Image from www.spoonful.com

Christmas cards are fraught with problems. If you don’t send any then you feel guilty when you receive some from friends and family. If you type up a nice family letter you hear that it is considered bragging. The photo cards are nice, but they take planning and it is already after Thanksgiving. You could just send an email card, but they are hard for people to enjoy the whole season. What is the answer?

My answer is to do whatever you want. It is the thought that counts. But if you want to send cards that everyone is sure to love consider having your kids make cards. This is easier than it sounds. While the kids are home for Thanksgiving break pull out the paper, the crayons, the scissors, and the glue. And if you need some ideas check out these cards from spoonful.com.

Any card made by a child is special and they cannot do it wrong. If you want to make lots of cards that are the same, like the gingerbread man card, you can set it up assembly-line style. I really like these cards because they are made with sandpaper and I think that is so inventive. They also have cinnamon and nutmeg rubbed on the sandpaper so they smell good and the card becomes an ornament. If you didn’t want to add the scroll you could just write on the back of the gingerbread man. Any of these cards can be adapted to your needs. That is part of the fun of making handmade cards. They are perfect in every way.

In one afternoon you can have all your cards ready to go. As a reward for being so organized you can make a fun card holder for your own house. I like the one made with an upside down tomato stake. Talk about creative! You’ll need it because when everyone receives your awesome card they will feel guilty and send a card back to you. Happiness squared.

Goofy Craft: If you are super organized get the perfect Christmas card photo while you are visiting the Disney parks during the year. Pack Santa hats in your backpack and find the perfect backdrop. Everyone dons a hat and you have your picture. With a little planning you can end your Christmas card stress!

Image from www.spoonful.com

Daylight savings time has come to an end for most of us. What I notice most is how it is dark before six o’clock. And the evenings are getting longer every day. It is time to find fun indoor activities that allow you to stay warm and keep the boredom at bay.

Since Thanksgiving is only two weeks away I thought this would be a good time to make some decorations for the season. Christmas may be in all the stores but wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate your house. Instead make some fun fall decorations featuring your favorite Disney characters.

These printables by spoonful.com have a great variety of ideas. One night you could make a fun Mickey scarecrow and the next you could color a Winnie-the-Pooh picture. By Thanksgiving you will have the best decorated house in town. My favorite idea is the silhouette lanterns. You can choose between Bambi, Winnie the Pooh, and Lady and the Tramp (guess which one I am picking). Place a battery-operated tea light inside it and you’ll have a lovely decoration to keep the darkness away. Happiness squared.

Goofy Food: When you are not making fun crafts why not head to the kitchen and make something with the perfect autumn ingredient…pumpkin! Spoonful.com has over forty pumpkin recipes for you to try. I can’t decide which one to make first.

Image from Disney Parks Blog

Thor is once again in the theaters. I haven’t seen it yet, but I can’t wait to. I like Iron Man more than Thor, but this movie is an extension of The Avengers which I thought was awesome and I don’t want to miss the rest of the story.

For those of you who are Thor fans you can now meet the Nordic god at Innoventions in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. This is also the home of Iron Man Tech. If Disney keeps this up they’ll have to rename Innoventions Shield HQ (and how cool would that be!) Before you meet Thor you can see props from the movies, Asgardian treasures brought to Earth for your viewing pleasure. You then pass through the Bifrost (if you don’t know what that is watch the first Thor movie) and meet Thor in all his godly glory.

I think this sounds like fun. I have a limited knowledge of Thor, but this is not your average meet and greet. You can talk to Thor and ask him questions. I’d ask him who his favorite Disney character was. You also have a chance to lift his hammer. I doubt I’d be able to do this since the Incredible Hulk couldn’t lift it, but it would be fun to try. The best part would be getting your picture taken with him. I’d do a cool Avengers pose (even though I learned at Iron Man Tech that I will never be a cool Avenger).

For more information check out this video from touringplans.com. They say the line is really long so I suggest showing up early if you want to meet Thor and still spend time in the rest of the park. I did the same thing for Iron Man Tech and only waited for fifteen minutes. You’ve been warned.

I was glad that Disney bought Marvel and wondered how they were going to incorporate the characters into the parks. I think they are doing a fine job. I hope Captain America and Hawkeye join Shield HG, I mean Innoventions, soon. Happiness squared.

Goofy Craft: For those of you who love Thor but can’t make it to Disneyland you can have fun with these printables from spoonful.com. I like the wings you can add to your hat. Perfect for when you are having a tough day at school or work and want some godly power.

