Travel Binders...

As my previous post says... WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY!! AH! I seriously can not wait!!! One thing I can wait for though is the drive... Southern Alberta Canada to Anaheim, California USA it will be a total drive of nearly 45 hours... yes! That is right.... 45 hours of driving with four kids six and under and two adults! So I have been planning activities, travel games... gathering Disney and Lego movies for the trip to get geared up and more.... 

So I made some travel binders as part of my way to keep the kids occupied! 

The cover has their face on a car I just photo-shopped. They are super cute!

The boys' are fairly similar... there's looks like this...

 zipper pencil case for markers and white erase double markers

 I made a map of Canada and the USA and marked out our route as well as the states we will be traveling through

 I photo-shopped their faces on a little body and put it in a protective sleeve so they can use the white erase markers and wipe off

 I found these little road and track maps online. They have the new mini Thomas trains and some mini Disney Cars they can run on the maps.

 Rylan is in Preschool, his teacher uses the amazing program Handwriting Without Tears program and they use big lines, short lines, little curves and big curves to make every letter of the alphabet. I used templates to make tracks for the boys to run the trains down each track to create the letters. A little fun with a little learning

 Nothing line creating faces and lego characters with white erase markers

 Found some amazing templates online and on pinterest!

 Some games, a sticker page and battleship!

the last page is Rylan's name traced out for him to practice his name

 I found some adorable wipe away practice books from the dollar store. I gave the boys each two for their binders

 And don't forget some coloring pages!

My daughter's binder is a bit different... Here is hers

(many pages are the same... I didn't photograph those ones, just what is different than above)

I forgot to add each kid got some wipe clean books from the dollar store and a coloring book/activity book in the front of their binders

 I found these adorable templates I know she would love to fill out

 She loves word search and frozen right now. 

 I also made her a vacation journal using some templates I found online

 And some activity books at the back

I really hope the kids love them! I also packed some blank note books in their goodie bags they will get each day to write in and have fun. I also plan to put a "lost" mitten in the front to use to wipe off the pages! 

Credit for a lot of the templates go to many great resources I found on pinterest! 

The beginning of a Magical Adventure...

December 2013 my husband and I took a vacation. Our first ever vacation. It was an amazing one day at Disney World and Royal Caribbean Cruise. We had a blast. but... I felt like the worst parent ever visiting one of the most magical places on earth without our kids!! It was magical! Let me tell ya! Disney World has a fantastic way of making you feel like a child when you are there! I literally teared up when I watched the princess shows, parades and amazing light show on the castle and fireworks! 

So basically I have been planning my next trip, with our WHOLE family since! But to Disneyland since our kids are 8 months, 3, 4 and 6 years old I thought budget wise and their age Disneyland made far more sense! Plus, Cam (hubby) hasn't ever been and I haven't been since my first ever Disney Vacation when I was 10 or 11...

My family jokes I over plan but hey... I am on a budget, and I am a researcher. I like to look at things from all angles and it does not make me any less excited! We hoped to go fall 2014 but paying off debt was far more important. We are not yet at the debt free point in our lives but we have done amazing the last two years working towards our goal that we both thought we deserve to reward ourselves with a vacation paid in cash only!

So, after MONTHS of researching and planning we finally made our decision to go!! And I am seriously bursting at the seams! Our kids don't know... well they know we have been planning a trip for the future because they have been saving up and so have we! My sister made these adorable Disney jars for them to save up. Their jars saved enough to pay for their tickets! They would also earn Disney Bucks by helping mommy out and making good choices! 

We haven't told them but we have tickets and hotels booked and paid for!

We searched expedia.ca, disneyland.com many other travel sites but found the best deal on mousesavers.com through arestravel.com. We ended up getting a Good Neighbor Hotel, Pay 3 days park hopper at Disney and get the 4th day free for a really good price! I wanted to make sure our hotel had free wifi since we live in Canada, we wont be using data on our phones, as well as free parking and some sort of breakfast. We also plan to take the ART since it is cheaper than parking at Disney. 

We will be going in April between Easter Break and their busy season in May. Its going to be great! We have planned 1 day at Legoland, 4 days at Disneyland/California Adventure and a beach/shopping day!  

I am going to blog tips and my plans as the weeks get closer! I think I have read every pinterest/blog post related to Disneyland trips and I can't wait. 

We are on a budget so we are doing things as cheap as we can... Therefore we are driving all the way from Southern Alberta through 6 states to Disney! I will also be sharing many Traveling tips. 

Stay tuned for more!!