Countdown to Disney!

I'm not sure who is more excited, me or the kids?

We will be taking our two children to Disney World for their spring break and I just can't wait.

I have a countdown app on my phone.  I've downloaded the Disney World app.  I've read hundreds of blogs and message boards for ideas and tips.

I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to Disney Ideas!

By far the most fun we've had so far is creating our very own countdown paper chains.


Here we have 78 days until Disney.  Each Mickey Mouse theme chain is 20 days.  Each Princess chain is 14 days and the Woody theme chain is 10 days.

You can make your chains as long or as short as you need.  We had fun mixing and matching different characters to make our countdown.

To hand in the hall near the kids room I just used some clear command hooks that will come up super easy when our countdown is finished!


I found wonderful directions and templates for the Mickey Mouse countdown.

I was inspired by Making the World Cuter for my Princess chains.

I was determined to make my son's favorite character Woody and just made it up as I went.

Here's what we did:

Elsa:

All paper links were cut 1.5" wide and 8.5" long from colored construction paper.

2 Peach links for the face and neck.
12 Peach links for the dress.
White construction paper for hair.
White copy paper for accents.

Once all cut and pasted together I made white snowflakes from copy paper.

I cut one 2"x 8.5" white link into thirds.  Then with my daughters help we braided the three pieces.  With a staple at the top and the bottom to hold them we used a scrap piece of paper to glue a hair tie over the staple and embellished with a snowflake.  I then stapled the braid to the side of the top link and then glued a 1.5"x 4" white construction paper band over the top of the top link and braid to make the hair.

Anna:

All paper links were cut 1.5" wide and 8.5" long from colored construction paper.

2 Peach links for the face and neck.
4 black links for the bodice of dress.
8 green links for bottom of dress.
Glitter glue pens.
Brown construction paper for hair.
White construction paper for hair.

The second black ring of the dress we used glitter glue pens to create a decoration like the dress that Anna wore.  This needed some time to dry.

Once all cut and pasted together I made white snowflakes from copy paper.

       I cut two 2"x 8.5" brown link into thirds (discard one length).  I used a scrap of white the same size for the white stripe in Anna's braid.  Then with my daughters help we braided the three pieces into two separate braids.  With a staple at the top and the bottom of each to hold them we used a scrap piece of paper to glue a hair tie over the staple .  I then stapled the braids to the each side of the top link.  Next I took another brown link, folded over a portion of the edge and cut a fringe into it.  I glued this on for Anna's bangs and then glued a 1.5"x 4" brown construction paper band over the top of the top link and braid to make the hair.

 Woody:

All paper links were cut 1.5" wide and 8.5" long from colored construction paper.

2 Peach links for the face and neck.
2 yellow links for shirt.
1 custom cut link for shirt collar.
3 blue links for blue jeans.
2 brown links for cowboy boots.
Scrap of red construction paper.
White construction paper
Scrap of brown construction paper.


The custom cut yellow link is 1.5" x 8.5" but has two triangular tabs on it with a 1.5" gap between the tabs.  This allows the last peach link to sit between them and when folded down it looks like Woody's shirt collar.

The small scrap of red construction paper is wrapped around the second peach link to be Woody's bandanna.

The scraps of white paper are rounded to look like Woody's vest and using a black pen I colored spots on it for the cowhide look.  These were glued to the side of the custom yellow link but left unsecured at the bottoms so they hung over into the blank space for the next ring.

I made the hat by just drawing a general shape on brown paper and then folding over a brim and gluing to the first peach ring.

You could lengthen this chain by increasing the yellow, blue, and brown links but remember that Woody is tall and thin.

It's sad that we'll be taking these apart, but it's a fun way for the kids to keep track of how many days we have left.  They had a great time making them and are thrilled to have them in their hallway to remove a link each morning!