Sebastian's Make A Wish Trip to Disney

[oklamomof4boys]

2008 has been quite a year for you, hasn't it? Of course, not all bad ( especially with Savannah's birth) but certainly a year that tests your strength and faith. But years like this one help us to really appreciate the glorious " normal" years.

Get some sleep. Nathan insists we stay up until midnight tonight(I tried to convince him that we should stay up until midnight at Disney World- but no go), so I will toast to a glorious 2009 for all of us.

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

Hi All! These are the photos that belong in my earlier posts but I was just to crazy-busy to take the time to incorporate them. So I hope if you have read along you will know what they are end enjoy Next Up...Sebastian's MAW send off party and then we can get started on DISNEY!

Gingerbread House

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

Making A Cake for Jesus

Siennah's Surgery

 

[mrsksomeday]

Amber , I wished I lived near you, I would help you out any way I could. You have got to be so frustrated and tired. I will pray that 2009 brings answers the doctors and gets things solved.

You have such a strong love for your babies, you will get through this, you are a great advocate for them.

 

[tinytreasures]

prayers for a peaceful 2009

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

Wow Amber what a week you have had. Nystatin can be ineffective with yeast. Babies can have fluconazole which is like the Diflucan we take. My niece and my SIL had a bad case of thrush and fluconazole helped her out.
Ask your Doctor.

I hope those tests give you some answers.

May 2009 bring health to your family!

What beautiful pictures! Your children are adorable.

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

Finally I get to do a really WONDERFUL post!

Sebastian’s send off party was incredible! So many people came together to make it a really special day for Sebastian and our family

The event was held at a local Mall with a hispanic theme called Plaza Fiesta. In the center of the mall is an enormous and super fun seven level playground. The location and partnership with Plaza Fiesta came about in September when I went to a birthday party there for my friend Colleen’s kids. The Manager had come over to talk to Colleen about some fans being repaired above the playground. At that time our wish granters and I had been looking for a suitable location to have Sebastian’s party so I asked the Manager, Roel, how much it would cost to have a party there.

Colleen had just paid the $2 per child fee to use the playground and set up a table in the food court for pizza and cake. I thought perhaps we could foot the bill for the kids to play and do the same thing for cake. But Plaza Fiesta was getting ready to open up their new arcade and party rooms in November. After that point people would not just be able to show-up and have an impromptu party. You would actually have to buy a party package.

Colleen just came right out and said to Roel...”Since it’s for Make A Wish would you be willing to do it for free?” Roel smiled at her and said, "I'm sure we can work something out." And that my Friends was the beginning of an amazing party. Roel was kind enough to show me the almost completed party rooms and arcade they were awesome and plenty big. I got his contact info and passed it along to our Wish Granters Erin and Shonda.

Then Erin and Shonda coordinated all the details with Roel. What they came up with was more than I could have imagined.

As some of you might recall we were having Savannah Baptized the same weekend as Sebastian’s party. We had asked our best friends from Florida Rey and Ashley to be Savannah’s God Parents. They made the trip up with their three kids to come and spend some time with us. Sebastian was delighted to be able to have his best friend Mason at his party. They have been buddies since infancy when they were in a playgroup together. Despite the craziness of Savannah being sick that weekend we really had fun with them.

Here we all are enjoying pizza together the night they arrived.

The party was on Saturday, November 22nd. We got there early and had a chance to take some photos of the kids before the party got going. They looked darling in the outfits that Cathy made for them!!

The set of three slides was the most popular part of the playground. Sebastian just kept going down and up, down and up again and again!

The folks at Make A Wish and Plaza Fiesta worked out a bunch of great surprises. A couple of them we were in on and a couple of them were a complete shock. The first big surprise was Lightning McQueen! The Plaza Fiesta folks had arranged for Lightning to come and interact with the kids. It was great! Sebastian LOVED him! As you can see from all these pictures.

I don’t think Sebastian stopped moving for 2 seconds during the whole playground portion of the party.

The next AWESOME surprise was that Plaza Fiesta had set up their big electronic billboard special for Sebastian. Roel took me outside to look at it. You could see it as you drove along the I-77 to the party.

I thought it was really cute that one of Sebastian’s little friends insisted on wearing a helmet like Sebastian. Sebastian has to wear one to protect the four inch hole in his skull when he does anything real physical. It’s so nice that at their age it’s “cool” and not a stigma.

Here I am with Lightning McQueen

And here I am with fellow Wish Tripper and my neighbor Kellie (Mondowishes)

Brian and Siennah

 

[maroo]

aw!!! yeah!

You started!!!

The billboard...WOW...awesome!

