Aug
2014

Disney Inspired Kids Activity: A Fundraiser That’s Full of Pixie Dust

categories: Disney-Inspired Party Planning

Give the kids the world village

Have you heard about Give Kids the World Village?

The blog has been quiet for the last week and a half.  Why you might ask?  I’ve been planning and prepping for a community yard sale that had a perfect touch of Pixie Dust!   If you’re looking for a way to beat summer boredom with your kids, believe me, this project will keep you and the kids busy for quite a few days!  

This summer, my son Gavin has asked me at least two dozen times to have a yard sale.  He loved the idea of making a few extra dollars that he could use for purchasing souvenirs during our upcoming Disneyland vacation.  Honestly, I have to tell you that I cringed at the idea of having a yard sale and pushed the thought aside for almost the entire summer, until one day he asked if he could have a bake sale to raise money to “help people”.  How could I say no to that?  In that moment, my heart had melted, so I told him we’d have his yard sale to make money for Disneyland, and at the yard sale he could have a bake sale to help people. 

Gavin’s first big task was choosing which organization to support.

He decided on helping sick kids go to Walt Disney World.  Having worked for Walt Disney World, I’m familiar with an organization that provides children that have life-threatening illnesses with a week-long Central Florida vacation at no cost to their families.  This magical organization is called Give Kids the World Village.  Gavin and I did a quick web search to find out what we could do to help the Village and found a “Wish List” for the Village. After reading the list, Gavin decided it was pretty important that sick children have sunblock “or they’re going to feel worse!”  His mission was set!  

Gavin’s Mission:  Raise as much money as possible to purchase lots of sunblock and a few DVDs (because watching a movie always make you feel better)!

After that important decision was made, it was time for Gavin’s baked good requests.  Yes, it was his yard/bake sale, but Mom was brought in to make the goodies!  Of course, with any good Disney-themed event, I went right to work putting a Disney themed spin on his food choices.

Give Kids the World Village Fundraiser Food Menu

Bake Sale Menu

We found some fun Mickey Mouse themed tableware at the dollar store and paired it with a few vintage 1980’s Walt Disney World Resort trays to put together his table set up.

Vintage 1980's Walt Disney World tray

I’m so proud to tell you that once the yard sale started, Gavin was 100% focused on raising money at the bake sale.

Give Kids the World Bake Sale

Gavin’s not too keen on me taking his picture anymore, but he allowed me to snap this one.

At the end of the day, Gavin had sold just about everything!  He raised $69!

This week, we’ll be purchasing a bunch of sunblock and a DVD or two.  Then they will be on their way to Give Kids the World Village!  The time spent preparing for his yard sale and bake sale fundraiser was significant.  It was truly a summer boredom buster for the kids and me, but more importantly, the bake sale had my son choosing to put others first.  It was evident in his sales: $18 dollars yard sale ($15 purchased from Grandma) and $69 bake sale.

Do you know a child who has a life-threatening illness that would love to experience a trip to Walt Disney World?

 Please contact your local wish-granting organization.  They can arrange a Central Florida vacation with the help of Give Kids the World Village.


Jul
2014

You’re Invited to a #FrozenGiveaway Twitter Party!

categories: Giveaways

Twitter party image

Queen Elsa has Frozen the blog today, so I’m heading over to Twitter tonight to help host a #FrozenGiveaway Twitter Party!

You’re invited to join my favorite Disney-Inspired blogging friends and I tonight, Wednesday July 30th at 9:00 pm Easter Standard Time for a Frozen Twitter Party!  Is this your first time invited to a Twitter party?  Well, here’s the details so you’re in the know!

Lynn from My Pixie Dust Diary and I are going host this fabulously frozen hour full of fun Frozen conversation, questions, and Frozen themed prizes!  To participate, simply follow Lynn and me on Twitter.  When you are tweeting in conversation with us, make sure to use the hashtag #FrozenGiveaway.  Lynn will be asking Frozen related questions throughout the hour.   When answering her questions, you’ll send your answers directly to me by including me in the response (@a2zdisney).  I’ll be picking the winners of the fun Frozen themed prizes!  Sounds fun, right?

If you have any questions, please let me know!  I’d love to see you at the party!

As a reminder, if you haven’t entered the “Frozen-in-Summer Wardrobe Giveaway” yet, here’s the post with the enter to win details!

Frozen Giveaway! Is your daughter’s wardrobe “Frozen” yet?

Have a Magical Day!

 


Jul
2014

Back-to-School with an Olaf Inspired Pencil Holder

categories: Disney-Inspired Crafts

Frozen Blog Hop

The sun is shining.  The birds are tweeting and my kids have been running round singing Olaf’s “In Summer” during this beautiful season we’ve been enjoying in Pennsylvania.

