PTR Surprising the Teenager- December 2020

[samheatherwhite]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I’m so excited to have a trip on the books that I decided to start a new report.

Who: Me (H), my sister (C), and my daughter (G)

What: I decided to surprise G with tickets to the Informer Meetup on December 5th and 6th, 2020 for her 13th Birthday!
G turns 13 on September 1st. I am planning on surprising her with the trip as her gift at her party. That will give me the opportunity to surprise her while still giving her the ability to help us plan which is a big part of the fun for us.

When: We are doing a quick trip trying to cram all of the fun we can in a short time. We fly out Saturday, December 5th and will leave Orlando on Monday the 7th.

Where: we have booked a room at Cabana Bay Beach Resort.

Why: First of all you never need a reason to go to Universal!! Mainly though, we are celebrating G!



Above (hopefully lol) is a pic of my kiddos. G and her little bro B who is happily staying behind with his Gran and Grandad this time.

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

Exciting!!!


Very good reason to go!!!

 

[schumigirl]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I’m so excited to have a trip on the books that I decided to start a new report.

Who: Me (H), my sister (C), and my daughter (G)

What: I decided to surprise G with tickets to the Informer Meetup on December 5th and 6th, 2020 for her 13th Birthday!
G turns 13 on September 1st. I am planning on surprising her with the trip as her gift at her party. That will give me the opportunity to surprise her while still giving her the ability to help us plan which is a big part of the fun for us.

When: We are doing a quick trip trying to cram all of the fun we can in a short time. We fly out Saturday, December 5th and will leave Orlando on Monday the 7th.

Where: we have booked a room at Cabana Bay Beach Resort.

Why: First of all you never need a reason to go to Universal!! Mainly though, we are celebrating G!


View attachment 502432
Above (hopefully lol) is a pic of my kiddos. G and her little bro B who is happily staying behind with his Gran and Grandad this time.

Welcome back miss Samheatherwhite.......

Good to see you back and with a new trip ahead of you!

Your kids will have grown so much since your last trip report! It’s been a while......

Will look forward to reading along with your plans.......unless America bans us still then, we’ll be there at the same time.......

Hope you’re doing well.......

 

[samheatherwhite]

Welcome back miss Samheatherwhite.......

Good to see you back and with a new trip ahead of you!

Your kids will have grown so much since your last trip report! It’s been a while......

Will look forward to reading along with your plans.......unless America bans us still then, we’ll be there at the same time.......

Hope you’re doing well.......

I am so excited. I couldn't resist starting a TR. Your reports are my very favorite, I love seeing what you and your husband are up to! I hope everything has calmed down by then so y'all don't encounter travel difficulties.
I can hardly wait to surprise G. She is a huge Harry Potter fan. I cannot believe that she is almost 13, which shouldn't be so surprising since she is every bit as tall as I am now.

 

[schumigirl]

I am so excited. I couldn't resist starting a TR. Your reports are my very favorite, I love seeing what you and your husband are up to! I hope everything has calmed down by then so y'all don't encounter travel difficulties.
I can hardly wait to surprise G. She is a huge Harry Potter fan. I cannot believe that she is almost 13, which shouldn't be so surprising since she is every bit as tall as I am now.

Don’t blame you for being excited! It’ll be a tremendous surprise and I’m sure the trip will be hugely appreciated!

And her birthday gift is amazing! She’ll love it......that’ll be a birthday to remember.

Awww, thank you......I appreciate the lovely comments.......yes, we have no idea what’s going to happen, but we always go with the flow......I’m a big believer in things happen for a reason, so if we don‘t make it in September.....there will be a good reason.

But, I do look forward to reading about your plans and especially how the surprise goes for G’s birthday......

 

[samheatherwhite]

I have a little time this morning so I thought I'd add a few details.

School is very important to G and missing very many days is not something she would want to do. Now that she is in Junior High it is even harder to be gone. So, I knew our plan would have to work around school. B is staying with his Gran and Grandad and I wanted to make it as easy for them as we could too.

I have a Southwest Credit Card which gives me points to fly free. Our flights to Orlando were completely covered which is awesome. Our flight out is at 8am, Saturday the 5th. The small airport that we fly out of is also about an hour and 15 minutes away from the house so we will need an early start. We have one stop but no plane change in Dallas (there are very rarely nonstop flights from out nearest airport since it is so small) and we should land in Orlando around 1:30pm.

We will probably Uber to the hotel. I am 100% certain that G would chose Cabana Bay so I booked it with a great group rate from OI. When we last vacationed in Orlando in 2016 that is where we stayed and my kids still consider that their favorite hotel. The vibe there is so fun with the 50's music and retro fun.

