This is SO How My Husband Feels...

Well, except for the singing. Allen rarely breaks out in song.

But to his credit, he bought the soundtrack for the kids. He even got the CD with the bonus karaoke version of Let it Go. He must really love us...

Disney on a Dime #4

#4: Personalized Autographed Photos

In one of my mother-in-law's Disney travel books, I found the address where you could write in and request autographed photographs from Disney characters. So, on a whim, I sent in requests for photos of all the characters I knew my kids would love. In addition to the photo above we also have: Tinkerbelle, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Belle, and Cinderella. (As I look back, I should have asked for Ariel and Pocahontis, too, but oh well.) As we toured the parks it was nice to know that I had those photos tucked away back at the room. That way if we missed a character, or if the line had been closed, (or in the case of Tinkerbelle the line was an hour and a half long!) the kids would still have an autograph.

I was glad I had given myself a lot of lead time because it did take four of five weeks for the photos to come back in the mail. If you decide to send away for a few yourself, make sure that each request is sent in a separate envelope. (I just typed up a general letter and then went back in and changed the character's name each time I printed it.) And don't worry that the signatures won't match! The staff must get some kind of training because the autographs we got at Walt Disney World were pretty darn close to the ones on the pictures that came through the mail. Close enough where I was quite impressed. My son likes them so much, he has decided he wants a few of them framed to put up in his bedroom. So, for us, the pictures were well worth the cost of the stamps...

Send your requests to:

Walt Disney Company
Attn: Fan Mail Department
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521

Disney on a Dime #3

#3: Autograph Books

I knew I wanted to have autograph books for the kids to use at Disney, but I wanted them to be special. Certainly not the mass produced ones they sell at the parks for an arm and a leg. So I stalked Etsy and found this lovely little shop.

Jodi takes old Little Golden Books and rebinds them along with either blank or lined pages. They were prefect autograph books for the trip, and at only $12.00 each they were a bargain. Plus, we had stories to read when the lines in the parks were long, and pages to color when we were waiting for our meals. (Luckily, our longest wait for a ride was about 15 minutes.) We chose Disney books, but she has lots of other options. I bet she'd even be willing to use a book that you sent to her.


If you are planning to collect autographs while visiting Disney I highly recommend these books! Prince Naveen even commented on them. "These are really cool," he said in that delicious accent, "Did you make them? I've never seen anything like this before." It made my day people. Made my day...

I was not compensated for this post in any way.
I really do loves these books.

You Guessed It

Thank you so much for playing along! Several of you guessed our destination correctly. Go back and click on the photo of the condo and look at the railing on the porch. Do you see the "hidden Mickeys?" They are all over the parks: shaved into the back of a sheep, arranged in rocks in the bottom of the aquarium and even in the opening of the slide at Disney's Old Key West Resort. The kids had a hoot searching for them.

We had such an amazing trip!

My son nearly passed out from all the choices at the Lego Store, guarded by this guy. My daughter, whose world currently revolves around dinosaurs (and stuffed animals and cats) loved this place. If you are going to Disney I highly recommend getting a reservation ahead of time. We had them for all of our main meals and never had to wait for a table.

Our table was in the "ice cave." Several times while we were there a meteor streaked across the ceiling, but luckily the only thing to become extinct was our appetites. Attached to the restaurant is a shop similar where kids can build a dinosaur (just like the Build-A-Bear store.) My daughter built Sparkle, a diplodocus, who was her favorite friend of the trip - until we rode this.

photo courtesy of Disney

My husband thought his little dare devil would like it, but when she got off she said, "Papa, I'm NEVER going on that ride again!" Poor sparkle spent the rest of the trip in the closet...

Interruption

So sorry that I've been ignoring this space lately. I've got a very good excuse, I promise. We've been on vacation! It didn't seem wise to inform the world that our house would be empty for a week, so I opted to post about the trip once we returned home. Let me tell you, leaving on vacation the day after school got out made those last two weeks in May a little crazy, but it was so worth it.

Can you guess where we went? Perhaps a few clues will help...

Of course, from that first photo you know we flew. Actually we rode our bikes, took a ferry, drove five hours to Detroit Metro Airport and then got on the plane.

We went some place warm; considerably warmer than the 65 degrees (about 18 C) we left behind on Mackinac.

Our destination had amazing ambiance. And great light fixtures. Through my travels I've noticed that I seem to have a thing for lights. On this trip alone I probably ended up with pictures of ten different lights. Anyone out there recognize these little beauties?

Your final clue is our condo. I suppose it isn't really ours, but it was our home for the week. It was huge; two bedrooms, two full baths (one with a whirlpool tub), a kitchen, a living room, and a lovely little porch that overlooked a pond. It was bigger than pretty much every apartment I've ever lived in. We owe our friends Mark and Karen a HUGE thank you for helping us with that condo. We never could have done it without them.

I know it's not much to go on, but give it a shot. Where do you think we went? Awww c'mon, take a guess!

My apologies to my Facebook friends. Since I already posted a few photos there, you guys already know...