Gabby's Make a Wish trip!

[lorasmom]

Alright! We have a BUNCH of Big Give updates!!

A BEAUTIFUL scrapbook!!

My husband says you should do this for a living, MusicalDisneyDreams

Awesome matching outfits for Chef Mickey's!

Marissa and Gabby got matching skirts, and Lora, my husband and I got tee shirts with a matching design. SO cute!

He digs the Mickey shirt

Hmmmm.... what's in here?!

These are SO FUN!

The card has a list of objects to find in the beads. The girls were playing with these forEVER this morning, before I snagged them away and put them in the "Things to play on the plane" box

Delicious!

Lora LOVED this shirt and the matching hair tie!

Seriously, how adorable is this!?

the thermometer is awesome! With Gabby's port-o-cath, we have to be on the watch for fevers all the time, any fever at all, and she's immediately admitted to the hopsital . Thank you!

Hmmmm..... what do we have here?!

(that's Gabby's best friend, she was very curious. )

Dopey was also a hit.....

....and the Harry Potter shirt

Cannot ever have too many hats!

Gab has been snuggling with her Cinderella

The girls are SO excited about their Big Give items, they've begun packing already all on their own

 

[mommy2mrb]

the scrapbook is beautiful and I know the young lady who made it personally, she is such a sweet girl and does a wonderful job with her albums!

cute outfits and lots of fun goodies!

 

[wdwmickey]

Glad you like the scrapbook My 16 year old daughter Rachel made that and the autograph books. I hope she remembered to put the autograph books in the box. Could you please let me know if the girls autograph books were in the box with the scrapbook. Thanks

 

[lorasmom]

Glad you like the scrapbook My 16 year old daughter Rachel made that and the autograph books. I hope she remembered to put the autograph books in the box. Could you please let me know if the girls autograph books were in the box with the scrapbook. Thanks

They are, and they are fantastic! Thank you so much!!

 

[MusicalDisneyDreams]

So glad you like the scrapbook and the autograph books I really enjoyed making them! Have a magical trip

 

[TinkNH]

Such cute stuff! And what adorable girls!

 

[lorasmom]

Such cute stuff! And what adorable girls!

Thank you!

Lora and Marissa spent most of last evening watching the GKTW YouTube videos and studying the website (I've already done my homework ). Then they scheduled a family meeting to review our Plan of Attack on Sunday, after we meet with the wish grantors. It must be official, because they wrote it on the calendar.

 

[lorasmom]

Big Givers, we are TOTALLY overwhelmed and feel so blessed.


Gabby had to check out everything with her magnifying glass. She's kind of kooky.

These beautiful dresses...

Included ADORABLE dwarf shirts for my husband, Lora and myself! So cute!!

Two super cute hats... One is Minnie/reversible Mickey and plaid; the other is Tiana!

Fantastic, she loves them!

This blanket might never leave her side... She slept with it last night!

Marissa snagged the Mickey blanket, and Lora grabbed the Snow White...

These will be so great for the flight!

Delicious snacks - theses are fantastic, Marissa was SUPER stoked about the jerkey (sorry it's so blurry, Gabby was moving FAST to get everything into the picture!)

I actually had "Buy Gum" on my to do list for Costco before we leave - awesome!

I tried for awhile to get a good picture of all three girls....

But they couldn't coordinate their faces, and the photo session turned into....

Man, they're they best.

We also got our GKTW welcome pamphlet in the mail!

We spent a ton of time reading over the website yesterday, and learning so much! SO exciting!!
******************************************
For some background, we are originally from Florida, had AP's at WDW forever, and moved to SoCal just over 3 years ago. Our families are all in Florida. The girls spent the summer in Florida, 2 weeks with my family in Tampa, and 2 weeks with my IL's in Miami, last year, but Gabby couldn't go because she couldn't fly. My mom came out this past December, but my dad hasn't seen her in 3 years.

My MIL has visited a few times, but my FIL hasn't, so he's also not seen Gab in 3 years.

We are so excited for this trip. As much as we love Disney, her wish was definitely to also spend time with her grandparents. We wanted to be as fair as we could with our time, and since we know my family is really into Disney, and my IL's are not, we kind of divided our week - US and down time with the IL's, and EPCOT/MK with my family.

Everyone is over the moon psyched.


For now, I think this is our itinerary...

Thursday: arrive to Orlando, explore GKTW. We don't know our flights yet, so I'm totally leaving this open.
Friday: Animal Kingdom with my SIL, and if we feel up to it, MK after, hopefully with my BIL and his daughter (Gabby's age )
Saturday: Universal, with SIL and MIL
Sunday: REST day! Hang out at GKTW, maybe hit up the outlet mall if we feel like it. We LOVE the outlets in Orlando.
Monday: EPCOT, Princess breakfast in Norway, with my parents, and my younger brother and sister! My dad hasn't seen Lora and Marissa since they spent the summer with them last year, and my dad hasn't seen Gabby since we moved to CA, over 3 years ago. Cannot wait.
Tuesday: MK with parents and brother/sister
Wednesday: Chef Mickey's for breakfast. Would like to try to do DTD here, but it depends on our flights.

I can't believe we're just over a week out, and don't know our flight info.

I'm trying to not freak out, but the planner in me kind of is.

