Little Men of Disneyland

     So great news! Disney actually commissioned me to mock up some of my Smidgeon characters for a Disneyland lineup!

Yeah. None of that was true. April Fools?

     But seriously... while we were at Disneyland recently I was inspired to knock a few more of these bad boys out. One good thing about being in a magical amusement park full of whimsical little details is that no one really blinks an eye when a guy gets down on the ground to take a closeup photo of (not to spoil the magic) ...absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, it was after our trip that I found out about the actual little man of Disneyland. It might have made for a fun photo-op with a smidgeon or two, but oh well. At least I enjoyed the churros.

     Now that I think about it, Disneyland would be a terrible place for tiny people to live. Despite the fact that it's home to a famous mouse, it's also full of cats!

I'm Celebrating!

   

     Next time you're in a Disney park, be sure to ask for one of these buttons. They're free and make for some pretty decent souvenirs. When you wear them in the park, cast members are really good at noticing them and using them as conversation starters. They'll say "Happy Anniversary!" or "First time here? Welcome!" You know? The sort of small talk that makes the overall atmosphere a little more friendly. 

     To have a little fun with this friendly atmosphere on our recent visit to Disneyland, my wife, brother, and I thought it'd be fun to make our own custom buttons that would catch the cast members' eye the same way, but hopefully spark some slightly less-generic conversation.

     Alas, we weren't able to find the means of producing these buttons in the same size as the official ones. So, being sticklers for detail, we scrapped the whole idea which, let's be honest, probably wouldn't have played out as hilariously as we intended. Nevertheless, our buttons were too fun not to share.

Like I said, we were going for LESS-generic.

Birds Sing Words

     I went to Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room when I was a kid and, while I had the famous song embedded in my brain for the next 20 years, I wasn't that impressed. It was just a bunch of robot birds hanging from the ceiling. My wife and I went to Walt Disney World in 2010 and again in 2015. Both times, we skipped the Tiki Room.

Whatevs.

     AND THEN we went to Disneyland earlier this year. During some downtime, my wife and our six-year-old daughter went into the Tiki Room to rest their feet... and my daughter's mind was blown. She loved it! We had to go back a couple more times during our visit and have watched the show countless more times since on YouTube! All of this to say, I've changed my mind. I also love it now., though I can't really say why. Maybe it's just seeing how much our daughter enjoys it, or maybe it just took a while for me to get wrapped up in that Disney magic. Regardless, those robot birds are now on our list of must-see attractions for when we revisit the happiest place on Earth!