Disneyland count down

Our family is going to Disneyland in 10 more days with our best friends. We are all so excited and talk about it all.the.time. I wanted to come up with a fun way to count down our vacation as well as give the kids an opportunity to earn some spending cash. Here is what I came up with.

I used my make the cut program to fit the Mickey faces on the page the way I wanted, then I cut it out. Unfortunately cricut is no longer compatible with Make the Cut and I am sick about all the money I put into the program. It worked for this project and now it won’t work. grrr….anyway, moving on. I cut a piece of poster board down and laid the black cardstock on top and then numbered the days left for Disneyland.

I saved all of the black mickey’s plus cut some more and decided to use those as our “Mickey Money” that can turn into “Disney Dollars” Once the kids required chores are done (make bed, dish duty and belongings) they are allowed to do extra chores to earn their very own money for souvenirs.

After they do a job, they turn it over and write their initial on it. We also decided to have some jobs be worth more than others so they write how much they earned on it too.

I cut this mickey out of vinyl and put in on an envelope. The “mickey money” is in here until they earn it.

after they’ve signed the back it goes in here to later be counted up and changed into Disney dollars. My hubby and I already saved up for this trip and have the money set aside, but instead of just giving them what ever they want, we want them to learn to decide for themselves if it is something they really want to spend their own money on. I’m hoping it will help them feel independent, a little more grown up. So if they want to buy it on something I perceive as over charged junk than hopefully I won’t care. 🙂

It all hangs up on our fridge and looks like this. Now for the count down part of it. The white number spots get filled with colored mickey ears. The ears are on gifts that I wrapped for the kids. I bought a bucket at the dollar store and cut black vinyl Mickeys to go on it. It holds all the gifts.

Each gift has 3 of the same thing. We open one gift a day starting with my youngest. I have three kids so they will all get to open 5 gifts each. The first present I had them open were these plastic bags for them to use as grooming kits in their suitcase. All of the other gifts are things to go in the bag like, travel size tooth brushes, soap, toothpaste, a white board to play with in the car, autograph book, flip flops for the beach etc…all practical stuff for them to bring along but in a way that is fun for them to get too.
I am so excited to go and now every time my little girl asks how many more days til we go I can send her to the fridge to count. 🙂