Disneyland prep + a cheap souvenir idea!

 

We're getting close to our third trip to Disneyland!

We've known about this trip since Christmas, when my parents surprised us with some Disney gift cards. My mom totally scored--she found $100 gift cards for $25 on Disneyland's website, so she bought 16 of them. I wish she had told me! I would have bought a bunch, too. Disney later called her and told her it was a pricing mistake, but they would still honor it *if she wanted*. Um, yeah! 

Anyway, since we've known about it so long, it wasn't until last week or so that we really started getting excited. I've been getting stuff together this week for our drive (stay tuned for a post about that later!) and making my insanely detailed packing list. 

 

I thought it would be sweet if my girls had some cute Disney shirts to wear, but no way was I going to shell out the kind of money Disneyland wants. I got this Minnie Mouse shirts at Target for $5 each.

 

We've found on our previous trips to Disneyland that most of the junk in the stores there is 1) overpriced and 2) sold at Dollar General, Walmart, or Target pretty much anywhere in the country. I want my kids to have something to remember the trip by, but I don't want to waste money on stuff we could get anywhere.

This year, I came up with two cheap and memorable souvenirs for them: pressed penny bracelets and postcard books.

I bought cheap bracelets and jump rings from Walmart for $2 and added some Mickey Mouse charms that we already have. Tempe and Helena will each have $2.04 to make four pressed pennies at the different machines around Disneyland. Then, when we get home, I will drill holes in the pennies and add them to the bracelets. Total cost: $4.04 each!

For the postcard books, we are going to buy each kid three postcards as soon as we arrive (one for each day we spend in the park). At the end of each day, we are going to have them dictate to us what their favorite part of the day was, what rides they liked best, who they met, etc. Later I will add some pictures and have everything laminated and bound as a book.

Juno doesn't have a Mickey hat yet, so she'll get one of those instead of the bracelet and book. She can make her own bracelet next time we go!