Flo Rida

The state, not the rapper.  Although the rap star by that name does pop up on the Pop Fitness Pandora station we blare during the pre-bedtime hours so the kids can jig their jiggles out.  They be like “wha wha”…nope, really they be like “what the heck is this talk singing junk?” and request a different song whenever rap comes up but hey, let’s move on, shall we?

Last Wednesday, the day after Anthony got home from a 12-day mission trip in Ecuador, we made the short-ish trek (7 hours) across the state of Florida to visit my sister on the east coast.  She has a little girl who is 11 months older than the twins and two boys, one who is six months older than Seb and a newborn.  It’s so, so awesome because our kids that are similar in age then, are all the same gender and so playtime works out quite nicely. 

Our girlies:

Our little men:


Since she lives two minutes from the beach (and since we were blessed to be able to stay with her mother-in-law who lives ON the beach; 100 big steps on a boardwalk and across a w i d e expanse of pure white sand until your toes are in the Atlantic), we obviously hit that place up.

[Anthony with the twins; me with Gus (short for Augustin) and Sebastian…which really made me wish Sebastian had a twin.]

AND THEN, thanks to an incredibly generous gift by the parents of the kids who went on the mission trip with Anthony, we got to walk the streets of Disney World last Friday.  It was amazing…and HOT!

The girls are a little over a week shy of three years old (crying a river) so they just slipped in for free since kids under three are free!  They were obsessed with the ‘princess castle’.  They wanted to make sure it was still there at every turn.
 

We took them to Disney for Night of Joy a year and a half ago, but at their ripe age of 14 months at the time, they didn’t really seem to take it all in.  This time was totally different.

We didn’t get to see Elsa and Ana unfortunately (when we were picking our Fast Passes, that one disappeared right before our eyes) but they LOVED meeting Tinkerbell.  Cloud 1009.

 

And I’m pretty sure they didn’t take their eyes off Belle the entire time we watched her little show.

Nor did they want to leave the room after.

They were petrified of Mickey Mouse, Sebastian included.  So sad.
   
Wouldn’t go within five feet of that big, sweet face even after we waited a grueling (not really though) 30 minutes to see him.

I had a couple of requests on some Insta pics I posted requesting tips for bringing toddlers to Disney but I feel like a major beginner in that arena so I’m not sure if I’m much help!  I’ll try my best though!

1)  Backpacks are the way to go.  We swapped out our normal over-the-shoulder-diaper-holder for a backpack and it was a breeze to just sling it on back and move on.

2)  If you’re going in the heat of summer, make sure you eat and drink!  It’s hard when you’re bringing toddlers because all of your energy is invested in them – keeping them cool, hydrated, and fed – that it’s easy to forget about yourself!  At least for me it was!  I barely ate anything during the morning and scarfed down just one pb&j for lunch which usually might keep me going on a normal day in which I’m not sweating and walking and walking and walking.  It wasn’t good enough though because around 3pm I started to get really dizzy and had to sit down lest I pass out.  I missed the afternoon parade because of it too!  So, before you start, drink and eat and make sure to keep doing that all day!

3)  My sister brought her sweet baby boy along and carried him in her ergo.  She got lots of judging looks for carrying him around like that but little did those faces know that she had an ice pack in the front pocket of that thing to keep little Damien cool.  He was great all day! 

4)  And speaking of ice, did you know that Disney hands out free ice waters?  They do!  All you have to do is ask!  All of the food shops and stops gave us icy cups and straws if we needed them!

5)  Bring sunscreen no matter what the weather man says!  The night before we left, all signs pointed to a dull and cloudy day with scattered showers so I didn’t think we’d need sunscreen.  I packed it anyway though just in case and whatdya know?  It was sunny as all get out with one little (very nice) shower mid-day.  So thankful we let Ariel’s Sebastian be the lobster and didn’t have to try it ourselves!

As far as keeping kids busy while waiting in lines, I have no answer to that question.  I’m sure pulling out your phone would help a lot but Disney also does an amazing job at keeping you busy in lines with added effects!  We didn’t even attempt any lines with a 30+ minute wait because we were already outnumbered, adults to kids, so we probably would’ve set ourselves up for trouble.

For better tips, check out Kathryn’s blog!  She wrote a whole series on how to do Disney after they spent a week there! Mom About Charlotte has some great tips here and so does Mama Cheaps.  If you’ve been to Disney with your little tots and have some pearls of wisdom/sanity-savers you’ve learned, share in the comments!