Wishes And Pixie Dust

Follow the journey of a Wisconsin family of 4 who relocated to the Walt Disney World area in July 2011

Category Archives: Entertainment


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The Eye Before The Storm

There comes a point in every move where you are lulled into a false sense of security.   You think there’s no need to alter your daily schedule too much, there’s still plenty of time to pack boxes and make arrangements.  You go on with your routines, only to discover two weeks have passed, and you realize you really are behind schedule, and thus the “storm” begins.  We feel right now that we are in that “eye before the storm”, the calm period when everything feels okay.  Our goal, however, is to make sure the hurricane storms dissipate to sunny skies, and we never see the storm clouds on our horizon.

We wanted to share just what our daily life looks like lately.  The kids are now out of school for the summer, and we’re just enjoying the laziness and schedule-free qualities of not needing to set alarm clocks or rushing dinner times.  During the day we are packing boxes or sorting through items; today we made a run to get more paper rolls for packing, and we were graced with free shorter rolls today.   Apparently an individual had come in about an hour ahead of us and bought all the large rolls, but we were given the shorter rolls, and to be honest, we probably received just as much paper and saved twelve dollars in the process!

As we reflect on first making the decision to move in January to it now being almost the middle of June, things have gone pretty much according to plan.  We had anticipated saving a little more money than we have, but we’re still in the comfortable zone, and well, it is what it is.  We made the decision to hire professional movers and we stand behind that decision one hundred percent.    Yes, it may seem like an extravagant cost, but we have items that have sentimental value, and other things that just would prove to be too much of a hardship to replace.  We have disposed of a lot of our possessions, which we know has probably halved our cost of the move, but we choose to keep the items that matter to us, to provide security to our family.  Let’s face it, moving across several states is a huge life decision that will require many months of adjustment.   By choosing to transport some of our items with us, we are helping to ease that transition, and our apartment will seem more like a home.

We are keeping our storm clouds at bay by making sure we accomplish a few things each day in regards to the move, whether it be packing boxes, taking care of items on Craigslist, or just simply making lists.  By not procrastinating, and doing the move in little chunks here and there, it really has become not that painful.   We are grateful that we do not have the worries of needing massive amounts of energy and strength to move boxes and furniture, nor the stress of driving a moving truck across several states.  For more times than we care to remember, we have been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and are simply not doing it again.

We anticipate that our lives in Florida will basically be the same as our lives here in Wisconsin, only with much better weather and lots more to do in our free time.   We know it’s not going to be an easy process, but with the promise of being able to visit Walt Disney World at a whim’s notice, and meeting our Floridian (and non-Floridian) Disney friends who have been cheering us on for several months, we know it will be well worth the effort.


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Getting, and Staying, In The ‘Disney Mood’

I’ve been asked how to stay in the Disney mood during down times, blah days and just for inspiration when needed.  As we hit our 40-day countdown, I’m happy to share some of the things we do to get in, and stay in, the Disney mood.

First is our collection of Disney music.  Music from the movies, TV shows and theme parks take up a huge chunk of my iPod and iTunes library.  An easy way to get the magic going.  I keep a selection of our favourites in the playlist on the right for you to enjoy.

Second, I listen to Disney podcasts on a daily basis.  Some come out weekly, some more and less often; but I always have some ready to listen to every day (even going back to older past episodes.  These are great shows giving excellent information and they all entertain while informing.   I can highly recommend all of the podcasts on my list below to you.  I start with my “Top 6” and then list, in no particular order, all of the podcasts I listen to weekly; all are available on iTunes.

