The kids and I have the pleasure of staying at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. From the time we got there we have had so much fun seeing all the familiar characters from The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Cars, and The Little Mermaid.
We are here for the Grand Opening of The New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom.
We are staying in a two bedroom suite in the Lion King hotel. You can see from the pictures below that it is very colorful and full of life-sized versions of the movie.
The Art of Animation Resort as we drove in.
Disney’s Art of Animation Lion King bed featuring Zazu
Picture of the second bathroom at our hotel room in the Lion King suite at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
The Righteous Playground at the Finding Nemo swim and play area
Squirt from Finding Nemo on top of the Righteous Reef Playground
Samantha A. Gregory is an author, consultant, and speaker. She’s a single-mom lifestyle, money, and parenting expert featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, HuffPost, ABC News, and Mint.com.
Samantha founded the award-winning RichSingleMomma.com™, the first online magazine featuring personal finance, parenting, and personal development content and courses for single moms.
She aims to inspire women who are ready to thrive and not just survive in their single motherhood journey. Connect with her on Instagram @richsinglemomma.
Money is always a touchy subject. It is either our salvation or our curse. Either way, without money we are unable to live and survive in this world.
Many times, the way we think about money can affect the outcome of the turnover in revenue we try to obtain. How we think (and sometimes feel emotionally) can hinder our potential of stretching our money or earning it in other ways.
To overcome these road blocks, check out the following tips below.
5 Steps to a Healthy Money Mindset
The first step to overcoming your mental road blocks with money is to change your thinking about money. Many people, especially single moms, create negative psychological barriers thinking that money problems are out of our control, but they are really not.
The second step is to understand money’s true purpose. Once you have that understanding, you will be more aware of its abundance.
The third step is to always keep in mind that there is always more money available to you. No matter if you pay a bill or write a check, just know that money will come again.
The last tip is to let the money go to receive more. It sounds like the complete opposite of what you should do, but if you let the money go you will receive more and sometimes more.
Overcoming psychological barriers is not an easy thing to do especially with money. But once you do break down the negative walls, money will come flowing and stay in abundance. If you don’t over think your money and all of its attachments, life will be a lot more positive for you and your finances.
The kids and I went to check out Stone Mountain’s Snow Mountain here in Atlanta this weekend. It is part of the Stone Mountain Christmas that runs from November 10, 2012 to January 1, 2013. I heard about it last year and thought it would be cool to check it out but we didn’t make it. I got invited to go this year and am so glad I went. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time.
We got in and took a family picture in front of the Christmas scene then moved on to find Snow Mountain. We didn’t know what to expect as we walked through the village that was all decked out in Christmas lights. We saw signs for the shows for the little kids to The Polar Express Experience. I’ll get to that later.
Fun on Snow Mountain 6x’s
Then we spotted the entrance to Snow Mountain. We could not start the fun just yet because they didn’t allow extras like scarves, purses, video camera, etc. We had to turn around and put our stuff in the lockers. Fortunately it was only a dollar to store our things. Now we could ride. And boy did we ride. Six times in fact. Three times on the solo slide and three times on the family/group slide.
I was one tired lady after all that. When you are at the top of the slide they run through the rules like; hold the grey handles, don’t get out, stay in your lane, and if you lose something they will get it for you. Glad I remembered that last part because the second time we went down the family slide I lost my cell phone. I took it to take all the lovely pictures you see here.
Lost and Found Cell Phone, Whewwww!!!
I noticed it was missing when I wanted to take a picture of the kid’s Snow Zone. The phone was gone so we headed back up the hill to get ask if they found it. They sent up to the top of mountain to get it…I was really tired. We got there and they said they had it at the bottom of hill and we needed to go back down…GRRRRRR!!!! Fortunately they let us go to the front of the line and ride back down. So that made the third time on the family slide for us. I got my phone back once they verified it was mine and we were on our way to other adventures.
Funnel Cakes and Forever Christmas Show
We stopped for a Funnel Cake and something to drink after the Snow Mountain Adventure. I convinced my son to taste the cake that he looked at with his nose scrunched up. He tasted it and loved it. I think he is pretty much won over, LOL!
We checked the schedule and made our way to the Forever Christmas show. It was basically a Christmas music review. The website describes it this way:
“Come enjoy the sounds of the season, from Doo-Wop to current Pop! “Yule” love remembering the songs from yesterday and making new memories for today!”
It was better than I expected and the singers were really good. There was a surprise for the little kids in the show. My kids are older so they weren’t impressed, in fact my daughter didn’t like it at all. I suspect it’s just her personality though. But little kids will really like that part.
The Polar Express 4-D Experience
The next thing we did was go see The Polar Express Experience. It was a 4-D show that “engaged your senses”. Here is how the website describes it:
“When a doubting young boy takes an extraordinary train ride to the North Pole, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery that shows him that the wonder of life never fades for those who believe.
THE POLAR EXPRESS 4-D EXPERIENCE is a 20-minute show based on the inspiring and beloved Caldecott Medal children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg.”
It was a fun experience though it seemed too short. It felt like we were a part of the excitement in the movie.
Christmas Parade and Friends
After the show we waited around for the Christmas parade. We ran into Amy from Atlanta with Kid and The Q Family Adventures, along with her husband and kids. We chatted with them for a bit until the parade started. Her husband Ron had his video camera all ready to capture the show, but it went by too fast for him to get anything, LOL! He has a video creation and production company if you ever need a great videographer.
Cookie Decorating for the Little (or not so little) Artists
My daughter wanted to decorate a cookie so we headed to Memorial Hall so she could express her artistic talents. My son declined because his growling stomach made it hard to have a good attitude. So he sat and waited although he was very grumpy :-p.
We ran into Raisa Lefe (Macaroni Kid Sandy Springs-Dunwoody) and her family on the way to eat dinner. It was fun watching her little boys talk about everything they did at the park that day. They are too cute.
Plenty of Exercise, Plenty of Fun at Stone Mountain
It was a fun afternoon and I definitely got my exercise. The steep hills of Stone Mountain are not to be taken lightly but the park is beautiful throughout the year. We left before the laser light show and fireworks but I’m sure it was great.
I hope you enjoyed reading about our snow day at Stone Mountain park. If you live in Atlanta go check it out before January 2. If you plan to visit Atlanta during the Holidays I hope you check it out as well.
Samantha A. Gregory is an author, consultant, and speaker. She’s a single-mom lifestyle, money, and parenting expert featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, HuffPost, ABC News, and Mint.com.
Samantha founded the award-winning RichSingleMomma.com™, the first online magazine featuring personal finance, parenting, and personal development content and courses for single moms.
She aims to inspire women who are ready to thrive and not just survive in their single motherhood journey. Connect with her on Instagram @richsinglemomma.
Hi! Welcome to RichSingleMomma.com. I started this website almost a decade ago because I couldn't find any blogs back then that helped single moms with money. I was having some success in that area so I decided to share what I knew about side hustles, making extra money, and managing money. Read more...
