Walt Disney World Memory Maker - Is It Worth the Cost?

In the sixteen years my husband and I have been married we've probably been to Walt Disney World theme parks 40+ times. For a couple of years, when our oldest boys were little, we had Seasonal Passes. Some years we went to the seasonal parties, like Mickey's Very Merry Christmas and the Not So Scary Halloween Party. Other years we would just go to one park for the day. Nonetheless, our visits have added up over the years. Each one being just as magical as the last.

It seems like every time we would go to Walt Disney World we would get one of those Photo Pass cards from the photographer standing in front of Cinderella Castle {at the Magic Kingdom} or the Tree of Life {at the Animal Kingdom}, but we never stopped at the front of the park at the end of our day to look at our photos. And, truth be told, by the end of the day we had run out of money to buy any photos that were on that card to be viewed and purchased.

The Imagineers at Disney must've been hEARing my thoughts on wanting more photos WITH my family and wanting to not really worry about them until I got home from vacation. Enter the Disney Memory Maker.

When we started planning our vacation a couple of months ago I knew I wanted to add this feature to our budget. Let me tell you all of the wonderful reasons why:

• PhotoPass Photographers are in hundreds of locations all over Walt Disney World theme parks. Have photos taken each time you see one. 
• EVERYONE in your party will be IN the photo. I'm talking to you, moms. {I can count on one hand how many pictures I'm in with my family in our past trips to Walt Disney World. It's sad, really.}
• Photos in front of Cinderella Castle, with Mickey and Pluto or Anna and Elsa, wherever you can snag a PhotoPass Photographer, take a picture and it'll be included on your Memory Maker.
• Did you make character dining reservations? Those photos are included!
• You know those silly faces {and frightened faces} you have on ride attractions? Even THOSE pictures are included in your Memory Maker!
• Every.Single.Photo you have taken by a PhotoPass Photographer is included in your Memory Maker.
• Memory Maker is Magic Band compatible. If you're family is wearing the new Magic Bands you'll just have the PhotoPass Photographer scan your band after he's taken your photo. No more keeping up with that card. 

When came home from our mini-vacay to the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom we had 84 pictures available to download right to our home computer. Guess what? I'm in all of our family photos!

{at Hollywood Studios}

{You have the option to add borders or stickers to your photos.}

{Scary ride photos are the best! Without the Memory Maker we wouldn't have purchased the photo...individually, they're just too costly.}

{every magical character photo opportunity is forever yours! Here are Jett and McKinley with Wreck it Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz.}

I still have Days 2 and 3 to write about this vacation so I don't want to give away too many of the photos but, I wanted to share with you the greatness of the Memory Maker. If you're on the fence about whether or not it's a good use of $149, I'd say it absolutely IS worth the money. The cost is minimal considering the priceless photos you'll come home to. AND, you'll have 90 days to play with your photos and download them to your computer. {in other words, they'll be saved on the Disney server for 90 days so you'll have time to come home, unpack and unwind before needing to even worry about those photos.}

My Disney Tip: Purchase the Memory Maker online at least 3 days prior to your trip. You'll save $50! 

Edited to add: Disney has now made Memory Maker an added perk to having an Annual Pass. Seriously, that's an AMAZING perk!! 

Don't forget to read this post on how to make Disney Autograph Books for the kids!

Disclosure: This post is written from a real mom's perspective. No one from Disney asked me to write this. My family purchased the Memory Maker with our own money. The opinions are my own.

Easy Handprint Christmas Tree Craft for Toddlers #WaterWipesWalmart

This post was sponsored by WaterWipes as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Hands down, my all-time favorite crafts for toddlers are handprint crafts. At Christmastime especially, you'll find countless tiny acrylic painted handprints on my Christmas tree, on my mantel, or hanging on my walls.

I enjoy making these crafts with your kids, too. So, if you leave your kids in my care, around the holidays, you'll likely be surprised with a tiny handprint craft of your very own to take home.

Today, I sat down with Mabry to create a handprint Christmas tree, that will become a keepsake ornament to be treasured for years to come. While it is a super easy craft, I took step-by-step photos for you, so you can make them with your own precious kids.

