Give Kids the World

There are SOOOOO many pictures of our trip! I'm dividing them up into several blog posts just for sanity's sake. To begin with, we got to the airport at 5:00 in the morning only to discover that we had been bumped to a different flight that was two hours later. Luckily, the kids had carry-on bags full of things to keep them busy. Shannon wasted no time getting out her paper dolls.

Finally on the plane.

We had a short layover in Houston, then headed to Orlando. All three kids did really well on the trip. My kids are great travelers.

Finally, we arrived in Florida. We had a greeter meet us with a baggage cart and a cute sign. She helped us get our rental car (a Chrysler Town and Country--my dream car!) and gave us a map and sent us on our way to Give Kids the World. 

We would have a picture of us around this sign at night when we got there, but it was raining and we were already getting wet.

Our villa:

Here is the girls' room. They shared with Grandma Lauritzen. Their bathroom was gigantic and had a big jetted tub.

This was the living room and kitchen, equipped with everything we could need. They even delivered food right to our villa!

We had rocking chairs on our porch and a beautiful hibiscus bush and ferns.

Chris loved eating pizza for breakfast. He also liked wearing Nanny's wig.

Early the day after we arrived I went to the House of Hearts for the orientation while everyone else slept. This is where they explained how to use all of our passes to get free pictures and parking, and they gave us tickets for three days at Disney World, two days at Universal Studios, and one day at Sea World (which we didn't use).

They fed us three meals a day. We loved the ice cream shop the best, because we could get a quick breakfast, then get some ice cream before we headed out for the day.



Christopher said he wanted an ice cream cone. What we didn't know was that he just wanted the cone. He didn't eat the ice cream.

The other place we ate at was the Town Hall.

The tables are decorated with thousands of real peppermint candies.

The Gingerbread House was closed for renovations while we were there, so we didn't get to eat there, but it was such a cute building!

For breakfast one morning there was a balloon artist there. He made these Mickey ears for Christopher.

There were so many things to do at Give Kids the World. Christopher's favorite was the merry-go-round. There were never any lines, so the kids could ride whenever they wanted, as many times as they wanted.

 

The merry-go-round was a giant mushroom.

There was a train, which I didn't get any pictures of the kids on because I didn't have my camera on me.

Saturday morning the girls got to ride some horses.

The pool was Leah's favorite.

We found where the mayor and his wife live (they are bunnies).

There was a beautiful garden around the tiny house.

I think this was a plumeria. It was gorgeous!

There were pineapples growing! So neat!

We saw Mickey, Goofy, and Mary Poppins.

Just walking around this place was a treat. There were the most beautiful trees, flowers, and all kinds of critters.

Leah loved the giant pine cones. I was really surprised by the amount of pine trees in Florida. For some reason, I thought those were mountain trees.

The magnolias had just finished blooming when we got there, but there were a few blooms left.

There were two white squirrels living on the property. That was something else I had never seen before. They were very friendly, too.

We don't know what kind of tree this is, but there were a lot of them, and they were beautiful.

These little lizards were everywhere. I love them!

Even the garbage cans were fun! This sucks in paper and makes a noise when you put garbage in it.

Sunday night we played a life-sized Candy Land game. 

Christopher was given a star to write his name on and was told to take it to the Castle of Miracles, where the Star Fairy would take it and add it to the thousands of other stars on the ceiling and walls.

First he put it in the treasure chest, then after the box is closed a fairy appears on the screen behind it and flies into the box. The box shakes, and when you open it the star is gone. We were given the exact location of the star so that we can find it again if we ever go visit. We have been invited to go back once a year for the rest of our lives. I really hope that we can someday.

This is the inside of the tower, and hundreds of stars. Christopher's is up there somewhere now.

More stars

The kids were all invited to make a pillow in the Castle of Miracles. Leah got to do this part.

She looked in that hole and pushed the button, then shook the vine and that made the tree shake. That made the magic pillows fall into that little stump. It was pretty cute.

The throne room in the Castle of Miracles.

And the magic wishing well.

Just a few more random pictures from around the village. Horton was there.



Alvin and the Chipmunks were in the movie theater.

The outside of the movie theater.

A giant chocolate covered strawberry and the kids holding their magic pillows.

You could either walk from place to place or ride this.

Give Kids the World alone would have easily made this trip worth while. It is really a magical place. For every 1 employee, there are 30 volunteers who put in about 1400 hours a week. We saw church groups, seniors, wish family alumni, and people who just wanted to help. If you want to learn more about it and how it began, there is a book about its founder, Henri Landwirth, called Gift of Life.