Part 1: Walt Disney Laughs In The Face Of The Recession

We had three things on our agenda for day one in Florida: Paint our nails, get to Orlando, and see some fireworks. A girl just can NOT meet Cinderella with bare finger/toe nails, and who doesn’t love fireworks. We ended up accomplishing quite a bit more than that. Namely, unexpectedly seeing the parade (we didn’t think there was one that day) and riding Dumbo. We were supposed to have dinner with Pooh and friends, but some lovely Orlando traffic threw a wrench in that plan. No one seemed to mind too much though, as we located a primo table to camp out for the parade and grabbed the first of many hotdogs for the weekend. Seriously, I’m not sure what the deal was but I think I tripled my annual hot dog consumption this weekend alone!

Ella inspecting her mother’s work.

Blowing the nails dry.

Packed up and ready to go. The ride was pretty uneventful. Or at least it seemed that way to me from behind my eyelids. The HSH wanted to bet my brother a twenty spot that I would fall asleep. My brother, having known me for 30 years, was smart enough not to take it. This wasn’t his first rodeo. Plus he figured he’d need that 20 bucks to buy a coke in the Magic Kingdom.

Waiting for the “Mickey Bus” to take us from our resort to the Magic Kingdom. The coolest part about 2 years olds is that they think everything is an adventure, not an inconvenience. Ella was as excited to wait for her turn on the Mickey Bus as she was to wait for her turn on the Dumbo ride.

Fireworks! Ella LOVES fireworks and kept talking about them all weekend. This was fascinating to me, mainly because we were right in the thick of it, and it didn’t phase her at all. I mean, REALLY in the thick of it. We had gone to the other side of Cinderella’s castle to jump on the Dumbo ride before it closed, so as a result the fireworks were launching pretty much from my back pocket. I was startled several times by the noise. Ella not so much. And Sofia? She slept through the whole thing.

Up next: Our first full day in the park, and some insanely cute outfits. The girls’, not mine. And princesses: Some pretty ones. Lots of nice ones. One really dumb one.