We’re all ears! The Mickey Mouse themed Pyrex collection launched last year and was an instant hit. After selling out, the line is now available on Corelle and for a steal!
The collection is broken up into three sets as well as individual pieces. All options come with colorful lids and a whole lotta Mickey magic.
You can choose from a green and yellow “Oh Boy!” round four piece set ($16), a blue and red “Since 1928” round four piece set ($16) and a multi-colored “Mickey Mouse the True Original” round and rectangular set ($36).
The round containers come in a four-cup size while the eight piece set offers three-cup and four-cup sizes.
You can head to Corelle (or Target and Amazon) to find the entire Mickey Mouse Pyrex storage collection, in addition to mouse-inspired dinnerware.
With the world slowly returning to normal, Disney Cruise line is in full prep mode for its 2021 and 2022 sailing season. That’s right, festive holiday cruises await!
Get ready for Halloween on the High Seas and Very Merrytime Cruises, including on the all-new Disney Wish in 2022. With five ships in the fleet ready to set sail, there are plenty of options for guests from around the world.
Cruises will depart from Florida, New York, Texas and California, with options for both the ’21 and ’22 season.
Halloween on the High Seas is available for this season in October of this year and returns in mid-September through October 2022. Travelers will be able to catch their fave Disney characters decked out in Halloween costumes, ghostly decor, a magical Pumpkin tree, Mickey’s Mouse-querade Party, thematic food, beverages and crafts and be able to dress up.
Set sail on a Very Merrytime Cruise in November and December for both the 2021 and 2022 season. This festive cruise is packed with everyone decked out in holiday garb, plenty of music, food, decor and of course, Santa Claus.
Bookings for the 2022 cruise season opens to the public Jun. 24, 2021 at disneycruise.com.
No one is more excited that theme parks are reopening than the Disney gang! In a fun new partnership, Snapchat is pairing up with the Disney PhotoPass Service to bring fans some amazing augmented reality experiences.
The next time you log into Snapchat, check out the new Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse Lenses! The mice will appear next to you, interact and even share a hug.
Snag the new lenses over on the Disney PhotoPass Snapchat profile, and enjoy at home until Jun. 3. After that, they’ll only be available in the Snapchat app while at Walt Disney World Resort.
Snapchat and Disney are also working on even more photo experiences surrounding the 50th anniversary of the the Walt Disney World Resort. Guest can use the My Disney Experience app to add their fave Disney PhotoPass image and add it to Cinderella’s Castle with augmented reality. When you look through your camera lens, you’ll be able to see tons of special moments shared by fellow parkgoers.
Check back on the Disney Parks B/log for more fun Snapchat news in the future!
Forget about those boring plastic coolers you’ve toted around for the past decade. It’s time to upgrade your our-of-the-house cold food storage game. The new line from Igloo Coolers and Disney includes themed cooler backpacks and cooler tote bags.
The Igloo Coolers x Disney collab is back—and this time it features a sweet set of Mickey and Minnie inspired products. The soft cooler bags come in four new styles, each with awesomely adorable designs of your favorite mice.
The collection includes
Minnie Mouse Dual Compartment Tote Cooler Bag ($29.99)
Minnie Mouse 24-Can Backpack ($39.99)
Mickey Mouse Dual Compartment Tote Cooler Bag ($29.99)
Mickey Mouse 24-Can Backpack ($39.99)
the Mickey and Minnie Playmate Pal Seven Quart Cooler ($39.99)
Mickey Mouse Playmate Pal Special Edition Mickey Ears Seven Quart Cooler ($39.99)
Minnie Mouse Playmate Pal Special Edition Minnie Ears Seven Quart Cooler ($39.99)
Mickey and Minnie Pop Fruit Playmate Pal Seven Quart Cooler ($39.99)
Mickey and Minnie Sweet Treats Playmate Pal Seven Quart Cooler ($39.99).
The new line of Disney coolers and soft totes follows the Igloo Disney Villains collection and other Disney-themed designs, such as Toy Story and Lilo and Stitch.
The Mickey Mouse Classic Blend is a medium-roasted artisan coffee blend made up of of 100 percent Arabica beans. Not only does it guarantee a taste morning cup of joe, but it looks darn cute while doing it!
The Mickey Mouse blend is a re-creation of the 2018 Joffrey’s version that was made in honor of Mickey Mouse’s 90th Anniversary. The packaging is covered in iconic images of your fave mouse.
You can order your own bag at Joffreys for $11.99 for an 11 ounce bag, with whole bean, French press and ground options
As it turns out, the zillion walks you’ve taken over the pandemic period are good for more than just you. New research from the University of Virginia Health System found that maternal exercise during pregnancy may reduce the child’s risk of developing metabolic disease later in life.
The study, which was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, looked at the effects of exercise on pregnant lab mice. The results showed an increase in exercise in obese pregnant mice could prevent the transmission of some metabolic diseases.
