Why I Oughta...

One of the girls traded for this Pirate Pete pin and I love it.  It is nice sized and not a scrapper, but it features Pete, Mickey's foil all dressed up in a pirate get-up with pirate Mickey.   It is technically not the ONLY Pirate Pete pin , but since this one is Pirates of the Carribean-related, I think it is a nice cross-over between Mickey and the movie.  No hidden Mickey, but that's fine by me.   This listing says it is from 2011 .

We picked up another Resort-specific pin during a stop at Disney's Yacht Club.  Just like the one from the Contemporary earlier this year .  Or the Port Orleans Riverside one .   This one has Mickey wearing his best beach/old-timey-boardwalk/sailor gear and seems to fit the vibe that the resort puts off.  Now that we're settled in, it seems like we should be doing something in the house with these pins and the various pin boards that are laying around in my office.  The resort-specific section would

As I posted yesterday, Easter is a (surprising, at least to me) big deal at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea .  Lots of displays around the parks, but the stores are loaded with Easter-related items.  It wouldn't be a trip to a Disney Park without buying stuff you don't really need, right?  And holiday-related items for my kids?  Couldn't pass some of this stuff up. Here's a look at some of the displays in the stores including "Grand Emporium" at Tokyo Disneyland (which is the big store on their version of MainStreet USA) and the Emporio - the version at DisneySea. They have a big display of towels in different sizes featuring Mickey and Minnie in their Easter best. Pay attention to those outfits.  More on that down below. They also have these pretty awesome eggs in a package.  Inside of each of those are little candies.  You can see the display in the bottom left of the photo. There's a bunch of pins and post-it notes that are all egg-

This American Flag Mickey Mouse pin came in a big bag and while it wasn't deemed a 'keeper' by the girls, it was by me.  So it isn't going in the pile of 'traders' but instead will end up on the pin board. We've seen plenty of different versions of pins with American flags and/or some other version of patriotism on them, but I haven't come across this one with this shaped Mickey face on it. It reminds me of the face on Mickey's Fun Wheel out at Disney's California Adventure .

Mickey the Mouse was born on November 18th, 1928.  And we happened to be in the parks on November 18th of 2016.  As we walked in, they handed out these cute pins.  They're all over eBay for up to $7 a piece, which is nuts.  Ours will be on the girls pin boards where they'll be right in line with their other pins they've collected/traded for over the years.

This Happy Holidays 2016 pin from Disney's Boardwalk Resort is the third in the series that we came across as we resort hopped.  The first one was from the Animal Kingdom Lodge with Pumba and the second one featured Chip and Dale from Fort Wilderness Campground . The Boardwalk scored the big guy in Mickey the Mouse and was the hardest to find in their tiny little gift shop off the lobby.

The Babe picked out this set of 'Cross Stitch Booster' pins down at the Magic Kingdom earlier this year because she thought they were 'Minecraft' pins.    It is a nice set that she wore on her lanyard for most of the trip.  For those of you who are uninitiated (or just don't care), there's Mickey the Mouse, Dumbo, Pooh Bear and Stitch.  They each have 2 pinbacks on each of them.  The Pooh Bear one is the biggest and the best one, imho. We've started to put some of the girls pins on a corkboard in their room, but since we're not settled, that is just a stopgap measure.  But, even though it is just temporary, these pins are prominent on that board.

Earlier this week, I posted a photo of the Haunted Mansion version of the 2015 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party pin, but when I found that one in a bag, I also found these two.  On the left is what I think is the 'standard' or common Very Merry pin.  On the right is something called a "Passholder Exclusive".  Mickey, Minnie and Pluto grace the normal one.  That's the young duck boys with Santa on the right.  Huey, Dewey and Louie.  (I had to use The Google to find out how to spell those, for the record!)

Sure... the phone and internet guide featuring Walt is cool, but you know what is REALLY cool about the Disneyland Hotel?  The headboards.  Yeah...the headboards. That photo above is what they look like when you've turned off all the lights in the room but keep the headboard light up.  When you push a button, there's a music box sound of the song 'When you wish upon a star' and the fireworks flicker a bit. Here's a video on YouTube of it happening on someone's visit . This was a total delight for not just my kids but also for Nat and I.  I can't tell you now many times I hit the button to make the song go on and have the board light up.  This is just another one of those little touches that make strong memories for me at Disney. But...it also speaks to the details they've put into the Disneyland Hotel rooms. We listen to Pete Werner and the gang on the Dis Unplugged and Pete just raved about the rooms at the Disneyland Hotel .  After that ep

Just one week into the month, and I have caught up with the wall calendars at my office in the Aon Center.  On the right, the D23 Disney calendar is celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the Mickey Mouse Club.  On the right, the University of Illinois Alumni Association calendar features a fall photo of students walking past the Observatory just south of Foellinger Auditorium on the Quad. Pretty good to have done it on the 7th day (yesterday) of the month.  Second best response time since I've been tracking this odd experiment. Here's the post showing when I turned over September (18 days late!). August was just the 10th . July was bad. The 21st . In June, I nailed it. Turned on June 1st . Here's the post from May with the calendars . Took me until the 12th. March's post - where I turned them on the 11th. February post introducing the concept . On the 17th.