When our son was a toddler, my husband and I devoted countless hours to painting his childhood bedroom with colorful pictures of many of Disney’s most-beloved characters. We had Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto to start and saved room to add more as our son found new characters to love.

By the time our son hit his teens, he was ready for a change. The thought of covering the paintings my husband and I did all of those years ago just about broke my heart, but we agreed our son needed his own adult space. My husband, who loved the paintings almost as much as I did, suggested that we give our son the guest room, redone to his taste of course, and we could have a little more time with what we had affectionately dubbed “The Disney Den.”

The Disney Den soon became a combination home office and sewing room. When our son was home from college, he spent many hours pouring over books and papers in that room, rather than the man cave we had turned the guest room into for him. Visitors loved seeing that room and it was always the cheeriest place in our home.

When it came time for my husband and I to move, our real estate agent recommended painting over the Disney characters, but we wouldn’t do it. We sold the house without a problem and for years wondered what the new owners did with that room, assuming they had painted it over at some point. Read the rest of this entry »

My son is four years old. He has several Disney movies and TV shows that he enjoys watching. He has a few favorite characters that have become part of his daily imagitive play.

Lightning McQueen from the Cars movies is one of his favorites. He has a plush Lightning McQueen that he uses as his pillow and won’t sleep without. He has a Lightning McQueen flashlight that is used to find lost items that have made their way under the couch. He has tons of die-cast cars, some from the Cars movie. He uses his Lightning McQueen cars (he has several) to crash, save the day, and go on adventures. He can play hours with his toy cars, and the characters from the Cars movie play a large part.

One of my son’s favorite TV shows is Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He has pirate dress-up clothing and loves to pretend to be Jake. Read the rest of this entry »