There are 2 days left in March, including today – ZannaLand.com is really really close to getting 10,000 page views for the month of March. I’m so amazed by this – I remember when I started I was excited that the site had 10 views a day. Certainly a LOT has happened both on the site and in my life since that time, and I am so grateful for the exciting changes that have taken place.

These are just some of the Vinylmation figures out there - you could win a brand new one!

I would not be here without the wonderful community of readers about which I’m always raving, and although I may not have the budget of Disney, what I’d do in real life is take you out for a coffee and thank you. Since for most readers, I can’t do that without involving airlines and lots of miles, I thought I’d give away 3 gift cards {of various mystery amounts}  for a coffee on me {or tea or whatever else you might like to drink at Starbucks}.

In addition, I’m giving  away a couple of fun surprises – 2 unopened Vinylmation figures! So that’s 5 separate chances to win.  However,  we have to reach that goal first – which means I need your help getting the word out about this giveaway!

To enter the giveaway:

• Comment on this entry.

If you want some extra entries you can also:

• Tweet about this giveaway and comment here with the url of that tweet.
• Post on facebook or anywhere else you’d like to spread the word and let me know here!

I will then add all the entries into random.org and pick the winners there. I can’t wait to see who wins!

Disclosure: I am providing these prizes out-of-pocket and am not being sponsored by Starbucks, Walt Disney World or anyone else for this giveaway. Each comment meeting the above guidelines will be entered to win one of five prizes. Contest ends at midnight PST on March 31st and winners will be announced on April 1st. Good luck!

…

UPDATE: If you did not read on twitter, we surpassed 10,000 views after midnight on March 30th, so we definitely hit our goal and then some by the 31st! Thanks so much!! The winners have been picked at random.org:

$5 Starbucks gift card goes to – Jacqueline Hudson!

$10 Starbucks gift card goes to - icitea!

$15 Starbucks gift card goes to - Stephanie (VertigoDawn)!

1st Vinylmation goes to -Vader’s Mom!!

2nd Vinylmation goes to - Jon (disneylovndad)!!

Congratulations! I will get your prizes mailed out as soon as possible!

Thank you ALL for the amazing participation, for reading, and for spreading the word about ZannaLand. I promise this will not be the last fun giveaway!!

My fabulous blogging friend and fellow Walt Disney World Moms Panelist OhAmanda does Top 10 Tuesday every week and each week I think “I really need to participate in this!” but I always either have a different topic on tap, or can’t think of a list in time. So this week, I’ve finally found a topic to join in with. Below are ten of the many things I am looking forward to tomorrow, when we arrive at Walt Disney World for the first-ever Social Media Moms Celebration. One thing I am NOT looking forward to is the fact that Amanda will not be there. *sobs* However, she just got back from Blissdom and taking part in amazing workshops there AND seeing Harry Connick Jr. so that is slight consolation I guess. Anyway…

10. Being able to be at Walt Disney World both as a blogger and as a Moms Panelist – WITH my family. Moms Panel training was so amazingly fun, and though I wouldn’t change it for the world, the fact that my husband and children will be with me this time around, is a treat. I really love how Disney put together the registration that way, to include families.

9. Celebrating J.’s birthday (the 10th) at Disney. I suppose I could’ve been quiet about this whole thing and let him think I planned a huge celebration at the new ESPN Wide World of Sports just for his birthday, but the hundreds of strangers crashing the party might’ve given it away…I’m confident it’ll still be a special day for him and hope I can force him to wear a Disney Birthday Button!

8. Diving into the world of Social Media/Blogging conventions feet first by attending my first conference at Walt Disney World! I am hoping this is just the first of many. Watching friends and fellow bloggers attend BlogHer 09, Type A Mom 09 and now Blissdom 10 has definitely wet my appetite for blogging conferences I must attend next year. I’m hoping to get to BlogHer ’10 this year too. Working on sponsors for that now! The fact that it’s my first one and Disney’s first one seems like a perfect fit.

7. Dole Whip! I don’t really need to say more.

6. Getting to hear the speakers Disney has secured for the conference. Guy Kawasaki. Chris Brogan. Maxine Clark. Just to name a few. As a new-ish blogger I’m all ears for any and everything I can learn about the process and how to improve as a writer and communicator. I figure I might as well start off at the top, right?

5. The special events Disney has planned for us. Sooo, I may have mentioned this is DISNEY, yes? And my love for all things Disney? And my recent super fabulous Disney Moms Panel training trip (which I will continue writing about soon, promise!) where I experienced quite a bit of pixie dust? This is DISNEY. Can you imagine the special surprises they have planned for us? There have already been reports leaked about the performers who will be at Thursday night’s Epcot celebration (entertainment subject to change). I can only imagine what else they have in store for us.