The meetup starts at 5 so we should have plenty of time to freshen up and get checked in and settled before we go to the event for the night. It runs from 5 pm to 1:30am for all the fun and treats.

We plan on sleeping in Sunday morning and my current plan is eating an early lunch at Toothsomes. It was being built the last time we were there and it holds a lot of interest for us. Once G knows about the trip she can help me plan so all things are subject to change according to her interests. I plan on pretty much following her lead on this one but I am also pretty sure what she will decide on. After lunch we will shop around on City Walk and then go to the meetup again that evening. It ends at midnight.

Our flights back home are Monday morning at 10:20. We will have a quick plane change in Dallas and should be home by 2:20.

It will be a fast, crazy trip but I feel like we have a good plan to minimize wasted time and G will only have to miss one day of school.

 

[samheatherwhite]

This is a pic from our previous trip in 2016. G was 9 and B was 4. They love Cabana Bay.
I made sure to put in the request for a room as close to the lobby as possible. That hotel was massive then and they’ve added on since.
We had a room that was about halfway down the corridor and it felt like miles. It took almost 10 minutes to get to the elevator.

 

[schumigirl]

Good for G not wanting to miss school! It`s lovely to hear that.

And my goodness they have grown up haven`t they!!! 4 years has made a huge difference to them. You have some good flights there, not too bad at all.

 

[samheatherwhite]

Good for G not wanting to miss school! It`s lovely to hear that.

And my goodness they have grown up haven`t they!!! 4 years has made a huge difference to them. You have some good flights there, not too bad at all.

School is very important to G. She wants to be a vet and already works hard toward that goal. She volunteers at a vet clinic all summer, Saturdays, and any other day she's off school. She's working on getting her Veterinary Assistant certification as well. She's done all of the class work and is almost finished with the 500 experience hours required. Then she will take a state exam and hopefully have that for her transcript. It is a college class that she has taken through 4H and homeschool and it should look really good on future applications. All of the UIL competitions that she participates in are done in November so December is really the best time for her to be gone. Everything lined up just right for this trip!

 

[schumigirl]

School is very important to G. She wants to be a vet and already works hard toward that goal. She volunteers at a vet clinic all summer, Saturdays, and any other day she's off school. She's working on getting her Veterinary Assistant certification as well. She's done all of the class work and is almost finished with the 500 experience hours required. Then she will take a state exam and hopefully have that for her transcript. It is a college class that she has taken through 4H and homeschool and it should look really good on future applications. All of the UIL competitions that she participates in are done in November so December is really the best time for her to be gone. Everything lined up just right for this trip!

Oh good luck to her with that. Sounds like she is making a fabulous start with all the volunteering she`s doing, while being at school will do her so much good.

Yes it`s nice when everything aligns in place.

She looks so grown up in the latest picture!!

 

[Vicki Rickerd]

I am planning on surprising her with the trip as her gift at her party

What a great gift!

 

[samheatherwhite]

I thought I’d a little bit about each of us here.

This is C and G on our 2 nd trip in 2016. C started the family’s interest in all things Harry Potter. She was the original fan and shared it with the rest of us.

A little backstory here. When G was in kindergarten I read her the first HP book. She loved it so we soon finished the second one. Since she was little and they get a little dark and scary, I told her she would be ready for book 3 when she could read the first two completely by herself and take the AR tests for it. So she did, before 1st grade! I thought the giant books might be too much for her. Nope, lol. She’s a reader!
She finished all 7 before Christmas in 2nd grade. C and I knew we had to get this girl to Universal. (Plus we wanted to go too of course)

C, my Mom, G, B, and I went for the kids first Universal trip in 2016. Diagon Alley was new and we went in the fall when it was very uncrowded and so much fun. G was 7 and B was 2. G’s love for Universal Studios was Official.
About 2 yearbefore, we hade taken a big family trip to Disney and I wondered how Universal would compare.

G had a blast at Disney but Universal was number 1. She loves thrill rides. At Disney here fave ride was Tower of Terror. (All 5 year olds love that one right!?!)
Universal had all of G’s Favorites. Minions, Jurassic park and Harry Potter ranked the highest with G.

Here is C taking the kids in for a Three Broomsticks lunch on our first trip. I made their shirts and loved how they turned out. It was a nice coincidence that Harry and Ron’s quidditch numbers happened to lune up with my kid’s ages at the time of the trip.

