The countdown to 'D'-isney Day

Today our countdown is 156 days, I know this thanks to 2 things; the countdown chart the kids and I made, and the countdown tool on the DIBB forums.

Even though our countdown to d day began more than 100 days before I made the chart, we didn't start the chart until 200 days. Our chart is drawn out on an A2 and although I've previously used coloured paper I had recently bought a giant sketch pad and so used that instead. I simply drew out a 20 x 10 grid and wrote out each single day from 200 down to 1 so the boys had a visual understanding of how far away their holiday is (I find it works wonders as they start asking over and over as soon as you tell them you've booked). 

As we now have a grid ready this is where the kids joined in, they have loads of Disney and Marvel sticker books, stampers, etc to use so they always enjoy decorating the charts - and the stickers used to fill in the days come from the packs I've bought specially from Hobbycraft - they have loads to choose from but we have gone for  the Sandylion sticker designs of Marvel heroes to denote Universal and the Disney ones, well for obvious reasons... but they do also have princesses, etc. I can't remember how much exactly we paid for them but it wouldn't have been more than £2 each and you get 100 stickers in each of varied designs. However, if one of the kids comes home from school with a sticker we use that on the chart either for decoration or in the countdown - the boys love to look back and recall what their sticker was for. Each day a different family member puts the sticker on, so we're all involved.

So I must confess that we do leave the house sometimes for days at a time and this can lead to confusion as to what number we should be at, this time to prevent the confusion I've also pencilled in the dates for easy catch up, and unless you look up close you can't see it anyway.

Now the other great thing about the countdown calendar is that you can see exactly when it's your 180 day for making Advanced Dining Reservations, and if you're Disney Vacation Club members then it's great for keeping stock of 11 and 7 month tweeking windows - I'll tell you our plans so far next time...

And, once you've finished with your countdown calendar, well it's no use to use as a countdown again then why not use it as decoration for your new savings tub... because everyone who's been to Disney knows that you get the buzz and will want to go time and time again!