It's so easy. And...quality time, FTW!

You'll need:

• a white piece of cardstock
• a variety of acrylic paint colors, at least one of them to be green
• a paint brush
• a glitter star sticker, or you can paint your own star
• a metallic marker, not pictured
• a paper plate for your paint puddles
• WaterWipes, sold at Walmart

First, "paint" the palm of your child's hand green. 

Next, have her put her handprint on the paper, pressing firmly, and lifting carefully and quickly. After they've printed their precious little hand onto paper, grab a WaterWipe to wipe their tiny hand clean of paint. With only TWO ingredients in WaterWipes, 99.9% pure Irish water and 0.1% grapefruit seed extract, you can rest assured that your little one won't be putting harmful chemicals in her mouth. 

Once you have the cutest little green handprint, you can decorate it, to become a Christmas tree. Using a variety of acrylic paint colors, have your little one dip a single fingertip into a single color and dot his/her handprint with "lights." Speaking from experience, it makes it more fun it you make little sounds like, "boop. boop." as each "light" is placed. 

Don't forget to wipe her finger clean of paint before dipping into the next color. 

After she has finished her Christmas tree, she's inevitably going to want to paint freely. With WaterWipes, you can let her! No more worrying about clean hands, faces or surfaces. No more worrying about potential harsh chemicals found in other baby wipes. You can wipe them clean with WaterWipes, a safer, more natural option.

Once she's completely finished painting, you can sit back and stare at her. Take it all in. She won't be this little for long. Hashtag babies don't keep.  BUT, you now have her tiny handprint to remember how small she once was. 

It's the most wonderful time of year to WIN a $150 gift card from Influence Central! Follow the social media actions below to be entered.

WaterWipes Walmart Giveaway

Influence Central will randomly select winners from all program entries, and will facilitate fulfillment of the winning prizes (5 winners).

Allstar Cheerleader Competition Goody Bag Ideas

This post may contain affiliate links. An affiliate link is simply one that will benefit me monetarily, only in the event you make a purchase. It costs you nothing extra, but helps this little blog of mine put food on the table for my family. 

Competition season of Allstar Cheerleading is upon us. The Allstar Cheerleading world is unlike any other sport I've ever been a part of. I mean, I was a Pop Warner cheerleader as a kid. I cheered for my high school. I was a soccer mom for a short time. I've even been a football mom for four years. But, Allstar Cheerleading? The saying, "Go big or go home!" totally applies to just about every aspect of this sport. Their ponytails are BIG; oftentimes made up of hair extensions, but still BIG. The uniform has enough bling on it to shine sparkles from here to the moon. Their routines are pushed to the limit of difficulty their division allows. Bigger. Better. Be the BEST! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it. I'm the first one to find my way to center stage, right up front, to yell and scream for my girl and her team. Let's GO Red Reign!!! RCA! RCA! As soon as our girls get finished with the two and a half minute routine, that they've worked tirelessly to perfect over the past few months, and they walk off of the mat, they're looking for a goody bag. 

I think the original idea behind a cheerleaders goody bag was to give her a bottle of water or sports drink and a snack, to replenish what she just worked off. That's it. It likely didn't have much, if anything, more. But, as I just said, us cheer moms like BIG. So, add to the goody bag of water and a snack, a team t-shirt, a handmade fleece blanket (competition venues are always cold, so it's a GREAT gift idea), a personalized pouch...I could go on and on. In our two years of cheer, McKinley has received some really great goody bag gifts. 

For my youngest daughter's team, Baby Braves, I made these pouches. Each one is personalized with the girls' initial, filled with a juice pouch, snacks, and a PlayPack. It's doubly fun when the goody bag holds an activity, to keep the girls busy while they wait for awards. 

I love these other ideas, too. You can find tons of other great ideas on my Pinterest board. 

This fun printable, found at my3monsters.com, is a great way to show the girls you're rooting for them!

These super cute Personalized Starbucks cups aren't a DIY, but you can get them from this Etsy seller. I love that they can have each girl's name on them!

