The Disney Difference

This will be the first post in a series of posts documenting our Disney vacation this month.  We left on Sunday, January 6th and flew home on Sunday, January 20th.

A lot of people wonder why we love Disney so much.  In our social circles especially, Disney is not exactly popular, and I sometimes feel awkward explaining what I sell on Etsy or where we go on vacation.

Sure, Disney makes great movies.  Sure, the rides in the theme parks are fun.  But those aren't really the reasons we go.  To put it really simply, we go for the customer service.  What a boring answer, though!  So let me try to illustrate how fantastic their customer service is.

In the two full weeks we were at Disney, I didn't see a single unhappy Disney employee (cast member, or CM for short).  On the contrary, virtually every cast member was cheerful and perfectly happy to engage in any length conversation I wanted.  They answered every question I asked, and if they didn't know off the top of their heads, they found out the answer for me, instead of shunting me off to someone else.

We chatted with several people who were from Massachusetts - CMs wear badges that list their names and where they're from.  Most CMs who had more than passing contact with us asked where we were from and made an effort to connect with Massachusetts in some way.  I had long conversations with people who I had virtually nothing in common with - like on the cold and windy day in Epcot, I chatted at length with the woman selling beads made in Africa.  She's from Chicago and we talked about wind and children and social networking and the program Water for Life.

On our journeys around the park, we saw cast members going out of their way to connect with guests.  A woman was driving a scooter extremely slowly and a CM gently teased her, telling her she was going way over the speed limit and to please slow down.  On the way out, the security guards and other CMs joked with everyone that passed by.  When we screwed up and showed up at Hollywood Studios an hour and a half before opening, a CM got us checked into the park early and gave the kids tons of stickers to play with - and not just the standard Mickey stickers you get everywhere, but Jasmine and Belle stickers that I didn't see anywhere else.  Cast members comment on the kids' clothing or toys that they've brought along.  Even when we're just passing by, they'll shout out, "Hey, love the Flynn Rider shirt!"

A few times, I stopped to get food when I had the double stroller and the littles, while Doug was off doing something with the bigger kids.  One woman working behind the counter gave us free cupcakes for the kids. At every restaurant, the CMs insisted on carrying my tray for me, despite my assurances that I could manage it.  At table service restaurants, the waitstaff was always willing to help us get the most value out of our dining plan.  This happened once or twice at our resort's food court as well - because we got refillable mugs, when we got an adult quick service meal that comes with a drink, they occasionally let us get an extra snack in place of the drink we didn't need.

At Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin, a CM overheard me talking to Lachlann about his perfect score - talk about pixie dust!  She decorated an "I'm Celebrating!" button for him with "2013; Galactic Hero; 999,999".  He was thrilled!

On our last day, the kids did some last minute shopping at our resort.  The man who checked us out was very friendly and chatty - he gave the kids boatloads of stickers (again, some less common ones, too) and Mardi Gras beads.

These are all things that cast members don't have to do.  They could still do their jobs competently without going above and beyond - but we saw more times than not was a willingness to do everything in their power to add a little magic to our day.

The thing that I really love about Disney is how it changes me, though.  I'm not normally one to chat with strangers.  When I fly, my biggest fear is that I'll sit next to someone who wants to talk all through the flight (well, now I always sit next to someone like that, since we fly with our kids).  I find small talk with strangers in the grocery store awkward.  But at Disney, that all goes out the window.  I greet everyone with a big "Hello!" and tell people to "Have a Magical Day!" when we leave.  If I see someone with a "Happy Birthday" button, I wish them a happy birthday.  I'll happily chat with anyone - and they chat right back.  Even our fellow guests are happier and more friendly than regular people are on a daily basis.  I'm just comfortable at Disney.  It feels like home.

Let's Pretend - Merida!

My daughter, Fiona, is four.  Those of you who have or at least know four year old girls know where this post is going.  Few things are more appealing for this demographic than princesses - and if you can dress up as a princess, life is just about perfect.

