This is a slightly different post to my normal posts and I really thought hard about whether to write this or not, but I made the decision that it was too important not to. It’s important before I start to make it very clear that I do not mean to offend anyone with anything I write, and this is just my own opinion, so is definitely not aimed at any one individual. The aim of this post is purely to hopefully bring awareness to situations and bring communities together in unity. So here goes.

A week ago my eldest sons best mate was out enjoying a local festival in memory of a young girl who sadly lost her life to a dangerous driver, so given the cause of the event, it makes what I’m about to tell you all the more horrific. As the event was drawing to a close, the young lad was set upon by what can only be described as monstrous thugs, nothing to be gained from the attack other than their own sick enjoyment. I won’t go into details to respect our friends privacy, but I will say this was a completely unprovoked attack and aside from making me sick to the stomach at the injuries he endured, it has shocked our town to the core, especially as on the same night, according to the local news, another man was attacked minutes away from the first attack. The consequences of these attacks will go on for months, even years, and the thugs that are guilty are still walking free at this moment in time to potentially do this again.

My sadness for these attacks aside, this has really struck a chord with me, as things like these are happening up and down the country every day. I realise that there are the most horrendous events happening in some of the bigger cities around the uk, and we as a town have been quite fortunate that we have been largely sheltered from such things until now, But it is becoming very very apparent that these monsters are completely unafraid of the law, and that they are pretty much feeling they are free to run around doing as they please in our towns and cities and even villages, and that they have people running scared. but this last week has shown me just how strong community spirit can be, and what the power of people can do. However community spirit is not enough alone, parents need to start standing up to their kids, stop blaming everyone but themselves for what their children have become. I know, I know, sometimes our children fall in with the wrong crowd, they socialize and mix with circles that we wouldn’t necessarily choose for them, but if you’ve instilled the right morals into them, if you’ve been there to help through their tough times and been their crutch and their everything, I’m not saying they won’t still test the boundaries, but it will help them along the way of the wrong and right path. I do appreciate that not every case is black and white, and there is a lot of grey area in what is happening in society at the moment, but one thing is for sure, we are afraid of the children/young adults that are harbouring our places that we love right now. 

So the point of this post is me begging people to stand up to what is wrong in our home towns/villages/cities, and pleading with the government to stop making cuts within the police (and other) services, so the proper sanctions can be put into place, give police their power back, so these cretins can be held accountable to the atrocities that they evoke onto the innocent people who live in the places we love and call home.

To anyone that has been affected by violence and these dregs on our society, I wish you love and healing and hope that you are not affected too deeply by this (sadly) growing minority of  awful people. And to the next prime minister, not that I am for one second expecting Boris or Jeremy to be reading this, but please please help us remove and re-educate these people, and make the places we love and call home, safe again. 

For K & J, we love you millions.

Much love. xx

It’s been a while since I did a ‘favourites’ post, and as we’re now at the beginning of July (how the jeff has that happened!), I thought I would put another one out there. When I headed into June, I genuinely thought, what on earth can come good out of this month, I had the Florida blues, I had gained some lb’s from our holiday and lost some £’s from our holiday. But on reflection as I head into July, June has actually been a pretty awesome month filled with great things. A renewed closeness with my children, following such a great time away, a new-found confidence in myself, realising that it’s ok to gain a few pounds, nobody’s judging, and some great new discoveries. So here is what I loved the very most throughout June…

The Body Shop ‘Drops of Youth’ range. Now I don’t have all of the products from this range, however I have been using the ‘Youth Cream’ and the ‘Youth Eye Concentrate’ every day, and I can honestly say that I’ve never seen results like it. I mean I’ve never been particularly faithful to a particular brand before and I can be forgetful at applying these things, but the results with this have been so fantastic I’m completely sold on it. It’s visibly reduced the lines around my eyes and forehead, and I’m so impressed as these are real problem areas for lines as I get older. So impressed am I, I’m intending to order some of their ‘Drops of light’ range to help with the dark areas around my eyes too.