While this study didn’t include human mothers or their children, the researchers believe the exercise-related reduction in metabolic diseases (such as diabetes) in lab mice may extend to people. Zhen Yan, PhD, a top exercise expert at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and study researcher said, “Most of the chronic diseases that we talk about today are known to have a fetal origin. This is to say that the parents’ poor health conditions prior to and during pregnancy have negative consequences to the child, potentially through chemical modification of the genes.”
Yan continued, “We were inspired by our previous mouse research implicating that regular aerobic exercise for an obese mother before and during pregnancy can protect the child from early onset of diabetes. In this study, we asked the questions, what if an obese mother exercises only during pregnancy, and what if the father is obese?”
The researchers fed some of the mice (both mothers and fathers) in their study a high-fat/high-calorie diet prior to mating. The rest of the mice were fed more nutritious mouse fare. Some of the high-fat/high-calorie diet pregnant mother mice had access to a running wheel—and some didn’t.
Children born to the obese sedentary mother and father mice were more likely to develop high blood sugar or other metabolic issues as adults. Of the results, Yan said, “The take-home message is that it is not too late to start to exercise if a mother finds herself pregnant. Regular exercise will not only benefit the pregnancy and labor but also the health of the baby for the long run.”
The researcher continued, “This is more exciting evidence that regular exercise is probably the most promising intervention that will help us deter the pandemic of chronic diseases in the aging world, as it can disrupt the vicious cycle of parents-to-child transmission of diseases.”
I’m just a girl, writing a blog with two dogs by her side, looking for…an audience. It is my hope that this is the first of many pieces that you stop to read. Fingers crossed.
And, yes. I am alluding to Julia Roberts iconic line, “I’m also just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her,” from the 1999 film, Notting Hill. For the record, I know very well that I am more than ‘just a girl.’ I’m an educator, who is writing a blog with two dogs by her side, and I have a story to tell.
It is March 2021 after all. How could I not acknowledge the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic brought me to Empathic Paws without a reflection on March 2020?
During that unprecedented month, I was instantaneously thrust into a realm of isolation. In the figurative sense, I was holding myself together with duct-tape; raising and loving my son. Then forced to give that sacred TLC from behind a mask, quarantined, while living under the same roof, an impossibly daunting feat.
March 27th a 102.7 fever accompanied by classic COVID symptoms and a PCR COVID test.
April 1st. Positive COVID results. No joke, April Fools’ Day.
I pushed on. I balanced being a mom, teaching English to high school seniors from the confines of my kitchen table, and continued my doctoral research. No one really told me that it was OK to do anything different. So I stayed as close to my normal routine as I possibly could, otherwise, the metaphorical duct tape would peel right off.
There weren’t many people that I could physically embrace for love and support, besides an 11-year-old and our two large breed dogs. Sure there were FaceTimes, text messages with heart emojis, GIFs of Dr. Fauci, and front-porch wave hellos. But that’s not the same as fulfilling the need for tangible love and support, especially during a pandemic.
There did come a point in time that I met the CDC’s designated period of contagion. Even still, I found myself experiencing the monotonous and debilitating COVID symptoms of racing heartbeats, extreme dizziness, and utter exhaustion. Serendipitously, it was during a physically and emotionally repetitive late-April day, that I was reminded of the power of unconventional and unconditional love, which came by way of laughter. Real, belly-laugh, laughter.
The laughter was inviting and pure. I lifted myself up off the couch to see what all the laughter was about. Outside the kitchen window, I saw a boy and his two dogs.
I saw two dogs and their boy.
At the start of the pandemic, I worried something awful that COVID was going to rob my son of his childhood innocence. Little did I know, there were two, four-legged beings there to protect it all along. My son was blithely laughing. The source of his happiness–our two dogs, Judge and Daisy, and some dirty Under Armor socks (a story for another day).
An observation of cross-species love and support was my antidote.
With laughter as my background music, I sat down and opened my laptop. Out of the 500 open tabs within my Google Chrome browser, I closed 499. I navigated the mouse over the desktop folder, “Leadership Peer-Reviewed Articles.” I clicked and dragged a digital compilation of three years of research to its new home; a transitional folder entitled, “Stuff to Purge.”
There still was that lone tab waiting to learn of its fate. I clicked and arrived at the Google Doc, “Dissertation–HS Leadership_IB.” Did I really want my contribution to academia to be a 200 page document examining high school leadership and the International Baccalaureate program? I moved the mouse to File, navigated to Move to Trash, and executed one last click.
An exercise in digital prioritization enabled me to commit to the turning of a new page. With one click, I discarded three years of writing, research, and pseudo-supportive comments about the dissertation process: if you think you know what a dissertation entails you’re wrong, just pick a topic get it done, and my favorite, you’re not going to save the world.
Delete.
Flash-forward to the present day.
A lot can change in a year. A lot can change and remain the same; all for the better.
As for that whole dissertation-cleanse; to the surprise of many, including those aforementioned pseudo-supporters, I do in fact know what the dissertation process entails—having crafted and defended three new chapters. Maybe it has to do with selecting more than just a topic to write about, maybe it’s because I was inspired by an area that I cared about, the human-animal relationship. I still hold the belief that my academic contribution will be one that has the ability to positively influence the social-emotional wellbeing of students–even if it ends up being just one student, and not the world at large. And that’s OK by me, for that one student might very well be the person to save the world.