4. Meeting new friends from twitter. In the course of expanding my blogging topics and connecting with others who are attending this conference, I’ve made a ton of new friends whom I cannot wait to meet in person at Disney. I feel like I should probably wear my twitter handle on a t-shirt or print out a poster size version of my twitter picture so I can ensure people know who I am because I don’t want to miss anyone!

3. Meeting old friends from twitter. Another benefit to this celebration being held at Walt Disney World is many of my Disney fan friends from twitter were eager to attend as well. Because of that, quite a few of them will be at the conference and I will get to meet them too. People that have been with me from my start on twitter and followed my journey onto the Moms Panel. It will be great to finally put faces to the names, in person.

2. Staying at the Polynesian. I mentioned in my previous post about the Social Media Moms Celebration that the Polynesian was one of the few resorts I had not stayed in. It has always been one of our family’s favorite spots for dining and visiting, so the fact that we will get to sleep there too, experiencing all the resort has to offer guests, is a real treat.

2 of our fearless Moms Panel leaders: Laura Spencer & Jo Anne Wallace, who make everything more fun! (Oh, and those royal-looking people would be the gorgeous Princess Tiana and the debonair Prince Naveen!)

In other words - I’M EXCITED!!! If you are attending, what are you most looking forward to? Please, please look for me because I am terrible with associating twitter names with real names and I don’t want to miss anyone. See you tomorrow!

Xbox 360 Controller cake with glowing buttons

As you know, I discussed my past cake creations earlier and it was within the comments of that entry that the suggestion came in from my good friend Luis to make an Xbox controller cake. I instantly agreed that would be the perfect idea for my Xbox Live-addicted 11 year-old. It also seemed like it could be do-able with some fondant and a little creativity. So last night, I embarked on the journey to create the ultimate Xbox 360 controller cake! (Thank goodness I had the help of my husband or I’d still be working on it now.)

What I did was make two layers, one chocolate, one yellow, from scratch. While those were cooking I made some marshmallow fondant (ok, a LOT). I made two bags of mini marshmallows worth…which meant I used almost FOUR bags of powdered sugar to get it to stop being sticky. (as usual, click on each picture to see it full-sized)

Home made fondant from melting marshmallows and adding powdered sugar

It was quite the arm workout too. And made an absolutely crazy amount of mess. Once it finally comes together though, it feels like such an accomplishment! I’m really not sure I’d make it again…although I haven’t used store-bought fondant, so I’m not sure if it’s more difficult to work with.

Next I whipped up (literally) some buttercream frosting to go between the layers and on top as a crumb coating before the fondant went on. J. and I made the buttons and such out of fondant (thank goodness he was there to tint it grey because mine looked like melted rainbow sherbet before I called him over). J. also carved the cake to the controller shape…I wasn’t confident enough to attempt that.

The cake, shaped into the controller and covered with fondant

Making the D-pad button

Getting the buttons on

It took a long time to figure out how to get the idea of how I wanted the buttons to look and work in my head, translated into fondant. I wanted to add the shoulder buttons too, even though it’d be on the back of the cake.

The back left and right bumpers and triggers

The hardest part was the Xbox guide button, that glows and shows you which player you are. It is metal-looking with the green X, so I knew I wanted it to be shiny. We played around with a few ideas before I decided to cut up the disposable cake pans and make an X in that, trying to shape it into a button shape too. It could’ve been better, but hey, I am an amateur!

The finished cake - with the actual Xbox controller for comparison

For the A, B, X and Y buttons, I stuck glow sticks in vertically and topped them with gel icing, which I think came out really well. If I tried to write the letters on them, I think it would’ve ruined them so I kept them plain. I also didn’t attempt the Microsoft name or port in the back of the controller. I had to stop somewhere. I know there are some flaws and places where it could look better, but as my first personal attempt with making and working with fondant, I think it’s pretty good. And both kids said “COOOOOL!” so that’s all that really counts. (And the people at the party place asked if I made cakes for a living, so that was nice too.)

I thought I’d share how this all started. I’ve always loved baking but have never taken a cake decorating class and have gone through many hit or miss experiments along the way. (I’m still looking for a fool-proof white cake and cupcake recipe!!) I guess it first started when I made a Lego cake for C’s 6th birthday. I wish I had pictures of that but they are stuck on a non-working hard drive. It looked like a rectangular Lego brick with a square one on top, achieved by putting cupcake bottoms on top of the cake and then frosting the two bricks in different colors. It was a little more stressful than enjoyable at that time because I was in a tiny apartment kitchen trying to make a masterpiece, so I relied on store-bought cakes for a few years after that.