Jade Billington. Jade is quite a big name on YouTube, and I first discovered her vlogs when I booked our holiday last year and I watched pretty much any Florida vlogs I could find. Aside from educating me massively on everything Disney, she and her husband Matt are just the most lovely down to earth people, and so hard working too. Jade doesn’t just do Florida Vlogs, she covers so much more and her vlogs are always informative and light-hearted at the same time. She’s just recently done another series of Florida vlogs which really showed just how down to earth they both are, as well as making all of my own memories come flooding back. I highly recommend watching her on YouTube, she really is an absolute sweetheart.

Gardening. Ok this is a little bit of a push for me as I’ve never really had green fingers, however son number two is doing a BTECH in horticulture and is full of enthusiasm for growing veggies (if only he liked eating them as much), as well as some plants and sharing his wisdom with me too. So with this in mind and the fact that we’ve had an empty raised bed in the garden for well over a year, we have taken to having a bash at growing some of our own veggies, and some bedding plants, and some flowers that are bee and butterfly friendly to help with their population growth. And I have to say, I’m really enjoying it, and as yet I haven’t killed anything off. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s progressing, I’m super excited that we may actually have our very own pumpkins for Halloween this year!

And finally ‘Me time’. I’ve never been great at making time for myself, I mean being a single mamma to four means it’s hard to achieve this. But as I grow my blog and social media pages, it’s sending me on a real path to self discovery, and part of this is realising that making time for myself is super important, if I’m relaxed and happy, then my children are following suit and are also relaxed and happy. So I’ve taken to every couple of days, doing something that I love. It’s not always an elaborate gesture, although my nails are thanking me for my newly found self-indulgent time, I’m taking the time to read, I’ve finally paid off my library debts of £6.30 so we can actually take books out again, I’m taking myself on evening walks in the summer sun and even just sit listening to music and reflecting on where I am headed and what I have achieved thus far. So I guess this last one is my favourite ‘favourite’ and I highly recommend it to anyone reading this, as I say, ‘me time’ doesn’t have to be costly or big, just something that makes you happy. So I’m challenging you to make time for yourself at least once a week throughout July, I’m certain you’ll feel much more positive and happier for it.

Much love. xx

 

This past week has seen one of the biggest events of our household throughout the whole year, It was son number 2’s birthday. For those of you that know me personally or have been following my blog for a while, will know that son number two has autism/ADHD/learning difficulties as well as a whole host of other quirks. Now obviously his birthday is just as special as all of my other children, but due to the nature of his, well hisself, well it means his one of the most anticipated birthdays. The ‘excitement’ starts building at the end of May, and reaches fever pitch around two days before his actual birthday, and then the effects continue for a few more days afterwards, so that is a WHOLE month of  ‘excitement’. Parents/carers/teachers/ of  children with special needs will fully understand when I use the word ‘excitement’, that it’s not in a positive sense of the word.

Anyway, we have survived another birthday, but in the midst of all of the excitement and having dealt with another melt down, it made me think about how others manage their children’s various states of emotions. I follow a couple of great pages on Facebook, mostly autism based, and in general the parents are so supportive of  one another and offer support through the tough times, and on the whole, they just get it, they completely understand just how exhausting being a mum to our special ones can be. And we all have more than a few things in common, one of the main things being negative experiences with other parents and people in general, even the official people we go to for help, telling us that we’re parenting the wrong way, giving us pearls of their wisdom, or in some cases just being flat out rude to both us and our children. Because apparently you can be any old joe blogs and have no experience in autism at all to be qualified to tell an exhausted parent what they’re doing wrong and what is actually wrong with your child, because years ago “autism and ADHD wasn’t a thing” and that generation of kids were just disciplined into behaving. Yes Doreen, of course my children is just ‘naughty’ and I just need to clip him around the ear a bit more frequently, and he’ll be magically cured! On the flip side to this, I’ve been told on more than one occasion that I’m so composed, that I’ve got my shit handled, and that I make things look easy, very clearly this is not the case, I’ve got the worlds biggest bags under my eyes and am constantly tired, I over think and worry about EVERYTHING, and to me I feel like the least composed person in the universe, I look at other parents with envy at just how well they’re doing this crazy parenting stuff, how actually together they appear. And that’s the key word here ‘appear’!

