Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too.

Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends! (Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for this fun theme! Be sure to click on the link above to visit her blog and get started visiting blogs from there.)

My Question:

Do you have a family tradition for Spring Break?

My Answer:

Spring Break here in Florida is usually a little more than one week off from school for our daughter, Sammi. My husband takes a week off from work and we go on one of family Disney World Vacations. This year we’re going Saturday – Friday. I can’t wait!

Take a look at Sammi and a magician at Disney’s Boardwalk Resort

Day Three of the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration was jam packed. I was happy that I slept well the night before. Even though there wasn’t a lot of moving around during the day, we stayed at the Contemporary Conference Center, there was so much information and fun.

Breakfast – Thanks to Chris Brogran @chrisbrogan, Scott Statten @unmarketing and Kathy Buckworth @kathybuckworth for great conversation during breakfast with me and Jennifer Leet @jentifa (who was also my lunch, conference and dinner buddy).

Conference Buddies – And thanks to Heidi @c2cmom, Christy @morethanmommy, Anitra @Anitra Marna @ebmommy for hanging out with me and Jennifer (2nd in photo) during the conference. What fun! And I swear that Heidi looks like Lori Falcon @cowboyswife. I was dying for those two to meet. Of course the food and setting was wonderful. Nothing like Disney World to put on a party, I mean conference.

Maxine Clarke, Founder and CEO of Build A Bear

Maxine was the first speaker of the day and she got the ball rolling. Her message was loud and clear – Don’t let anything stand in the way of your dreams. Don’t let others put restrictions on you and don’t put any on yourself. She also spoke about letting your inner child inspire you. I enjoyed that she gave teachers props and talked about her reading teacher who inspired her to be inquisitive. I’ve always been curious and love hearing that an attitude like mine helped her achieve success. Maxine engages with bloggers and others on Twitter. She enjoys it and considers it her “fun time”. Since following her, she’s already, sent me a few DM’s and replied to my tweets. She met with some of us at lunch time, taking photos and writing autographs. We also received a Build A Bear gift card and each of the Bears at our tables were given away to one person seated there.

Marissa Jaret Winokur, Tony Award Winning Actress from HairSpray

Marissa is a bundle of energy! I want just 10% of it and I’d be thrilled. She looks gorgeous as a blond and hearing her talk about being a mom just like me raised her authenticity level a lot. She also talked about being a cervical cancer survivor and her candor was refreshing. She showed us some of her vlogging which included her without makeup, with her son. forgetting her car keys, and then her glamorous side of being an actress and singer. OK, I have a huge girl crush on her. She has one Facebook page instead of a fan page and personal pages so that she connect personally.

Kathy Ireland, (Ex)Super Model and Social Media Business Woman

Seeing and hearing Kathy Ireland was a total surprise. I had goosebumps from the minute I heard her name. She began by telling us, the audience, that we are amazing because we gave up our time to come to the conference. How genuine! Talked a lot about motherhood as being a challenging job that is not appreciated or valued enough. Spoke about her first “job” with her sister selling multipurpose rocks to be used as paperweights or for self protection Then about selling newspapers, which was listed as a job for boys only.

Her first sales venture selling socks ending in bankruptcy, but she came back and proved herself. Learned about rejection from being a model and that comes in handy now as a business person. We are our own brands. Recognize that all you do online is a perception of you/your brand. “Engines that move projects forward” – be that brand. Her prioties are Faith, Family and Finding Solutions for Busy Moms. Follow Kathy on Twitter @KathyIreland She often replies directly to her tweets.

Christ Brogan, Social Media Master

I wrote about Chris’ talk, Social Media – How To Be Human at Murray Newland’s blog. Please take the time to read about it. I’m a huge fan of Chris and hearing him speak directly to mom bloggers made me a bigger fan. The great thing about Chris is that you can say hi to him months later at another conference and he’ll remember you and take the time to chat with you.

Maryellen Hooper, Stand Up Comic and Blogger

We had a quick break and returned to find the room with servers, bars, and a lovely spread of food on our table. We then watched a short video of Maryellen Hooper getting ready to come on stage. I was laughing from the start.  When Maryellen did her act I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t eat. When I told her that when I got this photo of us, she wondered if that was good or bad. It was very good. Her blog Stinky Flowers is about her life a mom of two, but with LOL humor.

Back To The Room

Although this was a long day, it felt like it flew by. Plus I didn’t want it to end. I had to get back to my room for a quick rest and to get ready for the dinner and dance party.

Dinner And Dance Party

The Toy Story Dinner and Dance Party was moved inside to the Studio Catering Company. The food was plentiful again – hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, potato salad, fries, salad, fixings, cupcakes, ice cream, pie and more. Dancing with friends, time to chat and laugh, characters for photos and more fun than you can imagine was included! Toy Story Mania was opened just for us and we could ride over and over. We didn’t want the night to end. It almost didn’t because when it tried to leave, the gates were closes (Hollywood Studios was closed) and we couldn’t get out. Thanks to more nice CM’s, Security opened the gate to my family and other freezing guests.

