I received free products in order to host a #DisneyKids Jake and the Neverland Pirates Preschool Play Date. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Written By: Marci Smith

Ahoy maties! Thar be adventure ahead!

When I received the email invitation to host a #DisneyKids Jake and the Neverland Pirates Preschool Play Date, I was so excited! I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but my family and I LOVE all things Disney. My kids are big fans of Disney Junior and they were more than willing to help me plan a pirate play date for them and their friends. This is the tale of our adventure.

Getting a #DisneyKids Package in the Mail is Awesome:

Our big party box arrived swiftly and held so many treasures for our play date! It was quite the task keeping the kids away from the package of goodies until the party date arrived, especially with so much in there! We received:

• A TON of Jake and the Neverland Pirates Party Supplies: Themed plates, cups, napkins, party hats, tablecloth, and centerpieces just to name a few…
• Great Munchies: Kellogg’s Super Mario Brothers fruit snacks, Clif Kids ZBAR Protein and Crunchmaster Grammy Snacks – all delicious!
• Pirate Loot: What would a pirate play date be without treasure? The kids loved the Gold Doubloon Necklaces, Mini Spy Glasses, Eye Patches, and Bouncy Cannon Balls.
• Disney Parks Planning DVDs and Luggage Tags: Great for the parents! If you’d like to get your very own planning DVD for FREE and learn more about planning a Disney Vacation, fill out THIS FORM.
  
• Cool Extras: An awesome MegaBloks Hot Wheels set, Kinetic Sand and Sandbox, Mickey Mouse Chore Charts, coloring pages, themed games, and balloons. So much fun!

The Plan; or lack thereof:

I’m a planner. I love lists and organization. My gatherings are usually planned out in detail months in advance. Unfortunately, the past two months have been INSANE in the Smith household. I’m sure many of you can empathize; kids, school, home, pets, work; the list just goes on and on and ON. I even designed and printed super cute invitations that I just never found the time to mail!! Sad, isn’t it?

Then, when I finally set the date, invited guests, and had our plan in motion…Elsa went crazy. Our small town was covered in nearly a foot of snow and it had to be postponed. While the kids loved it, I panicked. Most of our guests would be away for the holiday weekend and Sunday was the last day I could host this play date. Thankfully, I was able to pull it together and our guests had a great time! It was far from smooth sailing, but what would a pirate adventure be without some waves?

The Event:

I enlisted the help of my 8-year-old daughter and got to work. She set up a super cute table where all the guests could visit and snack while I made up an area for Pirate dress-up. My son has a Skull Rock play set and Bucky Pirate Ship with a LOT of Peter Pan and Jake toy figures. The kids all loved dressing as pirates and playing with the toys from the show. They especially loved our Pirate Treasure Maps. During our last trip to Walt Disney World we played an interactive game in Magic Kingdom called ‘A Pirate’s Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas.’ We were given a map that led us around Adventureland in search of treasure that Captain Jack Sparrow was trying to find. Once you found the clues and treasure you could continue the game with a new map or be on your way. We played 3 of 5 games and both the kids really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend trying it out during your next trip!

Three of the older kids really had fun putting together the Mega Bloks Hot Wheels car. Although the box said ages 5 and up the two 8-year-olds in the bunch enjoyed this the most. One activity that all the kids loved regardless of their age was the Kinetic Sand. I buried some of the pirate treasure in it and let them go nuts! I think we were all really surprised by the consistency. The sand was very soft, squishy, and moist but not messy at all. It did not stick to our hands or other surfaces and was very easy to clean up. I’m sure I’ll be buying more of it for my kids!

Our play date was scheduled from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. This is prime snack time in toddler world. We made sure to have some fun and healthy things to munch on. Some highlights were the Gold Doubloon Chocolate Cupcakes (fun), multigrain tortilla chips with salsa and fresh fruit with Crunchmaster Grammy Crisps (healthy).

I added the Clif Kids ZBARS Protein, Super Mario Brothers fruit snacks and some other goodies into the kids treat bags. My daughter has loved Clif bars for a while now and was ecstatic when she saw them in our play date box. In hindsight, I should have just let her eat them then because unfortunately they were out of date by the time we had our party. Of course I didn’t realize it until after it was over and everyone had gone home. To all of my guests, I’m sorry! I blame Captain Hook!

