Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

Welcome Wordless Wednesday Blog Hoppers! This week Deb at Focused on the Magic invited us to share something really good, Wordless Wednesday style. I'm sharing the Eastern Caribbean, Specifically San Jose, Puerto Rico. Castillo de San Felipe Thank you to Focused on the Magic for hosting!

EDIT TO ADD: No longer available on WordPress. That site is defunct. If you're looking for Adventure in the Great Wide Somewhere, I'm moving to WordPress at www.adventurermom.com See ya real soon!

I'm in the middle of making some changes around here...   What on earth is she up to now?   Stay tuned!

To get the non-legal-ese out of the way: I have no financial relationship of any kind with Erin Condren. I don't receive free products or any form of compensations. I just really, really love my planner. Almost to the end of last year's LifePlanner I squeaked with delight when I scrolled through the options for shiny new LifePlanners in mid-June. There, hidden in plain sight among the beautiful, inspirational covers sat the only option I could consider. "Create Your Own." I spent half the day designing my cover only to discover that the computer/bandwith/website did not want me to upload pictures. Banking on the fact that it was the first day that the 2015/2016 planners appeared, I vowed to try again the next morning. I love the smell of office supplies in the morning. Around 5 am the following morning, it uploaded straight away! I loved the picture I'd uploaded and was super excited for my box day to arrive... Box Day! I opened it up to disc...

The sun rose cool and clear on our first day of the Disney Youth Education Series  Program. Day six in the parks with an 8:15 meeting time? Good morning! Good morning! It's great to stay up late! No problem. We were even early enough to use the wash rooms and plop on the ground to invent our very own version of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.  Do Dalmatians beat fairies? The world may never know. We met our group leader who lead us in to the park and straight for a restroom break (just in case!) and then introduced our merry band of six kids and their adults to Main Street U.S.A as you've never seen her before...  Waving hello to the cast members as they ride down Main Street in the morning quiet. Main Street, U.S.A. slowly wakes up as the cast members call merry greetings in a way that makes the whole "transported to 1900" even more real. The kids searched high and low to fulfill their first mission: to count how many kinds of moving machin...

Welcome Wordless Wednesday Blog Hoppers! This week Deb at Focused on the Magic invited us to share our favorite Wild Rides, Wordless Wednesday style. Given that my kids just crossed the 44" mark, our definition of wild rides is a bit different than most people's. A Very Merry Unbirthday to You! When I see an elephant fly!  A dream is a wish your heart makes. Thank you to Focused on the Magic for hosting!

We all wish to give our children a well-rounded education. In our house this means exposure to Beethoven, Aesop's Fables, the Bible, history, manners, phonics, cursive, reading all manner of classics, learning foreign language at a young age, singing, basics of piano, music theory and video games too.   Which games are worth pulling out of storage and which are better left in the eighties? I grew up right along with the Nintendo. My grandmother gave us the Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas when I was in kindergarten and the Super Nintendo came along when I was eight. The Nintendo 64 came along just in time for high school with the GameCube accompanying my college days. My son's birth fell within months of the premiere of the Wii, ushering in a second generation of console gamers. When kids are increasingly comfortable with Minecraft, surfing Netflix via the PS4 and unlocking the old iPad to play a few rounds of educational apps ( Teach Me! is their curr...

The three mouseketeers took our brand new Senior Wilderness Explorer badges and hopped a bus to Magic Kingdom.  Faith, trust and Pixie Dust! We swung by Town Hall to meet Tinker Bell courtesy of a FastPass+ then mixed in our first ride on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin to "de-girl-ify" the afternoon. Then I got to pick the next ride, so Carousel of Progress! The kids enjoyed the surprise (as they had no knowledge of the ride going in) but they liked it.  Kylee in the Rose Garden We headed back to Main Street, U.S.A. to meet Mickey (our second FastPass) then wait for our last FastPass, reserved viewing for the Festival of Fantasy parade. But first snacks!  As much as I'm a Dole Whip purist, everyone must visit the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor for a parade snack. Waiting with his (regular) ice cream cone until his sister received her special dairy free cone? So sweet. Thankfully we planned a little extra time for Kylee's ice cream cone an...

Independence day means celebrating America! Barbecue (barbeque or BBQ, depending on the region), family, fireworks, watermelons, swimming and general merriment abound. After a day or two, my family needs a little downtime, so we fall back on our favorite kid friendly movies about the revolution, patriotism and American apple pie nostalgia. Ten kid friendly films perfect for Labor Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July In no particular order: The Top Ten Family Friendly Fourth of July Movies   Ben & Me Passed The classic film short following the mouse behind the man. See Benjamin Franklin's adventures from inventions to the Declaration of Independence. Disney's American Legends Direct to DVD - I'd rate it G James Earl Jones introduces the legends of John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan and Casey Jones. Try watching these without reminiscing about elementary school movie days. Not really possible is it? Yankee Doodle Cricket TV Movie - I'd ra...

Last year by late June, the #DisneyMP twitter tag enjoyed a workout as all of the #2015Hopefuls proceeded to begin the annual process of waiting and hoping for pixie dust emails know as the Disney Parks Moms Panel Search. The aura of mystery around the selection process keeps us hopefuls coming back each year to wish on a star for this year to be "our year" on the panel. Just keep writing. Just keep writing. What do we do? Somehow last year, I *did* manage to make the final round(s) so I feel well equipped to tell you roughly the proper process to make it through to the finals. 1.) Notice round 1 dates are announced on the Disney Parks Blog, Twitter and/or other forms of social media. (Approximately end of August)  2.) Apply as soon as applications open. (Around Labor Day week.) 3.) Read over your essays. Spellcheck. More than once. Be mindful of proper nomenclature. (I'm embarrassed to say that this takes me an hour or two depending how much "assistance...

Welcome Wordless Wednesday Blog Hoppers! Can I just stop for a moment and say how shocked I am it's July? Deb, am I right that this year is going super fast?    Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom swapping cards before rope drop. Do you have any Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom fans among your mousekateers? Thank you to Focused on the Magic for hosting!