The point of this blog is remind you that whether you’ve been blessed special needs children or not, all parents are just winging it through this journey, it’s tough, emotional and a complete roller coaster of a journey, but nobody has the right to tell another parent that they’re not doing it right. We are all mostly just trying to make it to the end of each day/week/month or year in one piece, and how we choose to parent is a personal choice. Clearly as long as you’re not harming your child in any way at all, because very obviously that is not ok in anyones world! But you parent how you deem fit, because life is a learning curve and parenting is one of life’s toughest lessons, so just do it your own way and be proud that you’re living your parenting journey, and always always be supportive to others, you never know where they’re at in their parenting story. 

On a quick side note, happy happy 15th birthday my baby boy, I love you more than forever.

Much love. xx

So yet again I’m late putting this post up, but for good reason. Last night I had a very rare night out with friends, it was great getting all dolled up to hit the town with some of my bestests, although the tiredness I felt this morning reminded me why I don’t do it very often! But it was really lovely to catch up with everyone before I go back into recluse mode again so I can save for the next holiday adventure with my babies. But in the wake of a rare bit of time for myself, it made me think about people making time for themselves, putting themselves first to keep their batteries charged so to speak. 

If I asked you ‘when was the last time you did anything for yourself?’, what would your answer be? I don’t mean taking yourself off for a long weekend without the family, or a day at the spa, although if you’ve done that then a) That’s amazing & b) I’m super jealous! But what I mean is, having a nice bubble bath or just enjoy some time with your own thoughts, these may only seem trivial little things to do, but they can make all the difference to your wellbeing. This is still something I am trying to master, as I am a natural worrier, about literally everything, and if over thinking was an olympic event, I would win gold. So I am trying very hard to, at least twice/three times a week, to be kind to myself, in the form of little pick me ups. My favourite one is to just sit with candles burning with some music on in the evening when the children are in bed. I have found that doing even the smallest little things has quite a big impact on how I feel, it really helps put things into perspective and makes me view things slightly differently. I’m excited to see how giving myself this gift of time and healing helps me thrive once I start routinely following through with it.

One of the keys things I am learning as I get older is that we are the only ones that can change things in our lives, we are in charge of how much enthusiasm we put into the situations in our lives. We have the power to change the negative things in our lives, nobody else can do it for us, but if your batteries are low it is harder to find the energy to tackle things head on. So have that chocolate bar without giving any to your children, read that book you’ve been dying to read, or take yourself to the cinema all by yourself, you will truly thank yourself  at the end of the day.

Much love. xx

Well we’ve been home from our ‘holiday of a lifetime’ now for three weeks and as previously stated, clearly this not going to be a one-off holiday and mum and I have already priced up and I’ve even gone as far as to do a long-term budget in preparation for being able to book to go back to what is now one of my favourite places on earth! Unfortunately unless I win the lottery we won’t see that beautiful Floridian sunshine next year, so until 2021 you can find me crying over my awesome happy photos in my Disney spirit jersey, with a Mickey mouse shaped snack!