A few years later, S. wanted a puppy theme for her 7th birthday. I checked every grocery store in our area and could not find a puppy-themed cake. So I thought, why not, I’ll make one. She picked the colors of green and orange. She was on a green and orange kick that year. I used Scooby Snacks graham crackers for decorating (which everyone avoided thinking they were actual dog biscuits!). I also used a pound cake with almond flavoring like I’d had from a bakery once, which was good, but resulted in the cake weighing about 25lbs. Everyone loved it though and then it seemed that I’d started a trend.

Next up was C’s 9th birthday. He was really into Guitar Hero
that year. I had the vision for a perfect cake. Of course getting what was in my mind to translate into cake was another task altogether, but I tried. He loved it and all the kids (and moms) at the party were impressed, so I guess it wasn’t too bad. I had a LOT of fun making that one and though I’m sure my skills could’ve used polishing, I worked with what I had and thought it was a hit.

Two years ago S. decided on a luau theme for her 8th birthday. We had the party at the house and thanks to years of visiting Disney’s Polynesian Resort, I had free party favors in the form of silk flower leis. It was a fun party full of silly games, limbo contests and a Pinata. Don’t ask. We aren’t strict adherers to party theme rules around these parts.

Anyway, I had a vision to have a volcano themed cake. After not wanting to press my luck with lava cakes like you find in restaurants, I decided on a mini volcano with candied ‘lava’ set on top of a beach/ocean themed cake. I got a bit Martha Stewart-ish about it and spent way too much time using a hot glue gun and tons of toothpicks and popsicle sticks to make a tiki hut, but I think it was worth it. It was another really fun cake to do. I had a white layer and a chocolate layer, and the sand was crushed Nilla Wafers with a couple of Oreos mixed in for color. The lava was candy I made and colored myself, and splashed out on tin foil to dry in splattered-looking shapes.

As I said, I took a bit of time off while caring for baby G during C’s last party, but got back on track with S’s 9th party, which I’ve blogged about already – the Spaghetti and Meatballs cake. No matter what the reaction, this cake got the most response of any I’ve done. People either loved it or were grossed out thinking we were eating spaghetti and meatballs on top of cake. I loved trying something different and succeeding in making it look like dinner rather than dessert!

So that leaves me with my problem today. What to do for C’s 11th birthday this year?! With his extreme interest in video games, I might have to go that route, but I’m really not relishing the thought of making zombie hands or army men. Anyone seen any good cakes lately? Is it time for me to venture into layers? Fondant? Actually I did try my hand at fondant about a year ago, just for fun (on top of a pink cake!). My friend helped out, but I discovered it was easier than I thought to actually make marshmallow fondant. She came up with the decorating idea in theme with my love for all things black and white.

What are your thoughts, suggestions or crazy ideas for his cake this year? I’m all ears!! And Duff, Mary Alice, Geoff & gang, if you’re reading this, I’ll happily accept any help you have to offer!

Who are we to choose who takes the easy road while others take the hard? And who’s to say someone isn’t (and they usually are) suffering ten times more than you are right now? Why not us? Who would we rather push this hardship onto? No one that I know, certainly. Again, not to say what we are going through is so unbearable or even the worst struggle we’ve experienced, but this has been given to us and we will come through it stronger than ever. Why not us?

…

It’s pretty obvious what my blessings are this year, I could rattle off my husband and children and mom and of course the amazing friends I’ve made recently. I am thankful for those things each and every day. In addition, I’d like to add some other things that make me pause, take a deep breath, and smile – from the inside out.

• Kids that actually *fought* yesterday over who got to dust more things as we cleaned the house. I know a time will come when they will not be so willing to help out, and I cherish these days when they are.

• A tiny little person that reminds me every minute of what’s truly important in life and how blessed I am, no matter what.

• A husband who, at the end of the day, would do any and everything just to make me smile. Despite the every day stresses and trials, I do appreciate that fact and love him more each day.

• The leaf I looked out the front window and saw fall off the tree. It’s pretty rare that we stop and look at nature happening around us and it’s the one constant in this crazy, fast-paced world we live in. So I loved that I looked up right at that moment and gave thanks for the beautiful world we live in.

• Family and friends that seem to think I’m pretty cool and are willing to support me in any way. I’ve always had a problem accepting compliments or entertaining the thought that people might actually like me…so to get that confirmation almost daily lately…is pretty mindbogglingly amazing.

• Hope. Dreams. I wouldn’t be where I am without hope and dreams. I can’t imagine a world or my mind without them and hope the day never comes when I wake up without hope in my heart and a dream to try to make come true. ♥

Happy Thanksgiving.

