Saturday our last day ~~~BOO!!!

Saturday was our last day for Lexy to enjoy being the princess, so we headed out to her favorite park Magic Kingdom. We set no time limits because the park was open until midnight, and we knew we were coming back after dark to watch fireworks. Lexy rode all her favorites over again and again (she rode every ride 3 times) and we headed over to toon town. Toon town is where all the characters and princesses are plus their houses and some kiddie rides. Lexy got her picture taken with every character there, and then headed to Goofy's Barnstormer. She hadn't been on this ride yet, but her Daddy wanted to try it out. It is a smaller kid friendly roller coaster, and since she loved Soaring, we figured she'd love the Barnstormer. And indeed she did, I think it was probably her favorite ride out of everything. Jason rode it with her and I didn't think they were ever going to get off. I think they rode it 5 times in a row before Daddy insisted they get off!!
After a long day of riding lots of rides, we headed over to Casey's hot dog stand and ate our dogs in the air condition of the MAW room they provided for wish families. Nathan fell fast asleep before we even left the park, and Lexy was zonked out before we reached our villa. We spent a few hours at the villa and then headed back out to the magic kingdom. We rode everything 3 times again, and then watched the wonderful firework show at 10. The kids just loved being there at night, and it was a great way to finish off our trip. Our last ride was the tea cups and the Barnstormer and we headed back to our villa for the last night.
I could never thank MAW enough for such a wonderful gift for Lexy. She deserved every single minute of giggles and smiles, she has been through so much in her short 5 years of life. A beautiful white Hummer limo picked us up at the airport the next day and took us home. A wonderful end to our trip!

Friday at the Animal Kingdom

Friday we took off for the Animal Kingdom. It was so darn hot there (95) and we were all sort of miserable from our big day in the sun the day before. There were only two things that we really wanted to do at this park, the safari ride and the Lion King show. I know there is a lot of things to do at this park, but we just decided on these two things because like I said before, we were hot and tired before we even started!! The safari ride was great and we got to see lots of animals. Nathan got to see his elephants, which made his day!! After the safari, we headed to the Lion King show. We went and saw this show last year and it is one of our favorite things to do at DisneyWorld, it is so good! Lexy and Nathan loved it, and towards the end they pick kids from the audience to come up front and participate. Lexy got picked, and she was the shinning star!! I haven't yet fiqured out how to share video with you, but when I do I've got an adorable video of her debut!!
After the Animal Kingdom, we headed over to Downtown Disney. It is a park full of shops and we shopped a little and then when back to our villa. Jason and I had reservations at 6:30 at Japan in Epcot for dinner. We made it there on time (wow), and enjoyed a very wonderful relaxing dinner. Afterwards we just simply walked around the countries and watched the firework show. It was a nice getaway for Jason and I, thanks Mom for watching the kids!!
I'll update tomorrow on our last day and probably the most funniest one of all!! Liz

Thursday~~Nathan's b-day, beach, and Santa

Wednesday~~Epcot and Magic Kingdom

By Wednesday morning we were all exhausted, so we kind of took it easy. After sleeping in (as much as you can with 2 little ones), we headed to Epcot. I love Epcot, but we decided not to do too much with the kids there. The first ride Lexy rode was Soaring. She absolutely loved it, and I was quite surprised. It is a simulator that makes you feel like you are hang gliding over California. Once you get past the motion sickness, it really is one awesome ride. Lexy loved it so much, she cried when it was over!! After Soaring, we headed over Nemo. Of course both kids loved it and went crazy in the Nemo store afterwards. Disney has gotten really smart, and now they have shops as soon as you get of the ride!! We headed to lunch at a cafe and went over to Downtown Disney. We went in a couple shops and headed back to the villa to rest up for the magic kingdom that night.
After a good rest, we went to the magic kingdom for the evening. This is my favorite time to be there, it looks so pretty. We rode a few rides including the race cars, Toy Story, and the teacups. Dinner was at TOny's, which is an Italian restaurant, so Lexy was in heaven!! I highly recommend this place, it's wonderful!! After dinner we hit a few more rides and then headed over to the Polynesian to watch the fireworks from the beach. The kids really enjoyed playing in the sand. So much, that we decided to make a day of it. We decided to spend Wednesday at one of the resorts pool and beach. Check in tomorrow, I took tons of cute pictures while they were swimming!!

