Disclosure: My family had the lovely fortune of being invited to the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration this year.  As guests of the event, we were able to enjoy many perks at The Happiest Place on Earth and experience some very, very cool things.  The trip was partially subsidized, but all opinions in this recap are my own.

I absolutely loved keeping the secret from my kids about our trip.  Not because I like keeping things from them (other than my special stash of chocolate), but because I knew just how excited they would be once we gave up the surprise.  I waited until 2 days before we were set to leave and couldn’t decide how to break the news.  I ended up going with my trusty ‘go-check-the-printer-for-me’ method and printed out a ‘Get Excited! We’re Going to Disney World!’ sign.

It kinda sorta worked.  L’il Buddy’s latest ‘thing’ is to hide in various places around the house and then jump out while yelling ‘BOO!’ and scaring the living daylights out of everyone. It’s super fun.  So on that particular morning, he had crept down to the basement behind me and hidden behind my office door.  He waited until I got to the printer, then launched into his ghost routine, and I was completely caught off guard, screamed and threw the paper into the air.  He got one glimpse of the Mickey ears and scrambled up the stairs yelling: “We’re going to Disney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” 

So. Yeah. Surprise!

We got right down to business packing and prepping and reassuring Giggles that, YES, she could go on the scariest roller coaster available and reassuring Chatterbox that, NO, she did not have to go on the scariest roller coaster available.

We barely made our flight – I mean barely.  It was at the crack of dawn and we had a hard time getting everyone up and out at 4am.  But we made it and we were excited.  All the while, the kids fought over whose turn it was to push the fly [here's my affiliate link:] American Tourister COLORA 20′ inch Spinner Bag that we were gifted.  They were obsessed with the thing.  Finally, a suitcase that was easy for them to roll and in a bright, fun color, to boot.  We’d taken the kids to Disney in 2010, but none of them had much of a memory of it (a doggone shame) nor did we have the opportunity to stay at the Walt Disney Resort.  We were in for a treat.  From getting to ride the Magical Express from the airport, to staying at the Contemporary Resort, we were doing Disney, Disney-style – and it was awesome.

The first day we spent at the resort pool – the kids were in hog heaven.  And we ended the evening with a fun ‘Try It’ reception – where the kids got to meet ‘Wreck-It-Ralph’ and listen to The iCurrent (I loved them!) and waterfront seats to the IllumiNations: Reflections of the Earth fireworks show at EPCOT.  The next day, Hubby took the kids to Animal Kingdom while I attended the social media conference and we met up that evening for a dinner reception on the set of the ‘Lights, Motor, Action!’ Extreme Stunt Show at Hollywood Studios.  The kids were head over heels at the special appearances made by Mickey, Minnie and Goofy as well as checking out the super cool movie set.  Giggles was blown away to find out that the buildings weren’t really actual buildings and only facades. Her expression when she peeked around the back was priceless!

Also, I totally appreciated that the DJ dropped ‘Ice, Ice, Baby’ from the back of his pimped out ride.

We had a ball at Magic Kingdom the following day (I promise, I never tire of that place), but by far the most amazing part of the day was having a front row seat to Merida’s coronation.  She is the latest Disney Princess to join the Royal Court and the ceremony was magical.  I know I sound looney gushing about a princess ceremony at a theme park, but there is just something about the way Disney does things that makes you feel like you were really sprinkled with fairy dust.  Merida is also important to us because it’s the only princess that Chatterbox identifies with.  She’s tomboy-ish, has an aversion to frilly dresses and craves adventure.  All-around awesome.

Oh and she got to snap up close pics of Debbie Ryan too, so she was ecstatic. (No, I don’t really know who she is either).

That night we mini-golfed like champs at Fantasia Gardens, along with sampling exotic foods during the ‘Try It’ dinner and dancing off what we ate in the dance contest.  Please believe they played Apache by The SugarHill Gang, and please believe that I danced my heart out to it.  After recovering from the worst headache of my life (I think it was heatstroke), on Sunday we closed out the weekend with a Mother’s Day Garden Brunch featuring Soleil Moon Frye, of Punky Brewster fame and the digital mom community, MoonFrye.com.  It was a delightful end to the celebration.  We managed to squeeze in another full day of theme park goodness before hitting the airport, exhausted and happy.  And more fighting over the suitcase.

There was much to eat during the weekend.  Disney was very diligent about providing us with healthy and different food options for our families to try as part of their Disney Citizenship ‘Try It’ initiative to encourage kids to try ‘new foods, fun moves, and simple ways to be your best.’  The foodie in me appreciated everything from the wheatgrass smoothies to the Caribbean-style grouper to the mini Key lime pies.  But hands down, my favorite food of the entire weekend was….