In the end, our Jake and the Neverland Pirates Preschool Play Date was a success! The kids had fun, the snacks were delicious, and it’s always great to spend time with friends and talk Disney. I’m so glad to have been selected as a host and look forward to my next #DisneySide party!

MouseQuest would like to thank BSM Media, Mom Select, Disney Parks, and products sponsored by MegaBloks, Clif Kids and Kellogg’s for all of our amazing party snacks and supplies!

If you’re looking for ideas to host a #DisneySide Celebration of your own, be sure to visit them on the web for amazing ideas!

I received free products in order to host a #DisneyKids Jake and the Neverland Pirates Preschool Play date. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Written By: Marci Smith

When I read about all of the amazing Frozen events coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios this summer, I was ecstatic! Our family LOVES Frozen, and can belt out “Let it Go” with the best of them. Yesterday was the official beginning of “Frozen Summer Fun” at Walt Disney World, and although we won’t be able to experience it for a few more weeks, I decided to surprise my kids with some Frozen fun of our own! What better way to kick off a great summer than with a Frozen themed family game night? My kids really enjoy playing games, and I knew this would be a great way to make it even more special.

Party planning is one of my absolute favorite things to do. In this particular case I had a short time-frame and limited budget, so I knew I wanted to keep it simple. To organize my thoughts, I did what I do best…I made a list. Lists are amazing, and I use them frequently.

First, I thought about what snacks we could have during our game night. One of the greatest things about Frozen is that it lends itself to so much creativity when it comes to themed foods. I began with Kristoff’s Ice Blocks (blue Jell-O cubes), Elsa’s Frozen Hearts (heart shaped Rice Krispie treats dipped in blue sugar) and Marshmallow’s Snowballs (white cheddar popcorn). To create a snow-like centerpiece, we had a white cake fluffed with shaved coconut. It was surrounded by five mini chocolate cupcakes topped with character rings. To finish off our frosty foods, the kids were able to ‘Help Sven Build a Snowman’. Vanilla ice cream, mini M&Ms, pretzel sticks and candy corn turned into uniquely decorated snowmen. I knew the kids would love it!

Next I focused on the decorations. Creating an indoor blizzard in July is a challenge in and of itself, but doing it on a limited budget is something else altogether! I decided to make my own. After rummaging around in my craft drawer, I found some gorgeous foil snowflakes I found on clearance at Target many moons ago. I also had some card stock, so I went online and gathered some great images from the movie to create food labels and a snowflake that I taped to a skewer and used as a cake topper. My favorite part of the décor was Olaf’s personal flurry, which I made out of some of the white cheddar popcorn! I strung it up with a needle and white thread then fastened it to the ceiling. I surrounded the cake pedestal with white serving napkins and voila! – A winter wonderland on my dining room table.

The last piece of the puzzle was the entertainment. Of course we would play all of our favorite songs from the movie to enhance the atmosphere, but what about the game? You can’t have a Frozen family game night without a game. However, I didn’t have a Frozen themed board game and really didn’t want to go out and buy one. Once again, I tapped into my creative side and made my own. If your kids are like mine, they’ve probably seen the movie at least three million times. They know the songs, the story, the characters…almost every word by heart. I wanted to come up with something that would be challenging but still easy enough for them to win. Frozen “Who Said It?” was born! The game consists of 48 cards. Each card has a quote from the movie and a picture of the character that said it. One person chooses a card and reads the quote, then whoever guesses the correct character first gets the card. At the end of the game when all the cards are gone, the player with the most cards wins. Even though it was a really simple game, we had the best time! The kids both loved the playing it and were laughing hysterically at each other as they tried each time to say the line exactly as the character had in the movie. It was so much fun to watch them together, and in the end, only two cards separated them. So although they are 5 and 7, neither of them felt as if the game was too easy or too hard. It worked really well for their ages, which was great!

I had a great time coming up with some “Frozen Summer Fun” for my family, and I am beyond excited to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios this summer and experience some of the amazing things they have planned! If you would like to learn more about “Frozen Summer Fun”, be sure to check out the Disney Parks Blog.

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