They’re not alone.  While talking with a bunch of fellow Disney-Inspired bloggers, we all realized that Frozen is just as hot as the blazing sun outside.  We decided to group together to bring you our best Frozen Inspired fun for you to read, pin and share as you hop around our blogs.

For my post today, I’d like to share with you how to make an Olaf-Inspired Pencil Holder.

Olaf Pencil Holder

Due to all the extra snow days we had last year, the district is trying to prepare for this winter by starting the school year earlier.  Trying to get my son prepared, I have school on the brain.  While picking up supplies the other day, I bought McDonald’s happy meals for the kids’ lunches.  With the Frozen soundtrack blaring in the background, I handed Gavin and Victoria their milks and couldn’t help but think of little Olaf’s adorably shaped head.  Pairing school with Olaf, I came up with an Olaf Inspired Pencil Holder!  My mind works in strange ways, I know.

Supplies

Olaf Pencil Holder Supplies

  • One cleaned McDonald’s milk container
  • Orange, white, black and brown felt
  • Two google eyes
  • Glue Gun with glue

Draw Olaf’s nose, eyebrows, mouth and tooth onto the felt and cut them out.

Olaf felt pieces

Hot glue the back of each piece and attach them to the milk bottle.

You’re done!  It’s that simple!

Can’t get enough of Olaf?  Hop on over to another fun Frozen post!



 


Jul
2014

Frozen Giveaway! Is your daughter’s wardrobe “Frozen” yet?

categories: Giveaways

Frozen in Summer Giveaway

Do you know a little princess who would LOVE to dance around in her very own Elsa costume?  Have you struggled to find one?  Why not enter to win, not only an Elsa costume complete with her tiara, gloves, and fashion accessories but also a Princess Anna costume too?

I am so excited to tell you about an icy giveaway that’s sure to melt any Frozen heart!   A fabulous group of Disney-loving bloggers have partnered to be able to offer one lucky winner a “Frozen In Summer” Wardrobe Prize Pack loaded with Authentic Disney Store Exclusive Frozen Costume Collection pieces!

Frozen in Summer Costume Giveaway

The Prize includes the following items:

  • Disney Store Anna Costume for girls size 5/6
  • Disney Store Elsa Costume for girls size 5/6
  • Disney Store Elsa Tiara
  • Disney Store Elsa Fashion Accessories

Giveaway Details:

  • Giveaway starts Sunday, July 27, 2014 and ends at 11:59 pm on Saturday, August 9, 2014
  • This “Frozen In Summer” Wardrobe Giveaway is open to all residents of The United States of America, 18 years of age or older.
  • After verification of entries, the winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and will be notified by email.  Please provide an email address that you check daily, so you don’t miss the winning email!
  • To officially accept the prize the winner must reply by email within 48 hours.
  • The one lucky winner will be announced right here on the Mouse Ears Mom blog after the winner has accepted the “Frozen In Summer” wardrobe prize.

Enter to Win through the Rafflecopter Below!

Enter to win the Frozen Costume Giveaway Here

I’d like to thank all the wonderful Disney inspired bloggers that have contributed in putting together this fantastic Giveaway. Each one of these blogs has an author (or two) that enjoys sharing their love of Disney with the world.  I invite you to check out these blogs to learn about their their unique Disney niches.

Good Luck! And have a Magical Day!


Jul
2014

Top 10 Disneyland Vacation Planning Tips for a Walt Disney World Fanatic

categories: Disneyland vacation tips, Walt Disney World Travel Tips

Disney at Night

This is a photo of the train station at the Magic Kingdom.

Disneyland at Dark

This is a photo of the train station at Disneyland.

Notice the differences in the stations? Well, that’s just minor compared to these major planning differences I’ve stumbled upon while preparing for my family’s upcoming Disneyland vacation.

This Top 10 post is designed to help Walt Disney World fanatics as they start to plan their Disneyland vacations.  Planning a trip to WDW is a piece of cake for these “special” people.  The matriarch of a Fanatic Family will walk into any one of Disney’s four Florida theme parks and reach for a map for the sheer purpose of seeing the latest fun graphic on the front and then stashes a few in her bag just because they’re pretty.  The members of these families do not need maps.  The attractions, parade routes, restaurants, shops and even the rest rooms locations are already etched into their brains.  It is for these families, like my own, that I write this post.

Does this sound like your family?

As I mentioned, my family is included in this group.  We LOVE Walt Disney World and vacation there at a very minimum, once a year.  HOWEVER, our curiosity got the best of us and we booked a DISNEYLAND Resort vacation for the fall…for all 13 of us.