Image from www.spoonful.com

Halloween is tomorrow and nothing says Happy Halloween more than a jack ‘o-lantern glowing on your porch. I always carve my pumpkins as close to Halloween as I can because they get moldy really quickly. If you have not carved a pumpkin yet, or if you want to add more to your collection (you can’t have too many jack ‘o-lanterns) check out these great pumpkin carving templates from spoonful.com. They are easy enough for novices to do and everyone will be really impressed with your carving ability. Happiness Squared.

Goofy Quote: (One of my favorite Halloween movies is the Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. This animated movie does a fantastic job of telling the tale of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Bing Crosby sings and narrates the story and it is suitably spooky. This is the last line of the film. Imagine it in a Bing Crosby’s voice. I get chills just reading it.)

Next morning, Ichabod’s hat was found, and close beside it, a shattered pumpkin, but there was no trace of the schoolmaster. It was shortly thereafter that Brom Bones led the fair Katrina to the altar. Now, rumors persisted that Ichabod was still alive, married to a wealthy widow in a distant county. But of course, the settlers refused to believe such nonsense, for they knew the schoolmaster had been spirited away by the Headless Horseman.

Image from www.spoonful.com

Halloween is the one time of the year when we can celebrate evil Disney villains. Why would we do this? Aren’t we supposed to hate the villians? Aren’t they the bad guys? Don’t they mess up the lives of our lovely princesses and brave princes? Sure, but if there were no villains there would be no story. Who wants to read a story that goes like this:

Snow White had a happy life and when she was a teenager she wished for a prince. One showed up and they got married and lived happily ever after.

Boring!!!

In fact, there is probably no happily ever after if there are no villains, because without the villain the prince and princess would think life is always cheerful and they would become as bored with it as the reader does. So we should thank a villain for strengthening our favorite stories and not boring us to tears.

How can we celebrate villains? It’s easy with the help of spoonful.com. My favorite idea is to make villain cupcakes with paper toppers. They would be great for a class Halloween party or a Halloween party at your house. If you are going to have a party at your house you’ll need invitations and spoonful.com has some awesome ones you can print out. Why not have everyone get dressed up as their favorite Disney villain? There are a variety of masks and hats that can be made as party favors.

If you celebrated Disney villains in April it might seem weird, but October is the perfect time to show of your (slightly) evil side. Just avoid anyone who offers you an apple. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: Even though you don’t want to accept poisoned apples I would have lots of apples at my Disney villain party. Bob for apples. Serve baked apples, sliced apples with caramel dip, and apple juice. Play pin the apple on Snow White and give apples as party favors.

Image from www.spoonful.com

I love Autumn. I love Halloween. So it makes sense that I love October. It’s also my birthday month but I’m sure that has nothing to do with it. One thing I love to do in October is decorate my house from top to bottom. I have so many fun decorations and I am always looking for more. Being a crafty person if I can make a decoration than I want to. This year I am going batty thanks to spoonful.com.

Spoonful.com is Disney’s go-to website for family-oriented crafts and recipes and their Halloween crafts are too fun. My absolute favorite this year are the origami bats. I just don’t think I can have too many. They are so easy to make (they only have five steps) and how fun would it be to hang them all over, high and low? Plus these can be made as a class art project or at a Halloween party. I love ideas this easy, this versatile, and this fun. Plus bats are spooky which makes them perfect for Halloween. I’m ready to go batty, how about you? Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: If you want some batty fun at Disneyland than head over to the Halloween Carnival at the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree. There are a ton of fun Halloween activities there including a coloring area where you can color a mask for Halloween. They have witches, cats, and spiders, but I chose the bat. There is no need to ask why.

Image from www.spoonful.com

For some kids school started yesterday. Others have been back at school for a few weeks. Either way the school year is here and the initial excitement is quickly wearing off. There is only one first day of school. The rest of the days are mostly the same.

Nothing can be done about the repetitiveness of school. But school can be more fun if you bring supplies and lunches that are fun. Why not dress up your pencils and your textbooks? Why not bring a lunch that makes you laugh? Spoonful.com has a bunch of crafts and recipes that will help make school as special as it was on day one.

There are so many ideas here that you can pick one to make each weekend and have a year’s worth of creativity. I love the magnetic bookmarks and the variety of pencil toppers. Even the charts can make school fun. Homework is a drudge but with the help of Cars or Minnie Mouse you can enjoy getting it done. In fact, any of these crafts would make a great reward for finishing a book report or science project. Set your imagination free and you’ll find lots of ways to use these ideas.

Kids have to go to school whether they want to or not. With these crafts and recipes it can be something they look forward to, week after week. Happiness squared.

Goofy Movie: Do you want to inspire your kids to do well in school? I would pop some popcorn and watch Meet the Robinsons. This fun and funny movie makes heroes out of inventors young and old. It is a wonderful family movie.