Fiona has gone through many different 'favorites' when it comes to princesses.  To start, she was named for a princess - her brothers chose her name because they were in a Shrek phase.  First they suggested Donkey, then Puss, and even Gingy, but when they asked for Fiona, we said, "Okay!"  Her first real fascination with a princess was Snow White.  I threw her a lovely Snow White party for her third birthday, but soon her focus shifted to Belle.  Her first viewing of Tangled put an end to Belle's reign, however.  Rapunzel's rule in our house was a long one - and one I encouraged because I really love Tangled as well.  Which explains why I went totally overboard with her fourth birthday party.  At some point, though, she switched to Tiana.  She was thrilled to meet her when we were at Disney in September, though you wouldn't know it from the picture.

But now we're gearing up for a Merida phase.  I scored Brave (Three-Disc Collector's Edition: Blu-ray/DVD) as a Lightning Deal on Amazon today.  Fiona will get that for Christmas.  She's already got the Merida dress from Disney and the Merida Barbie doll as presents from her aunt on her last birthday.  So she really only needed a hair accessory to go along with all her Brave stuff (though my husband is lobbying for permission to make her a bow for Christmas).

I decided to go with something simple for Merida's hair, even though it is extraordinarily time consuming.  I picked up a skein of thick, curly reddish orange yarn from AC Moore.  Depending on what kind you get, you might be able to get two 'wigs' out of one skein.  I set myself up with a good TV show and set to work cutting the yarn into approximately 3 foot lengths (I just eyeballed about how long I wanted the hair to be, then doubled it).  Once everything was cut, I just tied each piece of yarn onto a headband - in the middle so each strand made two strands of hair.

You've really got to tie on a ton of yarn to get it bushy and thick enough, but eventually it will look like this:

And I have to say, Fiona looks great as Merida!  Isn't she adorable?  You could easily add a ribbon to the top if you want, or adjust the length of the hair to whatever works for you.  Or if you don't want to bother making one yourself, you could just buy one from my Etsy Shop!

Craft Fair Fun

I've been experimenting with selling items at some local craft fairs.  Last weekend, I set up shop at a homeschool craft fair in Concord.  That was a mix of good and bad.. it was great to socialize and they had some great entertainment, but it was much more of a 'get together with friends and hang out' craft fair than a 'bring in a big crowd and sell stuff' craft fair.  Today's was much busier and was put on by a church in Beverly (so a much, much shorter drive for me).  The only bad thing was that set up started at 7am.  That was painful.

Here's my set up:

As you can see, there are a few new items.  The Rapunzel braids and the Merida headband were huge hits. The Merida headbands as well as a few new hairbows will be up in my Etsy Store tonight or tomorrow.

And speaking of my Etsy Store, I'm running a sale until the end of the month - 25% off all premade items.  I didn't realize how much inventory I actually had, and I really need to clear it out!

Semi-Dieting

I've done pretty well so far this week with eating healthfully.  All of my meals have been balanced and healthy.  During the day, I haven't snacked on anything other than fruit, hummus, and crackers.  The only problem is that with my throat being so sore, I have had some ice cream at night.  But even with that, my eating has been a lot better than my 'usual'.

I'm looking for new ideas for lunches, though.  Lunch is my hardest meal to plan and to stick to.  It's always rushed and I never want to spend a lot of time preparing my food.  This week I had Doug cook up some chicken for me and I topped salads with it, but I'm really not a salad girl.  I may have him grill some chicken this weekend and then roast some yellow squash, zucchini, and onions to eat next week.  But as delicious as that is, it'll get old after a week, too.  I did find two good recipes:  a buffalo chicken wrap and a southwestern cheese panini.  I'll probably need to do veggie prep all at once Sunday night, 'cause if I have to cut up veggies at noon time, I'll end up having something unhealthy instead.

Besides cutting out the ice cream, which will hopefully be as soon as my throat becomes tolerable, I also need to work on the exercise piece.  There's really no excuse for not taking some nice long walks around the block - unless miserable colds count (they do, right?).  It's cool out, the kids love riding their bikes and I have a stroller for the baby, so I just need to make it a part of our routine.  Doug and I would also like to do some strength training together in the evenings after the kids are in bed.  He had been swimming at night, but it's way too cold for that now.

Disney Night, Crafting, and Engineering

Are you ready for a picture-filled post?  I sure hope so.

Every Saturday, we do Disney Family Fun Night.  This is partly to prep for our big vacation in January.. making sure everyone has seen the movies that we'll see represented in the parks.  But it's also a way to deal with the interminable wait until January.  We've done several so far, but this past Saturday, I finally remembered to take pictures.  The theme was Pirates of the Caribbean.

