POTC 4 Website

Disney

Disney has a fantastic website for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It has information about the movie, games, activities, character backgrounds, photos, and downloads. It's a lot of fun for any pirate fan. As you search through the site, you can collect badges for viewing different pages. Collect all 8 of the current badges and you'll unlock 4 different wallpapers for your computer. An additional 16 badges will be added to the site as the countdown to the premiere continues. The activities include printables, recipes, and crafts and would be great for kids. One of my favorite activities is the pirate bento box. It's so cute! Check it out.

Happy Easter!

Disney

Well, it's that time of year again. The Easter Bunny has visited our house and left a bunch of eggs to find. We went to a big Easter Egg Hunt yesterday that a local church puts on each year. They divide their front lawn into 3 sections and put 12,000 eggs on the grass. Bean loves it! One little boy, on looking at the eggs for the first time, said, "Don't they know they're supposed to HIDE the eggs?" It was hilarious. We love this egg hunt because it lasts almost a minute. (The first hunt I took Bean to, she got 2 eggs and it was over in less than 5 seconds! It was insane and I don't think the kids really enjoyed it.) 

Things are always slower out here, just part of life in the South, but we prefer it. The church also had a bounce house, two inflatable slide, and a giant inflatable obstacle course. They also have a free lunch and crafts and short lessons on the meaning of Easter inside the activity center. It's a lot of fun!

After the Egg Hunt, we had to run over to Lowe's for their kids build. Bean has been going to the builds at Home Depot and Lowe's since she was 3 and she looks forward to it every time. This week they made a window birdhouse in honor of Earth Day and gave out reusable totes.

Our local used book mega store was having an Earth Day sale too. Everything you could put into a reusable tote was 20% off. I think we spent 2 1/2 hours looking at books. We bought a ton of learning to read for Bean, who's in Kindergarten. The prices were fantastic! They usually cost $3.99, but at 2nd and Charles, they were $1.00-$1.44. I found some books my mom has been looking for, a few books I'd been looking for, and a special edition copy of Breaking Dawn from the Twilight Saga that looked like it had never even been opened. It was a steal at $10.80! I love finding bargains and I really love books, so this was great fun! I wish you all a great Earth Day and a very Hoppy Easter!

Royal Wedding

It seems that even Disney couldn't avoid the lure of a real-life Royal Wedding. As a result, they have created everything you need for the perfect Royal Wedding Tea Party at home. There are paper dolls, printable crowns, recipes for cupcakes that are absolutely adorable, and instructions for creating your own fascinator and coat of arms. They also have Disney Princess Royal Wedding Crafts and a Happily Ever After contest to win your own Royal Wedding Celebration at Disney World. The crafts and recipes are all princess themed and quite cute. While I'm sure Kate Middleton's wedding will be quite a grand affair, these printables and recipes would be perfect for a simple princess tea party at home.

Twilight: Official Illustrated Guide

So, my sister got me the new Twilight Saga: the Official Illustrated Guide for my birthday last week. I haven't read most of it yet, because it's a few inches thick, but so far, it's awesome. It has back story for most of the characters, illustrations of how Stephanie Meyer saw the characters and places, the history of the Volturi and the Quileute wolves, key plot points that form a timeline, maps, playlists for each of the books, and much more. It is absolutely fascinating and fills in a lot of the blanks, although there weren't that many to begin with. It is an interesting look into the thought processes that Stephanie used to create the books as well as information that she couldn't find places to include in the books. This guide is well worth the price and a must have for any true Twilight fan.

Mickey and Minnie Meet n Greet

Disney

Well, it looks like the Magic Kingdom has finalized on a new location for Mickey and Minnie now that Toontown is closed. The new location is near the front gates at the Town Square Theater. The Theater houses Meet n Greets for both Mickey and Minnie and the Princesses from the Toontown Fair. (Tinkerbell and friends are now found at EPCOT in the fairy garden.) The inside of the Theater features posters and video posters with scenes of Mickey rehearsing for his new magic show.

Once you reach Mickey and Minnie, you will find trunks full of gear for the magic show. There are props and the room looks like Mickey's backstage dressing room, where he and Minnie are getting ready for tonight's show. It appears to be very well executed and hopefully will shorten the lines, getting you in to see Mickey and Minnie more quickly. They have also added a Fastpass machine to see Mickey and Minnie, as well as one for the Princesses.

Unfortunately, the Fastpass is part of the regular system, so you will have to wait 1 hour before receiving another pass. However, this may help to decrease wait times during peak season. In all, this looks like a fun new way to meet everyone's favorite mouse.