  • The WDW Radio Show – My number 1 can’t miss podcast.  Hosted by the amazing Lou Mongello, a true Disney ‘genius’.  I’ve listened to WDW Radio from its beginning; having been a huge fan of Lou’s since the days of the long-gone and fondly remembered MouseTunes podcast.  Lou is my favourite source of Disney information and he has many rotating regular guests (Jim Korkis, Tim Foster, Beci Mahnken and others) who bring an excellent mix of Disney History, current news, reviews, travel tips, ‘Top Tens’ and just plain fun to every episode.  Lou is the author of The Walt Disney World Trivia Books (Volumes 1 and 2) and the Producer/Host of the Audio Guides to Walt Disney World.  He also hosts a weekly live video Disney Newscast every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET.  No one I know pursues their dream with a passion quite like Lou does, and his Disney credos of “If we can dream it, we can do it.” and “Keep moving forward.” are ones we follow as we move forward with our Dream.
  • WDW Today – My number 2 can’t miss podcast.  Matt Hochberg, Mike Newell, Mike Scopa, Len Testa, Annette Owens and an unlimited number of special guest hosts provide first-rate information and reviews along with current news.  They answer listener questions on a variety of subjects and always know their stuff.
    Matt Hotchberg also hosts several Hollywood Studios web sites.
    Mike Newell also owns and operates MouseWorld Radio (www.mouseworldradio.com), a great online radio station for Disney music and theme park music lovers.
    Mike Scopa is a regular contributor at AllEars.net.
    Len Testa is the co-author of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (a must read) and creates the touring plans available at TouringPlans.com.
  • Be Our Guest WDW Podcast – My number 3 can’t miss podcast and another I’ve listened to WDW Radio from its beginning.  The BOGP team of Mike, Rikki, Pam, and Debbie are always entertaining and informative combining reviews with ‘how to’ and trip reviews from many guests.  Mike also runs the Magical Mouse Radio station on Live365, an awesome collection of Disney music and Park Loops.
  • Betamouse – An awesome podcast for those of us who are both Disney and tech geeks.
  • PassPorter’s Disney and Beyond – If you are a fan of the PassPorter guides or just want to listen to a family-driven show bringing you family-friendly tips on WDW and beyond; this is a ‘must listen’.
  • The WDW News Today Podcast – Tom Corless and his group always entertain and inform.
  • Disney Film Project Podcast – A great new podcast delivering awesome reviews and in depth discussion of favourite Disney movies.
  • WaltCast – An overlooked and underrated podcast featuring interviews with many great celebrities.
  • Disneybrit Podcast – A UK-based podcast giving insight into the Disney Parks here and overseas.
  • Inside the Magic
  • Your MouseCast
  • WEDway Radio
  • inner mouse
  • DestinationD
  • MouseVent – A seasonal Christmas series of short podcasts from many different Disney podcasters.
  • Magical Definition Podcast – Lou Mongello’s former MouseTunes partner, Nathan Rose, hosts this podcast.  And if you’re a fan of Jim Hill, he co-hosts this informative show.
  • Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Pod
  • MouseStation
  • LaughingPlace.com Disney Podcast
  • Disney Dudes Podcast- A show with a little “zing”, Wayne and Trace have a very unpredictable format, but this show is strictly ‘Adults only’.
  • Magic Never Ends – An occasionally updated podcast/vidcast sharing the Disney Parks Magic through the eyes of a young family.
  • The DizFanatic “Ears On Ears” Podcast
  • Remember the Magic
  • Mr. Frank’s Wild Ride (mrfrankswildrides.com)
  • The DIS Unplugged
  • Mousetalgia
  • WDW Memories Podcast
  • WDW Fan Boys Podcast
  • Mouse Lounge Podcast
  • Character Breakfast – Disney Variety Show
  • A Window To The Magic
  • Trapped on Vacation
  • MouseChat
  • YWaitDiz – A new podcast that gives info and ride audio from your favourite attractions.

I also enjoy reading many Disney sites, news sites and blogs.  My ‘ongoing’ list:

I’ll start off with the one we follow most ardently right now, the blog written by our good friends (and fellow WI to FL relocators) Amy and Craig Petermann.

And finally, I enjoy the many Tweets and Facebook updates from our many online Disney friends.  You all bring smiles to our faces every day.  🙂

~Mark.