Of course as well as doing the above, I will also be at work trying to earn the incredible amount of money it costs to fund this new holiday habit of mine. But before I focus on paying for our next one, I thought I would just do a round up of our memory maker of a holiday this year. If there is one piece of advice that I can give anyone that is considering booking this fabulous trip….Make it happen! If you had said to me two years ago that not only would have I booked this holiday, much less paid for it all by myself and taken my children and mum here, I would have laughed at you. But a friend once said to me ‘Life is too short’, we have no way of knowing what is around the corner, and so it was done, on a whim the holiday was booked and the instalments were being paid. Of course it was tough, and there were some weeks we literally lived on beans on toast for dinner, but if you ask my children now if this was worth it, in a heartbeat, they would say yes and they’ll happily live on cheesy pasta so that we can go again. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, obviously I am not recommending anyone gets themselves into financial difficulty, as amazing as it, it isn’t worth crippling yourself. But if you can comfortably make cut backs, reduce your outgoings etc, then just do it, I promise it will be the best decision you’ll ever make.

So what makes this such a magical holiday, well I should think that is obvious, but I really hope my past few posts have captured your imagination and you’ve been able to live some of the magic that we experienced. It maybe clichéd, but there really is something for everyone, old or young, you can’t not fall in love with Florida, whether it be Disney, Universal, the beaches, Kennedy space centre, the shopping, the food, whatever it is that appeals to you, you will love it all. Just be prepared for the weather, and if you’re planning on going, do your research, their heat is like nothing you’ve ever experienced, but then so is their rain/storms, just make sure you’ve plenty of drinking water, suncream and a rain poncho and you’ll not go wrong. Whilst the actual holiday is pricey, once out there, you can do it on a budget if you’re strict with yourself, you can budget it exactly as you need/want to. The most important thing I can convey to you is, just enjoy every moment, allow your inner child out, go on all the rides, eat that snack that you’ve been desperate to try, go on that water slide. It’s such an amazing holiday to go on, just embrace every moment of it.

I really hope you’ve enjoyed my blog posts and seeing our photos from our adventure, and I’ve inspired even one person to do this holiday, then I’ve done good!

Much love. xx

I’m a little delayed with this post, and that’s purely as I wanted to wish all the lovely daddies, grandads, step dads, adopted dads and anyone that is doing this parenting stuff all alone, a very happy fathers day. I hope you’ve all enjoyed a day of family fun with the monkeys that make every day a reason for getting up in the morning. 

Whilst fathers day is a day for celebration and family time, I know it can also be extremely tough for many too, and for those that have struggled today, I hope you’ve had a peaceful day and got through it as easy as you can, much love to you all.

For me fathers day is about being grateful for my mum. My beautiful mum has single handily raised me and my brother, she spent years working several jobs to keep the bills paid, food on the table, a roof over our heads, and to always make sure we had the things we most wanted for our birthdays and Christmas. She had to play the role of mum and dad, friend and parent, find a balance of work and home and play councillor to us both as well. All the while she did everything with dignity, grace and patience and not once showed us she was struggling at any point. And in doing this she has taught us in her actions how to be the very best parents we can be for our own children, to be able to teach them like she taught us. It’s only now as an adult I can truly appreciate just how much my beautiful mum did and continues to do for us all, and the sacrifices she’s had to make. I have never met anyone as hardworking as my mamma, not just in the career that she managed to create for herself but in life in general, when any of us needs anything, she’s there, if  something has happened, she is always first on hand to advise us best as she can, if one of us has achieved something wonderful, she is always first to applaud us. 

So this post is dedicated to one of the most important people in my whole world. Thank you mamma bear for absolutely everything, we all love you, more than forever. xxx

Just before I fill you in on the last days of our fun, I want to set the scene of my sad Florida empty shell at the moment. I am currently sat with Harry Potter on the tv and Disney vlogs playing too, checking on my next holiday countdown every couple of hours just in case by some sort of miracle, it has reduced by a big chunk and somebody may have just magically paid for it for me! Yeah, it hasn’t happened yet, and won’t, but one can hope! But my point is, no one warns you about this when you book these dream holidays, as soon as you get home, the holiday blues hit, and you wish more than life itself that you could be back there enjoying those memories all over again. And that is why we do it, save for months, even years in some cases, to keep the dream alive, see the smiles on our family’s faces and just feel that happiness that sometimes, everyday life doesn’t bring us. Anyway, that is where I am now, desperately clinging onto the memories from just three weeks ago, budgets have been put in place and longing to be able to book the next one sooner than we can. Well there you go, quite pathetic really! I’m off on a different tangent now, so let’s get back to the magic.

