Disney's Epcot in One Day - Our Top 10

After our last Disney trip, I promised that I would write a post about each of the parks at Disney World in Florida, and our favourite things to do at each. Today it's Epcot's turn, so here's what we'd recommend if you're going to do Epcot in one day.

Epcot is like a mini trip around the world, under the sea, and into outer space. While it includes many attractions and experiences tailored to children, I often think of it as the park I'd be most interested in attending as a couple or with just a group of adults. That being said, we visited as a family, so these top 10 will be keeping a family trip in mind.

Disney's Animal Kingdom - Our Top 10

Animal Kingdom is one of 4 parks that make up Disney World in Florida. I'm sharing our top 10 things to do at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park in Florida, to help you plan your own trip someday!

Animal Kingdom is where you'll see real animals and celebrate life on this planet (and others!). We really enjoyed this park the first time we visited but it is even better now that you can pay a visit to Pandora!

We've put together our 10 favorite things about Animal Kingdom in this post. If you'd like to see our top 10 parts of the other Disney World parks, you can find links to those posts at the end of this one. If you have any questions about any of it, please feel free to ask me in the comments!

Disney's Magic Kingdom - Our Top 10

There is so much to learn about Walt Disney World if you haven't been there before! That's why I decided to do a post about each of Disney's parks and today we're focusing on Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom is broken up into several different areas or "lands", so I'll also share which land each of these activities is located in. I highly suggest that as you plan your trip, you get familiar with a map so you can plan your route, to avoid too much walking!

There are so many things to do in the Magic Kingdom so it's not easy to limit it to 10 things, but we took a vote and these are our Top 10!

Disney's Hollywood Studios - Our Top 10

If you haven't been to Disney World you might not realize that it's actually made up of 4 different parks! We went to Disney World for the first time in 2016 and were invited to the 2018 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration which we attended in February. Now that we've been to Disney World twice, I'm sharing our top 10 things to do at each of Disney's parks, starting with Hollywood Studios! Hollywood Studios is all about the worlds of movies, television, music, and theater.

Here are our family's top 10 things to do in Disney's Hollywood Studios!

Christmas Morning Disney Surprise!

This Christmas we had a tiny package under our tree that held a big surprise inside and I've been waiting to share it with our girls and with you! Now that the secret's out, I'm excited to tell you about how we came to put Disney World under the tree for our family for the second time, when we once wondered if we'd even make it to Disney once. I've got a video of the surprise at the end of the post, and a photo of how we broke the news this time.

10 Ways to Soothe and Prevent Sore Feet at Theme Parks!

When we visited Disney World, we did a LOT of walking! My feet suffered and I had a hard time with it some of the days! I now know a few things that I would do differently (or avoid doing) next time, so I thought I'd share them with you in case you're preparing for a similar trip and would like to try and avoid having sore feet after Disney or something like it!

1. Wear Good Walking Shoes

You'll want to make sure you have comfortable shoes with you. You can find advice online about the best shoes for Disneyland or the best walking shoes for sore feet but unless you have time for breaking in shoes before your trip I suggest you don't bring new shoes (if you haven't "worn them in", they could give you blisters!). Bring something tried and true.

2. Moisture Wicking Socks

The best socks for walking are socks that are made for sports and for sweaty feet. Look for something that's moisture wicking. I had a mixture of moisture wicking and regular socks and I noticed a big difference on the day that I didn't wear moisture wicking socks! It can mean avoiding blisters- totally worthwhile!

3. Change your Footwear

If you're going to be heading back to the park several days in a row like we did, you might want to consider bringing a second pair of shoes or even sandals. I have found that just changing the shape of my shoes gives my feet a refresh! It gives them a break from rubbing in the same places. I wore flip flops one day after my feet had gotten particularly sore and it was nice to let my feet "breathe"! Switching shoes partway through the day is also a good idea.

8 Reasons Why Your Toddler is NOT Too Young for Disney World!

In the weeks following our trip to Disney World, I've had plenty of opportunities to talk to other parents about our experience and I've heard a lot of them say that they're waiting to go to Disney World or Disney Land until their youngest gets older. I can understand why they'd think they needed to, but after our experience at Disney World, I can see a lot of reasons why you don't have to wait!

#1 - You Can Bring your Toddler on a Lot of Rides!

Many of the rides at Disney World are fine for Toddlers to come on with you. They're the type of ride where you're sitting on a bench (with or without a restraint) and you just sit back while your car or boat moves along a track.  These types of rides are more about what you see around you than wild movements.

How to get Signed Character Meet & Greet Photos at Disney Parks!

I'm all about making and documenting special memories, so I knew we'd want to take photos of the girls meeting characters at Disney World.  We thought the girls would enjoy getting the characters' autographs too, so we got them little autograph books to take on the trip. It was Ken who thought of a great way to combine the two concepts!

