Happy Valentine's Day!

Breakfast is served.......



A balloon from Grandpa!


A singing Princess Valentine's Day card from Grandma and Grandpa



Hello Kitty from Build-A-Bear - thank you Grandma!


Little People Sweet Shop



Crafts and Love!


Thank you to Uncle Fred and Aunt Carol for a card and gift too!!!

Last Day - *Cry*

Marissa Winokur (Hairspray and Dancing with the Stars) - one of the speakers and so kind to pose for photos!




The first speaker at the conference was Maxine Clark, CEO of Build-A-Bear. She gave such an awesome speech.......very touching. There was a quotable soundbite every other sentence. Amazing woman. She had a bear/plush on every table with a princess costume and they were given away as door prizes.

"Think about what COULD be."
"One word employee training manual - YES."
"You can never have too many shoes or too many teddy bears."
"You can take the girl out of BAB, but you can't take the BAB out of the girl."
"Cute sells."


A toast at lunch to new friends and the wonderful Disney company.



Debra from A Frugal Friend.



Barb - Rural Mom (www.ruralmom.com) and Marissa Winokur


In addition to all the wonderful gifts from Disney, I won a culinary basket filled with cooking tools and two cookbooks! Even the basket is adorable.




The party the last night was at Hollywood Studios. Maya and Jenna had a blast. Jenna's mom, Maricris, writes Zen MamaVentures. Lucky for me, our paths crossed frequently and I loved hanging out with her and her family.

FTC regulations require that I disclose attendance at the Social Media Moms Celebration at Disney World. As part of the conference, I am receiving complementary items, special discounts, and other benefits so that I can experience the magic of Walt Disney World.

Another day at Disney!

The morning event for me was a Disney celebration of the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program. A sculpture created with cans of food, actually broke a Guinness World Record. It was hidden behind a LOT of balloons. Ty Pennington (so cool!) came in to say, "Move those balloons!" and we saw the sculpture.




Okay for all of you who have been forced, oops, lucky enough to have Wayne tie you down, oops I mean show you his favorite food network show, Dinner Impossible....you know how great this was. Robert Irvine, of Dinner Impossible, MADE OUR DINNER. Woooo-hooooooo! An episode of his show was filmed at Disney with Robert being told he was cooking for 300, oops, 3000 people! How cool!!!! And delicious!!!!



We ate with Debra, who writes A Frugal Friend and her family. It was a funny coincidence - I had left a comment on her blog and she had emailed me that we should get our girls together. When Wayne and I sat down, we exchanged names and it was her! How fun! Maya and Abigail did have a blast, both are dancers and there was lots of music.

Wayne told Debra the story of Christina's illness and she gave us an autographed picture of Joe Jonas to give to her! How generous!!! Joe Jones and a star of Camp Rock performed a new song.


One of the special Disney moments, Maya wouldn't let go of Daddy's hand. So adorable. So much bonding on this trip. Love, love, loved it.



Maya with Jenna and her family on the monorail - I'm so happy that Maya is making so many new friends!

FTC regulations require that I disclose attendance at the Social Media Moms Celebration at Disney World. As part of the conference, I am receiving complementary items, special discounts, and other benefits so that I can experience the magic of Walt Disney World.

Disney Social Media Moms - Wide World of Sports

Now we're officially on the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration portion of our trip. Wow, Disney can make you feel so special!



We moved from the All-Star Music to the Polynesian. We joked that we were going from rags to riches. While the Polynesian is definitely NICE, I do have to say that so was the All-Star Music. There were things about both that I liked. Our room here at the Polynesian is large, by any standards, DisneyWorld or not. It has a flat screen tv, couch, large bathroom... beautiful. And the colors are very calm and restful. The All-Star room was bigger than we expected however and certainly large enough for our needs. With three people, we were quite comfortable. The colors and decor are more geared toward children with bright colors and the general atmosphere is more charged with excitement. Also, the All-Star had a very large "food court" type counter service restaurant that was very clean and bright - a good gathering place for families traveling together. We stayed at Port Orleans last time and that had its advantages also. I think any Disney Resort is going to be comfortable, clean and very convenient.

While we were waiting for our room at Polynesian, we met Consumer King and Queen, Daniel and Melissa! I won a $500 Walmart gift card at Consumer Queen, so I was thrilled to be able to thank her in person. Such a nice family. They had two bags full of cool stuff and when I asked where it was from..... it was the conference goody bag. When we went to the Hospitality Suite, I was given one too. Two watches, picnic blanket, game set and more. Wow. Treated like VIPs and gifts...amazing.




Disney had a special event planned for us at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. How fun! I'd never been there before and I was amazed. It is huge. Disney has partnered with ESPN to create an incredible experience for the sports traveler. One of their goals is to make children and parents feel like they have made it to the "big time" when they participate in, or win, an event here. We certainly felt like winners! Wayne and Maya played ping pong while I heard an update on new things happening at the park and cruise line. (more about that later)



The party after the press event was so fun! Maya is a little shy about leaving us, but after a little warm-up time, she was on stage and dancing with the kids. Many of the most beloved Disney characters were there and Maya was bordering on becoming a Minnie-stalker. Big fun - for all of us. Even Wayne was pulled out of his seat and danced with Daisy Duck!






Chicken dance champion!




FTC regulations require that I disclose attendance at the Social Media Moms Celebration at Disney World. As part of the conference, I am receiving complementary items, special discounts, and other benefits so that I can experience the magic of Walt Disney World.

Rain Delay....

We're in a rain delay.... no complaining here though! Cousin Laverne called us and said that Midway was closed and they were expecting more snow today. Washington DC and the east coast are a mess. Many of the people I follow on twitter are trapped and unable to get here for the conference. So we are not complaining about a bit of rain!



