I am so excited for Aug 20th! Why? Because on August 20th my annual pass will be valid once again. After an agonizing summer of seeing pictures of Radiator Springs, Cars Land and Buena Vista Street, the wait will finally be over!

To ease the wait and to get the kids geared up for our soon-to-be-visit, here is a countdown calendar featuring Mickey Mouse and several fun activities to while away the time.

What you’ll need:

• 10 paint samples, about 3×4 inches sized
• 1 12 x 12 inch cardstock paper
• adhesive backed magnetic tape
• scissors
• permanent marker

Using a pizza pie tin, mark your outline by folding the excess paper over the edge.

The cut out portion was from another project. If it hadn’t been cut, one 12×12 would have done just fine.

Cut along the bent edge you’ve just created.

To cut out 10 Mickey Mouses, I used the Mickey head from this printable project. It’s a template for a Printable Mickey Mouse Cutie. Don’t worry about anything but the head. Print out the template, then use the back of Mickey’s head as a template against the paint samples.

Try to avoid cutting out the name of the paint sample on your Mickey.

Notice the yellow portion to fill in the cut out. (Again, not necessary)

Once your 10 Mickey’s are cut, start cutting little squares from the adhesive magnetic tape and attach them to the back of the 12×12 card stock.

Flip over the giant blue circle you’ve just created. This will be the back for your calendar. It should magnetically stick to the pie pan. Then glue on the Mickey’s around the circle.

Once they’re glued on, you can write different activities to do on each day until the wait is over. Start with more involved activities first. Here are some ideas to get you going:

• Make your own autograph book
• Visit the Disney Store and buy some new pins for trading
• Point of view videos of the rides (many are found on youtube.com)
• Watch Mater’s Tall Tales: There are lots of memorabilia from Mater’s Tall Tales in the queue at Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree
• Have the kiddos “map” out your plan of attack; what rides are the “can’t miss rides”
• How do you measure up?: Some kiddos may have grown a bit since they last visited Disneyland. See which rides they can go on.
• Gear up with Mickey Pancakes for breakfast
• Pack (item’s like drinks, camera, snacks, juice boxes, sunscreen, change of clothes, toothbrushes, etc. For a great list, check out this post).
• Watch Cars
• Disney craft from Disneyfamily.com
• Plan your character meet-and-greets and times
• Write a “wish you were here” letter to be mailed from inside Disneyland.

The last Mickey is left blank because the wait is over! Get ready, set, go!

Use a permanent marker. This was my first Mickey and I did not use one. Oops.

I used a coloring page from a Disney coloring book. There are tons of coloring pages available here from Disney family.com. The kiddos are on a Donald kick right now and so I pulled a page out of an Independence Day Disney coloring book. I thought the illustration was apropo. Color it and glue it in the center of the calendar.

Once your calendar is complete, you can leave it on the pie plate, or stick it up on the fridge. It’s magnetic after all and will easily transfer.

On the pie plate.

Or the fridge!