J and me, senior year of high school-1990

Thirteen Fifteen years ago today, I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to greet my Prince Charming and begin our fairy tale life together. Of course, it hasn’t always been a fairy tale, I’d be a little scared if it was! Our story began a lot more than 13 15 years ago too…almost 19 21 years ago, this long-haired boy that played guitar before school in the auditorium, asked if I’d go out with him. I said yes, and have been saying yes ever since. He told me he loved me the first week we met. Never having had a boyfriend before, I was a little dumbfounded by what to reply and simply said, “okay…” Soon, however, I fell in love with his every breath. He asked me to marry him less than a year later, when I was still 17, giving me a tiny diamond he got at the mall. I said, “yes, but…not for a while!”.

us on prom night, May 1991 (for those curious, these 2 pictures show my natural hair color!)

Years passed and we were inseparable, despite many predictions we wouldn’t last 6 months. In 1995, I convinced him to pack up and move 1500 miles away to Orlando and work at Disney World with me. He had only ever moved once in his life, so this was a huge deal. Soon we decided that the time was right and he took that tiny diamond and added it to the diamond from my mom’s engagement ring and added a new diamond on the other side, creating a past, present and future ring that held so many memories, with the promise of many more.

J and me dreaming at the Wedding Pavilion-1995 I was *very* blonde back then!

While working at Disney World, we had seen the building and opening of Disney’s Wedding Pavilion. On our days off we’d head over to check it out, and dream of the ultimate Disney wedding. We were unable to afford a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding, and also could not get a priest to perform the ceremony outside of a church, so we decided to have our reception at the WDW Dolphin instead. It was much more affordable for us, and still gave us the special magic of a wedding at Disney. Planning the wedding was so much fun, and the staff at the Dolphin really took care of everything, we just had to decide what we wanted to eat and what kind of cake we preferred.

There were a few mix-ups along the way from the other vendors, but the Disney part was perfect. One issue was the florist who assured us he could find delicate tiny pale pink tulips to match perfectly with the Stargazer Lilies in my bouquet. When we arrived at the church, the tulips were HUGE and a deep dark pink. Nothing we could do at that point! The other issue was the balloons. Keep in mind this was the mid-90′s (as the pictures of my poofy veil will reveal!) and I guess balloon arches were pretty popular, at least in my mind. I had this vision of a cool twisted archway of pink and white balloons framing our head table. When we walked into the reception hall, there were *single* balloons arranged in a sort of arch shape against the wall behind the DJ. I can laugh about it now. The issues definitely did not ruin the day, though, we had amazing food at the Dolphin, the cake was heavenly and I think everyone had a great time at the party.

We loved being able to take our families around the parks before the wedding too. That year was only the 1st annual International Food & Wine Festival at Epcot so we were excited to share that new experience with our friends and family.

Goofy wishing us well at the Chef Mickey's rehearsal dinner

Our rehearsal dinner was held at Chef Mickey’s, and as you can imagine that was anything but quiet and reserved. We were so well taken care of and everyone had a blast. I can’t recommend Chef Mickey’s enough for a large group – you’re just bound to have fun-and get completely stuffed before the big day!

Just a few of my treasured moments from October 26, 1996…

My dad and me arriving at the church

My mom and me-wouldn't have been possible without all her help & hardwork!

Heading over to the WDW Dolphin-we're married now!

After the ceremony, I remember making the driver pull over (the photographer was following behind us) as I wanted to get a picture in front of the waterfall on the road approaching the Swan and Dolphin hotels. The sun was in our eyes, we were hot and squinting, but it was perfect and that backdrop is one of my favorite photos from the wedding.

Our first dance was to “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra, inspired at the time by the recent remake of Father of the Bride. If I couldn’t have Franck plan my wedding, I could at least dance to the same song! I’m glad we went with it though, because it was a timeless choice and hearing it today instantly brings back memories of 13 15 years ago.

Thirteen Fifteen years ago seems both like an eternity ago and just yesterday. An eternity because SO much has happened in our lives. We’ve bought and sold 3 4 houses, moved 10 11 times to 3 different states (26 times and 5 states for me alone), have 3 amazing children and a wonderful family as well. I couldn’t ask for anything more and feel like the luckiest girl in the world, today and every day. There are many more parts to this wedding story, but I will share those another year…and my dream is to renew our vows at Disney’s Wedding Pavilion, completing the circle of Disney magic started so many years ago! Happy Anniversary J, I love you!