Mickey’s Premium Ice Cream Bar.

And the runner-up was definitely the Dole Whip Float from Adventureland.

Despite walking through theme parks (and sweating profusely in the heat), I managed to gain 2lbs that weekend.  I’m an overachiever like that.

Packing for this trip was easy peasy (but for the fact that I had to pack myself + 3 children).  The parameters were to pack for (1) the heat; (2) lots of walking; and (3) a business casual outfit for the conference day.  Since my kids feet grow like weeds, I needed to get them sandals since they’d outgrown last summer’s.  I hit the jackpot at Kohl’s and we all got colorful Crocs for walking.  One woman even stopped me in the Magic Kingdom to ask where I got mine because they reminded her so much of the jellyshoes from back in the day:

If you like ‘em, check out my affiliate link:
Crocs Women’s Adrina Flat

The only other style note of (moderate) interest is that I had a wardobe malfunction on Sunday morning.  I had packed a cute dress for the Mother’s Day Brunch and, despite Hubby’s repeated attempts to zip me up, the zipper was broken and would not budge.  I had to go to Plan B and wear the dress I had worn on Friday night.  No one noticed (or at least they were nice enough not to say anything if they did).  Those bloggers are a kind bunch.

There was much learning to be had during the celebration, especially the conference day.  We had a full agenda of speakers presenting on topics related to social media, business and beyond.  There were 2 standouts for me:  Jackie Huba‘s talk on building our fan bases, based on her book: “Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers Into Fanatics”

get it via my Amazon link:
Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics

Her presentation was chock-full of great tips for building your following that translate perfectly to us as bloggers and entrepreneurs.  The one that stood out to me the most, however, was:

Focus on Your One Percenters – Gaga spends most of her effort on just 1% of her audience, the highly- engaged superfans who drive word of mouth.

That was a lightbulb moment for me!  We constantly spend all of our time try to grow our lists and gain more ‘likes’ and followers, but, truth be told, it’s your loyal, die-hard supporters that will carry you to your success.  I’ve got more coming down the pike on that.

My other standout presentations were the ones from the Walt Disney Company itself.  I am a brand fanatic and anytime I can see the strategy and thought-process behind the brands I love, I am in hog heaven.  I really enjoyed hearing from one of the video game engineers about how they designed the forthcoming Disney Infinity game – talk about thinking outside of the box!  [Pre-order your Disney Infinity Starter Pack with my Amazon link, here] By removing the structure and creating a ‘toybox’ environment, they’ve combines imaginative play, storytelling, fantasy and infinite possibilities all in one. I loved it.

And I also really loved seeing how the new storytelling app, Story, works. Catherine did a remarkable job showcasing how we, as bloggers and as parents, can use the product to tell our own stories.

And there was so much more: visits from R2D2 and the Stormtroopers.  And opp to register at Monsters University.  Energizing mc’ing from the captivating Rene Syler.  A special lunch at ‘Be Our Guest Restaurant’ in The Beast’s Castle in New Fantasyland.  I could go on.

There was great content. Fun rides. Quality time with friends and family. And Mickey ice cream bars.

What more could a girl ask for from a weekend?

Thank you, Disney and the Social Media Moms Celebration team, for the special invitation and the memories.

Editor’s Note:

Ha ha. I am the editor.  But seriously, I’m trying my hand at incorporating affiliate links in my posts.  Something I was encouraged to do at Type A Parent in Philly last month.  How’d I do? Tacky? Do you hate them? No big deal? LMK!

I seriously don’t know whether I’m coming or going these days! For the past 2 months, I’ve been traveling like a maniac.  And constant travel is like a suburban girl living in the city for a summer – at first it’s exciting and new, but after 2 months of eating takeout, it gets old fast.  And by the way, this perfectly describes the summer of 2001 when I spent my summer in Manhattan.  I think I was the only tenant who ever lived in that apartment that actually cranked up the stove.

But that’s another story for another day.

This second to last trip took me clear across the country to gorgeous – and I mean gorgeous - Laguna Nigel, California for the Mom 2.0 Summit.  The weekend was just perfect and, even though the trip was long and I missed out on some awesome house guests back home, it was a lovely time and well-worth the trip.

