A Disney Christmas (plus New Ways To See Disneyland)

I don't need to convince anyone how amazing Disneyland Resort is during the holidays. Here's what we did on our recent trip last weekend for Family Media Day:

DON'T MISS

Jingle Jangle Jamboree is bursting with holiday spirit! This is the place to go to see plenty of Disney characters, shows, crafts, a petting zoo, plus you can meet Santa and Mrs. Claus! The decorations are top notch, as usual.

A Christmas Fantasy Parade had our kids smiling the entire time. It really is spectacular to see so many Disney characters all at once. Santa is the highlight at the end, but this was delightful from start to finish.

Certain rides take on a holiday spin, with Haunted Mansion Holiday, Jingle Cruise and It's A Small World Holiday. Try and ride Small World Holiday at night because really, is there anything more beautiful than this?

YOU MIGHT MISS (If you're not looking)

And now, here a few things you might miss if you're not looking carefully. We're always looking for new things at Disneyland, and this time we tried to look at things from a different perspective.

We've all walked by Monstro, but have you ever noticed how cool the water reflection looks?

Get a good look at who's making your popcorn...by the way, Disneyland's popcorn is the best I've ever had. No joke.

While our son was busy playing video games at Innoventions, we noticed this eloquent quote on the wall.

How's this for natural beauty? Anybody know what kind of fruit that is?

A sea of Baymax balloons - not hard to spot, but too beautiful not to share.

Who knew that the beautiful Grand Californian Hotel also had a Santa in the lobby? Pinga was overjoyed to see him.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Special thanks to Disneyland Resort for giving us a magical day at the parks!

Our #Disneykids Preschool Party!

I feel like we just recovered from Halloween and am going crazy thinking about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other various projects that need to get done. So of course we decided to add a party into the mix, Disney style! Disney sent us an awesome box of goodies for us to throw a preschool playdate, which got Pinga extremely excited.

To ensure we didn't go completely bonkers, we opted to keep things simple and just let the kids let loose and have tons of fun.

Pinga dressed up as Princess Belle and anxiously awaited the arrival of her little friends.

We served pizza because it's delicious and kids love it. Plus, it was awesome not having to cook!

Thanks to the amazing toys and activities we were sent, the kids were pretty much occupied for the rest of the evening. They colored, made Disney fortune tellers, and played with puzzles, an awesome Mega Bloks car and a Barbie house that Pinga had been begging to put together all week. After some root beer floats for dessert, they played a bit more before calling it a night. Our guests got some fun goodies to take home and Disney memories were made!

Thank you to Disney for providing such a fun box of supplies to host a fun party!

A Disney Halloween (plus Five Ways To Stay Cool at Disneyland)

This past weekend, my family got to check out Disneyland Resort for Family Media Day. Halloween Time is such an awesome time to visit!

THINGS TO DO

For starters, there are the fun, spooky costumed characters to interact with:

There are creative pumpkin carvers and crafts at the Halloween Carnival at Big Thunder Ranch. You can also pet animals and watch a magic show here:

And rides like The Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain get spooky, ghostly makeovers:

At the media reception, we also had the opportunity to pose for a Disney silhouette. I highly recommend visiting the Disney Silhouette Studio on Main Street and getting one of these done...only takes five minutes and these guys are magicians with scissors! This makes for such a sweet souvenir, and Pinga's came out great:

STAYING COOL

And now for some tips on staying cool! October tends to be a hot month at Disneyland, and this day was no exception. That didn't take away from the fun though! Here are five things we did to beat the heat:

1) Visit the Animation Academy at California Adventure

This place is huge and we had a blast chatting with Crush the Turtle, creating simple animation and interacting with all the cool exhibits. Bean was fascinated with the zoetropes. It's all indoors and if you wanna just relax, you can take a seat in the main foyer and watch the cartoons on the walls.

2) Watch a Sneak Preview of Big Hero 6 at the Magic Eye Theater

Nothing's better than sitting in a cool theater on a hot day. The Magic Eye Theater in Tomorrowland offers up an exclusive sneak peak at Disney's latest animated feature. Big Hero 6 is presented in 4D, so be prepared for some exciting in-theater special effects! Both kids loved this, and we're looking forward to seeing the whole movie when it comes out.

3) Hang Out at Innoventions

One of Bean's favorite places at Disneyland is Innoventions, also located in Tomorrowland. He loves playing all the video games. Turns out, it's also quite cool inside. This time, he got to play a new game called Fantasia: Music Evolved for the Xbox One. It's a rhythm motion game that Bean happened to excel at. The cast members said he was the best player they had ever seen! Pinga also got in the action. Do me a favor and watch all 30 seconds of this video. Then try and tell me this isn't a genius way to wear out your kids:

4) Make Reservations At A Restaurant

Traveling with kids has made us realize that they get hungry. A lot. So this time, we decided to make a reservation at a restaurant and make sure that they get a proper meal. We chose to eat at The Blue Bayou, which turned out to be awesome. It got us out of the hot sun, plus the food and atmosphere were amazing. We got to see the boats of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride as they passed by, plus our drinks glowed! And take a look at this scrumptious pork chop, only available at Halloween Time. To die for!

5) Get Some Dole Whip and Chill At The Enchanted Tiki Room

Here's the skinny on Dole Whip: it's delicious. You can't not get it. And since you're getting it, you may as well eat it in comfort. Get it, then head to The Enchanted Tiki Room right next door, where you can sit, eat and hear the adorable birds sing. I guarantee it'll make you smile.

Finally, end your day by looking at this and you're golden:

Special thanks to Disneyland Resort for giving us a magical day at the parks!

