Coloring Their Way to Disney World, One Crayon at a Time

Max and Julia are two children located in Eugene, Oregon that have a dream, to one day visit the ultimate land of make believe, Walt Disney World located in Orlando, Florida. Every kid deserves their day at one of the most magical places on Earth! While lots of kids might beg their parents to hop on a magic carpet ride and the trip just happens, Max and Julia have become little entrepreneurs to help fund their dream.

That is why I was excited to interview the family behind (www.maxandjuliacrafts.com).

Tell me how your kids came up with the idea to fund your trip to Disney.
Started when Max (9) suggested making a lemonade stand to earn our way to Disney World. Joseph (Max’s father/my man) came up with the idea of creating a side business where we could maybe really earn enough money to pay for such a trip. Then we started brainstorming ideas.

How long ago did Max and Julia approach you with the idea of making home made crayons?
About a year ago, we came up with an idea to make and sell pink bubble gum scented candles. Working with wax – the idea came up of molding different shapes, then came the car idea, then, well, crayons are made of wax…. so this developed. We just stuck to the one project because the kids have school and we have work; so we really only have time for one side project.

Did you instantly have success with the crayons or did you have to experiment with other concepts and designs?
We did a lot of experimenting. It took us a few weeks to figure out something we were proud enough to sell. It also took us awhile to figure out the packaging. We figure packaging is really important. We want people to be able to give “Max and Julia’s Race Car Crayons” as gifts, so we put a lot of energy into what the package looks like. It’s all done by hand with readily available supplies.

Do you have any plans for other designs?
We did make some “Max and Julia’s Playful Ponies” crayon sets, but we found the little legs would break off sometimes, so we stopped that project. We are still working on making a more “girly” type set. It’s just important to us that the quality is there.

Tell me more about the goals you set and the progress towards those goals.
The goal is simple: sell enough “Max and Julia Race Car Crayons” to earn our way to Disney World. We live on the far side of the country from there, so we figure it’ll cost a pretty penny. The price checks we’ve done on such a trip looks like we need $5000-6000 to make it. Right now, we had to invest a little to make “Max and Julia’s Race Car Crayons” and the website; so we also have to earn back our small investment on that. We are proud of what we made. We think we’ll sell them.

Any advice for others on planning your trip to Disney?
I don’t think we are the ones to give advice on planning a trip like that. Joseph and I went there years and years ago; Joseph as a child and I was there for a only a day some years ago. We have never been there as a family. Max and Julia are sure excited to go.

Any other money saving tips for when you go to Disney?
Our plan is too be able to fund our trip entirely by selling “Max and Julia’s Race Car Crayons”. We are a working class family and at the end of the month there isn’t much extra money to speak of. But, for other families, I guess it would be just cutting out extra expenses.

Once you obtain the goal of going to Disney, what is the next goal or plan with the company?
If this whole thing is a success and if Max and Julia want to keep doing it; Max wants to go to England and Julia wants to go to a tropical island…. We’ll see.

Have you considered earning/using airline miles or hotel rewards to supplement any part of your trip?
As I stated before, we are a working class family. We don’t have airline miles or the like. We do have AAA. They may come of use.
The trips we have taken up to this point have been driving distance trips. The furthest that Max and Julia have been from home is like 8 hour drives. So, it will be a big big deal when we make it.

…and we always ship out our orders (USPS) right away.

I absolutely love the idea and motivation of this family to help fund their trip to Disney. I just want people to realize there are other simple ways to help supplement your families travel budget. The methods do not require large incomes, or even a lot of work in most instances. Free or greatly reduced travel costs can be obtained by maintaining responsible credit and paying attention to promotions.

Max and Julia’s family is the perfect example of a family that could really benefit from learning about earning and using airline miles and hotel rewards. Most people I talk with are fearful of the unknown and hearsay that miles and points are worthless and hard to redeem. These attitudes plague people from taking that next step towards helping fund their family adventures. I am not going to rehash in this post every possible way of earning miles and rewards for free or for purchasing items you normally would anyways, but there are plenty of options available for families. Besides lots of ways to earn miles and rewards through various promotions, if Max and Julia’s family opened only a small handful of credit cards, they could quite easily supplement the trip by covering the flights, hotels, and even the Disney tickets if done right.

Thanks to Max and Julia’s mom for sharing their story with us, and we wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.