We said good-bye to Jim, Jan, and Josyah this morning. Josyah is also 4 years old and we were so happy to meet them!




For light rain, our gear was enough but as it got heavier, we realized we weren't going to be able to stay without risking getting sick. Not worth that! Before we left Hollywood, we were able to see several attractions. The Beauty and the Beast live-actor-Broadway-type show was excellent. We enjoyed the music and dancing. The costumes and set were especially bright and a visual treat.




We had lunch at Hollywood and Vine with the Little Einsteins and Jojo and Goliath. The food was delicious - and unusual. Artichoke salad, corn chowder, corn spoon bread, delicious salads, flank steak and yummy desserts - strawberry shortcake, chocolate mousse, soft serve ice cream, apple crumble, cookies, and fruit tarts. Maya loved seeing the characters and dancing with them to Playhouse Disney songs!

The Voyage of the Little Mermaid show was good - but Wayne didn't get to see it. We were in line and realized that Lamby was missing...again. Wayne volunteered to go to search and Maya and I went to the show. (Can't imagine why Wayne wouldn't be excited about Ariel, hehehe). It was a mixture of live action, animated film, and puppets. The lighting and set was magical, Maya loved it. And seeing Ariel. Especially because we haven't seen many of the Disney movies, it's fun to see/hear the stories. AND in case you were worried, Wayne was waiting outside for us with the lamb-ster, no worse for wear. Well, she is worse for wear! But she was okay and hanging out with Goliath. (the lion and the lamb......)


After a warm bath aka bubble party, we decided to stay in our "pajohnnies" and had pizza for dinner. We went to the counter-service restaurant here at All Star and took a pepperoni pizza back to our room. It was surprisingly good for a fast food pizza.

Hollywood and 1900 Park Fare

Today is Monday, it must be Hollywood!

We got a late start because we saw the SHUTTLE LAUNCH, wooooo-hooooooo!!!! This was the last night launch and we just didn’t want to miss it (although Wayne wouldn’t drive to Cape Canaveral or wherever) so we got up at 4:00 am bundled up Maya in the stroller, trying to explain to her that Mr. Disney didn’t make this one, and headed out where we had a view of the Eastern sky (at the bus stop). Right on time, I think it was 4:14 am, we saw a bright star-like object but it was going up instead of falling! So cool! I was so glad we did it. It was a small drop of brightness in the sky, and we would have had a much better view on tv, but there was something about having the opportunity to see it in person. Very cool! Then we turned around and went right back to bed!

It was also laundry day. It would have been impossible to pack for 12 days, so we packed for six and did laundry. I had actually worn all my clothes, yay me, usually the queen of over packing and having tons of un-worn clothes. Maya did have quite a few un-worn, but that’s because I brought her so many summer clothes and it’s been too chilly. As it turned out, it was also like a girlfriend coffee, there were two especially nice women from one of the Carolina's that I ended up talking to for about an hour and a half while we did laundry.




So, we ended up eating lunch here at All Star and then took the bus to Hollywood Studios. After Maya had a fit because it “wasn’t her turn, it was Daddy’s turn” and she “never, ever, never wanted to see American Idol again”, we went to Idol and she had a blast. She learned from Athena to say, “I’m not having ANY fun.” Kinda cute…..but….not. We ran into Amanda and her family and little Alison was just too cute dancing to the Idol performances. She and Maya had lots of fun while three people competed for the chance to be in the finals and win a “jump-to-the-end of the line ticket to Idol auditions.” Maya voted for Diamante, who didn't win, but we ran into after the show and got a picture with this future star.



We stopped to see the parade - block party. Maya sat on my shoulders for awhile and then we put her up in a tree and she loved it! When the parade was over, she still didn’t want to get down.




While I got an autograph from the "stars" of UP! Maya and Wayne played with a computerized "painting" program.











Then we headed to Playhouse Disney but got sidetracked by the Animation Studios where we learned how to draw Donald Duck - it was fun - they won’t ever hire us - but it was fun. Maya entertained everyone by saying, “Daddy, yours isn’t too…….good.” “Daddy, mine is better than yours.” “Daddy, yours isn’t too……right.” Then in the middle a big, “I’m done!”.





Maya's "treat" for the day was a light-up bubble gun. Too fun!






We ran into Robyn and her family. Jacqueline had been to bippity, bop pity and looked so beautiful! She and Maya played with the bubble gun and had a blast while the adults talked about how much fun this trip was and how glad we were to have met each other. Then Robyn and family went to Playhouse Disney and we headed over to Grand Floridian.








Maya was just too tired, hungry, wound-up, etc. to be in a good mood. She was so angry that we were leaving Hollywood. Even the lure of princesses, didn’t help. Finally, she cried herself to sleep on the bus. Poor little peanut. She’s having fun but still gets worn out. We need to remember how little she is. She normally doesn’t wake-up, ummmm, how to say it, happy. She is usually downright grumpy and tonight was no exception. She wanted nothing to do with anything or anyone except me. And I was not on the good-mommy list at the moment. She kept saying, “I’m not having fun!” “ I don’t want to see princesses!” We went to the restaurant and she was in tears. Wanted nothing to do with Cinderella’s stepsisters. Then gradually she started to perk up, she ate a little bit and I think that helped, then she saw Cinderella…….okay, she was getting better. Eventually she was hugging Prince Charming, laughing at Cinderella’s step mother. Going up to get her own food. Like night and day. The food at the GF was amazing. Lots of fresh vegetables, then the carving station with Roast Beef that was even better than Prime Rib.

Then the desserts. Ooooo, la, la! Beautiful and delicious. An all-around excellent, excellent meal. And Cinderella and Prince Charming doing a waltz, the fun step sisters and it was a great night!