Every now and then when my kids are watching television I scream out “pause the TV”! It’s usually because I happen to catch a commercial for a great contest. Today while they were watching Suite Life on Deck I heard “win a Disney Cruise.” If there were ever a moment to pause, this was one of them.

Here are the details:

One Grand Prize: A 7 night Disney Cruise Line vacation for winner and 3 guests leaving from Los Angeles, CA and taken aboard the Disney Wonder to Disney’s Mexican Riviera itinerary. Includes air fare if you live more than 200 miles from LA. Plus a Toy Story 3: The Video Game for the Wii™ console system.

75 First Prizes of a Toy Story 3: The Video Game for the Wii™ console system. (ARV: $50).

Contest ends August 15, 2010. Click here to get more details and enter.

The Weather Channel is giving away a Disney Cruise in its Choose and Cruise Sweepstakes. The Grand Prize is a  Disney Cruise Line vacation for 4 people to winner’s choice of the following: 10- or 11-night Mediterranean Cruise, 12-night Northern European Capitals Cruise, 7-night Eastern Caribbean Cruise, or 7-night Western Caribbean Cruise. Grand Prize also includes transportation to the departure port, a stateroom for 4, and $4,500.

Three instant win game prizes will also be given away and include a 4-night DCL Bahamian vacation for 4 people.  You can enter the Sweepstakes and play the Instant Win game twice a day. You can also get extra entries for sharing the contest with your friends. The sweepstakes ends April 2, 2010.

It seems like every other month we are finding a really great Disney contest. The newest contest sponsored by Disney is the “Celebrate You Sweepstakes.” You can enter from now through January 31 but must be a United States resident.

What is the prize? Hold onto your hats. A 5 day/4 night trip for the winner and 3 guests to the Walt Disney World Resort, including hotel accommodations for 3 nights in a standard room, a 1 night stay at the Cinderella Castle Suite, 5-Day Magic Your Way Park Hopper Tickets, services of a VIP Tour Guide for 6 hours, services of a personal itinerary planner to help with planning, a PhotoPass PhotoBook and PhotoCD, a $250 Disney Gift Card for the winner, and airfare for 4 if you live more than 250 miles away.

Just winning a trip to Disney would be amazing. But imagine being one of the few people who gets to spend a night in the Cinderella Castle Suite! It would be an opportunity like no other in your life.

Click here to enter once a day. You can also get more information there about how to enter via text message.

I am a huge fan of Disney cruises. I’ve taken 4 myself and already have another one booked. To me, it is the perfect family vacation. Parents and kids can come together when they want but also do their own thing when they want. My kids have always loved the kids club activities, and I love that I can trust Disney with my kids while I relax.

Hanes is giving away a five-night Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. What I really like about this particular cruise is that it stops twice at Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay. It’s actually the exact same itinerary that I booked for my family for our next DCL vacation! Castaway Cay features its own restaurants (included in the price of the cruise), an adult beach, a kids area, a family beach, and more. You know that place you go to in your head when you need to relax and block out the world? Mine is a hammock at Castaway Cay! Hanes is giving away THREE grand prizes that each consist of a 5-night cruise for 4 people, flights, and airport transfers. The value of each is approximately $7,278.

In addition to the Disney Cruise, Hanes is giving away 100 packages of Hanes socks each week throughout the contest. My kids wear the Hanes so that I can easily tell the difference (Cassie wears the purple coded ones and Jillian wears the blue). The color coded “Hanes” tells me what size they are, which makes separating the socks much easier at laundry time.

I’m excited about this contest because it involves two of my favorite brand names! Click here to get registered before March 31, 2010.

Big news on Good Morning America today! Disney is giving away theme park tickets for people who volunteer. The new program is called “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day.” When you volunteer one day for a participating organization, you will get your choice of a ticket for Disney World or Disneyland. If you cannot use your ticket yourself, you can even donate it to a Disney charity.

Although Disney is obviously getting a lot of publicity out of this and it isn’t costing them much (they’ll likely get more people to visit just because of the promotion), I still think that it is great to see a corporation encouraging people to give back to the community. In particular, this is a good reason to get parents to engage their entire family in a volunteer activity.

