Make a Wish Trip Day 6

Our last day at the village was pretty sad.  None of us wanted to leave!  We had to be at the airport at 11:00, so we just had time for breakfast, visiting the gift shop and loading up the car.

Devon snapped these shots of Lyric and Cadence in front of the mural in the village. 

Our trip home was pretty uneventful.  The girls were not shy on the limo ride on the way home.  They were three cRaZy people!

Overall, it was  wonderful vacation.  We all can't wait to go back to Give Kids the World to volunteer!

Make a Wish Trip Day 5

This was probably my favorite day of our trip.  Our morning started off with Story and I going to iFly for indoor skydiving.  iFly provides free admission to the wish children and their families staying at Give Kids the World.  When I asked Story if she wanted to go she jumped at the opportunity, such the little Daredevil!  After everyone in our group had a turn the instructor said we had a few more minutes if anyone wanted to buy an extra turn.  Story loved it so much she had to do it twice!

 They even gave us a free DVD.

After our flying Story and I headed back to the villa to pick everyone else up and we all headed to Universal Studios.  This was my favorite park!  All of the employees were awesome! I also liked the looks of the park-it seemed more "theme parky" to me--whatever that means:-)

We started out in the Dr Seuss section of the park.  The girls loved the Red Fish Blue Fish ride, I wasn't so big on getting wet:-)  We also had to ride the carousel, we can't seem to pass one up:-)

 After Dr Seuss we headed to DinoLand.

 They had an awesome play area that squirted water.

 They had this swing ride that was made for small children.  You could only ride it if you had children with you.  But it pretty much terrified Lyric, Story, Devon and I!  Cadence LOVED it!

 

We also rode a Jurassic Park raft ride that was pretty cool.

When we left DinoLand we headed to the Harry Potter part of the part to ride a roller coaster that was "family friendly."  Story and Cadence were both too short to ride by themselves, so Lyric was stuck by herself.  She didn't want to ride alone, so she was going to sit out.  Luckily, there was a lady who was riding alone, so she offered to let Lyric ride with her.  Lyric hated it!  She did not think it was "family friendly" at all!

We rode a really cool ET ride where you are sitting on a bicycle and you are riding through the last scenes of the movie trying to save ET.  Lyric did not want to ride it.  I tried to convince her and told her it wouldn't be scary.  She started crying and said she wasn't going to ride it!  I felt so bad she was traumatized from the swing and the roller coaster.  Poor baby!

I rode this roller coaster with Story and Cadence.  Poor Sweet Lyric wanted no part of it!

 We left Universal to be back at Give Kids the World in time to play the biggest Candyland Game in the world!

It was a huge party  We made gingerbread houses,

 had snow cones, and

 cotton candy.

 It was a BIG time!

 They had all kinds of games set up. The girls earned tickets to cash in for candy and prizes at the end of the party.  

Cadence was trying really hard on this game-you can tell by the tongue:-)

The playground at Give Kids the World is set up like a Candyland board.  The girls played the game with a volunteer.  They would draw a card and then pick an animal they wanted to be to travel to the next square.

Elephants

 Not sure what animal, but I think they're hopping.

 They won!

 After their Candyland game they played on the playground.

 Cadence did some dancing.  She asked Devon to dance, but he didn't want to because his hands were full of all of the girls' goodies.  She snagged this volunteer instead.

They danced the whole song and Cadence was looking up at her for about 90% of it--so precious!

 

When the Candyland game was over we had to head back to the villa and get a bath.  Ms Merry, the mayors wife, was coming to tuck the girls in.

 Ms Merry got a big kick out of their sleep masks!  She was so sweet with each of them!

 She did Story first.  She fluffed her pillow.

 And covered her head up.  Then she searched for her around the room.

 She kissed her goodnight and moved on to Cadence.

 She did the same routine with her.

 Then it was Lyric's turn.

The girls loved being tucked in by Ms Merry!  Sadly, they didn't stay in the bed;-)  They all got back up for a couple of more hours!  It was a sad night, our last night at the village.

Make a Wish Trip Day 4

By day four we were all pretty worn out, so we decided to spend the day at Give Kids the World.

