Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

Early Friday morning, I tried to avoid all of the controversy on Facebook. In case you hadn't heard, they banned the selfie stick from  all of the Disney Parks locations and the Disney discussion was running rampant. Just before I shut off my phone, I checked my email.  I love pixie dusted email! I squealed. I jumped up and down. I hopped onto Twitter and tweeted my disbelief. Then I hopped back onto Facebook and discovered my Disney BFF, Casey who blogs at Mommy to All Girls got in as well! We'll do our best to #KeepAustinGoofy and report back after the #DisneySMMC conference in August! FAQs: How do you get invited? Please visit www.disneysmmoms.com and add your email to their email list! You'll get notified when it's time to apply for future "On The Road" events. No one really knows how the selection process works, but you can never g wrong following Genie's advice to, "Just BEE yourself!" The Disney Social Media Moms Celebr...

Disney Cruise Line Pronunciation /ˈdɪzni  kruːz  laɪn/ Noun 1.) A magical sea voyage, especially taken for the pleasure of enjoying a wonderful award winning vacation. 2.) A fantasy often appearing on a Disney fan's bucket list, right under "spend the night in the Cinderella Castle Suite." 3.) A dream come true.  A helping hand before you set sail on your first cruise! If you've decided to pull a fairy godmother and Bibbiddi Bobbiddi Boo this fantasy into being, let's start you off with a few helpful hints: What I wished I knew before my first cruise: Top Ten Things to Know Before Your First Disney Cruise Top 10 More Things to Know Before Your 1st Disney Cruise Another 10 Things to Know Before Your 1st Disney Cruise Embarkation Day 101 Everything that happens between hopping a shuttle to the cruise terminal and dinner the first evening. Debarkation Three different ways to exit your cruise, from the speed demon to dragging your feet. Wh...

As Walt Disney said, "If you can dream it, you can do it!" So let's get dreaming!  In no particular order, here is the Ultimate Disney Fan Bucket List. Disneyland Take a walk in Walt's shoes and visit the original Disney park. Dapper Days. Skip down Main Street. Make a wish at Snow White's Wishing Well. Get your name on a pair of Mickey Ears. Buy a Mickey balloon. Dine at Club 33. Eat a Mickey Bar during the three o'clock parade. Ride the Mad Tea Party at night. Tour Walt's apartment. Dole Whip during fireworks. World of Color, Fantasmic! and Fireworks! Walt Disney World Character dining with the princesses. Ride on every form of Disney transportation. (Bus, boat, ferry, monorail, tea cup, pirate ship and railroad train.) Flag Retreat Ceremony. Snack all the way around the World Showcase during the Epcot Food and Wine Festival or the Flower and Garden Festival. Four parks one world challenge! (Photo in front of all four park ic...

I love that I received an open ended box for my party as it left us free to embrace any part of our #DisneySide. We invited a couple of our friends and all their kids over for a nice easy-going movie night featuring one of my new favorites, Big Hero 6.  Vague? Yes. But it got the point across.  I sometimes think that the nearest films, Big Hero 6 and Wreck It Ralph, get overlooked in the Frozen Fever. So much overlooked, that even my DVC friends hadn't seen Big Hero 6. They all agreed to come in their favorite #DisneySide shirts and ears. Fast forward to the 21st of February and all of the part decorations, plates and homemade Spinach Artichoke Hum-mouse and salsa were set.  It's party time! Hum-mouse, Salsa, Chips, Disney Quotes Match-Ups and Crosswords! As the first guests arrived, we broke out the Pin-the-Grin on Mickey. The boy who won got Mickey stickers and pencils courtesy of the @Home box. As the girls arrived, my daughter and the other pr...

So back in January, I squealed and danced around the living room on account of a very  pixie dusted email . Five days before our Three Mousekateers trip, our FedEx driver dropped by a very magical package that continued the dancing. There may have been an impromptu dance number associated with the box magically appearing on my door step. Now what on earth was hiding in this lovely box?   Nail polish, and sprinkles and coupons. Oh my! 1. #DisneySide , 2. #DisneySide , 3. #DisneySide , 4. #DisneySide , 5. #DisneySide , 6. #DisneySide , 7. #DisneySide , 8. #DisneySide , 9. #DisneySide , 10. #DisneySide , 11. #DisneySide , 12. #DisneySide , 13. #DisneySide  What's in the 2015 #DisneySide @Home Celebration box??? 1. #DisneySide , 2. #DisneySide , 3. #DisneySide , 4. #DisneySide , 5. #DisneySide , 6. #DisneySide , 7. #DisneySide , 8. #DisneySide , 9. #DisneySide , 10. #DisneySide , 11. #DisneySide , 12. #DisneySide , 13. #DisneySide Honestly, that's only a...

