If we’re being honest, we all know that family vacations tend to include more than their fair share of stress. Add a couple overtired children to that stress, and what you’ve got is a recipe for parenting disaster. My husband and I have traveled to Walt Disney World Resort enough times now to be able to do so without…

Before we took our kids to Walt Disney World Resort for the first time in 2008, this is what I thought I knew about my children: My four-year-old daughter was quiet, intelligent, timid, sweet, and loved Disney princesses. My two-year-old son was brazen, a dare-devil, and I hoped he would someday get into college on a football…

I’ve experienced more Disney magic than is really fair for one person to enjoy. I was blessed to grow up in a family that sometimes had more than enough and was led by a father who believed those extras were gifts to be enjoyed, namely in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. At the tender age of…

(Spoiler alert — This post discusses specific moments from the film Saving Mr. Banks.) When I imagined myself as a mom prior to having kids, I envisioned a relaxed, laid-back, playful person whose days would be filled with far more yeses than no’s — my future children would be thrilled to be raised by the “cool…

You’ve probably seen all of the calls to show your Disney Side, from the at-home Disney Side parties to the Disney inspired recipes on Pinterest. I’ve hosted a Disney Side party of my own and have hashtagged tweets, Facebook updates, and Instagram posts with the #DisneySide tag. I’ve declared myself to be showing my Disney Side when I’m doing…

Recently I’ve found myself in a series of conversations about parents in Disney movies, mostly inspired by Disney’s Frozen, that powerhouse film that continues to break records with its success. {Spoiler Alert} Of course the parents in Frozen die very early on in the film, shaping the entire story. Any Disney film fan knows that parents are rarely…

Thanks to my often whimsical father and the excuse of traveling to an aunt who lived in Tampa, I grew up visiting Walt Disney World Resort more often than most of my peers. I always assumed that when I had a family of my own we would do the same, family members in Florida or not. When…