Wishes Do Come True

The Dancing Queen's wish from the Michigan Chapter of Make A Wish was fulfilled last week!!! If you recall, DQ wished to meet the characters, especially Elmo and Mickey. So bright and early on Saturday, December 17, a limo picked us up and took us to the airport to fly to Orlando.

Make A Wish arranged for us to stay at Give Kids the World Village, an amazing resort for families on their child's wish trip. The Village is set up just for kids and was so amazing that we could have stayed there all week and had a wonderful time without any theme parks. Here is a picture of us as soon as we arrived at our villa.

We were at the Village from Saturday afternoon through Friday morning. We ate most of our meals in the Gingerbread House where all of the tables and chairs were kid-sized and ceilings were decorated with toys. The angels (volunteers) not only served us food, but carried our trays for us. Right outside the Gingerbread House was a carousel. The kids most have rode it a dozen or more times. Probably a couple of dozen times. They loved it!

The Village also had a giant sleeping tree that snored at us, a water park complete with pirate ship, dino putt putt, a train station with toy trains and a kid train, a life-sized Candy Land Game playground, and lots of other fun things for kids. And every day, when we returned to our villa, there were gifts for the kids! They got stuffed animals (lots and lots of stuffed animals). They got board games, videos, music, and other toys. It was all magical. A special place was the Castle of Miracles, where the kids could play and everyone can see the ceiling covered in over 140,000 stars. Each wish child who had stayed at the Village had a star on the ceiling. Here is a picture of DQ writing her name on her star for the Star Fairy to put in on the ceiling of the Star Tower (an addition built on to fit more stars!)

Both kids also got magic pillows in the Castle of Miracles to have magic dreams during our trip and at home.

One of DQ's favorite things was the ice cream parlor, which was open all day long. We had ice cream every day and we even had ice cream for breakfast! Sometimes, she needed two spoons to eat the ice cream cause it was just so good!

We had so much fun in the Village. The kids smiled whenever we were there and skipped as they walked about! 

We also got passes to Disney World, Sea World, and Universal Studios, so we spent three days at Disney World seeing Hollywood Studios, the Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom. We also took the kids to Sea World. The Mad Scientist and I spent an evening at Universal. Everything was so amazing. We got to the front of the line for everything we wanted to do. DQ was given royal treatment. She had a button from Give Kids the World that told people in the park she was a wish kid, so when we went places, the people knew. We watched lots and lots of parades and in each one, at least one dancer stopped to talk to DQ. Simply amazing. Here is a picture of DQ waiting for the Pixar Parade.

We watched lots and lots of shows.DQ' s favorite was the Mickey Christmas Show in front of Cinderella's castle. Below are some pictures. I tried to capture the pure joy she was showing. These are close, but not true enough. I guess you had to be there to see the utter joy of her being able to sing carols with Mickey and Minnie.

We also did awesome things like eat lunch with sharks, take a safari where a giraffe walked in front of our bus, and see Darth Vadar in person! A highlight was feeding and petting dolphins at Sea World.

But, the main wish for DQ was meeting the characters. And we did that. A lot. We met Jake (from Jake & the Neverland Pirates), Lightening McQueen, Mater, Phineas & Ferb, a green soldier from Toy Story, Buzz, Woody, Pluto, Goofy, Minnie, Mickey, Squidword, Belle (from Beauty and the Beast), Ariel (the Little Mermaid) and Prince Eric, Shamu, and Tinkerbell. There were probably more as well, but I can't remember right now!

TRex's favorite was probably meeting Jake! 

One of my favorite moments was DQ meeting Lightening for the second time. We were about to leave after taking all kinds of pictures. DQ ran back and hugged Lightening as only a three year old could do. She just stood there, hugging his headlight, knowing she might not see him again, just like he was a much-loved friend.  The moment was magical (yes, that word again.) Lightening is one of her all time favorites. She sleeps with him every night.

Meeting Mickey and Minnie was pretty awesome too. They came to visit us at the Village, so we got a little more time with them.

DQ was all smiles when she met Tinkerbell. 

But the most emotional moment of the week was meeting Elmo. DQ's initial wish was for Elmo and at Sea World, that wish came true. I was a blubbering mess as Elmo and all of the Sesame Street friends came to meet with us individually after their Christmas show.

This trip has proven that sometimes, wishes do come true. Seeing my baby's wish come true has done so much to help us all. The happiness that has been brought to our family because of DQ's wish being granted is magical. I know, I've used that word a lot, but there is no other way to describe what was the trip of a lifetime and memories I will cherish forever. I've never seen my girl as happy as she was last week. Thank you so much to the Michigan Chapter of Make a Wish and Give Kids the World Village!!!!!!

Arrr, Matey!

And yes, they did go to the grocery store dressed like this.

Saturday Afternoon

 This is what a Saturday afternoon is all about!