Here’s some photos from the night:

Finally, a photo of Lori @acowboyswife and me while waiting for dinner to start.

Although tickets for the conference were purchased, I and my family received meals, park tickets, etc. at a great discount. We also received gifts, opportunities to attend events not open to the general public and to take part in contests to win prizes all from the Disney Company. I was not asked to write about my experience or share the information.

Day two of Disney Social Media Moms Celebration started off with my getting lost. How is that possible for a Disney Fanatic like me? Since we didn’t stay at the Poly, I needed transportation to EPCOT and my husband thought it best to drive me and my scooter there himself. I asked him to drive me to the Poly, but nope.

He dropped me off and I learned that EPCOT wasn’t opened yet, not even to us. I found a CM, who tried to get me on one of the shuttles – a van – but to no avail as they are not handicap ready. Another CM came along and brought me to the transportation office in the back of EPCOT, where I was then brought to to a bus for employees. It went behind the magic. When I was dropped off I had no clue where to go especially with my scooter. More help from nice CM’s. I got to the American Adventure Pavilion but I felt discombobulated, enough so that I introduced myself to 2 people at my table and totally forgot who they were right after. I didn’t even introduce myself to the others. I was too busy trying to calm down, get something to eat, take my meds and try to take photos and notes because Guy Kawaski @GuyKawaski was going to be speaking.

Let’s say that I don’t have any photos from that morning, but I was able to get some notes from Guy’s talk about Twitter, “How To Use Twitter As A Marketing Weapon”:

This topic sounded a bit threatening to me at first. A product review writer and mom blogger and a marketing weapon – do they go together?  I realized that I could pick and choose some of the tactics that work for him.

• Use Twitter Search – Use it to monitor your brand (yourself) and to prospect (via Advance Search)
• Use Twitter To Market Your Blog – automatically tweet your blog feeds
• Don’t Be Afraid of Twitter – Even though it’s a free service, use it to your advantage.
• Tweet Interesting Feeds To Gain More Followers – Tweet feeds like Mashable, your own Alltop page, Stumble Upon pages, etc.
• Create a Site with Banner Ads To Tweet – Summarize interesting stories on this site, add links to main source and tweet that feed.
• UFM! – Unfollow Me! If you don’t like what Guy is tweeting, unfollow him. He wants us to feel that powerful too.
• Retweet Often – Use a service that will retweet your feeds, or regular tweets in 10 hour intervals so they reach different time zones. He suggested about 4 retweets.

Next it was on to the World Showplace for the Celebrate Volunteers Event:

• Disney volunteer families from every state were invited to attend and join in on the festivities.
• Tom Staggs, Chairman of the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts was the host, introducted by Kermit the Frog!
• We got to see the largest structure of canned food, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, unveiled from behind a curtain of balloons. You can watch the event on video by Disney.
• Learned about Give A Day, Get A Disney Day – volunteering for a day and getting a day at Disney World.
• Ty Pennington came on stage to announce the unveiling with his famous megaphone handed to him by Mickey Mouse. “Raise those balloons!”
• We all were given the opportunity to volunteer by planting trees, loading the cans in to boxes or other things we were capable of. Disney Channel TV Stars, Allstar Weekend and other surprise guests took part too.
• The canned food, structure made up about 7o,000 meals that will be sent to various food banks.

Spending time with Disney Stars:

• The Disney Channel TV Stars hung around after the event for interviews, autographs and photos. They were very polite and knowledgeable about the Volunteer Event.
• Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato showed up and were whisked away before I could get a photo of them. It was still exciting and Sammi was thrilled just to be near them.

Lunch at Le Cellier:

• We decided to stop for a quick lunch at Canada’a Le Cellier and it did not disappoint. The Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup was a meal in itself especially with the bread sticks. It helped to warm us up too.

Back to The Room To Rest – I needed a nap to be able to enjoy the nights events.

Evening Celebration at EPCOT Future World:

• I’ve seen these types of events before, but now I was part of one! A roped off area only by invite.
• Food by Robert Irvine, of Dinner Impossible, made that day with the help of volunteer Disney chefs. Delicious!
• Heaters by the tables to keep us warm, hand warmers provided and fun lights to wear around our necks that flashed or lit up our way, or my food.
• Surprise concert by Allstar Weekend and Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato. Too good to be true! Visits from the Disney Channel TV stars again.

More photos on my Facebook page and my Flickr Photo Stream. Lots more!

Although tickets for the conference were purchased, I and my family received meals, park tickets, etc. at a great discount. We also received gifts, opportunities to attend events not open to the general public and to take part in contests to win prizes all from the Disney Company. I was not asked to write about my experience or share the information.