In addition to the Give a Day promotion, you can enter to win a free trip to Disney in the “Cheers to Volunteers” Sweepstakes. The grand prize is a 5 day, 4 night vacation for 4 to Walt Disney World or Disneyland. You get bonus entries for Tweeting the contest each day. (ends March 31, 2010)

The program will officially begin January 1, 2010. You must be at least 6 years of age and pre-register for your volunteer service. Of course, there are quite a few details that you will need to check out at disneyparks.com in January, but it looks like a terrific opportunity! You may also want to follow the Disney Parks twitter account to get up to the minute information.

Are you a Disney-loving mom who has visited in the last year and loves to give opinions and feedback about the park? Then you might be perfect for the Walt Disney World Moms Panel! Entries will be taken starting September 10, 2009. You must be able to travel to WDW from December 4-8 for their special training program. After that, you will be responsible for at least 15 written responses per week (regarding WDW travel). More specific information can be found on their site.

Here is the link to bookmark so that you can mark your calendar and apply!

Edited: They are now taking applications! This is always really popular because of the free Disney trip. Applications will be taken through September 20 or whenever they get 20,000–whichever comes first.

Does your family dream of taking a Disney vacation every year? Then you need to enter this new Disney contest! The Great American Family Vacation Sweepstakes is being sponsored by DisneyFamily.com. What do you get if you win? Essentially it is enough Disney Vacation Club points for your family to take a vacation a year for three years through DVC. This could include Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or even a timeshare exchange. The prize also includes the cash to pay the taxes that the winner would owe from winning the prize.

You still have to pay to get to your destination and for food and park tickets. But even a Disney hotel for a week a year for three years is a terrific prize!

The contest ends August 31.

For years we have been working on building our Disney monorail collection around our Christmas tree. Unfortunately, we could only buy pieces when visiting Disneyworld. Because we can’t bring back much luggage without being charged, we stopped buying pieces. I am happy to report that we can now get Disney Park Merchandise at DisneyShopping.com!

Although they do not yet have everything in stock, there are definitely a lot of cool things on the website. Aside from the monorail parts, you can get Mickey ears, autograph books, clothing, home decor and more.

While part of the fun of  Disney is buying some trinkets to bring home, it’s often inconvenient or you don’t realize until after the fact that you wanted to buy something. Hopefully the Disney coupons and free or flat rate shipping offers on the site will work for the Disney Park merchandise and we will all be able to get some great deals.

I’m reposting this recipe because summer is here and the Low Country Boil is one of our favorite things to do as a family. We originally had this at the Edmunds’ Family Low Country Boil at the Disney Vacation Club in Hilton Head a couple of years ago. These are not the exact recipes that we had at Disney, but they are really similar and delicious. We have started a new 4th of July tradition as a result of the Low Country Boil! We initially tried to cook it in a big outdoor pot, but it took too long. So we switched to a turkey fryer and it worked much better. (Click here to find Turkey Fryers at Amazon.com)

Low Country Shrimp Boil Recipe from Chef Rick

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. Keilbasa per person
1/2 lb. Raw shrimp in shell per person
3 Red bliss potatoes per person
1 Ear of corn per person
2 Lemons
Cayenne pepper
Cloves
Garlic
Bay leaves
Old Bay Seasoning
Black pepper
TabascoOptional:
2 Small onions per person
1 Carrot cut into 4ths per person
1-2 crabs per person

Boil water in a large kettle on stove or outdoor cooker. Season water with salt and your choice of above flavorings along with the juice of two lemons or 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Add potatoes and cook for 10 minutes. Add carrots, sausage and onions. Bring back to a boil. When potatoes and carrots are almost tender, add corn and crabs. Bring to a boil, then add shrimp. Cook a few minutes until shrimp are just done – they will be pink in color. Drain and pour into a basket or onto platters. Have cocktail sauce and Dijon mustard at hand. This is a crowd pleaser!

Low Country Boil Recipe from Group Recipes

Ingredients: 

Directions:

I happened to catch about 5 minutes of the Today show this  morning on accident. (I don’t usually watch tv while I am working during the day) Hoda and Kathie Lee were showing an item called the “GoGirl.” They were both really grossed out by it, but I thought it was wonderful!

The GoGirl is described on its website as a “female urination device”. Basically, it lets girls pee standing up. I’m one of those people who hates public restrooms and port-a-potties just about worse than anything in the world. I could absolutely see myself using this. And imagine having it on camping trips?

The only place that I have seen so far that you can buy the GoGirl is directly from their website (www.go-girl.com). For $5 you can get one in a little bag with toilet paper. Perfect to keep for an emergency.