The "Meet" - pt 2 of Crashing the Disney SM Moms Celebration

Where were we..Ty Pennington?? lol

I met up with Aurora first. She & Amanda were having fun with the volunteer event & chasing after Joe Jonas. I went off with Princess Peanut & gang while the rest were involved with conference events. At 2:40ish, I got the text from Aurora : "Get back to the volunteer area NOW".

Running thru the countries, we finally made it back to the Volunteer Area (Millennium Village) just in time. The Volunteer Parade with Kermit, Miss Piggy & Sweetums from the Magic Kingdom had just started. This was so amazing for a few reasons :

1. Epcot does not generally have "parades"

2. I never seem to be over at the Magic Kingdom at the right time to see this parade

3. It was the Muppets!

This parade was just a short little pre-parade, but it was cute. The costumes were colorful & music catchy. But the most amazing thing was the 10 big box trucks that followed Miss Piggy & Kermit. These box trucks were full of the canned goods that were used to create the structure built earlier. All the food was donated to local food banks in the central Florida area.

After the parade, I finally met up with everyone! It was a big hug fest ;) It was so exciting! And, to make it even better, Lou Mongello was with them! We decided to find a quiet spot & do a podcast(ßlisten) with Lou. What better of a place than a quiet cafe table in France?

We rode Test Track together & it felt like I had been with them from the start. They were that wonderful. Soon, it came for us to part ways..they had a dinner cooked by Chef Robert Irvine & concert with Demi Lovato & Joe Jonas & we had a tweet-up at the Polynesian Tambu Lounge & Wishes from the beach.

You know, I could write a blog about each of these ladies (& Lou, too!). They are the sweetest people you will ever meet. I do suggest you follow them on Twitter & read their blogs, too.

I was part of Lou's Harem for the day ;)

Lynne, Aurora, Amanda, Jen, Traci, Lou, Jackie, JL, Debbie, Me & Debbie's DS

Check these fabulous people out!

Follow Jen - @Dizneydreamer on Twitter. Read her blog Always Running Behind

Follow Lynne - @Lynne_from_texa on Twitter. Read her blog Wondering What’s Next

Follow Aurora - @RoraBorieAlice on Twitter. Read her blog Tales of a Frumpy Mocha Princess

Follow Amanda - @amandatinney on Twitter. Check out her website Disney Every Day with Amanda Tinney

Follow Traci - @TraciLeigh on Twitter. Read her blog The View From My Fishbowl

Follow Lou - @loumongello on Twitter. Check out his website WDW Radio

Follow Jackie - @jjzmgailey on Twitter. Read her blog Mickey’s Magical Trip Tips

Follow JL - @NDM_1 on Twitter. Check out her website The Disney Driven Life

Follow Debbie - @dcanoli on Twitter. Check out her blog Debbie’s A Day Late & A Dollar Short

**Read Pt 1 of this story here**

Crashing the Disney SM Moms Celebration

Lets just start this off with "I *so* should have been there".

Disney hosted a first ever Social Media Moms Celebration (SMMC). And for reasons that make me the mommy that I am, I did not sign up to go. With that being said, I watched the Twitter-verse in envy the weeks & days leading up to the conference. A lot of mommy-bloggers that I have grown fond of...yes, shameless shout outs will be posted at the end ;)...Jen, Debbie, Lynne, Jackie, JL, Traci, Amanda..all were going to be there. How could I *not* have signed up to go & meet these fabulous people??

*cue "light bulb going on" type music*

I have an annual pass. These mommas were going to be in the parks enjoying some down time. I can go to the parks whenever I want....so, maybe, just maybe, I'll go on one of the days they are there..SCORE!!

*Ok, so it didn't take rocket science to figure that deduction out. Maybe a little of it (ok, maybe most of it) was slightly embellished for the purpose of interesting reading..but you get my point ;)*

In a completely unrelated coincidence, another Twitter friend of mine, Ali, was having a “tweet-up” Thursday night at the Polynesian. The SMMC itinerary had listed most of Thursday afternoon free. Perfection-Thursday it was! As the day grew closer, I realized just how important Thursday was. Disney was gearing up for a major press event for this conference & Thursday was the main event day. Yay me!

Just a few days before, I found out that another Twitter/blogger friend, Aurora, was also going to "crash the party". How exciting!! Now, I wasn't the *only* one to not be attending the conference!! I was so excited, but nervous too. I mean, online everyone got along fabulously, but what if we didn't "click". What if they had all bonded so much over the course of the first day of the conference, I was just an outsider? What if they thought I was an over-zealous nut just showing up & crashing the party? Oh, the things I put myself thru!! Still, it felt good to know that I wasn't the only one just "showing up".

We set out Thursday morning. I followed the Press Releases (ßDisney Blog Posts) all the way up. Things like

• 600,000 people already signed up/volunteered hours thru Hands On Network
• Ty Pennington was there
• He said "Move those balloons"
• The picture of the largest can sculpture does not nearly look as majestic on your cell phone as it does here
• Demi Lovato & Joe Jonas were at the park
• Did I mention Ty Pennington was there?

I think I am still floored that 600,000 people have volunteered already..and the program had only been in effect for 6 weeks. That is an incredible amount of man-power & community fellowship. But, we'll save that for another blog post.