BENNETT AND GRACE FUNNIES

I found this file on my computer.  Who knows how long it has been on there.....

BENNETT: 

Trying to pick a new soccer name for his soccer team.  Bennett suggested ‘Purple Diarrhea’. When I asked him why on earth he would suggest that as a name, he replied, “Because everyone laughs at me.” (age 5)

·      Standing in the shower with me.  I moved over and the water hit you on the back.  You grabbed your butt cheeks and said “Ow.  My biscuits are burning!” (age 5)

·      “Narnia is the best present that I have ever gotten.  When I got it, I was like WOW!  But, Jesus is the best present.” (age 5)

GRACE:

·      While at dance class….learning shuffles.  Aunt Sandy said, “Hold your arms out and with your leg go brush, brush, brush, brush.”  Gracie replied, “We use toothpaste?” (age 2)

·      Calls your bedroom “my libing room” (age 2)

·      You asked if it was a school day.  When I said that it was, you said, “I will try not to bite my friends today.” (age 2)

HALLOWEEN

We had such a fun Halloween this year.

Our first celebration was with Amazing Little Hearts at the hospital.  We love attending the parties with our heart friends!

Bennett, Grace, and Dr. Mendeloff

Dr. Mendeloff is Grace's heart surgeon.  We love him!

Our second celebration was the Fall Festival at Maggie's school.  We have been at the school since Bennett was 2 and we love the Fall Festival!!  The kids always have a great time playing games, getting their faces painted, and playing on the inflatable slide.

One of the teachers took this picture of Maggie.   I love it!

Playing games

Loving the slide!

Our final Halloween celebration with trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  Daddy stayed at home and handed out candy while I took the kids.  Maggie loved it this year...until a scary costume came by.  Then, she refused to get out of the wagon.  She definitely knows what she wants!

VOCABULARY PARADE

Every year, the elementary school that the kids attend has a vocabulary parade on Halloween.  The kids LOVE it.  They have to pick a vocabulary word and come up with a costume for their word.  This year, we gave the kids complete control over their word and how they were going to make a costume.  

This is the superintendent of our school district.  So awesome that he came and participated.

Caught his picture while he was marching in the parade

Bennett's 3rd grade class

Got a good smile as she was walking by

Grace and her BFF, Peyton

WISH TRIP - DAY 7

We woke up super early on Saturday to head out.  I was very sad to be leaving this magical place after such a magical week.  Craig and I went to the signing out process and received information about some very cool offers that are available for kids who have been to GKTW.  We are all very tired when we loaded up the can so it was a quiet ride to the airport.  

We got to the airport and got everything unloaded from the minivan.  We sat in line to get checked in.  All of a sudden, we realized that we had left the camera bag in the minivan!!  Craig went running back to where we turned the car in, but the car was already gone.  A very nice attendant made the call and found the camera very quickly.  Craig rushed back to the airport and we made it through the LONG security line.  

Maggie was a little more restless on this flight.  Grandmama and D-Daddy were pretty far ahead of us so Craig and I passed her back and forth until she finally fell asleep about 30 minutes from DFW.  

We got all of our luggage and headed back to the parking lot.  Then we drove home to drop off Grandmama and D-Daddy.  We were home for a few minutes when we loaded back up to head to Bennett's soccer game.  Once again, life was back to normal.

There are no words at all to describe the amazing experience this week was for us.  I can't find any words that adequately express the week.  None.  And those that know me....you know that I am not often speechless.....

WISH TRIP - DAY 6 EVENING

We headed back to the Village for the evening.  We put on our bathing suits and headed for one last swim.

This was so cool.  It was painted on the ground and wall.  You put your camera in this special spot to make it look like this.

On our way back to the Villa, we took one last ride on the carousel.  We all showered and got ready to attend the Pirate/Princess party.  Craig and D-Daddy went to grab burgers from Steak-n-Shake.  (and got yelled out for not getting ketchup and American cheese on my burger - I am sorry...I was tired....)  Grandmama and D-Daddy stayed at the villa so Maggie could get to bed early while Craig and I took the bigs to the party. 

The party was fantastic!!  Grace headed straight to the princess station to transform into a princess while Bennett headed straight to become a pirate.

Next up, the kids got to meet Shamu and Dolly from Sea World.

And, no party is complete without Mayor Clayton and Mrs. Merry!

The kids went through "pirate and princess" training and then got to go up on the stage to be introduced.  

It was at this moment that  this whole week caught up with me.  I looked up on the stage at all of these children...wheelchairs, feeding pumps, trachs, bald, etc, etc, etc....and they were just kids.  Plain and simple.  And that got me.  Huge tears formed in my eyes as I thought about all of these kids being treated "normally" and what a moment that was for me.  

We left the party and the kids talked us into one last ice cream and one last carousel ride.

Then, it was time to head back to the villa to pack up.  I was very, very sad at this moment because I truly wanted time to stand still.

WISH TRIP - DAY 6 AFTERNOON

We headed out of Hollywood Studios and headed toward Epcot.  