 

[scouthawkk]

Wow. The blankets got there quicker than I expected them to! Glad the local storm and power outages here did not delay them!! Have a great trip.
-Jen

 

[mommy2mrb]

what cute outfits and blankets! love all the silly faces on the girls!

so wonderful you will be able to spend so much time with your families

yay for getting Mayor Clayton Mail

surprised you don't have your flight info yet, I'd be freaking out a bit too

 

[luvdumbo]

So glad to see you got so many wonderful things! I hope you get decent flight times when you find out, waiting is so awful!

 

[tinkbell13]

I can't believe we're just over a week out, and don't know our flight info.

I'm trying to not freak out, but the planner in me kind of is.

OMG! I would be flipping out if I didn't know my flights with the trip that close! I can't believe they haven't told you yet. Crossing my fingers that you find out soon.

Wow at all the gifts you have received so far! I can't get over the absolutely amazing outfits, blankets, toys and other goodies. The generosity and talent of some of the people on the Disboards never fails to amaze me!

Btw, I love the goofy picture of your girls with the Thing shirts. That is absolutely something my DS would do!

 

[lorasmom]

Wow. The blankets got there quicker than I expected them to! Glad the local storm and power outages here did not delay them!! Have a great trip.
-Jen

THANK YOU! Gab has been sleeping with her's every night.

what cute outfits and blankets! love all the silly faces on the girls!

so wonderful you will be able to spend so much time with your families

yay for getting Mayor Clayton Mail

surprised you don't have your flight info yet, I'd be freaking out a bit too

So glad to see you got so many wonderful things! I hope you get decent flight times when you find out, waiting is so awful!

Thanks, I seem to be the only one freaking out . Everyone else is all laaadeeedaaaa we're going to DISNEY!

OMG! I would be flipping out if I didn't know my flights with the trip that close! I can't believe they haven't told you yet. Crossing my fingers that you find out soon.

Wow at all the gifts you have received so far! I can't get over the absolutely amazing outfits, blankets, toys and other goodies. The generosity and talent of some of the people on the Disboards never fails to amaze me!

Btw, I love the goofy picture of your girls with the Thing shirts. That is absolutely something my DS would do!

Gabby's wish presentation lunch is tomorrow, so we should get all of our trip details then!


I've got more Big Gives to share, but need to edit down the photos - more later tonight!!

 

[lorasmom]

Okay!! First, we have more BIG GIVE's to share!

This is Gabby's face every time she gets to open a Big Give

She always wants to read the letters or cards first, and tries to guess what's in the package.

First, matching dresses for Marissa and Gabby, and tees for me, Lora, and my husband (his isn't pink, though )

These are going to be perfect for Florida's hot!

Next up, we have Gabby's Wish Trip shirts!!!

Headbands!!

The skinny ones have bows in different designs/patterns to swap out - SO cute!

Next... a generous gift card, and these really cool cooling wraps...

I asked Gabby to model one, this is the pose she came up with...

Pez (DELICIOUS!) and magic wash cloths for the girls!

We love these!!

Our last Big give for the day, is this great tote bag!

So cute!!

.....and this Survivor tee.

<--- this was me when we opened this one.



Okay... next up, it's Gabby's WISH DAY!!

 

[lorasmom]

Gabby's WISH DAY was finally here yesterday!

Our wish volunteers worked with a local Chili's to set up the cutest area for Gabby's Wish presentation party - we found out later that one of the Chili's servers went out and procured party supplies and decorations, and came in on her day off with her boyfriend to set up the party for us. She left before we realized she did this, so I need to track her down to thank her

The manager was really excited to host the party, and they were so fantastic with Gabby. It was just the best day.

We walked in to our Wish volunteers waiting for us, with a Cinderella cake for Gabby, our wish trip information, and a Dora backpack stuffed full of goodies for her trip - including a disposable camera, with instructions to take pictures of her trip, and return the camera to MaW.

Our wish volunteers are a husband/wife team - while A went over the wish trip details with us...

....B went through the Dora backpack with Gabby!

We finally got our (much anticipated ) travel details - limo at 6:45am {Says Marissa, "Will there be SODA?!?" }, flight at 9am, land at MCO at 6:15pm on Southwest - hooray free bag check!!

Our wish volunteers were fantastic, and the staff at Chili's was AMAZING.

I've got to run, Lora is anxiously awaiting our big Family Wish Trip Meeting - back later with our final itinerary details.

 

[mommy2mrb]

the new outfits and shirts are so cute!

what a wonderful party! so nice the Chili's employee went above and beyond!

happy you got all your travels docs and bonus flying SW with no bag fees, will come in handy coming home with all your new treasures!

 

[niknakk]

What a beautiful and inspiring little girl!! Hope your entire family has a blast!! Best wishes

 

[Moodyzblu]

What great big gives !! So excited that you have all your plans in place and are ready to go !!

 

[EEs*Mommy]

Hey sweetie I sent you a message last week about GTKW but my phone has been weird just making sure you got it?

 

[lorasmom]

What great big gives !! So excited that you have all your plans in place and are ready to go !!

2 DAYS!!!

What a beautiful and inspiring little girl!! Hope your entire family has a blast!! Best wishes

Thank you!! We're all so excited!

the new outfits and shirts are so cute!

what a wonderful party! so nice the Chili's employee went above and beyond!

happy you got all your travels docs and bonus flying SW with no bag fees, will come in handy coming home with all your new treasures!

SO excited about the no baggage fees . The Chili's manager and employees were amazing.

Hey sweetie I sent you a message last week about GTKW but my phone has been weird just making sure you got it?

I just saw it!! NO worries!