Wish Trip Day 3, Animal Kingdom and Wish Star

 Every Wish Child is given a Star to decorate and give to the Star Fairy who then puts it on the ceiling of the Castle of Miracles while the child is sleeping.  Channing was very excited to put his star up so Sunday morning after church we went to the Castle of Miracles and let Channing decorate his star. 

Channing was really nice and let Jakob and Ema add a decoration onto his star since they have been affected by Channing's Leukemia as well. 

 

 Once it is all finished, the Wish Child gets to put it in the special star chest where the fairy gets it and puts it in it's special place on the ceiling of the Castle of Miracles. 

Channing's star on the ceiling of the Castle, along side of so many thousands of children who have life-threatening illnesses. 

Channing's is in the 8 Constellation Dream, on the top right.

 After putting up Channing's star, we went to the Ice Cream Palace where you can get ice cream all day long!  As much as you want, even for breakfast!! 

Channing usually opted for a bowl of sprinkles, or whip cream.  The other kiddos got a different ice cream concoction every time.

After our morning at GKTW we headed out to Animal Kingdom!  

We met A LOT of characters.  The kids enjoyed seeing them, and for the most part gave them hugs.  Channing wore a special button that identified him as a wish child, so we went to the exit lines and saw all the characters without waiting in line. 

 The kids enjoyed the Safari, which is always one of my favorite rides!

We went on the River Raft ride and got stuck on it in the rain, which wasn't all bad because we were wet anyways :)  Also, Jakob and Channing were brave enough to go on Expedition Everest, and Channing even went twice!  Brittany, Kindt and the boys went the first time, then I asked which boy wanted to go with me and Channing said he would go but he would close his eyes the whole time and I would have to hold him tight.  I wish we had the picture they take because it was hilarious, I am screaming my head off and have Channing in what looks like a head lock while he is covering his eyes.  One of the favorites was the Finding Nemo show which was amazing, and the kids LOVED it.

Wish Trip, Day 2 GKTW and Sea World!

The kids were so excited when they woke up on the first day.  The kids insisted exploring some of our resort, Give Kids the World, which is only for wish kids and is of course free and everything in the resort is free (arcades, mini golf, food, movies, horse-back riding, games, carousel, and more).  Every where we turned the kids were in awe, "mom, this is so cool", "look at that", "no way!" :)  It was everything I had hoped for to see my children with such huge smiles on their faces. 

Our villa

The villas are 2 bedroom, 2 bath.  And the kids get the master suite!  The kids are treated like royalty around here, as are the parents, but everything is catered specifically for the children.

First stop was breakfast at the Gingerbread House Restaurant. 

 

The restaurant has lots of dolls and toys lining the ceiling as well as peppermint candies inside the tabletops.  It is buffet style, and has a huge selection to choose from.  The kids quickly found their favorite breakfast of waffles, whip cream, and strawberries! 

 

 I guess it was more like a big pile of whip cream :)

There were also many volunteers that would take your tray to your table for you, and get you any drink refills or anything else that you needed.  It was so humbling, and surreal to be treated so well, to be the one that was being taken care of,  especially after the last 2 years with everything we have been through. 

Every day there is a different activity at GKTW.  Saturday morning they had pony rides.  The kids and I went to the pony rides, while Kindt went to Orientation to get all the info we needed for our stay.

We met up with Daddy and went to the Carousel.  The kids rode this at least 2 or 3 times every single day!

After exploring GKTW for a bit, we decided to head out to our first park - Sea World!!  At Sea World the kids got to feed the dolphins, sharks, and stingrays for free!  All because we were a wish family.  I didn't get any pictures, because I was enjoying my family but we did get a fun video of us feeding the dolphins.

After Sea World, we picked up Aunt Brittany at the airport so that we had a 1:1 ratio of kids to adults :)