Sunday. Today is Grandma’s birthday, so we’ve saved the most special day for now, and I have been super excited  for this to come around. We started slowly this morning so Grandma could enjoy the day at a slower pace, after all your birthday only comes once a year and you don’t want to see it speed away too quickly. We spent the day at Magic Kingdom today, the only park to spend a birthday at, it is where the magic is after all. We started out with brunch at Chef Mickey’s where we all got to eat as many mickey waffles as we could manage, as well as other yummys, and Grandma got to have birthday cuddles with some of her favourite characters. We did some of the best rides, including the ‘Winnie the pooh’ ride, my personal absolute favourite. We had family pictures taken in front of the castle, a light bite for dinner and then the moment I had been looking forward to above everything else this holiday, the ‘Happily Ever After’ firework show. I cannot fittingly put in to words how amazing and emotional this was for me. The picture shown was taken unknowingly by Grandma, and captures it beautifully. At the exact moment it was taken, everything hit home, how happy my children and mum (& myself) had been, how all the scrimping, saving and thinking I had bitten off more than I could actually achieve, in that moment, I was happy and super proud of myself for making it happen. I wish I could have bottled up that feeling to remind me that anything is achievable if you want it enough and put your mind to it. Suffice to say, Grandma had a fab birthday.

Monday. Today we spent most of the day at Disney Springs, making a few more purchases and we ate at the awesome Blaze pizza, and was super yummy. And then was another ‘up there’ moment for me, we watched the new Aladdin film, oh my gosh, I was not disappointed at all. As you’ll know from a previous post, Aladdin is my very favourite Disney film, and I was skeptical about how this was going to be, but it was every bit as awesome as the original, if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it. After this highlight we headed over to Epcot to watch the illuminations firework display. Now I had heard that this was such an amazing display, so I was so excited for it, especially as it won’t be being shown any longer from the end of September this year. Now I have to be entirely honest, I’m not going to sugarcoat anything if it’s not true, but I was left slightly underwhelmed by Illuminations, it may have been because we were all feeling slightly jaded from the days heat or maybe it was because ‘Happily ever after’ the previous evening had been so good, but as much as I know some will strongly dispute this, I just felt it didn’t have the Disney magic, but this is obviously just my opinion.

Tuesday. Our last full day, and we were determined to make the very most of it. So we decided to give Hollywood Studios another chance, and I’m so so pleased we did, I take back all I said in my previous comments about this park. We started off with the Beauty and the Beast live show, daughter and I loved this, it was brilliant. Second up was the Indiana Jones stunt show, we all thought this was awesome, and very spectacular. Onto Star tours, number one son was particularly excited by this one. And then Toy Story land! This was phenomenal, we loved the alien swirling saucers, but not as much as we loved Slinky dog dash, another fantastically themed ride! Once we covered probably half of the park, we agreed we would definitely spend a whole day when we returned for another holiday, yes it was a full-blown conclusion that we would 100% returning to Florida! Then we headed back over to Animal Kingdom, my personal favourite park. We decided to take it a bit more leisurely this time, but top of the children’s requests was Flight of passage again, we had to wait a little while until we could get back on it, so we toured the gift shops, had some cheeseburger pods, and then with my eyes shut tightly, we headed back onto flight of passage, but the queasy feeling I was left with was completely worth it when I took a look my childrens faces and their smiles. Another quick spin on Kali river rapids, and then we watched the awakening of the tree of life, a must see light show.

