Disney Magic…

It doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are or where you come from…Disney has something for you. I decided to spend my birthday there with my brother and his family. He wanted to do Chuck E. Cheese, but I put my birthday foot down.

A group of eight can be tricky to entertain, especially with 4 kids of varying ages. Not at Disney. While Nate and his cousins fought off Darth Vader & Darth Maul (yes, again.) my 2-year-old, Zeke found his own fun:

The wait time on this gate was an hour, but we did a Fast Pass.

There was one HUGE difference in this trip that made it more magical than even I could have ever imagined:

FRANKIE!!!

Take all the Disney magic, excitement, fun and politeness….give him the power to stop whining kids in a single bound…top it off with the ability to jump long lines…wrap it all up in a plaid vest and you have our VIP tour guide for the day (drum roll please) FRANKIE!

Let’s just say Disney will never be the same for us again because once you’ve had Frankie…there’s just no going back.

Kids are smiling, parents are happy...why? Frankie. Grumpy ladies in red next to us...why? No Frankie.

How many people have ever spent 12 hours in 2 different Disney Parks with four kids under 8 with no whining, crying, fighting or meltdowns? WE DID! How?  Frankie.

And when the day was  over…he read us all a  story and tucked us into bed where our dreams were filled with the most magical day at Disney EVER!  (OK…maybe I dreamed that last part but it sure felt real.)

Thank you Frankie for treating my crazy family like royalty…

and thank you Disney…for the magic that never gets old at any age.

 

Social Media Mom Conference at Disney World

Apparently, I’m a social media mom. Who knew? Disney, for starters.

When they asked me to perform at the conference, I’ll admit I had never heard that term before.

“We think since you’re a SMM, you’d be perfect!”

“I beg your pardon? What did you just call me?”

After meeting all the other “SMMs” at the conference,  I couldn’t be happier to be included in such a wonderful group. Walking into the conference room filled with childless-for-the-day Moms was like going to a pajama party without the pajamas. Wait…that didn’t come out right. It was a room filled with women sharing their favorite gadgets. This is just getting worse. I just mean that the excitement was palpable.

Guy Kawasaki spoke at a breakfast on Thurs. I brought Amber with me because we’re business partners, friends and no one needed an hour away more than her. (OK, the truth? because we’ve NEVER seen each other without kids. How weird is that?) We giggled like school-girls, swiped extra Disney pins left on the tables and actually learned something.

WE were supposed to be listening...but I snuck a photo of Amber. She's funny when she's mad but can't yell.

Guy talked about Twitter. I’ve heard about it from Oprah and Ashton Kutcher but I thought it was just a bunch of people talking smack. Turns out, it’s a lot of people talking smack AND you can actually use it to promote your business.

Friday was the big day. Lots of notable speakers; food; more notable speakers; giveaways; me; confetti cannon; private after-hours party at Hollywood Studios then return home to become a blissful “pile of Mom” on the couch.

Here are the photos:

Seriously, Kristen...maybe if you'd work a little harder you might get a raise...slacker.

Leanne knows how to throw a serious party. Can you say, "swag"?

My turn to perform! Pretty weird to do a show for 200 women with their heads down, typing away on their "media machines" of choice.

We did have one mishap....Nate was hanging with Pluto and Goofy when...

Pluto watches in horror as Goofy goes "mad" and tries to devour Nate head first.

Nate got to meet Miss Lori. He was almost as excited as I was to meet her.

Buzz and Woody. Nate was still a little paranoid from the Goofy "incident".

We rode "Toy Story Mania" so many times our 5 year old said, "Uh...Mommy, Daddy...we have to go home so I can go to bed now." (Mark will tell you HE has the high score, but I think he cheated somehow.)

This was truly an amazing event. Thanks to everyone who made it possible for me to be there. I’ve truly grown as a Media Mom.

To all the other Media Moms…please keep in touch.

I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours…blogs…I was talking about blogs.