Printable really are such an easy and fun way to add a POP of color and CHEER to ordinary snacks or candies. Like this one found at eighteen25.com. I've been a long time reader over there, as they always have fun ideas!

I have seen some REALLY extravagant cheer goody bag gifts. And, while I enjoy seeing what's inside the bag as much as my daughter, I challenge you to not put too much pressure on yourself. Just have fun with it. Do what your budget will allow. Do NOT let pressure to do above and beyond what the mom(s) before you did. JUST HAVE FUN!! After all, isn't that what we tell our girls before they go out on the mat? 

Happy Competition Day! Good luck!

***Dare you say cheerleading isn't a sport, I challenge you to come to ONE competition. Watch these girls (guys, too) lift a girl equal to their own body weight, THROW her in the air, catch her, again and again, and continue on in her routine for a long two and a half minutes. You wouldn't last one stunt. There I said it. I'm a PROUD cheer mom!

8 of the Best Elf on the Shelf Ideas

Depending on when your Elf returns from the North Pole, you still have a few weeks to spend with him.  I thought it would be nice to give you a few ideas of what you can do with him...er, a few ideas of what shenanigans he may pull while he's in your home.

Last year, our elf, Snowflake, introduced himself though a Magic Door in our living room. My kids were skeptical at first but, they each grew to enjoy seeing where Snowflake would be the following morning. Truth be told, I had a lot of fun with it, too!

{I got the door from Michael's, spray painted it white, sprinkled with LOTS of glitter and nailed to the wall. The little wreath is a mini wreath that I found a 6-pack of, also at Michael's. The string of lights is a necklace from Walgreens that really lights up! Finally, the door mat is a scrap of Christmas burlap that I sewed and then made fray a bit on the edges. }

Last year I had every intention in making Snowflake bendable. Because I never got around to it, he was limited in what he could pull off. This year I'm not holding back! I'm going to follow the directions in this tutorial and make it happen!

Wanna see what Snowflake may be up to this year? Here are a few great ideas I found!

We'll call this one Chocolate Lover. Imagine the looks on your kid's faces when they come down to see their elf digging into the chocolate chips!

This naughty elf replaced all of the stockings with the family's undies. {even a baby diaper!} Do elves get put on the naughty list??

How many Charlie Brown's Christmas fans do we have? Set up this "the elf is in" booth for your kids to enjoy.

Have a little wintry fun indoors with your elf and one of his best pals. Create a couple Lego walls and have them "throw" marshmallows at one another for a good old fashioned snowball fight!

Elves get hungry, too. This elf was making it pretty clear to his family that he was in the mood for a sweet snack. He said please. I wonder if he ever got his cookies?? You'll have to click through to the original blogger to see. 

My kids have a horrible habit of blaming it {whatever "it" may be at the moment} on their brother or sister...whoever isn't in the room gets the blame. Every time. How funny will it be when the roles are reversed? This Blame Game WILL be played by our very own Snowflake!

Your turn. Leave me a link with your best elf shenanigans. I may put together another round-up of ideas and feature yours!

**There are a couple of affiliate links within this post. This simply means that when you purchase from said links, I get a small percentage of your purchase to help support my family.

The Most Delicious Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes

It's November 1st! Can you believe it? Have you bought your turkey yet? Do you also have ham on Thanksgiving? We have both ham and turkey. And, like I said, I tend to panic...and, in my panic, I forget things. 

This year, I am on it! I will not forget the whole cloves in my ham. [It's a sore subject for my ham loving husband, even one year later.] I will not buy pre-made pumpkin pie. I will make a double batch of green bean casserole, even if I am the only one who eats it. [The older I get, the more I appreciate leftovers.]

In an effort to help me prepare for Turkey Day, I scoured Pinterest for the yummiest side dishes for your Thanksgiving meal. Or, maybe you don't live near family, these yummy side dishes will be perfect for your Friendsgiving. 

Green Bean Casserole was yucky looking to me, when I was a kid. Now, I can't get enough. I double batch it, y'all! And eat leftovers for dayzzz.

My husband's Aunt Debby makes an amazing cream corn something every year. I've never asked for her recipe...maybe, because I'm too busy shoving it in my mouth. LOL In my search, I came across this recipe and it looks pretty similar.

