Life as a Leach

Today is Abby's surgery.  Instead of posting something emotional and worried, I wanted to share a few pictures of her getting a dream come true! Abby wanted to meet Elsa and Anna SOOOOO badly.  We just couldn't justify standing in the rumored 4 or 5 hour lines for one of only two days at Disney World, so we prepared her that it was not going to happen.  She would see them in the parade and yell hi!   Well, God bless the Disability Access Service Card.  It was worth it just for this one moment.  We were able to sign up to see them and just come back at the noted time.  Glorious!!!  We didn't tell the girls until we were in the hallway waiting to go in, just in case it didn't happen.  It just seemed too good to be true!  Their faces were priceless when we told them! Walking into the room to meet Anna and Elsa, Abby just lit up.  It was so sweet, and I will admit getting a little teary-eyed watching her in awe of her fav...

We had another special dinner Thursday night.  There's a great character dinner with the Cinderella characters at the beautiful Grand Floridian.  It's about as close as we will ever get to staying at a place like that!!! Now, the first character dinner with Mickey didn't go so well.     Abby was less than thrilled with costumed characters coming up to shake her hand.  But princesses are another story!!  We already knew she was fine with meeting princesses, since she'd done great with Anna, Elsa, and Ariel.  And she was thrilled about meeting Cinderella! The princess even dressed up like Cinderella! We got pictures taken outside of the dining room.  All of the photographers are so nice about taking pictures with your camera in addition to doing the professional ones! Abby was beside herself when she saw Cinderella head our way!!  She climbed out of her seat and went around, not even waiting until Cinderella came to her!...

We saved most of our shopping for Thursday when we went to Downtown Disney, except for the Elsa doll and Frozen figures that we stumbled upon at Disney World.  Any parent of a Frozen lover knows that these precious items are in high demand and we weren't about to pass them up!  It was a good thing too, because I never saw those Frozen figures anywhere else and Amy and I bought the last two sets in the store!!   If you've never been to Downtown Disney, it's a huge expanse of shops totally separate from the parks.  You don't have to pay to go there and there are quite a few restaurants and picturesque places.  I've heard it becomes quite a hot spot at night with the adult crowd, but I'm a mom of two and wouldn't know anything about that! The kids were quite excited to spend the money they'd been given from grandparents and us.  (I shamelessly held "Disney Dollars" over their heads for the last few weeks before our trip in an effort to k...

The kids all really liked this fountain near Belle's cottage of Gaston.   Matt has a picture of him trying to pull the sword out of the stone as a kid, so he wanted to have one of Abby and Caleb doing it too. We rode the tram our first night in Florida to let the kids get a glimpse of The Magic Kingdom before we went. This is Abby's first glimpse of Cinderella's castle.  Her reaction was priceless!

Abby was able to get the  Disability Access Service Card , which made it possible for her to wait for a ride inside in the air conditioning rather than having to stand for a long time out in the heat.  Basically, we walked up to the Fast Pass attendant and he/she wrote down on our card when we could return for the ride.  When that time came, we went through the fast pass line.  While we were waiting, we could ride another ride with a short wait time, get cool, eat, or take a bathroom break.  (You could only use the DASC for one ride at a time.)  It was extremely helpful in protecting Abby from the heat.  With her reduced lung capacity, she has to breathe much harder in the heat.  We did our best to keep her cool, but waiting for a ride for 90 minutes just won't work for her. If you or your child has a disability, I would highly recommend that you get the DASC when you go to Disney World.  I know there's been some grumbling about the new car...

For this trip, we decided to spend both of our days at Disney World at the Magic Kingdom.  There's a ton to see there and we knew that it would be crowded, so it was a good idea to give ourselves plenty of time to explore.  I'd rather do one park well than two parks halfway. Buzz Lightyear shooting game (We probably rode this 10 times because it was air conditioned, everyone could ride--including Lucy--, and what's not to love about shooting stuff?!) "It's a Small World" was about as boring as I remembered as a kid, but it was air conditioned! The kids loved the carousel!  IT WAS HUGE!!!  I think it was 5 horses deep! Hot and sweaty family picture while waiting in line for the carousel This was our very first ride:  The Magic Carpets! Abby rode her very first rollercoaster, "The Barn Stormer," and LOVED it!!  She rode it three times and laughed the entire time!

On Monday and Tuesday, we visited The Magic Kingdom. The girls got to meet several princesses while we were there:  Ariel, Belle, Anna, Elsa, and Cinderella!  I have lots to share about the Cinderella dinner and Anna and Elsa deserve a post of their own, so here are a few pictures of the others (and the castle!) Belle has story time where the kids get to be in the little play and tell the story.  Anna, Lucy, and Sara were all in it, but I couldn't quite convince Abby of how cute the pictures would be much fun it would be.  We still got pictures with Belle though! Note the humongous crowds of people.  This was taken just as we walked in right after the gate was opened that morning.  The crowds were insane!!  Have I mentioned that I really don't like crowds?!  Eek!

Everywhere you turned, there were people, animals, and structures made out of legos.  It was pretty remarkable!  The kids loved climbing on them too! We were trying to get a good photo of all of the kids here...this was the best one we got, but Lucy is hiding, Abby isn't looking, and Anna isn't smiling.  It is what it is! I just loved this!! Abby and Anna thought he was real and kept sneaking up on him to wake him up. Life-sized camel! These minifigures were just Lucy's height and she loved them! Super cool mirror in the bathroom! Fighting crime with the Dynamic Duo