Wednesday This morning, with a very heavy heart and a few tears, we finished off our packing, purchased our last few gifts to take home and then just chilled before heading to the airport to fly back over the Atlantic to be reunited with our ball of fluff. It was a super long night flight but a smooth one none the less, and we were grateful to land back on homeland safely, but the holiday blues definitely kicked in quicker than the jet lag did. But once back at home we have had great fun reminiscing and laughing and smiling from the hundreds of new memories we have made as a family.

Much love. xx

I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend my beautiful readers, normality has definitely resumed in our house, back to weekend jobs, skating and most importantly, saving for our next adventure! Are you all ready for the next instalment? I just hope I haven’t bored any of you yet!

Wednesday. Today was another extremely exciting day, and one that both number one son and I had been eagerly waiting for. Today we went to the Kennedy Space Centre. I cannot tell you how amazing this was, despite the shockingly early start. We started off with a talk from none other than Tom Jones, no not the ‘It’s not unusual’ one, this was a real life actual astronaut, he was really funny and very informative. We were then taken through for two videos which talked about the original journey of the actual Atlantis, then we  were extremely lucky enough to actually see the actual Atlantis, it was open so you could see the living conditions of the men that flew her up to space, it was so fascinating and really quite emotional. Number one son was so taken away with it all, and I knew that I was winning that day! We then got to view another spaceship, that had flown on multiple trips to space and the moon, it was really quite breathtaking, there was displays of the suits that had been used and equipment that had been pivotal to their missions. Once we had made our way around this exhibition, we grabbed some food, only your bulk standard chicken nuggets and fries I’m afraid to say, no astronaught food eaten, although I did purchase some space ice cream, as requested by daughter! Following this we did a bus tour around the grounds and saw the launch pads, the erection tower, and several other points that are crucial to take off of their ships. We then watched several 3D films about various solar systems and planets. We covered so much ground whilst we were there, but still only managed half of what was available to us, so we’ve agreed that on our next trip to Florida, we will head back to Nasa and finish off what we couldn’t do this time around. Back at the hotel, everyone else had a much needed chill day around the pool and a mooch round Old Town again. Once we were all reunited, if memory serves me right, we just had a Chick-fil-a meal around the pool side.

Thursday. Back to Universal today, and we did Islands of Adventure too! We started off at Islands of Adventure, we had really hoped to do The Hulk ride, but the que time in the heat made that decision for us, so we headed on Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls, oh my goodness, we got drenched, but it was so much fun! Then we headed over to the Jurassic park attraction, number two son was almost wetting himself with excitement. We went on the ride first, and got drenched all over again, and then was the moment that number two son has been waiting for since he found out we were going, he got to meet and interact ‘Blue’ the raptor from the Jurassic world films, it was a moment that will stay with me forever, his smile was as big as the Cheshire cats! We then walked into ‘Hogsmeade’, I cannot tell you how much I love the whole Harry Potter experience, the theming is out of this world. And then another moment that myself and daughter had been eagerly awaiting, we rode on the Hogwarts express over to ‘King’s Cross Station’. This was a phenomenal experience, we absolutely loved it! So then another look around Diagon Alley, and then through Universal studios, now this theme park isn’t for everyone, and there is much less shade from the heat than the Disney Parks, but I loved Universal and cannot wait to go back.

Friday & Saturday. We finally got to experience a water park properly! Today we hit Typhoon Lagoon and we were not disappointed, it was everything and more. we did spend the best part f the day in the wave pool, the waves this creates are insane, They got so high and the children were so much braver than I was. We had yet more chicken nuggets and fries (I’m surprised that we weren’t starting to look like chicken nuggets by this point), and then onto the slides, now I’ve been told that the other water parks had bigger and better slides than here, but we thought that they were awesome, and had hours of fun on them, and then back into the wave pool for more fun. Saturday we hit the shopping malls, and mum, myself and daughter were far too excited about Bath & Body Works, we bought some beautiful smellies to bring home with us. And then we ate at possibly the best restaurant I have eaten at…The Cheesecake Factory! Oh my goodness, if you are ever fortunate enough to eat at one of their restaurants, trust me, there is no place to eat!