I can't believe they did all of that stuff for you guys. Isn't MAW awesome...and the party place totally rocks!


I love that Lightning McQueen showed up. They look like they had a blast!

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

More slide pictures...We had so much fun on those slides…

Sebastian having a very three year old tantrum.

With my good friend Heather

Me and Siennah

Siennah did not care for Lightning McQueen. She was scared of him.

Pictures of the playground…they don’t begin to do it justice

Group picture of McQueen with some of the kids. There were seventy-two kids there and their parents.

It was so nice to see Sebastian having so much fun!

He kept going back and giving Lightning more hugs

I made sure to spend some quality time with Siennah…

 

[jessica52877]

What adorable pictures! I love the billboard! The outfits look so cute and how fitting that Sebastian's outfit matches his helmet!

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

Kellie’s daughter Emma is so good with our kids. Siennah especially adores her…

Me and Sebastian

Me and Ashley

Siennah and Brian

More playground pictures

Me and my rock Brian

I had bought six boxes of cake mix to make cupcakes for the kids and my friend Marleney was going to make a Buzz Lightyead shaped cake for Sebastian. But then we found out that of the vendors at Plaza Fiesta was going to provide cake for the party. What we got blew me away! Not one cool cake but three cakes! One for each of Sebastian’s favorite Disney characters!

Sebastian was so smitten with his special cakes.

The rooms that Plaza Fiesta provided were done up really nice too. They gave us two of their biggest party rooms to use. I gave Erin and Shonda some Mickey Mouse Club house table cloths to decorate with and a ton of Kazoos from when I was a party planner. I also gave Shonda some clear cellophane bags and she filled them with candy for the kids to take home as party favors.

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

I forgot to mention that the party was from 9:00-12:00 The kids were able to use the playground before it was open to the Public at 10:00 a.m. At 10:30 we herded the kids into the party rooms for cake.

It was at this point that Brian and I were able to make a little impromtu speech to our family and friends. It was very difficult to talk through the tears. We have not walked this journey alone. We have had an AMAZING network of people who have offered us support and prayers, food, a shoulder to cry on...you name it. This was our day to celebrate with them! To celebrate our collective answered prayers and the joy that Sebastian's wish was coming true. I am so glad we were able to share this day with so many people who have touched our lives.

But before we could eat cake we had to have a very special visitor…SANTA!!!!!!
A super sweet man who called himself “Santa Dave” contacted us about visiting with Sebastian at his send-off party. He was from an organization called Santa America where Santa's all over the country visit with kids with life threatening medical conditions. I don't know if Plaza Fiesta found him or MAW but I am so glad he was a prt of the party.

When Santa came in the kids went crazy!

Just look at Sebastian’s face. He was so excited.

Around the time of Sebastian’s party I saw a commercial for a fundraiser that Macy’s stores were doing for the Make A Wish Foundation. For each letter to Santa Clause that was brought in to Macy’s stores they would give $1.00 to Make A Wish. So I came up with the idea to have the kids coming to Sebastian’s party bring their letters to Santa Clause with them. He would collect them at the party and then when no kids were looking give them to us to take to Macy’s at a later date. This solved the problem of Santa not being able to spend time with each child and let him really give Sebastian a special visit before heading back to the North Pole to get ready for Christmas.

Here is Santa collecting the letters…the letters made a good little chunk of change for MAW

Then Santa and Mrs. Clause had a special visit with our family in another room. It was so nice. Sebastian got to talk to Santa and tell him that he had been a good and brave boy and that he would like a red Lightning McQueen bicycle please.

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

Santa gave Sebastian and Siennah some really special scarves that have mittens sewn into them. Santa explained to Sebastian that if he put his hands inside the mitten it was like a hug from Santa.

Then Erin and Shonda gave us some goodie bags for the kids to open. Inside were Mouse ears for each of the kids.

Here I am with Savannah’s ears on

Then we went back over to the other room to have cake. Make A Wish purchased sodas, juice boxes and chips for everyone to enjoy as well.

This is our dream team! I feel like we totally hit the jack-pot with Sebastian’s Wish Granters. They are incredible! Truly some of nicest people we have ever met. I know that God sent us these angels as a huge blessing to us. I feel like we have gained life-long friends. I am forever grateful to them and all the time and energy they spent to make Sebastian’s wish a reality and all the love and support they gave our family along the way.

Then it was time for the arcade portion of the party. Plaza Fiesta provided the kids with cards to swipe at each of the arcade games that offered unlimited game play. This was SO MUCH FUN!!