 

 

 

 

 

One Lovely Blog

My friend Krista over at Thar She Sews nominated me for the One Lovely Blog Award. I am totally stoked to be nominated, especially since I enjoy reading her blog. Actually, I'm a little envious because her blog revolves around her craftiness and I so love to craft, but no longer have the time nor energy. I keep telling myself someday, but I know if I really wanted to do it, I'd do it. I can't imagine crafting in my itty bitty, way too stuffed house. Perhaps someday, I'll have a basement and my kids will each have their own rooms so toys can live there rather than my living room.  Anyway, I'm honored to have been nominated and will gladly tell her and all of you seven things about myself, followed by my own nominations.  (In case you missed it, I did a similar post way back in the very early stages of this blog.)

1.  I started playing tennis my freshman year of high school simply because I wanted a fall sport and I was way too short for basketball and I hated to run so cross country was out of the question. My play was to play tennis in the fall, volleyball in the winter, and soccer in the spring, but I fell totally and completely head over heels in love with tennis. From that fall through the rest of high school, I played tennis year round. I took lessons at the local club in the winter and summer. I took camps whenever I could. I lived and breathed tennis. So, I went from never having truly played the summer before freshman year to first singles my senior year. Unfortunately, I stopped playing in college because I had burned out. I wish I could play now though.

2.  I met my husband on Yahoo! Personals while studying for the Michigan bar exam. I couldn't study 24/7 and all of my friends were working, so they couldn't talk to me, so I went online to meet other people to talk to. The Mad Scientist worked the night shift, so he could send me emails during the day. We emailed back and forth for a couple of weeks. They were great emails, but I had no intention of continuing the emailing after the bar exam since I'd be back at work. But he ended up calling me and asking me out. I went out with him even though the date from hell had happened the night before and I vowed no more men. I figured the Mad Scientist would just be a friend anyway since our emails had been so real and interesting. And the rest is history.

3.  My new love is red wines from Argentina, especially the malbecs.

4.  When I was pregnant with my son, I was petrified the entire time that he would be born during the Woodward Dream Cruise (Thousands of classic cars driving down the main thorough fair with hundreds of thousands of people watching, all blocking the way! And they start to gather and cruise days in advance and practice all the preceding weekends.) I couldn't figure out how I would get to the hospital if I went into labor during the cruise since all of the old and slow cars would be blocking my way. Guess what day my son was born. On Dream Cruise! I had nothing to worry about, everyone got through (I had been at the hospital several days), and it was a silly thing to worry about.

5. I have always been a dog person, despite living with cats most of my life. However, now that I'm older, have little time and a tiny house, I think I'd be happy never having a pet again. (Not that I'm wishing ill will toward my current cat.)

6. I am totally a night person. Left to my druthers, I'd be up until late, late, late, and sleep in. Unfortunately, that is not an option any longer.

7.  I am short and plump and not in a good way. Living the sedentary life of a litigator and having small children make it difficult to exercise. I would love to be able to get up in the morning and ride a bike or join a friend for tennis, but the Mad Scientist leaves for work around 5:00 am and I'm not exercising at 4:00 am (see number 6). When I get home from work at 9:00 at night and finish dinner around 10:00, there is not much time for anything else since I should be in bed at 10:00. Therein lies the quandary. If I could function on less sleep, I'm sure I'd be set, but alas, I need sleep to think.

Now it is time for me to nominate other bloggers. So, here it is, the blogs I find truly lovely for one reason or another. If you've been nominated, the idea is to tell 7 things about yourself and pass it on.  (This is the blog version of a chain letter, but I'm not asking for any money, just your soul!)  If my readers have never visited these lovely ladies blogs, you should totally check them out!

Favorite Things

I have been too negative on this blog, so I wanted to share some of my favorite things.

1.  I love hugs.  Hugs from my babies.  Hugs from my hubby.  I love hugs.

2.  A nice glass of wine at the end of a long day. Preferably on the dry side.

3.  Playing games.  Card games, board games, or video games (Although I prefer to watch the Mad Scientist play video games--he listens when I tell him what to do most of the time and he can do what I cannot.  It is interactive, even for me.)

4.  Chubby Hubby ice cream by Ben & Jerry.  What's not to love?  It is chocolate covered, peanut butter filled pretzels in vanilla ice cream with chocolate and peanut butter swirl!

 5.  My Kindle, even though I don't get to read that frequently. 

6.  Steak. A well-aged, perfectly cut filet, seasoned perfectly, cooked medium rare.

7.  Music by Lori McKenna.  I haven't found a song of hers yet that I don't love.  For each of my family members, I have a song of hers that makes me think of them (of course, the first song for the Mad Scientist is our song, "In My Life" by the Beatles).  Here is part of the Lori McKenna song that makes me think of my life the most.