This roll recipe had me at honey butter. Is there a combination more delicious? Well, there's green bean casserole, but I digress.

Mashed potatoes are quite possibly the easiest of all side dishes. But, if done improperly, they can also be the most boring. Will you look at all of that BUTTAH on top of these mashed potatoes?!?! I say, YES, PLEASE!

Here's yet another Thanksgiving side dish, that I turned my nose up to, as a kid. I certainly wonder what younger me was thinking...who the heck doesn't like marshmallow?!?! Now that I'm older and wiser *snicker*, I will gobble this up, and go back for seconds!

Since the day I married my husband and became a wife, I've been on the search for a creamy, cheesy, yummy macaroni and cheese. My sister-in-law makes a good mac 'n cheese, but she's tight-lipped on her recipe. So, to the Pinterest boards I went. And, I think I've found us a good one!

What is your most favorite side dishes for Thanksgiving? Tell me your favorite recipes in the comments, or share it with me on Pinterest.

If you're looking for a few Last Minute Thanksgiving Craft Ideas for Kids, I got you! If you make one [or two] of them, tag me. I'm @jonahbonah on all social media. 

7 Beautifully Decorated Halloween Mantels

This post contains affiliate links. This only means, that if you make a purchase from the link below, jonahbonah will get a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you. These affiliate links help jonahbonah continue in bringing you the content you've come to love over the last fourteen years. Thank you.

With the first day of October right around the corner, you can officially pull the halloween decorations out of the attic without friends and family looking at you like you're crazy. Truth be told, I would've already decorated my house...halloween is one of my most favorite holidays. But, kids. And school. And responsibilities.

When thinking of what I'd like to do with this year's mantel decorations, of course I turned to Pinterest. I figured if I was looking maybe some of you are, too. Here are seven of my most favorite on the web.

Stripes and polkadots, oh my! This super cute mantel from landeeseelandeedo is perfection.

This mantel from Apartment Therapy is simple, yet spooky cute!

I love the unexpected pops of non-traditional colors to Halloween in this mantel from Make & Do Studio. 

Are you a fan of Hocus Pocus? This glam halloween mantel from Hey Let's Make Stuff is just magical!

WOW! This mantel from thedecoratedhouse would be beautiful naked, but all dressed up for halloween, it's even more stunning.

Looking for something more cute than creepy? Lay Baby Lay came up with the cutest ideas!

Give me all the rainbows! This mantel, on Domino, might be my favorite mantel thus far. SO. Much. Color.

Which of these is your favorite? Have you already started decorating for halloween?? Show me your mantel!

Never Miss Another Magical Memory with #ANKERLOVE

Disclaimer: I was compensated by ANKER for this post. However, all opinions are my own. 

I'm a picture taker. One might say, having 7,893 photos on your camera roll is too many. I say, NO WAY! One can never have too many photos. A mom, especially, can never have too many photos. Add to that being a Disney-loving mom, fugetaboutit!

With my crazy lady, mamarazzi, picture taking self, I tend to often have a low battery. Or, worse yet, a DEAD iPhone.

When I took my kids to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party this month, I knew I didn't want to be parked in front of an electric outlet when my phone was low on battery. I mean, Magic Kingdom does have that fabulous area in front of Rapunzel's Tower, that has multiple USB charging ports; but who wants to be tied down while your family is enjoying the park?

Enter ANKER. My new ANKER PowerCore+ 13400 allows me to recharge my iPhone when the battery begins to get low. One of my favorite features is, there are TWO charging ports. So, myself AND another member of my family can charge our devices at the same time! That's HUGELY important in a family of seven.

Without my new ANKER portable charger, I would've missed this shot of McKinley and Elena of Avalor.

Without my new ANKER portable charger, I would've missed this shot of Mae and her most favorite princess of all time, Anna.

These memories, of course, will always be in my memory. But, thanks to ANKER, I have photos. Photos never fade. 

ANKER products are available at Walmart and/or Walmart.com. You can find a full line-up of portable chargers, car chargers, home chargers, and more.