I wanted to have a special souvenir from Tink’s first birthday trip to Walt Disney World. Something fun she could look back on later since she wouldn’t remember anything about this trip. I decided birthday cards would do the trick. They are easy to obtain, inexpensive, lightweight to carry, can be saved in her baby book, and won’t clutter anything or need to be dusted.
I bought three first birthday cards: one Minnie, one Pooh, and one bunny, a soft plastic folder, and an over-sized pen. All this fit easily in our diaper backpack. The cards and folder came from my local superstore and cost less than $10. The pens are available at most shops on Walt Disney World property. It’s much easier for the characters to hold the jumbo pens. I use this pen now for my grocery list. The giant pink pen with a tiara on top makes the chore a bit more fun.
At character meals or meet and greets, I asked the characters to sign Tink’s birthday card. Everyone was happy to do so, except for the Mad Hatter. He was signing a Pooh card and true to his character, he picked at the baby over a line in the card about her being as sweet as honey. Then he went into bears eating honey and did we want her to be eaten by Pooh. I know Tink didn’t understand what was going on but this led to our one and only character meltdown. I am sure the Mad Hatter is a riot with older kids or teens but he was a bit abrasive for the baby. On a positive note, Tink has two birthday cards signed by Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Pooh, Tigger, Mary Poppins, Alice, the Mad Hatter, Jiminy Cricket, Rafiki, and Pocahontas.
The third card was reserved for my favorite park, Epcot. My brother Chris, aka Ridge, took the lead on this project. In each country in World Showcase, we asked a cast member to sign the birthday card in their native language. If they weren’t busy, he usually asked the person working the Kidcot station and they would also use the Mickey stamp from their country. This was great fun and provided for some good cast member interaction; everyone lit up when we asked them to sign the card. This card has beautiful wishes in many languages and I hope Tink likes it as much as we enjoyed having it signed for her.
What sort of special and creative souvenirs have you brought home from Walt Disney World? I’d love to hear your stories.
Contributed by: Amy Eastman (NDM#242) Amy is the DDL Babies and Toddlers Blogger. She is also the creator of Growing Up Disney.
Amy’s love of Disney stems from a family tree firmly rooted in the Mouse. Her father’s first trip to the World was to the Welcome Center before the Magic Kingdom was completed. He filled their home and vacations with Disney magic. Herself a former College Program Cast Member, DVC Member, Disney Marathon finisher, and Disney bride, Amy has seen and done much of what Disney has to offer but she’s always longing for more. Currently a stay-at-home mother, she’s enjoying blogging with her father, brother, and some fantastic Disney friends at www.growingupdisney.com. She’s thoroughly enjoying meeting new friends and sharing Walt Disney World memories through her writing.
I really like this idea. I am going to use this idea when we go in a couple of weeks for my son’s birthday.
We were going to be in WDW for Mother’s Day, so we brought our cards with us to mail from Disney. We asked Mickey, Minnie, and the Princesses to sign them also before we mailed them. They were a huge hit with the Mom’s. Now I am going to bring cards with me on every trip so we always have a signed card from Mickey for different occasions.
This is so sweet! I think I will use this idea this summer!