Friday, May 24, 2013

Disney Commercial Adventure: Part 1

It happened!!! We received the call that informed us we would be heading to Orlando for a commercial shoot. And as much as I couldn't believe it, the day came to leave and the adventure began...

***The Excitement of Travel***

The boys were just as excited about flying as they were about the plans to go to the water park!

Invading Hartsfield
Plane watching...
There was no delays and the 30 minute wait passed quickly with new sights to see.

SHARE:

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Disney "Callback" Commercial Experience...

While at Field Day for one of our boys, my phone rings with an Atlanta number. It's the casting agency! I take a deep breath and answer.

We got a callback and could we come in Saturday to audition again for the actual directors? Yes!!! (First audition account in this  post ).

Saturday came and we loaded the van wearing the same exact outfits with our swim suits underneath, but I felt none of the calm assurance I had for the first one. The whole, enjoy yourself motto wasn't working for me this time.  My bathing suit didn't seem to fit as well, my hair wouldn't do right and anything else I could feel self-concious about played it's part . All confidence went out the window.

 Arriving at the agency, I couldn't help but notice the amount of cars parked outside that represented the other families auditioning.  Gulp.

We check in and wait.

A family exits the auditioning room, their youngest boy featuring crocodile tears and a quivering lip.  Older brothers verbally jab at one another over who messed up what, while mom and dad tried to quietly reign them all in.

Oh boy.  I think we are next.

The casting director steps out to give the rest of us a pep talk.

"Folks, remember this is your big shot! The director and producers are in there! Be excited, animated and energetic - and NO crying".
SHARE:

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Variety Feature: Teach Me the Cuban Way...

to prepare black beans!

A sweet friend of mine agreed to teach me how to prepare black beans, Cuban style, which she had learned from her mother before her.  I couldn't wait to add some taste to our somewhat bland black bean dishes.  And since I did an entire post on legumes I thought I should share this with you as well.

Most likely you will not be surprised, but I must warn you that there are no exact measurements. A little of this. A lot of garlic. And a little of that.

Our gracious host, Belkys

 Starting out with...

Onions
1 Bay Leaf
1 t of Oregano
Several Cloves of Garlic
Chopped red bell pepper
Salt to taste
Olive Oil
1 Packet of Sazon
Badia Complete Seasonings to taste

 First up. Saute the onion and then add garlic (Belkys used about 6 cloves)...


Already the kitchen began to smell wonderful
Next, we added the cooked onion and garlic to the pressure cooker, along with the rest of the ingredients listed above. I was surprised that in just over an hour, the beans were soft and ready to eat.


Be sure to keep your child from over feeding the dog with his bunny snacks...


Add a tasty, sweet side of plantains.  Belkys could not find a nice ripe plantain, so she purchased frozen plantains by Goya and baked them in the oven at 350. Good to know!


Not pictured is the rice that Belkys had ready to go in the rice cooker. We cannot have black beans without rice!

Lastly, share your table with friends. I thought it was so sweet that Belkys turned our teaching session into a lunch with some mutual amigas. This reminded me to be better about sharing my own table with others.

We also had a yummy salad



Thank you Belkys! Lunch was delicious and time with friends was fabulous. I can't wait to try these out at home. Since I do not have a pressure cooker I am going to attempt mine in the slow cooker. 


Do you have a family dish that you love?
SHARE:

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Disney Commercial Audition & the Zoo

"Casting: Disney Water Parks Commercial" was posted onto my Facebook page by a friend a couple of weeks ago. We sort of fit the criteria so I thought, "why not?"

While lunching at Easter we had attempted a nice family picture but none of the boys were in the mood to cooperate. This left us with several blurry pictures, pictures with photo bombs of other family members and of course pictures where no one was looking at the camera.  Below is the best one I had out of the mix...


I submitted our photo to the casting agency with absolutely no expectations, so you can imagine my surprise when I received an email the next day stating that they would like to have our family come in for an audition.  As it turned out the available days were during our planned camping trip, so we signed up for a morning slot. If we were making a trip out to Atlanta we might as well go to the zoo. It was settled unanimously.

Breaking away from our first camping trip, we leave bright and early knowing the kind of traffic that would be awaiting us on the highway.  Almost two hours and a couple of wrong turns later we arrive at the casting agency.  Once inside I'm directed to check us in individually on their computer. I didn't realize I was nervous until I began clumsily pecking out our information, which led to shaky hands that clicked the wrong buttons. This in turn caused me to draw embarrassing attention to myself as I flagged one of the employees because I pulled up some kid named Timothy and did not know how to navigate back to the main screen.  After checking the 6 of us in, we sit down and wait, giving us a moment to see the other families. Cute couples. Cute children.

"Next Family", announced the casting director. Ugh! My stomach did two somersaults but I resolved myself to enjoy this experience and have fun.

"Please have only your bathing suits on and step in front of the camera for a picture, one at a time." That always feels nice.  A picture in your bathing suit.

Now it was time for the video segment of the audition.

"When I say go, I want you to step foward and pretend that you are looking at all the different water rides at the Disney Water Park", said the friendly casting director.

"Go!"

Everything happened so fast! I heard one of the little guys say, "I wanna go swimming!".
Glen was blurting out a ride he was excited about. I could hear Ethan and Collin.

Oh dear, what was the name of the ride I was supposed to have remembered??? Cross Over Creek? No! Lazy River? No! Cross Country Creek! Cross Country Creek! Hopefully, the blank slide that passed through my brain did not show up on my face.

Then we were told to act like we were waving to Mickey and finally, pretend we were watching the fireworks together.  I was slightly amused at the expression on little man's face as he wondered about the pretend fireworks the casting director was setting off with his hands.

We gave it our all and had a blast doing so.

In less than ten minutes the actual audition was over, but the adventure had not ended for us. We all chatted excitedly as we went over each detail over and over again. The younger boys stated their desire to pretend to go to Disney again.

Outside Stilwell Casting

Buoyed by adrenaline and shared experiences we moved on to our next destination - the Zoo! This is a place our whole family enjoys. Of course we took many photos, but if I may, I'd like to share a few snippets with you.

Surprisingly one of the boys' favorite exhibits...Parakeets


Wearing his "boo-boos" proud
Stealing a shot in the reptile exhibit
Perfect end to a perfect day that will not be forgotten. And as for Disney and that audition? Well, it's a "don't call us, we'll call you" type of business and we didn't expect to hear from them again. However a week later I received a message asking for us to come in for a callback with the casting director and the directors from Disney.  Seriously?? It would be on a Saturday so we said yes.  More to come...

Have you visited your local zoo lately? 
SHARE:
© Granola and Grace
Blogger Templates made by pipdig