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Spring Break

Our kids are on spring break this week, and we have no real plans except to pack boxes. Boring, yes I know.  But with the image of the Magic Kingdom popping into our heads, it makes it so much easier 🙂

Saturday we decided to make up for a lost field trip.  When Ben was in first grade, his class went to the Children’s Museum in Appleton for their major field trip of the year.  However, poor Ben was not able to go due to a stomach flu.  Sadly, yes, it has taken us this long to go there, but we decided it was a must-do before we leave Wisconsin.   I have posted some pictures of the kids having fun:

Ben standing by the human heart exhibit/slide:

Catie & Ben standing in the golf/physics area.  We had to take a picture of them standing underneath the giant golf ball, aka Epcot.

Ben operating a crane:

And of course, suiting up to drive the fire truck!

The kids co-piloting an airplane:

And the treehouse on the way out, which reminds us a little of The Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom:

In other news, we have been slowly packing boxes, and donating unwanted items to Goodwill.   While we were out shopping at Walmart today, our landlord showed our house to prospective tenants.  It seemed really weird knowing that strangers were walking through *our* house!  We officially gave notice April 1st, but he has known since January that our intent was to leave.  He is the most awesome-ist (if that is a word!) landlord ever, and we really wanted to make sure that he had as much notice as possible.  We don’t feel he will have a problem renting this house out.  It really is a great house, and while we are excited about moving into a new place, we are also sad to leave our home.  But our hearts belong in Florida, and that is where we must be.


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100 days and counting…..

As we reach the 100-day milestone, we thought it would be fun to make a list of 100 things that we plan to do once we are settled in Florida.   (We consider buying annual passes to Disney as part of being “settled”; so you won’t see it on our list!)  🙂  These are in no particular order, and certainly not an exhaustive list,  just thoughts that popped into our head.

1.  Resort hop. We have only ever stayed at POR-Riverside as a family, and we really want to experience each resort on property.  So even though our current goal is to live 20 minutes away from Walt Disney World, we plan to do weekend stays at each resort, over the course of a year or two, and really take in the charm and uniqueness each resort has to offer.

2.  Enjoy a Dole Whip

3.  Attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

4.  Attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

5.  Go on a Disney Cruise!   Right now with living in Wisconsin, the price of getting to the cruise has been a huge obstacle for us.    We’re of the mindset that if we’re going to spend that much money, we’d rather spend it at WDW!    Cruises are really very reasonable as long as you don’t have to travel over a thousand miles to get to one.

6.  Explore Animal Kingdom Park. There are so many areas of AK that we have not discovered simply due to the intense Florida heat, or lack of time available to us.  We have done the basics, such as Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, Festival of the Lion King, Nemo & Friends and Kilimanjaro Safari, just to name a few.  (There are more).  But it seems that there is so much more to Animal Kingdom to take in, and we are looking forward to being able to do that in the cooler Florida months, when we have the time to dedicate to it.

7.    Go to Magic Kingdom in the evening just for the parades

8.    Have brunch at Chef Mickey’s

9.    Ride the monorails, just for the fun of it

10.  Start a new tradition of celebrating birthdays at Walt Disney World

11.  Ride Splash Mountain at night during Wishes

12.  Ride Big Thunder at night during Wishes

13.  Listen to Lou Mongello’s audio guides while on Main Street/Adventureland/Fantasyland/Liberty Square and take the time to absorb all the details

14.  Have lunch at Le Cellier

15.  Watch Illuminations on a winter’s night, enjoying the fact that it is warm & there is no snow on the ground

16.  Go to Universal

17.  Go to Sea World

18.  Explore the beaches of Florida–kids have never been to the ocean before.  We plan to go to both sides of Florida:  The Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean

19.  Dinner with FL friends

20.  Being able to meet Facebook friends who do not live in Florida but come to Walt Disney World on vacation.  Shelley Urick Jones , we look forward to meeting you!

21.  Lou Mongello’s WDW Radio Meets of the Month

22.  Exploring the city of Clermont and getting to know our new home city

23.  Spending time in the Parks with Stephen and Judy Demeritt

24.  Meeting Marilyn Johnson in person!

25.  Go to Gatorland

26.  Enjoy the Osborne lights at the Studios as many times as possible

27.  Enjoy making new friendships with all our Facebook friends who live in Florida

28.  Walking through the World Showcase at Epcot while our kids are in school.  We have not been able to explore all the countries because of the kids not wanting to spend time there.