Magical Moments with Disney Poster-A-Page

Time Home Entertainment Inc. recently released a series of Poster-A-Page books. Two books, Disney Princess: Fairy Tale Moments and Disney Junior Sofia the First: Practice Makes Perfect are now available. My little princess Pinga spent all day with her book.

The Disney Princess: Fairy Tale Moments book has 100 glossy, full color pages for her to flip through, and all of her favorite princesses are in there! She talks non-stop about Snow White, Belle, Aurora...she loves them all! The pages feature inspirational or fun sayings on them as well.

These are no ordinary pages, either! They are actually posters. Each page is perforated, and easily removable. Nine supersize pull out posters are included, and are great to use as room decorations, door signs or festive backgrounds. Pinga has hers hanging up on the wall beside her bed.

There is also one large coloring poster page. Pinga had a lot of fun with this.

These books retail for $12.95. Which one is your favorite?

Maleficent - The Untold Story

For those who have been counting down the days until opening day of Maleficent, the wait is finally over! I had the privilege of seeing an advanced screening of the movie Wednesday night. I wasn't sure where Disney was going to take this story, but it was definitely entertaining!

The original animated Sleeping Beauty film paints Maleficent as a pure figure of evil. But we all know that there are two sides to every story. In similar fashion to the musical Wicked, this movie absorbs the villains back story and gives us those missing details of her character that we didn't get to see the first time around.

Turns out, Maleficent actually has a pretty interesting story of unrequited love. At times you actually feel really sorry for her, and those moments where she's soft hearted (like when she's looking out for the baby Aurora) are extremely touching. Like the movie Frozen, we get to see what it means to truly love somebody. Don't worry though - there are still plenty of awesome evil moments, played impeccably by Angelina Jolie. And? The baby playing Princess Aurora has got to be the cutest baby I have ever seen (besides my own babies, of course!)

The complexity of the characters drives the story and makes for an entertaining movie. The scenes are gorgeously shot, although I could have done without so much CGI. The movie is also quite dark at times - I wouldn't bring my young kids to this, but kids older than eight years old would probably get more enjoyment out of it.

Maleficent is rated PG and opens in theaters everywhere today, May 30th.

Princess Pinga - Disney Princess Costumes Review

Pinga is a typical little girl, which means she loves princesses! Especially Disney princesses. Maybe it's because we showed her the movies. Or perhaps because her bedspread has princesses on it. Then again, it's probably because I call her my little princess. Whatever the reason, she loves them and always wants to dress up like one.

Anyway, I showed her Beauty and the Beast, and ever since she saw the movie, she's wanted Belle's pretty yellow dress. I actually think Pinga looks a lot like Belle, so I was excited to get Belle's Sparkle Deluxe Children's Costume for her from Wholesale Halloween Costumes. Here she is:

She's talking on her princess phone because that's what they do, you know. She puts the costume on, then pretends to be Belle and calls her other princess friends. Adorable. The costume itself? Is awesome. Not only does it come with the dress, but it also includes the petticoat and headband. She already had the shoes, so this is perfect. The costume has great detail and feels soft and comfy. It also seems quite durable - a huge plus, since she's been wearing it practically every day. I can only imagine what she would do with the Belle tiara and wand that are also available. She'd flip! She really does look like Belle, don't you think? The website has a lot more Disney Princesses to choose from too, so this just may the first of many more to come. Ariel or Aurora may be next!

Disney Springtime!

What better way to celebrate a delightful Springtime day than to spend it at Disneyland? Easter weekend, we made a last minute trip to Anaheim and decided it wouldn't be right to not wish Mickey and his friends a Happy Easter! Disneyland kindly gave us tickets to the Happiest Place on Earth. But first, we had to make a stop at Wondercon and see Wall-E. Both Bean and Pinga are obsessed. Wall-E has enchanted Pinga to the point where she refuses to watch anything else.

Time for Disneyland! Pinga had also been talking non-stop about Minnie Mouse. Their meeting was magical.

On this trip, I wanted to seek out some of the lesser known, unusual things about the park that people might overlook. "Easter Eggs", if you will. So we found this cannon in Town Square:

There are actually two of these, and they were used by the French Army during the 1800's.

I have a fascination with mailboxes...I still love to send and receive mail the old fashioned way. Every time I come across an unusual mailbox, I take a picture. There are a few at Disneyland, but this one's my favorite. It's a real mailbox too, so next time you go to Disneyland, send a letter to a friend!

I had always noticed the vehicles on Main Street, but it never really registered to me that people can ride them. So that is precisely what we did. The kids were so excited about their ride to Sleeping Beauty Castle in the fire engine!

We had wanted to do the official Easter Egg scavenger hunt, but the resort was out of maps. So we had fun looking for the eggs on our own:

Now here's something you don't see every day. Bean was tired after a few hours, so we sat down at the Springtime Roundup to rest. He was hot and thirsty too, so when the lively hoedown show began with dancers performing with the children, he was in no mood to participate. The dancing must have had some kind of effect on him though, because he joined right in for the next song. As if that wasn't enough, Pinga, who is very shy and never approaches anyone on her own, leaped out of stroller and ran to dance with one of the ladies. It was amazing, and it could only have happened at Disneyland.

She couldn't stop talking about it afterwards. More magical moments from our day:

As we were leaving, we were privy to one more secret. Bean wanted a hand stamp on both hands, and the cast member kindly told him that they only do stamps on the left hand. Why? Because Mickey Mouse is left handed. Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse in his mirror image - Walt Disney was right handed, therefore Mickey is left handed. What a perfect way to end the day.

Thank you to Disney for another magical day at Disneyland!