Image from Disney Parks Blog

I love to look at the display cases in the candy shops at the Disney parks. They are filled with so many wonderful treats that I never know which one to choose. One item that I love but never buy is caramel apples. I love everything about a caramel apple except the stickiness and the mess that eating an apple on a stick makes. But the taste…Yum!

The Disney confectioners have now made a caramel apple that I can’t wait to try. The English Toffee Gourmet Apple is dipped in chocolate, dipped in caramel, covered in English toffee bits, and drizzled with more chocolate. Awesome! But it is still a sticky juicy mess. What to do?

My answer is to enjoy it like I would a fancy dinner. You wouldn’t eat a fancy dinner while walking down the sidewalk trying to keep the mess off your clothes. Caramel apples should be savored. So here are five tips to help you enjoy every bit of your sweet treat.

5 ways to enjoy a Disney caramel apple:

1) Take a picture of it. These apples are works of art. Take a picture of it before, during, and after. The memories will last long after the taste does.

2) Sit down. These apples are big and juicy. To avoid making a mess as you try to walk and eat find a bench or even better a table and chair so you can take your time and focus on your treat.

3) Slice it up. If you are at a place where you can get a knife then slice off pieces to enjoy. The caramel likes to slide around and if you try to take a bite out of the smooth round apple you may lose the coating. Cutting slices off also keeps the mess under control.

4) Use lots of napkins. Your hands are going to be sticky. Your face is going to be sticky. Stock up on napkins before you start so you can enjoy the treat without worrying about cleaning up.

5) Share an apple with friends. These treats are huge and there is a lot of variety. Why not share them with your friends. If you use the four previous tips you’ll have more than just an afternoon treat, you’ll have a great memory.

So, go ahead. Try a caramel apple. It’s a fruit, right? And as you know an apple a day keeps the doctor away. However, I don’t promise that these treats will keep the dentist away. Happiness squared.

Goofy Food: Even if you are not visiting a Disney park soon you can enjoy caramel apples at home. Spoonful.com has a nice basic recipe to get you started. Remember the skies the limit when it comes to toppings. I think chocolate, caramel, English toffee bits, and more chocolate is perfect. What combination would you try?

Image from www.spoonful.com

Goofy. Pluto. Zero. Lady and the Tramp. Walt Disney obviously loved dogs since he created so many memorable canine characters. Why not celebrate Disney dogs during the dog days of summer? Spoonful.com has cool crafts and recipes that will have you howling with delight.

Cupcakes are all the rage and spoonful.com has two different types with dog themes. If you are looking for some fun try the dalmation cupcakes. If you want something a little sweeter serve the spaghetti and meatball cupcakes inspired by Lady and the Tramp.  Either will be drool worthy.

Crafts are always a fun thing to do at a party and everyone will have something neat to bring home. These items are much more appealing than a cheap plastic party favor. I like doorknob signs and kids can choose between Goofy and the dogs from Up. With these craft ideas there is something for everyone.

So why not have a party to celebrate the end of summer or the start of a new school year. Dogs makes a fun theme and everyone has a favorite Disney dog. Surprise! Mine is Goofy. I bet you’d never guess. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: It is not hard to make spaghetti and meatball cupcakes but it does take time. If you want to enjoy the cupcake without doing any of the work then have a meal at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The spaghetti and meatball cupcake is one of the dessert items available. These cupcakes are big so you might want to share.

Image from www.spoonful.com

Friday is here and I feel like crafting. Since the 4th of July is next week I want to make fun decorations to celebrate. Spoonful.com has some wonderful patriotic ideas that add a touch of Disney fun to your party. You’re not having a party? After you see these great decoration and food ideas you’ll want to have one. Spoonful.com even has printable invitations that you can send out to your friends and family. Because nothing is as American as barbeque and Disney.

My favorite crafts are ones that are useful as well as fun and the hot dog holder fits the bill. Make a bunch of these up and your guests will feel like they are enjoying their dog at the ballpark. For dessert I would recommend the Mad Hatter cupcakes. These look awesome yet are easy to make. The Minnie Mouse Statue of Liberty makes a fun table decoration and I would set out pre-made rosettes and glue and let everyone make their own patriotic crown.

With 22 craft and recipe ideas you’ll be celebrating the 4th of July in style. All you need for a memorable party is good friends, good food, and some fun decorations in red, white, and Disney. Happiness squared.

Goofy Video: If you feel like a watching a movie on the 4th of July how about something patriotic? I recommend Johnny Tremain. This Disney movie tells the story of a boy who gets involved with the Sons of Liberty and helps fight for America’s independence. It is fun to watch and will help explain why we celebrate our Independence on the 4th of July.