Here are some of my highlights from the Summit:

I really think that blogging conferences have raised the bar when it comes to ‘conference food.’ Gone are the days of rubbery chicken and tasteless sauces – events like Mom 2.0 and, ahem, Blogalicious, make the dining aspect just as much part of the conference experience as the sessions.  It also helps when food and beverage brands participate as sponsors.  From Carvel (ice cream cupcakes!) to SeaPak to Jamba Juice to Starbucks Refreshers (their delightful suite, pictured above), we were treated to treats all weekend.  I was partial to the ice cream cupcakes.  But also noteworthy were the Smoked Swordfish Tacos from on-site restaurant, Raya.  Maybe it was the insane views of the ocean, or maybe it was the crispy wonton taco shells (or maybe it was the cocktails I was sipping with Barbara), but those babies were mighty tasty, and definitely memorable.

Of all the events I’ve been traveling to these past weeks, I think that Mom 2.0 Summit was the easiest to pack for.  The atmosphere is super laid back, beach-chic, if you will, and so the pressure is basically off. Flips flops are a-ok, and so are wedges. It’s all good.  I threw in a maxi dress for Thursday, a flowy top, jeans and wedges for Friday and a sundress for Saturday. Done!

While I did hear mixed reviews about the content of the sessions, I felt like the content was right on time.  Maybe I just picked all the right ones to attend!  I learned so much that was specifically applicable to where I am right now.  Some highlights for me were the Creative Collaborations: Building a Dream Team and Balancing Your Strengths session and the Raising Performance Levels: The Control Enthusiast’s Guide to Delegating…How to Clone Yourself and Other Good Advice session.

Some takeaways I plan on implementing from the Creative Collaborations session:

• Your corporate culture extends to your vendors, key stakeholders and community – make sure yours is tangible. Identify your core values and mission and share with your team.
• Identify what you can do exquisitely, and what you can (and should) delegate.
• Worry less about ‘hiring’ and focus more on identifying strategic partners who can help you achieve your goals.

And more from the Raising Performance Levels session:

• Consider writing a ‘person description; rather than a ‘job description.’  Finding the right person for your business will go much farther.
• When managing a virtual team, focus on a ROWE = a results-only work environment.
• Ask your team daily: “What can I do today to make your job, life, project better?”

And I have pages more!

What was also big fun was the session I co-presented with Ciaran, Wendi, and Julie called: 1000 Opportunities, 1000 Hats – The Power, Pitfalls and Perks of Being Multipassionate.   We created a workshop designed to help those with many passions and interests identify their strongest passions, identify where they were spending the bulk of their time, consider what their motivating factors were for each, and grouping them in such a way that they were able to come away with an umbrella statement that would serve as their ‘elevator pitch’.  And we did it all with popsicle sticks, gumdrops and cocktail umbrellas.

It was pretty awesome.

Oh there was much to love about the conference.  The setting, obvs.  My roomies, Elena and Amy, totally.  Being amongst some of my best blogger friends, definitely.  I also really enjoyed Dove’s ‘unstoppable girls’ message that permeated the event, as well as hearing heartfelt stories from Dennis Ogbe, Amber Doty, and Rebecca Wolfe.

Because, for me, while all the travel is cool and the perks lovely, the stories are what really stick.

Like the one about Roo photobombing me.

I spent 10 minutes in the greeting card aisle on Monday, searching for a card to congratulate one of my besties on her newly announced pregnancy.  I ended up leaving the store without a card in hand because I could not find something appropriate for the occasion – so frustrating!  My only options were cards that congratulated the parents-to-be on their first baby (it will be my friend’s second) or on their ‘baby boy’ or ‘baby girl.’  Well, given that she’s early on in her pregnancy, the baby’s gender isn’t yet known (and what if she and her husband decide to be surprised?).  I was really disappointed in the card selections and decided to use a blank card and write my own message.

As a content creator, that experience really annoyed me because I was being limited in my choices; it was like the ‘powerful, all-knowing greeting card wizards’ had decided exactly what situations warranted a particular New Baby card, and my friend’s wasn’t one of them.

The good news is, I did have another choice.  I could head home and create my own card, reflective of the joy and excitement of a new, second baby whose gender was yet-to-be-determined.  It’s this same concept of taking control of the mainstream image of Mother’s Day that’s resonating with me with this year’s Strong Families ‘Mamas Day Our Way‘ project.

According to the 2010 census, nearly 80% of households in this country do not reflect the traditional nuclear family form – with 2 heterosexual parents and their 2 biological kids.