29.  The various shopping opportunities, not only at Walt Disney World, but at the many outlet malls in Orlando and the surrounding areas.  Ikea!

30.  Just enjoying the whole adventure of relocating to a new state!

31.  Day trips to explore Florida:  cities in particular that pop into our heads for no particular reason are Tampa, Naples, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville.

32.  Shelling at Sanibel Island

33.  Chuckling to ourselves in February when the temperature is 80 and sunny, knowing that back in Wisconsin it is probably blowing and snowing and bitterly cold.  Will we miss snow?  No we will not!

34.  Taking in Bob Jackson’s show at the Port Orleans Riverside resort!

35.  Staying at the Port Orleans Riverside resort for old times sake!

36.  Christmas shopping at Downtown Disney

37.  Riding down the Sassagoula River from Port Orleans Riverside to Downtown Disney (and vice versa)

38.  Exploring the cities of Lake County

39.  Visiting Celebration for leaf drop (to replace the Fall we will be missing in Wisconsin)

40.  Being there for opening day of the new Fantasyland

41.  Resort hopping at Christmas to see all the different Christmas decorations

42.  Counting garbage cans to make sure the Demeritts caught them all  😉

43.  Trying on every hat that is sold on Disney property

44.  Food and Wine Festival

45.  Enjoy a carrot cake cookie

46.  Visit Star Wars weekend

47.   Dinner, lunch and/or breakfast with Lou Mongello

48.   Movie at the Downtown Disney AMC theatre

49.  Trying all 500 flavors in the Coke Freestyle Dispenser

50.  DisneyQuest

51.  Enjoying the streetmosphere entertainment

52.  Festival of the Masters

53.  Going to the Night of Joy

54.  Flower and Garden Festival

55.  Holidays Around the World at Epcot

56.  Sounds Like Summer at Epcot

57.  The Candlelight Processional

58.  Finding a good Friday fish fry!

59.  Visiting the Kennedy Space Center

60.  Riding TTA during Wishes

61.  Sit at each of the Parks and take time to “people watch”

62.  MLB Spring Training

63.  Pick a fresh Florida orange from a tree

64.  Go swimming on a warm December day

65.  Enjoy a “work at home day” with Craig Petermann at Epcot

66.  Take a family Christmas picture at WDW

67.  Earn all the Gowalla WDW stamps and pins

68.  Be one of “those people” checking in all over Lake Buena Vista with Foursquare

69.  Move in to our new apartment in Clermont

70.  Find the best pizza places in the area

71.  Our first Saturday library visit to our new “home” library

72.  Stroll the Boardwalk

73.  Share a Kitchen Sink at Beaches & Cream with the family

74.  Wild Africa Trek at AK

75.  Pirates and Pals Fireworks

76.  Backstage Magic Tour

77.  Family Magic Tour

78.  Get a haircut at The Harmony Barbershop on Main Street USA

79.  The Pirates League with Ben

80.  Keys to the Kingdom Tour

81.  Walk through Fort Wilderness Campgrounds at Christmas to see the campers’ decorations

82.  See a University of Florida football game

83.  Stay in the Magic Kingdom until the wee hours of the morning to enjoy the peace

84.  Orange Bowl Parade on New Year’s Day

85.  Have a holiday sandwich at the Earl of Sandwich

86.  Have a diabetic friendly treat at Babycakes

87.  Go to Butterfly World

88.  Swim with the manatees

89.  Explore Florida’s state parks

90.  Visit the Everglades allligator farm  http://www.everglades.com/

91.  Hearing the word blizzard and knows it only refers to a waterpark or a DQ dessert!

92.  Go to Port Canaveral and watch the Disney ships leave port

93. Finding all of the local arts and crafts shows and fairs.

94.  Getting to see the White Sox play in Tampa Bay.

95.  Being able to get more exercise by taking walks and biking the trails of Lake County year-round.

96.  Enjoying the scenery of Florida, knowing that it will stay green year round, and not become brown and dead for six months out of the year.

