Of course….of course the weekend we are going to MNSSHP (Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party), Hurricane Ian has decided to make an appearance ::sigh::. Why do I bother planning anything at all?! We are super lucky in that all of our windows and doors are hurricane impact, so we do not have to worry about as much anymore in regards to boarding up and putting up shutters, which let me tell you is a demon in and of its own.
We are watching it super closely and FOR NOW and from WHAT I CAN SEE (meteorologist I am not), but #floridahasamindofitsown, it looks like it will be over in Orlando by Friday. The Weather Channel is showing rain up until the evening, which is fine by me because the event is not until 7pm, and I am good with clouds and a smattering of rain if that is it. For October 1st which also just so happens to be Epcot’s 40th it shows blue skies and 20% chance of rain. All this to say that I just need everyone to say a silent prayer that it stays that way because you never know with the weather here (#ihatehurricaneseason).
If you are new here, you know what else happens the night of the 30th?! The Boo Fairy makes their grand entrance. Don’t know what a Boo Fairy is?! (read more about it HERE). Well then prepare yourself for how I cannot do anything the simple way and try to top myself every year. I am used to packing up celebratory decorations and gifts and taking them to Disney, so although this might be excessive to some, it is kind of second nature to me at this point. I create a separate list of everything in my phone that I need to bring with us and then in my Vera Bradley Grand Weekender, I pack everything from decorations,boo baskets, boo treats, and anything else that is used for the night of. Sean and I normally have to wait for the kids to fall asleep to decorate which means midnight or some time after (don’t ask) and having everything in one bag makes it easy and we end up not making too much noise rifling through everything.
Before we get to that, lets get to the what we packed for the weekend and most importantly the Halloween Party (do not judge).
For the Disney Halloween party, I try to do theme family Disney outfits, but honestly with the Iceland trip and everything, I just did not have it in me and plus I heard it has been excessively hot and I did not want to pack something the kids were going to have a breakdown in. I already know the amount of costumes we are bringing are ‘a lot’ by anyone’s standards, but my kids can change their mind at a drop of a hat, so this is just easier and everything still fit in one suitcase. For the first time in forever (sing it in your head, I know you are) there is actually one Princess dress that EV will now where and it is this Elena dress.
She absolutely loves Elena of Avalor, this dress has barely any sparkle and the tulle does not touch her so this was kind of a first and if she wanted to wear it, I was not going to deny her. All the other brand new Princess dresses we got her during the height of the pandemic were kindly donated to her cousin and she did so gladly lol.
I also brought a Ms. Marvel that I purchased on Mercari from the Marvel Rising show. Can someone please tell me why this show is so epic and there is no merchandise for little girls?! Seriously, inquiring girl minds want to know. She also loves the Descendants cartoon Wicked World, so I got her a really cute Mal cosplay dress (HERE) in case it was really hot she would still feel ‘dressed’ up, without being in an excessively hot costume. I had already planned to wear my DressShop Maleficient dress so now I just think that it is really cute that they go together.
For the Commodore, he has a Spiderman costume, Cat Boy from PJ Masks and Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty (I am secretly hoping for an Elena/Prince Philip situation, but I have no idea if EV will want to be in a stroller with a poufy Elena dress). I also purchased THIS Spiderman cosplay t-shirt, so again, if it is really hot he can be dressed up without being uncomfortable. The ‘cosplay’ outfits regardless will be in our daypack so that the kiddos can change into them if anything. Also, why is there not boy Descendants outfits?! With as wildly popular as the show is, there are none of boy costumes? Marketing is weird.
Anywho I digress, but here is everything packed.
I used the zipper pocket for all of the costumes and the regular side for their clothes and accessories (underwear, shoes, etc.) for the rest of the weekend.
I was still able to get all of their stuff in one suitcase so I did not mind loading up on costumes. Did I mention that we do not need a separate Vera for diapers and such since over the last week the Commodore potty-trained himself?! He doesn’t even need diapers at night. Strangest situation ever, but I am a 100% here for it. I literally have no tips and tricks as he did this all on his own…
As mentioned, Mama here is planning on wearing the DressShop Maleficient dress and I bought THESE horns from Target. I actually have two pairs of them. They are incredibly comfortable to wear, I love the way they look and for five dollars, they are an absolute steal. The dress is kind of a rockabilly style, so I also packed a black petticoat for underneath as well. Obviously all on the zippered side so the costumes stay nice.
On October 1st (Saturday) it is Epcot’s 40th, so I have cute matching Disney Halloween outfits planned (gotta get em’ all in you know) and then at 9pm we have Oga’s Cantina reservations and I packed Star Wars inspired outfits for that and packed up their lightsabers so that they could play in front of the Millenium Falcon at night with them. I actually have these outfits in a storage cube that I plan to put in their stroller, so that they can change into them. Welcome #extra party of one.
Now on to the Boo Fairy. I used to have the Boo Fairy visit the night before Halloween, but since I want the kids to enjoy their treats, I changed it to October 1st.
Basically, the Boo Fairy visits and drops off a Halloween basket/bucket that is filled with all kinds of spooky goodness. I recently got the below door from the Bullseye Playground and I am going to make it the door that the fairy uses to enter our room. Writing it sounds more terrifying than it is.
I have done the Boo Fairy twice now in Disney and it works out fairly well. I tend to put both of their baskets in the weekender and fill it with all of their prospective goodies and that way all I am doing is taking out the baskets, setting them up and taking my happy butt back to bed since my alarm is set for 6:50 so I can do the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind and get my happy butt to Epcot early to get all the 40th merch (#priorities).
Now just take a minute to take in the gorgeousness of these Boo Baskets I acquired.
I got the baskets from Homegoods and I absolutely love them, they are beautiful and we can use them for years to come. The only problem I have with them (#firstworldproblems) is that they do not stack into one another and they are cloth so I cannot keep them in our garage. Which means that I will now have to have a place to store them inside of our house instead of stacking the plastics ones on a shelf in our garage. But just look at them….worth it!
Here are all the treats we scooped. Most we got from the Bullseye section, but the Harry Potter and Hermione wands are from the toy section at Target. I was hoping to score the Luna Lovegood as EV has the ‘real’ one from the WB Tour in London and I would have liked something she could just go hogwild with and not care if it broke. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find, so these will have to do. The Halloween section also has similar wands, but I just ended up buying the Albus Dumbledore ones.
The Halloween Mickey plate set and the Halloween hooded towels (which I adore FYI) I got at the end of August/beginning of September. I also picked up the Boo Baskets this day as well. What can I say?! I am a planner to an extreme.
Once I lay out all the treats, I separate them by kid, put the baskets in the weekender like so…
I then put everything in their prospective baskets, so I can take everything out in one fell swoop and I put all the set up stuff (lights, balloons, door, etc) around it or in the pockets on the inside of the bag.
Everything fit pretty nicely, even the plate sets and the Boo Fairy door, so set-up should go pretty smoothly.
Fingers are now crossed that weather holds up and that we are able to drive into Orlando without too much issue. My best friend lives in the area and called to let me know that flooding and power outages were a real issue and to just be careful driving. The weather channel makes it look like its the most gorgeous of the weekends, so here is to hoping,
So tell me, are you the boo basket type? Is Halloween your thing, but this is just a ‘little’ (done with your pointer and thumb) over the top for you? Or are you an all out create a mythical creature called the Boo Fairy and buy a door for which they can enter kind of individual?!