  

On our way to breakfast we heard someone say Scooby Doo was in the Castle of Miracles.  Cadence was so excited to meet Scooby and Shaggy!  There was a pretty long line to meet them, so Story and Lyric decided they didn't want to wait.  They were hungry and wanted to head to breakfast.  Cadence didn't care how long she had to wait she was going to meet Scooby and Shaggy!

After her picture with Scooby and Shaggy Cadence and I met up with the others for breakfast.

We all had a yummy breakfast at the Gingerbread House and the we went for a carousel ride.

The carousel pictures are pretty blurry, but you can make out the smiles on their faces.

The carousel is located next to the Castle of Miracles, so after our ride we headed over to the castle to hang Story's star.

The Castle of Miracles is a beautiful castle.  It is even protected by a sea serpent.

Every wish child who visits Give Kids the World receives a star to hang in the Castle of Miracles.  There are thousands of stars hanging and Story's star will be there forever.  We can go back and visit it someday.

When they told us that every wish child receives a star to hang in the castle.  I thought Story would write her name on the star and they would hang it on the ceiling, but there was much more to it.

 

They do a whole ceremony. 

 

Story decided to write her name on the star and draw a heart under it.

 

The volunteer had Story put her star in and they closed the lid.  There were three computer screens and the Star Fairy spoke to her and flew from screen to screen.

 

She then had Story turn around three times and make a wish on her star.

 

They opened the lid and the star was gone.

After the star presentation, we went to the back of the castle for the girls to get their magic pillows.

 

  They had to knock on the magic tree to wake the owl.

Once the owl was awake, he spoke to the girls and had them do some things then they had to find their pillows which were in a nearby tree stump.

The La Ti Da Royal Spa is also in the castle, so we sent Daddy back to the villa and the girls all headed to the spa.

 

They all got airbrush tattoos.

 

Everyone got their nails painted.

They also had their make up done.

 

They had the spa painted so cute!  The walls were painted to look like rock.  There was a giant peeking through the roof.

 

You could see his toe poking through a hole in the wall.

After the spa we headed to the ice cream palace.

 

I talked the girls into posing for me before we had our ice cream.

Story Bell had a banana split. 

It was yummy!

Showing off her airbrushed fairy.

Lyric and Cadence both had cones.

Story posed with her new Tiana doll she bought at Magic Kingdom.

After our ice cream we went back to the villa for lunch.  

Then it was time to head to the arcade. 

 

We played on the model trains awhile.

 

Then we went outside to ride the train.

 

We saw this guys on our train ride.

Before heading back into the arcade the girls rode the outside toys.

 

 After the arcade, it was time for some putt putt.  Give Kids the World has the coolest golf course.  It is dinosaur themed.  This was our first time to play putt putt with the girls and it was hilarious! 

Cadence would hit the ball and run to hit it again before it could stop rolling.  I think he thought it was a race.

 This hole spit water at you when you walked by.

 This one was a dark cave.

Complete with a volcano that blew steam when you walked under it.

 There were cool hieroglyphics on the wall

 

Lyric bailed on putt putt, so she and I headed back to the ice cream palace to get her some ice cream.  She had a scoop of rainbow sherbet, a scoop of mint chocolate chip, and a scoop of chocolate and she had them cover it with chocolate sauce and shipped cream.

 Devon and I thought it was too cold for swimming, but the girls didn't agree.  So, I took them to the pool for a little while.  I did not join them in the water!  

After spending the day at the village, we decided to go out and eat dinner.  We decided on T-Rex at downtown Disney.  It was very similar to Rain Forest Cafe (they're owned by the same people).  They had meteor showers every few minutes and the animals would 'come alive' every few minutes.

We made it back to the village in time for the Princess and Pirates party.  Lyric and Story wanted to go as they were dressed, but Cadence was not going to the princess party without her Belle dress and gloves and purse!

She has never been to sea world, so I'm not sure if she knew who he was.  But she was so excited to meet Shamu!

 The girls got all dolled up with make up and glitter and then they all went up on stage.  The princesses were given a wand on one side of the stage and the pirates were given swords on the other.  It was really cute!

We had to make one more visit to the ice cream palace before heading back to the villa.

 Surprisingly, neither the dress or the gloves were ruined:-)