97.  Enjoy a hot dog at Casey’s whenever we want one

98.  Sit at Cosmic Ray’s and enjoy an entire Sunny Eclipse show

99.  Take a yearly family picture in front of Cinderella Castle.

100. A family picture and mini-celebration immediately after we cross the Florida state line on our way to becoming Florida residents!


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What a week!

Dear friends,

It seems that we were caught up in our daily life this past week and therefore didn’t put as much attention to our move as we would like.  Even so, we did manage to get a blog post out, make a run to Goodwill and donate two pieces of furniture to two different recipients in our local Freecycle group.  All in the name of progress.

I don’t believe we’ve formally shared this fact on our blog, but our youngest son Ben has autism. We wish to share this information to provide hope as well as information to other parents who may have a child with special needs, and are considering a long-distance move. When I refer to keeping things as normal as possible for as long as possible, he is the reason why.  We are acutely aware that this major life change, while good, will be hard on him especially.  Right now he is very excited to move to Florida; he has really embraced our dream, and it truly is a dream we all share:  Mark and I would not consider moving if it proved to be a true hardship for either one of our children.

On Monday, I met with his teachers and staff for his annual IEP meeting.   I have been very open with the school as far as our moving intentions, so they have been aware for a couple of months now that we are relocating.  We are moving forward with his IEP as if we were staying here, and modifying his curriculum to meet those needs.   Until we have our permanent residence, it is too difficult to guess what might happen in Florida.   The special education teacher has put in several phone calls to Clermont Middle School, all of which have been not responded to at this point, and I admit, it’s a little disheartening.  Our intent is to place Ben in public school, but I am also willing to homeschool/virtual school him if the public school district does not meet our needs.

Tuesday was our Ben’s 11th birthday.  We celebrated by going to Chuck E Cheese for dinner, and then back home for an ice cream cake and presents.

Wednesday was “spend a lot of money on car repairs” day.  :=)  We currently have two vehicles, but we made the decision from the start that we would only be moving one. Unfortunately, the car we are selling decided to have a flat tire, so we replaced that on Wednesday.  We also brought in our other car for a tune-up, as we had a $20 coupon to our favorite auto repair shop.  $700 later, our car is in tip-top shape :=).  We will be bringing it back in July to make sure there are no additional repairs that need to be completed.  We are using the sale proceeds from our 1st car to pay off the loan on our 2nd car.  We are excited to be able to begin our journey without car payments.  We considered trading in both our cars for a newer and bigger vehicle; we have our eyes on a Hyundai Santa Fe, but as long as our car is in good condition, we’re going to wait and save up money for a bigger down payment and look at buying a new vehicle in a year.

Thursday was St. Patrick’s Day as well as Catie’s orchestra concert.  The corned beef turned out delicious in the crockpot, and Catie played her violin beautifully.

Today (Friday) we sold a craft storage container for $5 on craigslist,  did some decluttering in the sunroom, and our Mayflower rep brought over a huge stack of boxes for us.  Right now the challenge is where to put the packed boxes.  We are still four months away from our move, and while we live in a fairly big house, there really is little available room just to stack boxes.  This is why we have started to donate/sell our furniture this early.   Catie has her solo ensemble choral performance tomorrow, but we are hoping to find time to empty out the secretary and list it on craigslist.  We are fortunate in that we have a small foyer by the front door, and this enables us to put our furniture or other belongings there while they await pick-up.    The area in which the secretary is in will allow us to place quite a few packed boxes there.

We also went to the local book sale at the Fairgrounds:  it’s our yearly tradition and we always spend at least $30 in books and magazines.  This year we spent $0.   Every book or magazine was looked at in the context of :  “Do we really want this bad enough to move it?” And the answer every time was “no!”.    It really wasn’t as enjoyable this year because of that.  While this transition time in moving is necessary and worthwhile, we also long for the day when we are settled in Florida and able to relax into routines, and yes, acquire “stuff”.  :=)

We appreciate your readership:  please feel free to add us on Facebook if you haven’t as of yet, and we love to read your comments about our adventure :=)  Some of our decisions have been made because of your feedback, so we do appreciate them all.

Enjoy your weekend!