Remnants of COVID still linger and attempt to creep-up here and there. Thankfully, I am one of the fortunate ones to hold the official, yet ever-so-vague, Post-COVID Autonomic Dysfunction diagnosis. I am able to navigate this 2021 “long hauler” way of life and for that I am grateful. One dose of the vaccine down. One to go.
And the laughter continues its coveted, omnipresent-reign in our house. Often times, at the expense of another innocent pair of Under Armor socks. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I am well aware that my year-long personal and professional journey would not exist if it wasn’t for my son’s laughter and our dogs’ love. They are the trio that brought me to a state of empathic pause and this new page, is my ode to them.
Jessica is a writer, educator and researcher, with a passion for empathy, advocacy, and social responsibility. Whether writing, teaching, or researching, Jessica takes pride in her innate ability to inspire others to “Do All Things with Love, and believes it is even better to do those things with a dog, or two, by one’s side.
We know it can be tough to get the kids outside, especially during February in Boston. How about you bundle them up and go on a reading adventure? StoryWalks are popping up all around the city and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Read on for all the details you need to get in on this fun adventure!
What's a StoryWalk?
Kate Loweth
StoryWalks are a fun activity for kids that combine two of our favorite things: fresh air and reading. They take pages of a story and post them on stakes along a guided path. As you stroll down the trail, you are directed to the next page in the story.
The StoryWalk Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT. They have been installed in 50 states and 13 countries!
Titles & Where to Find the StoryWalks
The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds Vashti believes that she cannot draw, but her art teacher's encouragement leads her to change her mind.
Language: English
Where to find it: Brighton Common, 30 Chestnut Hill Avenue, Brighton Lopresti Park, 33 Sumner Street, East Boston
If You Bring a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff “If You Bring A Mouse to School” follows a boy and his mouse through a busy day at school.
Language: English and Spanish
Where to find the StoryWalk: Franklin Park, 450 Walnut Avenue, Roxbury
Possum's Harvest Moon by Anne Hunter A possum awakes one autumn evening and decides to invite his animal friends to a party to celebrate the beautiful harvest moon one last time before the long winter.
Language: English
Where to find the StoryWalk: Iacono Park, 150 Readville Street, Hyde Park
Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryan Cauley Rhyming text instructs the listener to find something yellow, roar like a lion, give a kiss, tell a secret, spin in a circle, and perform other playful activities along with the human and animal characters pictured.
Language: English
Where to find the StoryWalk: Adams Park, 4225 Washington Street, Roslindale
Chestnut Hill Farm in Southborough has a rotating StoryWalk available on the property. You can find more information here.
Current title: A Warm Winter Tail by Carrie A. Pearson
Language: English
Where to find the StoryWalk: Chestnut Hill Farm Southborough, MA
Other StoryWalks
Kate Loweth
Our sources tell us that Mary E. Finn Elementary School and Albert S. Woodward Memorial School both have StoryWalks that are open to the public when school is not in session.
Can you believe that Maisy the Mouse was published three decades ago? Lucy Cousin’s iconic children’s book character is ready to turn the big 3-0 and Candlewick Press has plans to celebrate.
Cousin’s books have long entertained children, parents and educators with simple stories and visual humor. With over 45 million books in print, including a variety of formats, Maisy continues to encourage a love of reading.
Candlewick Press’s celebration of Maisy includes activities that include a robust activity kit, updated First Experience brochure for educators, downloadable sheets and expanded resources for educators. Parents can also find tons of free Maisy and friends activities on maisyfunclub.com.
The 2021 publishing program includes a robust list of titles which exemplify the breadth and variety of Maisy, designed to keep preschoolers engaged and excited. Titles include:
You can introduce your young readers to Maisy with the newly published Happy Birthday, Maisy to celebrate on her actual big day––Feb. 10. Don’t forget to pick up Maisy’s Chinese New Year and Maisy’s Moon Mission, as the adorable mouse learns abut Chinese New year objects and learns about space in her interactive board format.
The new line of Swatch watches is a result of collab between Disney and the Keith Haring Studio, which first began in 1986. The collection features three styles that pay homage to the most famous mouse in the world and starts at $100.
photos: Courtesy of Swatch
The all black MICKEY BLANC SUR NOIR features yellow hands and is the perfect minimalist monochrome design. With a bit more color, the red and white MOUSE MARINIÈRE is inspired by Mickey’s red shorts, with the mouse himself printed on the glass which creates a double-layered illusion.
Finally, the blue, black and white ECLECTIC MICKEY is an homage to both Mickey and Haring’s expressive art. Due to popular demand, this particular style is only available in-store at your local Swatch retailer. You can find the other two magical styles at www.swatch.com, but why stop at picking up just one? Do your 80’s self a solid and sport all three at once!