We stopped to ride the "the ball" ride...Spaceship Earth.  This ride is pretty long in the cool air (which was needed because it was hot!) so Craig and I might have been guilty of nodding off a little.  We headed to the huge gift shop to get our last souvenirs.  Bennett and Grace got these super cool string light things.  Maggie finally scored a Minnie Mouse.  Grandmama got all of the kids matching shirts.  

Our next stop was Test Track.  D-Daddy and the kids LOVED this ride.  

Next stop was Finding Nemo.  D-Daddy didn't want to ride so he stayed with all of the stuff.  We met him when we came out of the ride and he was missing Grandmama's purse.  After a scary few minutes, we found the purse right where he left it.  Whew!

We were all dragging by this point because it was hot and we had been going ninety to nothing every day.  We headed over to ride Soarin.  The kids and I loved it...Craig slept through it.  But, we did snap this cute pic while waiting in line.

Now all week (and even before we left), D-Daddy talked about going to the Food and Wine Festival.  We were all pretty excited about trying new foods, etc.  We made our way...slowly...to the start of the countries.  We stopped to look at a map.  Bennett looked at us with his big eyes and said, "Can we just go back to the village to swim and play Dino Putt?"  We all just looked at each other and realized...we were done.  All of us were pretty tired and no one put up much of a fight.  We made one last stop for ice cream (for Bennett and Grace) on the way out.

Maggie was in love with her new Minnie!

WISH TRIP - DAY 6 MORNING

Everyone was dragging this morning!  Craig and D-Daddy went and got some breakfast food and brought it back to our villa.  That saved us some time...and let us avoid our morning carousel ride.  The kids ate ALL the food (literally).  We hit the food cart to get a donut for D-Daddy.  We loaded up and headed to Hollywood Studios for the morning.

Our first stop was Tower of Terror.  Before we left on our trip, we talked to our cardiologist and discussed riding rides.  Craig and I are big believers in letting Grace be a kid and try to do what she wants to do.  He told us that it was possible that she might pass out.  We decided to let her do what she wanted to do.  She did great on the roller coasters.  But, she really, really wanted to ride Tower of Terror.  I will admit....I was pretty terrified to let her ride it.  Craig and I kept looking at each other and we were both really nervous.  I started doing some serious praying and asking God to protect her and let her enjoy her trip.  Holy cow...SHE LOVED IT!!  She did great and was so proud of herself for riding a big ride.

She looks TERRIFIED in the picture!  I promise she loved it!

From there, we switched out adults and took Bennett on the Rocking Rollercoaster.  This is one of my favorite rides.  Grace was very, very sad that she wasn't tall enough to ride it.  (But Mommy was secretly glad!)  Bennett LOVED it!

Next, we headed to Toy Story Mania.  This is definitely my favorite ride at Hollywood Studios.  On the way, the kids saw Stitch.  Bennett really wanted to meet him so we headed over to get in line while Craig went ahead of us to the ride.  Right at that same time, he was leaving and Chip and Dale were taking his place.  So, we started walking toward the ride and saw Donald Duck walking behind us.  Grace turned around and waved at him.  The next thing I know, he is running over and grabbing Grace's hand.  He motioned to me to follow him.  He took us to a back area and Bennett and Grace got their own little private meet-and-greet.  SO COOL!!  They went upstairs and got all of the characters who were in this area to come down and sign autograph books and take pictures.  People kept stopping and walking up and the people would say, "I am sorry.  This is for this family only."  Craig was pretty bummed that he missed all of this interaction.  (In my defense, I did try to call...he didn't answer his phone.)

Grace LOVED hugging all of the characters

So did Bennett!!!

One of my favorite things about this entire trip is the look of pure joy on Grace's face!

Chip (chocolate chip nose) and Dale were so funny.  And Pluto is ALWAYS a big hit where Bennett is concerned.

We all rode Toy Story Mania...and I win with 92,000 points!  Everyone enjoys the ride.  

We had lunch reservations at Hollywood and Vine.  I thought Maggie would love this lunch, but since she wasn't a huge fan of the characters....  Bennett and Grace (of course) loved it!  They got to meet characters, get up and dance, and eat from a kids buffet.  It was their version of heaven!

June from Little Einsteins

Special Agent Oso...and Grace's unfortunate hand placement while giving a hug.....

Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates

Handy Manny (I had taken Grace to the bathroom so she missed meeting him....and Daddy didn't get a single picture of him looking at the camera.)

Maggie still wasn't thrilled with the characters, but she loved the music playing in the restaurant.

After lunch we headed to meet a few more characters.  First on the list was Sophia the First.  Maggie actually LOVED her!  

Next we headed into the Art of Animation for several meet and greets.  First up was The Incredibles.

Frozone and Mr. Incredible (in case you haven't noticed..B&G are all about posing like the characters pose!)

We headed over to meet Wreck-It-Ralph and Vanellope next.  Vanellope LOVED Grace.  She was just loving on her so much.  It was so sweet to see!

Another one of my favorite pics from the trip

Finally, we were able to meet Minnie Mouse.  Maggie was thrilled with the idea of meeting Minnie but she didn't really like the idea of getting close once we got in the room with her.

Maggie keeping her distance

This picture makes me laugh!!  Minnie's nose placement is just perfect.

We called it a day at Hollywood Studios and headed out....next stop....Epcot!