We all dressed up, and even Mickey got in on the fun!  The kids pirate gear was from the dollar store, and we did a treasure hunt to find the goodies.





We decorated the table with some mardi gras beads and a skull from the dollar store, and some chocolate coins.  The kids also had a few pirate toys we set out.  For dinner, we had chicken wings, chicken nuggets, carrots/celery, and fruit 'swords'. 

Dessert was 'Black Pearl' cookies - sugar cookies with a Whopper and some chocolate frosting to hold it together.

In other news, we've started a new class with our homeschool group called Road Trip USA.  Basically, it's learning a little geography and history about the US.  This week we did Connecticut and Delware, and the kids built a suspension bridge to model the Delaware Memorial Bridge.  Lots of fun!

Oh!  One more thing.  I have a new design available in my Etsy Store.  How do you like it?  I've got to get started on some Christmas designs soon..

After A Long Break...

So much for that!  Life just loves to laugh at my plans, I guess.  We've been out of town for the past couple weeks because of a death in the family, which obviously made it hard to work on the Beck Diet Solution, or any real self-help stuff, or blog, or craft, or do anything 'normal' really.  Thankfully we're back home now and trying to get back into our routine - though we're all suffering from colds at the moment.

The trip went well overall, despite the difficult parts.  I was amazed that our kids did so well in the car - driving from Boston to Fort Myers was really intimidating, but they were awesome!

We stopped every two or three hours at rest areas or welcome centers to let the kids run around and use the bathroom.  The harness I made for Niall came in really handy.

In Ft Myers, we spent a considerable amount of time attending to family matters.  Doug's grandmother, who passed, wasn't like the hoarders that you see on TV, but close.  Her house looked neat and tidy on the surface, but every possible drawer, closet, nook, and cranny was filled with the oddest assortment of things.  To make matters worse, none of it was organized, so you couldn't just take what appeared to be a pile of coupons from 1992 and throw them out, because mixed in would be old family pictures, sentimental correspondence, or financial documents.

On the upside, it was wonderful to get to see family we almost never have a chance to visit with.  We hadn't seen Doug's sister since our wedding, so it was great to catch up.  Her children are older than ours, but absolutely fantastic and happily played with our kids.

After wrapping up a lot of business in Ft Myers, we headed over to West Palm Beach to visit with my side of the family - again, people we really don't get to see that often.  My cousins were adorable, and I got to spend some quality time with my grandmother.

To cap the trip, we surprised the children with a very short trip to Disney to attend Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.  We didn't really need to go as we're planning a much longer trip to Disney in January, but it felt wrong to pass within an hour's distance and not stop.  We all had a fabulous time and took advantage of all the extra special events at the party.

We also got a lot of compliments on our Mickey tie-dye shirts, which always makes me feel great.  But the really interesting thing is that our quick jaunt to Disney has really given me a kick in the pants as far as getting into shape is concerned.  I was able to do all the walking I needed to, but boy, was I sore the next day (and the day after!).  There's no way I can handle two weeks of Disney in the shape I'm in now.  I'd remembered how much walking there was from when we went in 2011, but time had sort of dulled the pain, I guess.  It's very fresh in my mind now, though!

So, all in all.. it's been a crazy couple of weeks, but I'm so glad to be back home and back into my routine.  I'm redoubling my efforts on both my health and my Etsy store, so look out for lots of fun posts!

Beck Diet Solution: Day Six

Today I talked with my diet coach.  Normally, I'd try to find someone other than my husband to be my coach, but I think this will be a good exercise for us.  We've had some marital issues and as we work to rebuild our intimacy, this will be another way to stay connected and interested in each other's lives.  We've planned to do a weekly check-in every Saturday, so I can hear what he's been working on, and he can hear what I've been working on.

I also think that having a 'live-in' diet coach will help me stay on track more with the actual diet part (which I'm excited to start in a week!) and he'll be able to help me prepare healthy foods that actually taste good.  I pretty much suck at cooking, so I can use all the help I can get. 

Today I ate breakfast and dinner mindfully at the table.

I read my Advantages List and I listened to my guided meditation.

I gave myself credit for all of the above!