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Wouldn't it be magical...

...if you had your very own magic wand?

Watch the video above about how one little girl makes her dreams come true!

Be sure to go to http://rayovac.com/disneyvacation to enter the sweepstakes where you could win a trip for four to your choice of the Disneyland or Walt Disney World Resort!

When we arrived at World Showplace, I was in awe! I couldn't believe we were fortunate enough to be involved with such an amazing event. There were lots of people already seated & we followed the signs to the media section. A woman holding the Disney Social Media Moms sign said "follow me", so Lynne & I followed her over to the other side of the room where we were seated along with Kristen right in the very front row!!



















The entire stage was surrounded with white balloons & a colored Mickey balloon every so often:


The Jammitors came out & did a performance for us:


















Tom Staggs, Chairman of Walt Disney World Parks & Resorts, came out & spoke to us & also had a little chat with special guest, Kermit the Frog!


















Then Ty Pennington from ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition came out & spoke to us about volunteering:


















It was awesome because he took out his megaphone & asked us all to help him say "move those balloons" & when we did, they all raised up to the ceiling


















& revealed an unbelievable structure made up of more than 115,000 cans! I wasn't able to get a fabulous shot of the structure with my camera because of everything going on in front of us, but if you check out the Disney Parks Blog, you can watch the video of it being assembled!


It was such a treat to be present for the unveiling of this structure! I found the props around the park to be a big treat as well, Disney always does things BIG!

Our 2nd day was an early one! We needed to be down at the front of the Polynesian Resort by 7:30am for our special bus transportation to EPCOT. Thank goodness for Jennifer being an early-riser because she went & filled mine & Debbie's coffee mugs for us so we'd have it as soon as we opened our eyes! Those of you who know me, know that I need my coffee first thing! :) Thanks, Jen!

So, with coffee in our tummies, we headed down to the lobby, boarded our bus, & off to EPCOT we went. I had absolutely no idea that we would be entering the park through a back 'secret' entrance. It was so cool to see behind all of the countries from our bus!

We ended up entering the park right alongside of the American Adventure Pavillion where a wonderful breakfast buffet was set up for us in the Rotunda. There was quiche, roasted potatoes, fresh fruit, pastries, yogurt with granola, & the list goes on. Everything was amazing, well, except for the coffee, it was lukewarm! I think they filled the pots a little too early! LOL! We only got our first cup poured for us until I decided to grab a pot off the waiter's tray & pass it around our table! It was so funny because Melissa even tweeted that I was her hero for doing that! :)

Our speaker for that morning was Guy Kawasaki. He is the co-founder of Alltop.com, & also a founding partner of Garage Technology Ventures. Guy was very fun to listen to because he shared his thoughts on Twitter & shared how he uses it as a marketing weapon. He, like me, didn't understand the purpose of twitter at first, like why would anyone care that someone is standing in a long line at Starbucks? He showed us how to do searches so you can see what everyone is saying about anything you are interested in. It's truly amazing!

After breakfast, we all walked together to World Showplace, a huge room for special events, located between the United Kingdom & Canada Pavillions.

I'll talk about what we did there in my next post! :)

When I think back on all of the wonderful experiences I had during the last week, it warms my heart to know that people I interact with using various forms of social media co-hosted the events with Walt Disney World! I am honored to be in touch with these wonderful moms & would like to thank them for their help in putting on such an amazing event!

Thank you Janice & Susan from 5 Minutes for Mom because without you ladies, I would not have been invited to attend!

Thank you also to Amy Lupold Blair with Resourceful Mommy Media, I'm so glad that you & your family made it down despite all the weather issues! Thanks to Jennifer James with Mom Bloggers Club, & Maria Bailey with Mom Select too.

It was truly an honor to meet & interact with all of you ladies!

I'm going to veer off of my personal Disney story to tell you about the most fabulous event I just attended. I was lucky enough to be invited to Disney's very first Social Media Moms Celebration at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL.

Social Media has recently become a very important & successful way of communicating for businesses all around the world. I had the opportunity to hear some very influential people speak about their social media experiences, both personal & professional. I'll talk about each one in future posts.

The first event of the 3-day celebration was a tailgate party at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. I had heard of this but had no idea that it was so big! It was a real treat to see it. We got to learn about what was up & coming for the complex. Very exciting! Here is a video covering the relaunch! We also learned more about the upcoming Fantasyland expansion including the Electric Light Parade move! I'm so very excited about it!

We had a great dinner of hamburgers & hot dogs & all the trimmings. We played & interacted with fellow mommy-bloggers & their families as well as with several Disney characters all dressed up in their sports attire.

We met & chatted with Leanne Jakubowski, Director of Social Media at the Walt Disney World Resort. Below is a picture of me, Minnie, Traci, Leanne, Debbie, & Jennifer down in front!



We also were able to meet one of my personal idols, Laura Spencer, another Social Media Manager at the Walt Disney World Resort. I asked Laura my very first question way back at the beginning of 2008 when the Walt Disney World Mom's Panel made its debut & find it fascinating that she is now in charge of the panel! Here is a picture of Lynne, Debbie, Traci, JL, Laura, me & Jennifer.



This was just the beginning of what was in store for us! Leanne & Laura did such an amazing job of planning this spectacular event for us! Thank you! :)

I did a little bit more digging & found a pic of Molly inside of It's a Small World & she was just mesmorized by the whole thing. Look at her face:



And I found one more princess picture, this time, our little princess was awake for it but she wasn't too sure what to think, so I had to jump into the picture with them. This was her first character interaction! It was really fun & this Snow White was just beautiful!

It's such a treat to find these old pics! Having these wonderful experiences & seeing them through the eyes of my children is what has made Disney such a special vacation for our family every single time we go!

People often ask me why I'm not tired of Disney vacations yet & I just laugh...I could never get tired of something so wonderful! How about you? What keeps your family returning to Disney year after year?

This first trip to Disneyland was such a treasure & the start of many wonderful Disney vacations to come.

I'm going to give you a little bit of history here to start. My mom used to fly down with my brother [who is 13 years younger than me] to California every so often to visit my Grandma. They would go to Disneyland & play after dinner sometimes. Their routine was that they always rode It's A Small World first thing. My mom absolutely LOVES that ride! It is her very favorite! Here is a picture that I absolutely treasure:

This is my mom, holding Molly looking at It's A Small World for the very first time! You can just see the wonder & amazement in Molly's eyes as she watches what is happening...she didn't know what to think! Look at the wonderful smile on my mom's face too! She was so excited to see this & sharing it with her grandchildren was awesome & just such a sweet moment!

Zach was such a prince on this trip too! Molly, being only 2, napped quite a bit during our park-touring time & it just so happened that when the princesses were all out in their places around the Sleeping Beauty Castle, she was napping! So, Zach very modestly said that since it was so important to me that we got autographs & pics of them all, he would step in & take the pictures...FOR ME! What a great sport! :)

First with Cinderella















Then with Belle
















Then with Sleeping Beauty















And finally with Ariel in her Grotto















It was very fun & we just loved how much attention each princess gave to him & were so excited to see him! It was cute because every one of them told him how cool it was that he was doing this for his sister & his mom! :)