Ok ok, I have blabbered on enough again, but thank you all a million times over for taking the time read this, it really is so amazing for me to relive all of our experiences for you. 

Much love. xx

Well I’m just putting this out there now, I think these Florida blues are here to stay, and the only way to cope with them, is to start planning the next holiday! But that’s for another day, for now I shall carry on where I left off at the weekend and hope I haven’t bored you all senseless yet!

Sunday. Today  was an action packed day and another seriously hot one, half of us are mahoosive lovers of this heat (38 degrees) and the other half, well, not so much! Today we went to Animal Kingdom and this was one of the parks I had been looking forward to the very most! And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. There is nothing not to love about this park, the theming is just incredible, we only really scratched the service too, there is still so much to explore. We did the Kali river rapids and got drenched, we did the Na’vi river journey which is one of the world famous Avatar rides, and then we did the Kilimanjaro safari, this was insane, the animals were all amazing, but hands down my favourites were the giraffes, they’re so beautiful and graceful, and so close too! Then was the pist da resistance, Flight of Passage, anyone who has ever been to Disney will tell you that this is the most popular ride in all of Disney world, and my children will 100% agree with this statement, me on the other hand, well let’s just say, I was a nice shade of green when we came off of it! We all agreed in the afternoon that we would head over to Blizzard Beach, one of Disney’s water parks, but this muppet didn’t check the times properly, and by the time we got there, there was only an hour left until it closed, que super quick change of wear and then an hour of fun before we had to leave, we will definitely be heading back here when we go back! 

Monday Today we headed to two different parks, Epcot in the morning and Hollywood Studios in the afternoon. Epcot was fantastic, and far more chilled out than any of the other parks, the rides were more relaxed, the world showcase was more laid back, and I think it’s fair to say that this was definitely my mums favourite park. We tried some delish foods in the different country pavilions, we did some cool rides and just soaked up the sun. Then half of us went over to Hollywood studios and the other half went back to the hotel to have a cool down in the pool. Now I’m going to be completely honest, whether it be because of the heat or tiredness, the three of us that headed to HS, weren’t overly impressed with it, it felt smaller and like there was less to do at this park, so after a mooch around the shops, we decided to head back to the hotel and join the others in the pool for the remainder of the evening.

Tuesday This morning we had fast passes booked at Magic Kingdom, and so that is where we spent Tuesday. We experienced the competitive joy that was Buzz Lightyear’s space ranger spin, and I am super pleased to report that I won! In fact, despite my children’s claims that mum and grandma were ‘going down’ we both beat them all hands down! We tried more delicious snacks, watched the ‘Festival of fantasies’ parade, which was epic, and also did more meet and greets with the awesome characters, number 2 son met his favourite Disney character and I was blown away by the interaction between the two of them. The heat really got to some of us by the afternoon so around 4ish we headed out of the park for some cooling off in the hotel pool, and some dinner from one the quick eat places near the hotel.

I hope I haven’t forced anyone into a word induced Disney coma yet, I mean I still have so much more to tell you, coma’s can commence once I’ve filled you in on day 12! All joking aside, I am extremely grateful to anyone that has taken the time to read this, it really means so much to me to be able to relive this holiday again through the power of words, and of course, it gives me another excuse to keep going through the hundreds of photos I took whilst we were out there. Until next time.

Much love. xx 

So here we are, I’m back home suffering with the very worst case of the holiday blues ever known to man, wishing more than anything for just a few more days of the Floridian sunshine. But what better way to get over this awful feeling than by reliving my holiday through my blog so I can share some of the tremendous memories we have made, with you lovely people. There are just too many amazing things to share in just one post, so instead I am treating you all to several Florida inspired posts, I hope you enjoy reading about it even a fraction of the amount that we have enjoyed living the last couple of weeks.

