Every Halloween my kids go through the neighborhood and collect a giant stash of candy, and every year we ask them to choose a couple favorites and turn the rest over to us.  Typically we donate the extra to our church, but this year we also have an especially huge amount because of a low…

Rainbow over Fantasyland

I live smack dab between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD, so we have been prepping for Hurricane Sandy since late last week. The grill was tied to the deck rail so we didn’t have it shimmying across the deck like it did in Hurricane Irene, the cushions from the patio furniture stored safely, the kids’…

Over the weekend we spent some time carving pumpkins to distract from preparing for Hurricane Sandy. My son wanted anyone from Disney’s Phineas and Ferb, and my daughter requested Tinker Bell. We found a variety of Disney inspired pumpkin carving templates at Disney’s Family.com, including one for Tinker Bell and one for Phineas. While it…

My husband and I were accompanying our children to a Halloween Party and asked a couple days before the event to also dress in costume. Not sure what to do, I suggested that we dress up as Disney tourists. As you can see, we already had everything we needed in our home…

For those of you who are not Disneyphiles like I am, a “Hidden Mickey” is when a Mickey Mouse appears subtly in the design of things such as architecture, bedspreads, wallpaper, curtains and more. Finding Hidden Mickeys is one of our favorite free activities while we are visiting Walt Disney World. We first began finding…

Last night at the New Fantasyland Twitter Party, I shared some pictures of my children meeting their favorite characters at Walt Disney World. We have gone to great lengths to make this happen, from sprinting to the back of the park at opening to be first in line to meet Ariel to booking meals six…

Last summer my family enjoyed a truncated version of the Adventure’s By Disney Wyoming Vacation along with other members of online and print media. I was inspired by the how wonderfully Disney facilitated family time during the trip, and was also incredibly impressed by the level of care and attention to detail on behalf of…

We have been fans of the Tinker Bell movies from the first time we watched Tinker Bell.  We’ve met the Fairies at Walt Disney World and even traveled to New York City for the debut of Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure.  It is no surprise that my entire family has been anxiously awaiting…

Originally posted May, 2011: In the spring of 2009 I wrote a post titled “Why Disney?”  I wondered why other Twitter users loved Walt Disney World as much as my family, so I asked the question to them, posting their answers later in the day.  Every time my family visits Disney, be it a quick…

Originally posted in 2010. photo: My children visiting with Mickey Mouse at the Tusker House character buffet in Animal Kingdom. In preparation for my family’s vacation to Walt Disney World, I interviewed AJ from Disney Food Blog. Disney is a foodie’s paradise, so I’m happy to turn the reigns over to an expert when it…

Originally posted in May of 2010… One statement that I frequently hear from those asking me for Disney vacation planning tips is, “I know I really need to wait until the kids are older for them to enjoy it.” This couldn’t be further from the truth! No matter what age the child, there is something…

I remember as a child on Halloween, carefully navigating jack-o-lantern’s lit with candles, holding tight to the edges of my incredibly flammable 1980’s made costumes. We walked house to house in total darkness on some streets, only sporadic streetlights to light our way. And in a small town with no sidewalks, we did our Trick-or-Treating…

Originally posted August of 2010… While planning our first vacation to Walt Disney World, I spent several months reading The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, which I still believe to be the best book available for planning a trip to the World.  One of the aspects I love most about the book is that…

Today in New York City Disney announced “Limited Time Magic,” a 52 week program running through all of 2013 in Walt Disney World and Disneyland parks. Next year was already set to be one of the most exciting in Disney history with an unprecedented Magic Kindgom expansion and a reimagined Disney California Adventure, but this…

Originally posted 10/11/11: Jake and the Neverland Pirates costumes will likely be popular items this Halloween, but if you’re like me, you prefer to make your children’s costumes rather than spend a small fortune on outfits your kids will only wear a couple of times at most.  Thankfully Disney has worked with costume designer Zachary…

I am always surprised when the same people who vacation at the beach for a week every summer or go skiing out west every winter tell me that they’ve never been to Walt Disney World because they just can’t afford it.  One of the best parts of planning a Walt Disney World vacation is knowing…

I first blogged about the Fantasyland Expansion at Disney’s Magic Kingdom in May of 2010 when the Disney Parks Blog shared pictures from the moving of the Winnie the Pooh tree from the play area to the new queuing area in front of Winnie the Pooh’s Hunny Pot attraction.  From those first moments when I…

To explain how much the members of my family love Disney’s Phineas and Ferb, you have to listen to my cell phone. The text notification tone is a Perry the Platypus sound, and the ringtone is the Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc. jingle. Our house is filled with everything from Agent P flip-flops to Phineas and Ferb…