Tuesday at the Magic Kingdom

We spent most of Tuesday at the Magic Kingdom. We did take a mid afternoon break for naps but went back that evening to watch the fireworks. Tuesday morning we got up pretty early because we had reservations to eat with Lilo and Stitch at the Polynesian. The breakfast was delicious and I was glad we did it, b/c we never did see Lilo or Stitch at the parks. Nathan started out really good, he got really excited when he saw everyone from a distance. Lilo came up and they loved her and smiled really big for pictures. Then Stitch came over, and it was all over for Nathan. He wasn't a happy camper at all but Lexy loved everyone of them (imagine that!).
After breakfast we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom and the first ride we went on was Dumbo. It filled all expectations and more!! Lexy was able to get right on and rode it three times before we felt we probably should move on to the next ride. After finally convincing Lexy we would come back, we preceded on to Fantasy Land. She loved all of those rides too, probably Peter Pan being her favorite. Nathan did awesome on these rides too, and as long as Mommy was close by he loved them just as much as Lexy. We were able to see Darby, Pooh, and Tigger and that made Lexy's morning. We finished up with the Country Bears were Nathan fell asleep and Lexy laughed the entire time. She loved them and was really looking forward to watching it again. After the bears, we headed back to our villa for a nice rest. That evening we decided to hit the Disney Studios Park where we were going to do Playhouse Disney and Fantasmic. Unfortunately the last show for Playhouse Disney was over, so we headed over to watch Fantastmic. We got priority seating and we all enjoyed this light/firework/laser show very much. None of us had ever seen it, so it was a treat (people started looking for seats up to an two hours before it even starts!!). After a long day and evening, both kids were sound asleep before we even got back to our villa.

Day #1 Pictures around Give the Kids the World

I have so many pictures, I wanted to make sure I shared with you pictures from where we stayed. Only children from wish foundations can stay here, and you can only stay once in a lifetime. It is truly a magical place built for children. You could defiantly just stay at the village and not even visit a theme park. All of our food was free at the village. We always ate breakfast there and tried to eat dinner as much as possible. Ice cream was served from 8am-9pm everyday and there was a movie theater with popcorn, nachos, etc. YUMMY!!
There are several buildings for the kids to play in. The kids favorite was the train station called Amberville. There was remote control trains, remote control boats, train rides, and arcade just in that building. Lexy and Nathan love trains, so they were in heaven.
There was a carousal that I swear was Nathan's favorite ride out of everything. He rode and rode it and is still wanting to ride it!! He'd get off of one animal and get on the next!! There carousel was on at 8 am and stayed on till 9 pm everyday too!! We rode several times, to say the least!! There was also the castle of miracles, where the children could make pillow, do crafts, play in a huge toy room, and go down a very magical tree house slide.
The movie theater was awesome too but we just didn't have time to watch a movie. The food was authentic movie theater food and it was delicious. We especially enjoyed the cotton candy and nachos!!!
Enjoy the pictures and tomorrow I'll share with you are first day at the Magic Kingdom.

Day #1 on Lexy's Make A Wish Trip

The limo picked us up bright and early and boy was everyone excited. The driver was very nice and let us take lots of pictures and even stopped at McD's for breakfast!! The kids had a great time waiting to board the plane. Nathan really enjoyed watching all of the planes take off. They both did great on the flight and really enjoyed playing with their new "plane toys" and looking out the windows. We arrived right on time and was greeted by a person from Give the Kids the World Village. He directed us to our rent a car and we were off!! The drive was very easy and we just spent the rest of the evening exploring the village and gearing up for our first day at the park. Here is some pictures of the first day.

Only 3 more days left!!!

Hello! We are all getting excited about the trip. I've started packing for the kids, which has been fun because all of their clothes are new and adorable (since it's the beginning of summer). The MAW volunteer is coming out tonight with our packet, so I'm anxious to start reading up on our week. You usually should get this packet a few weeks before you go, but there was a mix up with getting it. O'well, I'm just thankfull and ready to go!!
I went and had breakfast with Lexy today at preschool. She made me an adorable Mother's Day magnet for the fridge and was just so darn excited to have me there. It was cute and lots of fun. She will go back the week we return and then school will be done. What will we do with our time?!! I've thought about gymnastics, so I might call today and see how much it costs. I think Nathan and Lexy would love it.
Nathan is getting super excited about going to DisneyWorld. I think he is going to love it! Things tend to scare him more than Lexy, so I'll have to try and pick out thinks that won't scare him, but all in all I think he is going to have a blast. Lexy is looking foward to the fireworks, so hopefully she'll like what she sees. I was scared to death of fireworks when I was a kid, so who knows!! We are going try!!
Well better go. I have to go and pick Lexy up. Thanks for checking in on us and I'll update before we leave. Liz

Nathan's Party Party Pictures and Zoo Pictures

Nathan's Birthday Cookout

We had a wonderful time at a cookout for Nathan's 2nd birthday today. We celebrated early b/c his birthday will be when we are at DisneyWorld. We are planning on taking him to Animal Kingdom that day, Rainforest Cafe for lunch, and Santa visits our village that night. Here is some pictures from his day. Enjoy!!