to this part of our journey again. We will spend the night in Lake Park, Georgia.

Monday, July 25 : Our goal is to arrive in Orlando by 2:30pm. We have not yet booked the hotel reservations for this night. Our original intent was to stay at an extended-stay hotel for a week while we finalize our housing plans. However, Mark and I have narrowed down three apartment complexes that we really like, and one in particular we may be able to move into before August 1st. If so, this would affect how many nights we need to stay in a hotel, so we are waiting before securing those reservations.

We are really looking forward to the drive down to Florida. As a family, we love taking road trips: just driving to a new city within the state that we haven’t been to before with no expectations of what might be there. We hope to be able to do a little more of it this summer before we leave Wisconsin, but we also have to be mindful of rising gas prices, and the upcoming expenses we will have for the trip down to Florida.

Thanks for following along!

~Jen

March 10, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 1 Comment

The moving process

As we prepared to initially plan our move, one of the first considerations that arose was how we were going to move our belongings from Wisconsin to Florida. We had three options we could utilize: a professional mover, self-move using U-Haul, or PODs portable storage units. We researched each choice, and decided the professional mover was the best option for our family. We have always chosen U-Haul for our previous moves, and while financially it was the best option, overall it provides for a less than stellar moving experience. PODS are slightly better, but they are quite expensive, require you to have a place to keep the unit while you are filling it, and the basic fact that you have to fill it, as opposed to a mover doing the work for you.

We have always wanted this to be an adventure for our family. While moving to Florida close to Walt Disney World has been our dream, it also comes with the harsh reality that everything will be different. For our children, this will be the most difficult hurdle, as there will not be a routine or familiarity around them. This is one of the reasons we chose to use a professional mover. We did not want to start our moving adventure tired and totally exhausted. We consider this a mini-vacation of sorts, and who wants to do work on vacation?

We chose to use Mayflower as our carrier. We have discovered there are a lot of online moving companies who want our business, and they will offer a cheap estimate, then all of a sudden find extra expenses they need to charge for before delivery is made. We wanted to go through a reputable company and be assured that our belongings as well as ourselves would be treated with respect. Mayflower came highly recommend, and we were impressed with the level of service we received.

Our in-home visit took almost three hours. He provided us with printouts on information of Clermont, inventoried all our belongings, entered them into his computer, and provided us with a written estimate, which is binding. If you are considering hiring professional movers, two words of advice: (1) Make sure you are dealing with a direct agent of the company, and (2) make sure your estimate is binding. Only a direct agent has authority to provide you with an estimate, and you want it to be binding, because then you are guaranteed you will not be charged any additional fees. Basically, what you see is what you pay. You may pay less, but you won’t pay more.

Overall we are pleased with the level of service we received and the cost is not unreasonable given the length of our move. We have moved up our move date to July 22nd. We now need to sit down and plan our travel itinerary, so we can book hotels. Our goal is to be in our new apartment or house by August 1. We discovered that storing our belongings is quite expensive (even more so than the move itself), so we are under a little more pressure to find living arrangements quickly. Mayflower will extend delivery as much as possible, and it helps that we will be moving in a peak season, which means delivery would have been extended anyways. So we are thankful that storage is an major expense that can be avoided.

We would love to hear your packing tips. Thanks for following our dream; we appreciate your support!

Mark and Jen