My sister and brother July, 1972

As most of you no doubt know, today is the anniversary of the official opening of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in 1971, Epcot (or EPCOT Center as it was known at the time) in 1982 and later Epcot’s Morocco pavilion in the World Showcase, in 1984. I thought it would be a fun way to celebrate those special days in history with my own little stroll down memory lane – Embarrassing Photo Edition. I know there was a picture of me as a baby on my first visit to Magic Kingdom, but I could not find that particular one. Instead, I found one of my sister and brother, proudly representing the 70′s with their attire. The picture was taken in the Main Street Flower Market area, now of course long gone with the Emporium expansion. From the look of the banners, it must have been around the 4th of July, which would make sense because I would’ve been 6 months old, making my brother 9 and my sister 10. I wish we had more pictures from this trip since clearly they are full of Disney history.

Next up, to commemorate Epcot’s anniversary, I wanted to share a picture from one of our earlier visits there. However, I’ve already shared quite a few, including my first 3-Season Salute Annual Pass photo and one of Dreamfinder, Figment and me. So I thought I’d share one with much more to comment on – mid-80′s EPCOT!

Mickey & Me, rockin' the 80's

In this photo you not only get the treat of the “Rainbow Bright” version of “Space Mickey” but see yet another bad perm on me, countless black rubber bracelets a la Madonna, really, really short shorts (in pink and white stripes no less), white sunglasses with twisted glasses lanyard and of course – a Swatch watch. I was about 13 here so you also get to enjoy my head tilt, which says, “I’m WAY too cool to be seen with Mickey – I mean, just LOOK at me”.

Then, in honor of Morocco’s opening day, I dug up some pictures from a 6th grade class trip to EPCOT. My best friend, Nalani Proctor and I some how managed to be the only two students my mom and dad had to chaperone that day, so we had our own itinerary for fun rather than staying with the class, since we knew EPCOT like the back of our hands already. There are quite a few posed photos like the ones below, including sombreros in Mexico and posing with a castle guard in the United Kingdom. Maybe I’ll scan some of those in later…

Morocco, 1984

I’m not sure why we are posing like we are in this photo, but I know my dad is the one that told us to do it. Maybe some sort of twist on a yoga pose? No clue. Oh, as I was previewing this post it hit me: maybe he wanted us to pretend we were granting wishes like Jeanie in “I Dream of Jeanie”?? In any event, you can see the shame that is tight, white overall shorts. I’m not in anyway sure of how I thought that was a good idea. My t-shirt underneath was a classic EPCOT baseball shirt with the EPCOT symbol in rainbow colors, but you can’t see it under the overalls.

I probably should've put one of those black bars across my face!

Here is a close-up of Nalani and I wearing a Fez. Highlighted here are my first of many bad perms, my super cool twisty plastic necklace (anyone remember those?) and my dire need for braces, which I would obtain a couple of years later. My friend is sporting the also-popular polo shirt-under-a-sweatshirt look, with short shorts. Ahh…Planet 80′s.

I hope you enjoyed this look back at what seems to be a different universe entirely. Of course the funny part now is that many of the styles popular back then (plaid, neon colors etc.) are now “in” again today. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, so they say…

Most importantly, Happiest of Anniversaries to the Happiest Places on Earth…thanks for the memories, embarrassing or otherwise! Here’s to 100 more wonderful years of Magic!

There are several things you can do to make your birthday more special at Disney, including ordering gift baskets, flowers or balloons to your Disney resort, or special ordering a small cake ($21) to be delivered (with song of course!) as you dine in a Disney restaurant. In addition, there is one very important, completely FREE thing which you should do first and foremost upon arriving on Disney property: Tell EVERYONE it’s your birthday!! Tell the front desk when you check in at your resort, tell them at the ticket sales booth, guest relations or City Hall at the parks, and tell them at every Disney restaurant at which you dine.

The birthday button is your key to special Disney attention

Citrico's special birthday treatment

a celebration cake may be purchased for a fee, cupcakes are free

a special Kona Cafe creme puff on my birthday

We told the front desk at Disney’s Beach Club Resort it was our daughter’s birthday and she was greeted with a nice surprise one day as we were relaxing in the room. This is not guaranteed, but worth a try, tell everyone!!

you never know what your Disney resort might bring on your birthday

balloons & an autographed Tink doll at the Beach Club

of course princesses get special birthday treatment

Of course this year is the Free Admission on Your Birthday promotion at the Disney Parks, which is a wonderful way to celebrate! And if you have annual passes or admission tickets already, there are other options that ensure you receive some Disney magic on your special day. Whether or not you make visiting Disney on your birthday an annual tradition, don’t be shy and enjoy celebrating YOU in the Happiest Place on Earth!