Our entire family was blessed with holiday birthdays. My 11 year old son has a New Year’s Eve birthday. My 10 year old daughter was born July 3. My seven year old son was born about a week later and my four year old daughter has a President’s Day birthday. Even my husband and I celebrate our birthdays very near Labor and Memorial Day respectively. I love Disney and I love visiting but I would be crazy to take our four lovely children (the oldest of whom has autism) to celebrate our birthdays at the parks during some of the most crowded times of the year. And yet, there was always the dream of celebrating the happiest days of our year with the Mouse. And finally it was the Mouse himself who gave us the answer to our conundrum.
A Very Merry Unbirthday To You…A Very Merry Unbirthday To You….
Our answer was to take An Unbirthday Trip in which we would all take a day to declare to the world our Unbirthdays (you get 364 a year you know) and celebrate at the Happiest Place on Earth!
Our Unbirthday Trip was of course a surprise to our four children. A surprise birthday celebration is wonderful but a surprise UNBIRTHDAY celebration is indeed priceless. We live close enough to the Mouse to be within driving distance so we got our kidlings into bed early the night before and woke them up near dawn the next morning. We surprised them with a tasty Unbirthday breakfast and a note from Mickey inviting them to his favorite place to celebrate our Unbirthday week. The table was colorful and bright but also expeditious …we ate toaster waffles with fruit and angel food cake on birthday plates. The children’s clothes were laid out in their chairs and their bags were packed. We ate, dressed (all while listening to the Alice in Wonderland DVD perfectly keyed up to the Unbirthday scene) and rushed to the packed van. We turned the ignition and were flooded by Disney tunes from our many cds.
When we made it to the park, I asked a cast member to give my daughter a note from Mickey. Before our trip I prepared a folder’s worth of notes for the children from Mickey, Tigger, Pooh, the Princesses, Buzz, etc, etc, etc letting them know about special meals, plans, tours, etc. The Cast Members loved playing along and heaping Mickey Magic onto our Unbirthday Trip. The children were starry eyed as throughout the day they were given notes from their favorite Disney characters updating them as to our itinerary.
My husband and I also worked together to sneak special Unbirthday gift packs to the children throughout the day. On their Unbirthday, their favorite character may leave special gifts in their car seats (I would stall the kids in the hotel room for an extra moment while my dear husband planted the gifts) or the gift may appear in the hotel room when the kids got back after a long day of touring (reverse those plans). Any trip to Disney is indeed memorable but a little extra planning and plussing made it extra magical!
Spring Slagle
Sounds like a super fun trip! What a great idea to have an unbirthday for everyone trip!
You get 364 you know 🙂