A Disney Working Vacation

For some reason, I keep stumbling on to interesting Disney information lately. I just got an e-mail from CareerBuilder.com announcing a Disney Dream "Job" Contest.

In conjunction with Disney's "Year of a Million Dreams" Celebration, CareerBuilder and Disney are offering "Dream Job" vacations where you can be an honorary Disney Pirate, Princess, Jungle Cruise Skipper, Park Parade Performer or Haunted Mansion Butler/Maid. The 4 day, 3 night "Dream Job" vacation prizes will take place in Disneyland.

If you're interested, you need to act quickly and make a 45 second audition video telling what "Disney Dream Job" you would want and why you should be chosen. All contest videos must be submitted by February 20, 2007. Once the videos are narrowed down, the videos of the finalists will be placed on-line for a website vote.

Full details of this contest can be found HERE at the CareerBuilder website.

Dream Yourself a Night in Cinderella's Castle

Have you heard about the new Cinderella Castle Suite at Walt Disney World? Apparently last night the first guests stayed in the brand new, one-of-kind luxury suite located inside Cinderella's Castle in the middle of the theme park. The family that stayed there was selected randomly though the Disney Dreams Giveaway, a program connected with the "Year of a Million Dreams" celebration. For the rest of the year, guests will be selected at random (sometimes based on the particular seat that they're sitting in on a specified ride at a pre-selected time) and they will get dinner at the castle and a one night stay in the exclusive Castle Suite.

A slide show of photos of the Cinderella Suite can be found on the website of the Orlando Sentinel. Wouldn't you love to stay there?

While you obviously have to be in Disney World to have a chance at winning the one night stay in the Castle, since it's a same day thing, there are other prizes that you can win. According to Disney's press release, prizes include unique Disney vacation experiences, special events like serving as the grand marshall in a Disney parade, special Fastpass badges which grant immediate admission to the most popular attractions, memberships in the Disney Vacation Club, and exclusive trading pins.

What's great is that since they are touting the Disney Dreams Giveaway as a "no purchase necessary" contest, they have opened it up to mail-in entries. Check out the complete contest rules. It looks to me like all you have to do is mail-in a 3.5 x 5 postcard with your name, address, daytime phone number, and date of birth to: Disney Dreams Giveaway, PO Box 8629, Elmhurst, IL 60126. The deadline for entries is January 14, 2008. Hey, if your a Disney fanatic like me, it's worth a shot! Too bad you have to be in the park to win the Cinderella Castle stay!

"Pants are for boys!"

Here's my latest problem... Miss A absolutely refuses to wear pants. It's been going on for a few weeks now. She claims that pants are for boys and she only wants to wear dresses, preferrably pink dresses. Now, if the weather was warmer, I'd have no problem with it, but it's the middle of winter and tights with a dress are just not warm enough in my mind, especially when the daycare makes them play outside twice a day.

This morning, another fashion battle ensued. I forced her to wear jeans with a cute Gymboree top and she was screaming and trying to pull them off as I was putting them on her. She's 3 and I was late for work, so I won the battle. But as soon as we got home today, she ran upstairs to her room and came out with a Lilly shift dress that she wanted to wear. I told her that that dress was a summer dress and she needed one that had sleeves. She went back in her room and came out with her only other Lilly dress. I told her no again, and took her in her room to show which dresses were "winter" dresses that she could wear. She refused each and every one that I showed her (and there were several), so I finally took all of the short sleeve and sleeveless ones out of her room and left her with two long-sleeved options. After all that, she came out in a nightgown!

While I'm typing this after 11PM, a really weird thing happened. A telephone started ringing in the room - a toy telephone! I hunted it down in one of the toy baskets under the coffee table, and pushed the speaker phone button since the handset was missing. Guess What? It was Barbie! She was calling to ask if she could come over to play. What's strange is that since Santa brought us that phone, it has never rang on its own before. Maybe Barbie just got our number?

A Wonderful Read!

I wanted to tell you all about a new magazine that I just discovered. It's called Wonder Time and it's from the editors of Family Fun. If you're not familiar with Family Fun, it's a great magazine for moms of young kids, with tons of party ideas, games, craft projects, etc.

Since I'm a subscriber of Family Fun, I received some advertising propoganda inviting me to be one of the premier subscribers of Wonder Time. I sent in my subscription and kind of forgot about it until last Friday when I was in the waiting room at the pediatric dentist, and there on the table was the Wonder Time issue shown in this photo. I had lots of time to read it as Miss E was having a cavity filled and we had to wait an hour for the sedation medication to take effect. Well, every article that I read was interesting, from why young kids like to play with scotch tape (currently Miss A's favorite hobby), to the histories of many classic toys. I could identify with many of the topics as the magazine is geared toward moms of children 6 and under, and I have two of them.

When the hour was up, I took the magazine with me into the treatment room , but my hands, my husband's hands and the hands of three nurses were required to hold down feisty and supposedly medicated Miss E, so I couldn't finish the magazine. When it was time to leave, I so wanted to carry it out the door and pretend that it was mine from home, but my conscience got the best of me and I returned it to the watiting room table.

Cooincidentally, I received my first issue of Wonder Time the next week. It was not the issue that I had started reading in the dentist's office, but one just as good. The day it arrived, I stayed up until 12:30AM reading every article. That's really rare as I never have time or take time to read the other magazines I get. Then tonight when I came home from a PTA meeting, I found hubby reading it, which is even rarer!

So, if you're the mom (or dad) of young kids, you may want to check out this magazine. There's even some kind of deal now where you can get 10 issues for $10.00. A bargain in my mind!

Of course, that little voice in the back of my head is wondering what articles I missed reading from the first issue. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm actually considering scheduling an appointment for Miss A's first dental checkup so I can get that magazine. I mean, she's nearly three, isn't it about time that she visit the friendly pediatric dentist with that great issue of Wonder Time? My only worry is that it might be a wasted trip (magazine wise) as another mom may have swiped it!