That’s an amazing percentage! And one that is certainly not apparent from a walk down the greeting card aisle at your local store, right?  Which doesn’t make any sense – think about the single-parent or adoptive or same-sex parent households that you know, for example.  That’s why I think it’s so cool that, today, Strong Families, a national initiative of Forward Together, announced their 3rd annual ‘Mama’s Day Our Way‘ e-card series and campaign.  Their goal is to “highlight the real experiences of mamas in our lives, and providing a more meaningful celebration beyond flowers and traditional greeting cards.” 

They’ve partnered with a diverse group of artists who have designed a fun, thoughtful and non-traditional set of Mother’s Day e-cards.  You can share them, for free, with a mama in your life across Facebook, Twitter, taking action in support of policy reform that supports families, and engaging in dialogue about families during their #MamasDay tweet chat on Thursday, May 9 at 11am PT/2pm ET.

If the mainstream isn’t providing us with content that reflects our lives and ideals, we should create our own.  Now that’s a bandwagon that this content creator can jump on.

This is typically my disclaimer when I’m giving presentations on best practices for social media: “Do as I say, not as I do!”  But after my recent talk at The Takeaway this past Friday, I’m wondering why I don’t just take my own advice?

Clearly my plate has changed since I started blogging 7 years ago.  These days, I’m managing multiple businesses along with with navigating being the parent of a 3rd grader (Lord help me), a 1st grader and a pre-schooler.  So why is it that I expect that I can post to my personal blog multiple times a week?  I’ve been struggling with this – as you know.

Whenever a new blogger asks me ‘how often should I blog?’ I always give the same answer: whatever it is that you decide, be consistent.  That is the single most important piece of advice I can think of when it comes to blogging frequency.  Starting out thinking you can blog 7x/week, is unrealistic.  But maybe you have the bandwidth to do so more than 1x.  Come up with a reasonable schedule and then, stick to it.  Blogging consistently is the secret to many a blogger’s success.

But, um, don’t look at my blog as an example.

I go through fits and starts of blogging regularly, and then falling off the map.  I think it’s high time that I implemented my own guidance.  It makes me sick that I can’t post as often as I’d like, but it is what it is.

I’m thinking, as crazy as life is right now, committing to posting on Wednesdays works for me.

In fact, I have an idea.

See you on Wednesday.

Image credit: peerlessgolf.ca

Ok wow.  This was going to be a simple ‘That’s My Style’ post about the cute tote bag that I bought last month while on vacation.  But, after spending the last 10 minutes on their website, it’s turning into a full-on entrepreneurial crush.

They call themselves “a shopping destination that transports women into a world of luxury and surprises.”

I’d have to agree.

While in the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego over Spring Break, I popped into a colorful store that looked right up my alley: clothing, accessories and home decor.  Thirty minutes (and 1 very antsy husband) later, I emerged from C. Wonder with a striped tote, a gold letter chain, and a lime green cuff with my initial in gold.  Not to be overlooked was the great customer service by the staff, the fly spiked shoes that the male clerk was wearing, and fabulous  shopping bag it all came in.  I mean, my heart was broken that I couldn’t find a way to travel back to Maryland with that bag.

I realize that I might sound like a lunatic – ranting about a store in a freakin’ mall.  But it was truly delightful.  Everything was bright and fun and preppy and pretty much everything could be monogrammed if it wasn’t already.  As if that weren’t enough, you don’t actually buy the items on the floor, like in any other store in the mall. They take the item from you and bring you out an untouched one from the back, making you feel special and like you’re at a high-end store.These people were in my head.  I asked the clerk if there were any of the stores on the East Coast and – ding, ding, ding! – it turns out that there’s one about 25 minutes away from my house.

So I made a note to write a quick post when I got back home. And then I read the brand story (like I always do) and found the creator’s video of his upbringing and his mission for the store. Love.

Apparently there is some hateration floating around about the store because the founder is Tory Burch’s ex-husband and some say he’s imitating her style for at a more affordable price point (which is maybe why I was drawn to the store in the first place, since I love me some TB). Still, I’m a fan. And I’ll be back.

It just screams Life Is the Party.

*for the record: this is SO not a sponsored post!

I’m about 4 classes into my ASL course, sponsored by Olay and Go Mighty, and while I am still stumbling along in the communication department, I’m proud to say that during the last class, I managed to follow a 2-hour conversation entirely in ASL!

Or ‘mostly’ follow anyway.