Have you ever fantasized about spending a week cruising the Eastern Caribbean in the Walter E. Disney Suite? Come along for the ride as we rewind back to our Very MerryTime cruise courtesy of the Disney Cruise Line. Beware, jellyfish ahead!   Episode VI: A New Ship Disney Fantasy November 29, 2014 Seven Night Eastern Caribbean A New Ship The Journey Begins Glacial Breakfast First Terrarium Second Terrarium Good Morning! Raspberry Dust and Botanists I Spy Personal Flurries Bobbing Along Meanwhile Back on St. John Meanwhile Back on the Ship Palo in Pajamas Have Fun Storming the Castle! Heffalumps and Sea Turtles Something About Apples Little Paper Cabana Cabana 18 Kisses and Castaways Now with added mice! Jaq and Gus! To answer the obvious question, Episode I, aka our first cruise (in which the kids are left ashore in the tender care of their grandparents) is not written or linked anywhere yet! Episode II and V can also be read in t...

My daughter is thrilled and very excited to add "Jedi Training Academy" to her must do list for our next trip to Disney's Hollywood Studios. So I couldn't resist getting my youngling her very own Ahsoka hoodie for her birthday. Happy Birthday, little padawan. I'm so glad that Ashley Eckstein (who, incidentally also voices the character Ahsoka in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series) features all the cute and girly clothes a little girly Star Wars fan might want. So I tweeted this photo of Kylee on her birthday. Add caption Ashley, being an awesome human being, tweeted back to with her a Happy Birthday. I told Kylee.  WHATTTTT!?! She wants to know when she'll be old enough for her own twitter feed so that "I can be friends with Ahsoka too. The #DisneySide is strong with this one. Thank you again, for making her birthday super special! 

A few days ago I opened my email to a pixie-dusted surprise! It said congratulations! I jumped around in full on excitement mode. Ben asked me what it was. I said, clearly the Disney Parks Moms Panel decided they needed me after all. (Wishful thinking?) Nope, but I *did* get selected by Disney Side Celebrations to plan a celebration of my choosing! I can't help but dream and imagine which way to plan our ultimate #DisneySide party! I will receive free products in order to host the Disney Side @Home Celebration. The opinions expressed here are my own. I'm stuck between a Very Merry Unbirthday party, a Wilderness Explorer themed badge party for my daughter's girl scout troop (I love Up!), maybe a Mad Tea Party, a princess slumber party, maybe a dip into Disney history for our homeschool park group...the possibilities are endless! I guess I just need to patiently wait for my package to see what products I get to work with...If you could pic...

Welcome Wordless Wednesday Blog Hoppers! Embracing my musical #DisneySide I grew up in the golden revival of the Disney musical. If you dissect my #DisneySide, Ariel, Belle and Lion King music is a big part of it! Do you have one favorite Disney song? Bonus #DisneySide Question: How many Mickeys can you spot above? Thank you to Focused on the Magic for hosting!  

If my post on the recent warnings about the dangers of the stick figure family on the back of your minivan failed to move you (and you're in good company, I still have mine) then you're in luck! Especially if you like freebies. Disney Parks launched " Build Your Disney Side " on their website last week, allowing those of us with a #DisneySide a mile wide to debate the merits of our stick figure avatar carrying a dole whip, magic wand, churro or pirate sword. After customizing and recustomizing, you receive links to share your Disney Side family on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, Twitter or Pinterest. What? No DCL background? They offer a link to download your picture and also order your decal for your car free! Just make sure you like it before your order as you may go back and edit anytime, but once you've ordered, it's one per household.

So after several months of research, late night conversations and soul searching our family finally decided to take the plunge into uncharted waters. No, we're not cruising to Alaska or the Panama Canal (yet) although that is still firmly on our Disney bucket list. We're joining the ranks of the Duggars; no, I'm not pregnant. Starting at the end of the 2013-2014 school year, we're going to start homeschooling both of our children! Our next great adventure! Channeling my #DisneySide, I decided to celebrate my new found peace and future with some books. After a bit of browsing, my #DisneySide Amazon Wish List is set for the foreseeable future. For a little light reading for me, I picked out The Thinking Fans Guide to Walt Disney World by Aaron Wallace. I thumbed through this a month ago in Barnes and Noble, meant to buy it and got distracted and set it down. It looks right up my alley though and I should have a book review on that once it arrives. More in the...

We stumbled upon a Junior Avengers training session just about to start at our Disney store this last weekend. They've been holding these occasionally since 2012, but my son only recently got into the super hero thing (outside of Jedi of course.) After spreading out the Junior Avengers assembled for the training, a cast member leads the children through a pledge and then some training exercises.  "And assist the Avengers whenever necessary." Although the Iron Man and Thor training are adorable, nothing beats the sound of half a dozen kids stomping, clapping and growling like the Hulk. My daughter's favorite part was getting her very own Official Junior Avenger ID card with her name on it. (The cast member writes the names on them and hands them out after the training.) All if all not a bad Saturday afternoon! I don't know if this is a regular event at the stores, but if you see it going on, I highly recommend joining in and embracing your #DisneySide sup...