By the reactions we were getting from the characters and Disney photographers there, this was a new idea that they hadn't seen before!  Today I'm going to show you how to get your character meet & greet photos signed at Disney Parks!

How To Make Your Own Disney T-Shirts!

We surprised our kids with a trip to Disney World for Christmas and I knew that I wanted to make matching T-Shirts for our family as part of the "reveal" (and for us to wear to the park).  I'm really happy with the way that they turned out, so today I'm sharing the (very simple) tutorial with you!

Here are the supplies that I used:

How to Surprise Your Kids on Christmas with a Trip to Disney World!

If you're looking for surprise Disney trip reveal ideas, especially if it's a Christmas Disney trip reveal,  I've got you covered!  

I have dreamed for a long time about being able to take our girls to Disney World.  I sometimes wondered if we would ever be able to do it!

In November we made the decision to go for it and plan a trip to Florida to take our girls to Disney World! We kept it a secret until Christmas morning, thinking about all of the different Disney World surprise ideas for ways we could break the news.  It was really fun to think about all of the different possibilities!

In the end, we came up with a fun way to give them a series of little gifts to open that would answer questions.  I took pictures so I could show you how we did it. :)

How to Make an Olaf Cake for a Frozen Birthday Party

Disney came out with a new movie just over a year go that you may have heard of called Frozen... ;)  My daughters both wanted to have Frozen-themed birthday parties this time around, so I have several Frozen birthday party idea posts coming up for you.  Today we'll start with an Olaf cake tutorial.  I know that "drawing" something onto a cake with icing can be a bit daunting, so I thought I'd take step-by-step photos of how I created this one for you so that it will be easier for you to attempt if you want to recreate it. :)

I started with a white cake mix (made with egg whites- no yolk).  I made one purple round cake and one blue round cake.  I also made a basic buttercream frosting recipe. I guessed on the amounts that I would need for frosting the cake and decorating the cake.

To Assemble the Cake:

Tangled Birthday Party

For Talia's 6th birthday, we threw a Tangled Birthday Party.
Here's what we did:

Decorations were pink & purple balloons & streamers. Pretty simple, but they did the job. :)


We played pin the pan on Flynn Ryder :) Ken found this printable Flynn Ryder Wanted poster and enlarged it, then traced it onto poster board. Then we found someone else who had done the same thing & created a free frying pan printable. Our printer was only printing bluish/purplish, so that's the colour of our pans. I wrote the party guests' names on the pans.


On the table were the Rapunzel cake, pans for the above game, treat bags, and dishes (pink & purple).


Here's a closer look at the treat bags. I just used brown lunch bags, sparkly stickers, and ribbon. I have honestly forgotten what was included in the treat bags!! (the party was a while ago ;) I know there were hair clips and hair bands and stickers, but I forget what else.


Of course, the cake. (Read more about it here.)


And the pinata (more about that here).


We also watched the movie (I was tired and had run out of games ;)

Here we are at the candle blowing stage. I hadn't planned for where to put the candles in a cake like this! :)

How to Make a Tangled Barbie Cake!

For Talia's Tangled Birthday party, I borrowed a friend's Wonder Mold Doll cake pan, and made a Tangled Rapunzel Barbie cake!

I decided to use Talia's Tangled Barbie Doll because it would look more like the actual character. Also, we had a little situation with her poor doll- Katrina pulled a Flynn Ryder & cut its hair short. So, I figured that if I somehow ruined the doll, it wouldn't be the end of the world. (Talia's great grandma had just bought her a new Tangled Barbie to replace the one Katrina attacked ;)




Since Barbie dolls are too tall for the cake pan, I made a round cake as well. Here's how I constructed it:



Once it was assembled, I wrapped the Barbie with cling wrap up to her waist & gently shoved her into the cake ;) Then I removed her to put the fondant over the cake for the skirt (and tucked it under at the bottom since there was a ledge created by the second layer of cake).

The day before I decorated the cake, I made marshmallow fondant. It was the first time I made it & I was happy with the outcome!

After the skirt's fondant was in place, I made an X shaped cut in the waist and put the Barbie back in her hole.

After a long time of bending over the table, designing & decorating, I came out with a very sore back, this lovely specimen, and a pledge to never make another one ;)



I was very happy with it, but it sure did take a lot of effort ;) The purple parts are made with marshmallow fondant & the other colours are all buttercream frosting. I used a grass tip to make the braid. Next time I use fondant, maybe I'll master getting it smooth- I was a little scared of the fondant this time and didn't want to play with it too much, so I just hid the 'messy' parts at the back of the dress.

More from the Tangled Party Here.