One of the great things about ASL is that it’s based on concepts rather than specific words, so you can get by picking up the gist of an idea rather than having to understand every single word in a sentence, like in English, for example.  Last class we started off by reviewing Unit 13: More Ways to Express Yourself, and our instructor started telling us about her life story to demonstrate some of the signs.  Before we knew it, it was 90 minutes later and she had shared her challenges growing up in a small town in a school where she was the only deaf student, and where her teachers and principal didn’t know “what to do with her,” to her desire to become a math teacher but getting discouraged in college when she couldn’t follow along with the lesson in class, to her ascent up the management chain at various government agencies, to her finally fulfilling her passion to teach, as an ASL instructor years later (yay!).

And she shared this entire, moving, riveting story in ASL.

Read the rest on my Go Mighty page…

Yesterday was hard day.  It started out like any other – the kids at school, Hubby and I both working from home.  Then I went to do my kid pick-ups and got settled again, back in my home office to get some more work done before dinner.  I had the television on, volume low, and looked up to see the news about the Boston Marathon tragedy.  Of course, like everyone else, I was glued to the TV, trying to understand what was going on while going from moments of disbelief to sadness to disgust.

And the kids were all home.

My husband had the news on upstairs too and suddenly my 8 1/2 year-old was full of questions: “What happened? Who’s hurt? Who’s fault is it? Was it an accident?”  And my 4 1/2 year-old had his own questions: “Why are all the police there? Why is this on TV, again? Who is the bad guy?”

Fortunately (unfortunately?), we’d had the conversation with our kids before about tragedies unfolding on the news – most recently with the Newtown tragedy.  We let them know that they were safe, that there were more ‘good’ people than ‘bad,’ and that there are always people around whose jobs it is to help everyone and keep them safe.  Having already had that kind of conversation made yesterday’s terrible development a little easier to swallow when it came to explaining the events to our kids.

The same line of thinking applies to hard conversations with our kids about other serious issues, like underage drinking.  I’ve wrestled with this topic a lot because in my mind my kids are just babies and why the heck would I be talking to them about alcohol at this stage.  But reality sets in and I see just how fast they are all growing up.  Chatterbox is in third grade and the subject matter that gets discussed during recess is shocking – I can see that conversations amongst her peers about alcohol are, sadly, not that far off.

And so, we’re being proactive and making it a point to #TalkEarly with our children about it.  Explaining why it’s ok for Mom and Dad to order a cocktail at dinner or have a beer at a BBQ.  Talking to them about the law and why they need to be 21 before they can drink.  I think the most important conversation for me will be where we discuss the potential harmful effects of alcohol and why they absolutely must stay away from it until they are old enough to make proper judgment calls.  We’ve had this discussion about smoking and they all seem to have internalized that smoking = death.  It’s a bit harder with alcohol, though because my husband and I, and our friends and adult family members to drink socially, so there isn’t the same kind of taboo associated with alcohol in our kids’ minds.

I’m also expecting the depth and focus of the conversations to evolve as the kids age.  But we’ve already started the discussions and want to maintain an open line of communication.  Talking with them early will allow us the time to answer specific questions and prepare them for dealing with situations on their own, rather than waiting until a situation arises where we have no choice but to dive into the issue.

Something we managed to avoid yesterday.

Wondering how to #TalkEarly with your kids about underage drinking? Talk with me & experts tomorrow,  4/17 at 1:00pm ET on Twitter for tips & info.  Follow the hashtag: #TalkEarly and @AskListenLearn @TheMotherhood @JusticeFergie

{Disclosure: This post is a part of a sponsored project that I am working on with The Motherhood and The Century Council.  All opinions are mine.}

My last Rock Your Party newsletter focused on the magic of successful collaborations.  Besides JT and Jay-Z collaborating on “Suit and Tie“, there’s another recent collab that I’m in love with:  The Genet Scarf – the beautiful and brilliant product created by my beloved ONE Moms (I’m a community partner), fashionABLE and ALT Summit.

Here’s the story:

Congratulations to Janette, ONE Moms, the ALT ladies, fashionABLE and, most of all, Genet, for taking a grim situation and using your talents and strength to turn it around and create something so positive and so beautiful.  A very Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!

Last week, Terrance Gaines (aka Brotha Tech) invited Lamar Tyler and I to participate in an honest, no-holds-barred conversation via Google Hangout about transitioning from blogging ‘on the side’ to making it your full-time profession.  I knew it was going to be fun – because those two are hysterical AND brilliant – but I had no idea it was going to be THAT much fun…and empowering.  The tweets, posts and comments we received from speaking our minds and hearts was amazing. If you missed it, here it is.

And if you want even more, join us on Friday, April 26 in Atlanta, GA for ‘The Takeaway: No Fluff’ – a 1-day workshop where social media meets business.