Travel day started at 4:30a.m, I was genuinely worried about everyone being up and ready in time for our taxi at 5:30, but I had absolutely nothing to stress over, even number one son had a spring in his step when we all piled into the taxi and headed off to Gatwick! The excitement outshone the tiredness, and there was a lot of chatter on the way which made the journey super quick. Next up, check in and brekky, and then a little wait until we boarded the plane. Now I have to say, I have never flown from gatwick before but had not heard amazing things, however as we had a ‘special assistance’ lanyard for my autistic trooper, we sailed through everything, and I cannot tell you how invaluable this was, anyone with any experience with autism will appreciate this. Time to board the plane, more excitement, and then….nine hour flight, I will leave that there, needless to say that we were extremely grateful to step onto US territory. Once again the special assistance lanyard was worth it;s weight in gold and saw us in a much much shorter immigration que, and then onto our hotel. McDonald’s (yes we went all the way to America and our first meal was McDonald’s!) for dinner and an earlyish night ready for an early and busy day!

Thursday. We eased ourselves gently, Disney springs to have a mooch, pick up our tickets and purchase our magic bands, and our first proper experience of the crazy hot temperatures that Florida gifted us! And then Magic Kingdom. I am rarely lost for words but stepping onto Main street and seeing Cinderella’s castle left me speechless and will stay with me forever. Magic Kingdom is exactly what it says on the tin, Magic! The children were as. in awe as I was, and we did rides we never thought we’d be able to do, lunch at Casey’s corner for hotdogs and chips, and then a mooch around, more rides. And then ladies & gentleman, was a moment that will be engraved on my soul forever. We had dinner at The Crystal Palace and I got to meet Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger and yes Pooh bear, this is a moment I have dreamed of since I was a little girl, when most girls were dreaming of their dream wedding, meeting Winnie the Pooh was my dream, and he did not disappoint, and I may have pushed my children out of the way to get the first cuddle with him. That is definitely a check off of my bucket list!

Friday. Universal. So I cannot lie, there was mixed feelings amongst us about this park. Personally I loved it, however I did pick up on the difference between the staff here and Disney very quickly. Whilst not as big as Disney World, there is still so much to see here and one ride that the children and I were desperate to go on was the Fast & Furious ride, as massive fans of the films, it had a lot to live up to, and it did not disappoint, seeing Vin Diesel on a big screen is never going to be a bad thing, but this ride was awesome. We walked around Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley & Grimmald place and the had butter beer. Universal you nailed Harry Potter, but as expected it was super busy. As the heat beat us, we left a little earlier than expected but knew we would be back before long, and so we headed back to cool off in the hotel pool.

Saturday. So today was the day we had scheduled in Walmart. I cannot tell you how excited I was to be going there, you hear so much about Walmart but I was never ever prepared for the sheer size of it! I had to phone both my mum and number one son at one point as we actually all lost each other! There is literally everything that you can think of and so much more! We had our fill of sweets (candy), crisps (chips) and everything in between. I am actually contemplating contacting the town council to bring Walmart to my hometown! With food (sweets) shopping done, it was back to the hotel for a more chilled out afternoon in the pool. We agreed on something a little different in the evening, and headed to ‘Oldtown’ for Saturday evening. It was awesome, It had so many cool things on offer, lots of unique little shops, lots of classic motors to admire, then dinner at the most fantastic rustic diner, with a stage for live music to keep you entertained whilst you eat, and yes, they played ‘Achey breaky heart’. I was in my 90’s element! Then at 8:30 the classic cars did a lap around the Oldtown circuit, honestly, for someone who doesn’t drive, these cars were a dream, it was one of the best experiences! 

And with that, I will leave you waiting with anticipation for the next upload, I just hope I haven’t bored you all to tears! Much love. xx