Here we are playing Skee Ball

And some kind of hunting game

Here’s fellow wish child Abbie (Kellie, daughter) with a truck load of tickets

Sebastian’s little buddy Phalen gave him a Buzz Lightyear phone so they could “keep in touch” while they were apart. It was super cute!

 

[oklamomof4boys]

What a wonderful party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so jealous ( the boys were looking at the pictures with me- Sam added the extra !!!!). I love the billboard- how special. My boys say " Sebastian is cool!"

I love the friend wearing a helmet like Sebastian. Several years ago, Nathan's best friend claimed to take heart medicine for his heart disease- just like Nathan ( his friend is perfectly healthy).

We can't wait to hear about the trip!

Carol

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

Sebastian playing the Claw game just like in Toy Story

Grandma and Savannah. I remember we were all so excited because she had not thrown up that morning.

But she wasn’t in good shape. Here is Erin holding her.

Here is Sebastian playing Dance Dance Revolution. He had some moves!

And riding the roller coaster simulator

I was really stressed with everything that was happening with Savannah at this point and getting ready for the trip and the holidays but I really let loose for awhile. I usually would never play these games because I would never spend the money on it. But with the unlimted cards I didn’t have to think about the cost at all..I just let myself enjoy it and have fun. I played all kinds of games. The Boxing was quite cathardic!

Brian and Sebastian having some fun together

What a little love…my sweet Savannah

 

[maroo]

wow!!!!

And I thought the other pictures were cool!!

You guys really outdid yourselves!!!

Unlimited play? Santa? 75+ people!

What a wonderful party! And you guys deserve it! You have had a rough year...and that is something you can look back on and smile about!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Amber thank you so much for sharing all the pictures with us. The party was amazing. Everyone looks like you are having so much fun.

The children are so beautiful, but the pictures I enjoyed the most were of you being able to just have fun and let go for a little bit. I am glad you got to do the boxing game, I bet it helped you a little .

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

As the kids played the various games they won tickets. Normally at an arcade like this the players would take the tickets they won up to a counter to exchange them for a prize that corresponded in value with the number of tickets they won. However, Plaza Fiesta could not give out prizes to all the kids because unlike the game play this represented lost inventory for them. This was totally understandable. What they did instead was collected all the tickets for Sebastian. A few people at the party were upset by this but most were happy to “play for Sebastian.”

At the very end of the party after most everyone had gone home it came time Sebastian to pick a prize. Erin and Shonda and Michelle had fed all the tickets into a counting machine and he had thousands of points. Enough to get some pretty big items including a giant stuffed animal. He really wanted to purchase these little flash lights for himself and his friends and some things for his sister, Mason and Cole. So he asked if instead of getting one big thing if he could get a few small things.

It was so sweet and I was so proud of him for wanting to turn around and share. He chose a red, a green and a blue Scooby Doo for himself, Mason and Cole (Mason’s little brother) and a pink Care Bear for Siennah. He also got each person a flash light. He didn’t come close to using all his points but no one cared. In the end the stuffed animals were probably worth less than one of the bigger items which I was glad for because Plaza Fiesta had already done so much!

Here we are just before he picked.

By the time the party was over and we had cleaned up and collected everything we were all hungry. So we had lunch at the Plaza Fiesta food court. Then we took turns going outside the back service entrance of the Mall so that our kids could see the special bill board sign.

When we got home there was a package waiting for us from Mommyof3princesses! She had made some really cute crayon roll-ups for Sebastian and Siennah. THANK YOU, THANK YOU The kids are still using them now that we are back home!

Whew...I finally feel like I got a little bit accomplished as far as our Trip Report goes. I still have some organizing to do but next up should be Day One of DISNEY!!!

 

[maroo]

wow...more pictures!

Looks like a TOTAL blast!!!!

Now, I have to admit...I CAN'T WAIT!!! For day 1 of Disney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jham]

Wow Amber! That was an amazing party! It was so nice to see you let down and have a little fun right in the midst of your troubles! Seeing everyone having such a great time brought tears to my eyes. Your kids are soooooo cute I love seeing pictures of them! And I have to say again, that was just the coolest party ever!

 

[AmberGreenawalt]

As I went back through my posts of his party and looked at all the pictures it brought tears to MY eyes. It really was such a special celebration. Savannah was baptized the next day, Sunday and in the hospital the day after that. Ya'll know the story from there. From finding a tumor last December right up to our Doctor's appointment today we had our share our struggles in 2008 BUT looking back we had some TRUELY joyous times too. I appreciated everything related to Sebastian's wish in a way I never could have had the road been an easy one. Sending love and best wishes for a Happy 2009 to everyone tonight!