Day 3 Gatorland

After a well balanced lunch of ice cream and m&ms...
It was off to Gatorland...

You could purchase hot dogs to feed the gators. Look closely at it's head. Think they were a bit overfed??

The gator jumping show...Apparently sometimes they will jump right out of the water for the chicken, but this was about as high as they went that day.This was an interesting place to visit and we enjoyed seeing the Albino gator. Fun and relaxing for a couple of hours, but likely not a place we would rush to go back to. Loved this sign...After a fun afternoon, we headed back to GKTW for our appointment at the Spa and then Christmas!

Day 3 Stars & Pillows

The castle of miracles...

Each wish child is given a star when they arrive. The wish child takes it to the castle, signs their name (Noah got some help from big sister)...
and sends the star to the Starfairy...

with lots of love and special wishes...
The Starfairy takes the star, and the next day, the star will be on the ceiling with the thousands of other stars already up there...
It is an overwhelming moment, surrounded by the stars...each one representing the children who have come before us...each child with their own journey. Noah's star will remain there and we can come visit it anytime we go back to Florida. Noah's star is on the hanging banner that the volunteer is looking at. They have had to bring in these banners, as their ceiling is already full!

At orientation, each of the kids also recieved a certificate to make a pillow from the pillow factory. Yes, this place thinks of it all! First you pick the kind you would like...
Then press the buttons as much as you can to stuff it...

The machine starts making noise and blowing out bubbles (Noah's favorite part!)...
And out pops a pillow!! The finished products...

After stars and pillows, it was playtime in the castle. Jolly Hollow is a play area with a slide and special caves to hide out in... The Fe-Fi-Fo-Fun Room... Noah's favorite part of the castle was the silly drawers that make all kinds of wacky sounds when you open them. Combine fun sounds with opening drawers, and you have Noah's perfect toy! The magic mirror. If you look closely in the reflection you can see the crown on Kailyn's head...

The magical wishing well. Throw your money in and you never know what you might hear from deep inside the well. All kinds of suprise noises come out of it. Of course, pennies are supplied, as no money is required here...

After we'd seen the castle, we decided to get some lunch and grab some complimentary tickets to check out Gatorland.

Day 3 GKTW Character Meet

I forgot to add that at the end of our day yesterday, there was a gift waiting for the kids on the table of our villa. (I think that night they got 5 DVDs). This happened every day, and it there was always lots of racing to get into the villa and see what was on the table.

After our exhausting day, and another night of rough sleep for Noah & I, we decided to not push Noah too hard with another big park day. So we enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the Gingerbread House (mmm...those waffles with strawberries and whipped cream were the best!), and a couple of rides on the carousel, and then it is off to the theatre. Every Thursday morning, Disney sends some of their characters over to GKTW. Today it was Goofy...

Belle...
Pluto...

And inside the theatre were those famous mice again...


Minnie was quite tickled when she saw Kailyn's outfit...After hanging with the characters, the kids rode the cars at the House of Hearts, and then we checked out Amberville again...

Then it was off to the castle for stars and pillows...

Toontown

In toontown we toured Mickey and Minnie's houses...oh to be a toon!!

When we reached the big character greet tent, we were immediately spotted by a CM, who took us directly behind the scenes and straight in to meet the fairies... Noah was not too impressed by the fairies, but they sure loved over him. I have to say, I was most impressed with Tinkerbell!! She did an amazing job and Noah got lots of extra love and kisses from her...

After the fairies, we were taken directly in to meet the Princesses...

Then it was time to meet the big guy himself (oh, and Minnie too, of course)... I think Toontown is where we saved the most time. The lines for each of these characters was well over an hour EACH! We were able to see them all in about 20 minutes.

After the photo sessions, we had one more land to hit...Fantasyland...where I guess we were pictured out...I took only 1 picture here!! What was I thinking??? We hit all the rides and Noah was able to ride them all which he loved. So here is my lone picture on It's A Small World...

After catching the fireworks, we were officially beat...back to GKTW where we ordered pizza (free of course) and crashed.

Be sure to check out the comments on the last post. So very special to hear from Matthew's Dad! Thank you for what you have done for wish families! Priceless.