 

[samheatherwhite]

I thought I'd throw a little real life update in here because it is funny. As I mentioned before, G is working at a vet clinic as often as I will drive her. She loves animals and is always bringing something home to take care of. A little while back G brought home an orphaned kitten that was about 3 days old home for the weekend. It needed round the clock bottle feeding and care. The vet clinic had arranged a good home for the kitten but she could not be picked up until that next Monday so she stayed in G's room for a bit.
G's latest adventure happened yesterday. My Dad dropped by yesterday morning with an injured chicken for G to look at. My other sister E has several chickens and they think a skunk had gotten in and killed several birds and hurt my 3 year old nieces favorite friendly pet chicken. My Dad decided to bring poor Mia the chicken to my house so G could see if she could help her. G consulted with the vet and when she got home proceeded to crawl into the pen with Mia and clean her up and doctor her wounds. The good news is that G had the poor bird up and eating and drinking last night and she seems to be doing okay this morning. I never thought that I'd be babysitting a chicken on my porch but here we are.

 

[samheatherwhite]

Lena the foster kitten
Mia
The chicken. The silver is an antiseptic spray for animals that promotes healing and fights infection.

 

[samheatherwhite]

I have a little time this morning so I thought I'd drop back in. Texas (where we live) and Florida virus numbers are both a little disturbing at this point. Who knows what things will look like in December?!
One of the things that I enjoy so much with the disboards is being able to see other opinions from such a variety of places around the world. Our experience is so different from so many others. We live in a small town (300ish people) and it is very rural which has mostly been a blessing during social distancing.

I thought that I might take the time for anyone interested and share some of G's previous Birthday parties since they were all Harry Potter themed in some way.

 

[samheatherwhite]

In 2016 when G turned 9 she dressed up as Hermoine for Halloween and had a Honeydukes themed 9th birthday party. She won the HP themed costume contest at our nearest Barnes and Noble that year as well. She really does resemble Hermoine Granger in looks and also in personality.

HerHoneydukes cake was vanilla with pink and green layers on the inside as well. We used the glass jars from Universal to decorate the table. I bought candy mold that was frog shaped and made chocolate frogs and we made magic cauldron punch that sorted the guest into the correct Hogwarts houses. The night before the party I dropped red, blue, green, and yellow food coloring in the bottom of paper Cups and let it dry. Right before guests arrived I filled them with ice. When we added the magic potion (sprite) and stirred it magically changed color. G loved it and it was so much fun!

 

[samheatherwhite]

This is from Halloween 2017. G was Luna Lovegood and B was Owen Grady from Jurassic World. The sweet pirates are C’s girls.

B with Blue the velociraptor.

G’s 10th birthday was Gryffindor themed.
We had moroon and gold cake and Butterbeer flavored cookies, and my version of Gryffindor mini trifles.


B’s 6th birthday was Transformers themed. We made Vanilla Optimus Prime cupcakes and Chocolate Vanilla Bumblebee cupcakes.

 

[schumigirl]

View attachment 505084
In 2016 when G turned 9 she dressed up as Hermoine for Halloween and had a Honeydukes themed 9th birthday party. She won the HP themed costume contest at our nearest Barnes and Noble that year as well. She really does resemble Hermoine Granger in looks and also in personality.
View attachment 505085
HerHoneydukes cake was vanilla with pink and green layers on the inside as well. We used the glass jars from Universal to decorate the table. I bought candy mold that was frog shaped and made chocolate frogs and we made magic cauldron punch that sorted the guest into the correct Hogwarts houses. The night before the party I dropped red, blue, green, and yellow food coloring in the bottom of paper Cups and let it dry. Right before guests arrived I filled them with ice. When we added the magic potion (sprite) and stirred it magically changed color. G loved it and it was so much fun!

View attachment 505086
This is from Halloween 2017. G was Luna Lovegood and B was Owen Grady from Jurassic World. The sweet pirates are C’s girls.
View attachment 505087
B with Blue the velociraptor.
View attachment 505088
G’s 10th birthday was Gryffindor themed.
We had moroon and gold cake and Butterbeer flavored cookies, and my version of Gryffindor mini trifles.
View attachment 505089
View attachment 505090
B’s 6th birthday was Transformers themed. We made Vanilla Optimus Prime cupcakes and Chocolate Vanilla Bumblebee cupcakes.

Everything looks amazing, you can really see how much work went into everything!

And love the outfits, Hermione and Luna are fabulous characters to dress up as.

 

[samheatherwhite]

Everything looks amazing, you can really see how much work went into everything!

And love the outfits, Hermione and Luna are fabulous characters to dress up as.

Thanks, it was great fun!

 

[samheatherwhite]

I thought I’d add some more if the kid’s Universal themed fun.

Halloween 2018. We had moved previously so G decided to be Hermione again since her new friends hadn’t seen it. B was Blue the velociraptor from Jurassic World. C’s girls were beautiful Disney Princesses.

For her 11th birthday, G went with a Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes party. Everything was purple and orange and we recreated a bunch if the joke candy from the fun store.


For B’s 7th birthday he wanted a Jurassic World party.
We also made blue camo dinosaur cupcakeS for his classmates.