I’m the planner of my family.  For a typical WDW vacation, I make lists, upon lists and I’ve even made lists that included bringing lists.  I love planning!  I worked for a few years at The Walt Disney World Resort and know the place backwards and forwards.  Honestly I don’t need to do that much planning or list making for a WDW trip, but I believe that it’s part of the fun!  Needless to say, I’m having a blast planning for a trip to a kingdom I know very little about.

One thing I learned quickly was that there are many differences between the East Coast and West Coast Resorts.

Here are my Top 10 Disneyland Vacation planning differences that a Walt Disney World Fanatic must know to be prepared!

  1. Transportation to the resort:  If you are flying to Disneyland plan on taking care of your own ground transportation.  The Disneyland Resort does NOT offer Magical Express.
  2. On Disney Property Hotel Options: If you prefer to stay on Disney property when you visit a Disney theme park, be prepared that there are only 3 Disney owned hotels to choice from at the Disneyland Resort.  All of these hotels, I believe, would be listed as deluxe resorts at Walt Disney World, so expect a high price tag for these rooms.
  3. Tickets: Ranging from 1 day to 5 days maximum, these tickets will all have an expiration date printed on them.  Once you use the first day on the ticket, the remaining days will expire in 13 days.  Multi-day tickets also include “Magic Morning” options.  Magic Morning allows early admission into the Disneyland Resort Parks, meaning this is not a perk that is exclusive to on-property hotel guests.  In addition, at this point, Disneyland Resort does NOT use MagicBands.  Paper tickets are in use.
  4. Property Size & Layout: The Walt Disney World Resort is located on 42,000 acres. The Disneyland Resort is located on 510 acres.  To compare park size- Disneyland Park is 85 acres and Magic Kingdom is 107 acres. The other attraction areas are as follows:  Disney’s California Adventure Park is 67 acres and Downtown Disney is 20 acres. As you can imagine, this changes planning quite a bit!
  5. Transportation within the Resort:  Due to the property size, when staying within The Disneyland Resort, there are no buses or boats to take you to the parks.  You simply walk out your resort door and walk to the park entrance!  Talk about a time saver!  Disneyland does have a monorail and it has two stops: Downtown Disney and Tomorrowland within the Disneyland Park.  Be Prepared! You must have a valid theme park ticket to ride the monorail!
  6. Bringing Food into the Parks:  The Disneyland Resort offers a picnic area outside of its theme parks for guests to use if they chose to bring food from home.  Disneyland has clearly defined it’s stance on bringing food into the parks with this printed paragraph found within each Disneyland theme park guide-map:  “A picnic area is located west of the Disneyland Park Main Entrance for your convenience.  We request that no food or beverage be brought inside either Theme Park.”   I have read on-line that guests carrying small snacks into the park have not been turned away.  So use your best judgement when bringing food.
  7.  Advanced Dining Reservations: An ADR can not be booked until 60 days before your arrival date, quite a difference from Walt Disney World’s 180 days.
  8. Parking Costs: Parking is NOT FREE at The Disneyland Resort.  Regardless if you are staying in a Disneyland Resort Hotel, you have to pay parking fees and they’re hefty.  Currently self parking costs $17 per vehicle per night ($25 Valet) for a hotel guest.
  9. Theme Park Entry Time:  On select days (unannounced) Disneyland does something called Rope Drop.  What this means is that they allow guests into the park a half hour earlier than the stated park opening time.  During this half hour time period, guests are allowed to explore Main Street before cast members drop the rope that is being held at the end of Main Street, which allows guests to flow into the attractions part of the park.  The suggestion that I have read is to always arrive at least a half hour before park opening, in case Disney decides to make that day a “Rope Drop” day.
  10. Walt Disney History: Walt Disney had his hands and heart deep within the planning of every detail of his Disneyland.  To this day, there are still original details that were hand-picked by Walt and even his wife that are part of each guest’s vacation experience.  For example, The Plaza Inn, an eatery that opened 1955 during the park’s grand opening, still offering guests tasty options to this day.  It was one of Walt’s favorite places to dine and his wife, Lillian Disney, handpicked the Victorian furnishings herself.

Planning a Disneyland Resort vacation is definitely a new and challenging experience that has my family and I super excited for our journey to the west coast.   I can’t wait to share it with all of you through the blog. I hope if you’ve vacationed at Disneyland, that you’ll share your planning advice with me.  I’d love to read it and I’m sure you’d help other too!

Thanks for reading the blog today.  I hope the rest of your day is magical!

Disneyland photo credit: Justin in SD via photopin cc