Day 4: a day in the life @ GKTW

After two FULL days of pure amusement park fun, Cami needed a break.  Well, we ALL needed a break!  

We decided to hang out at the Village and explore all the amazing things they have to offer.  Cami received an invitation to a tea party held at the Give Kids The World castle.  It said there would be a "special guest" attending.  Cami couldn't contain her excitement and wanted to put on her beautiful Belle dress first thing.
We woke up and headed off to the tea party.  As we walked up to the castle, we saw two village staff members at the door.  They welcomed us into the empty, dark castle.  We were the only ones there besides a few volunteers, one of them was ready with a camera.  To be honest, it was a little strange and I was starting to wonder what was happening and why we were the only ones there.    

They asked Cami if she would help wake up the castle by waking up "Grandfather clock".  She stompped, clapped, knocked and pulled on his beard.  He just wouldn't wake up!  Then, one of the staff members said a special guest was here who had lots of experience with enchanted castles so maybe she could help.

  

Look who came to the rescue... BELLE (Cami's favorite)!!!

She was just the right person to show Cami how to wake up Grandfather clock.

look he's waking up!

Heres what happened when Grandfather clock woke up the castle.  

Afterwards, Belle took Cami's hand and led us to the tea party...

Belle gave Caden a Buzz Lightyear costume 

and Cami a Belle doll along with other goodies.

She was one delighted little princess...

...as if that weren't enough, Belle asked Cami if they could ride on the carousel together.

 Cami was beyond excited.
So off they went...

They rode around and around to their hearts content.  

Cami was her chatty self the entire time...

This special time with Belle was so incredible for Cami.  It was another dream come true made possible by this amazing place!  The magic was once again flowing through the air and Cami told me after that her heart was fluttering.  She lights up when she talks about this experience and how much she loves Belle.  Thank you to GKTW for putting this together for our Cami.  It was above and beyond anything we could have ever dreamed up.  Thank you to the amazing girl who played Belle so well and didn't even blink an eye at Cami's fuzzy little head, but instead kissed it and filled our hearts with love.

as you can tell, Cami was enjoying herself just a little.  

After breakfast we ran into these two again.
They were just walking down the street!  At Disney theses characters would be swarming with kids, but here there was hardly anyone around.  It was nice not to feel rushed.

Then we just HAD to check out the worlds ONLY life-sized Candy Land.  

Mathews Boundless Playground was donated to Give kids The World by Hasbro.

It was a BLAST!  -Thanks Hasbro!

Hasbro also designed and produced the first EVER custom edition of a Candy Land game just for Give Kids The World.
If you look closely at the game board you will see some of the many places we visited.  You will also see some of the Characters I talk about later in this post.
They gave us one of these special edition Candy Lands to take home.
It will always bring back wonderful memories from this trip each time we play it.
Gotta love Candy Land!

 After the park it was back to our villa for some NAP TIME..(oh yeah)!
We were ALL so tired and slept for 3 hours...having so much fun can be quite exhausting!
Poor us right?

I love this picture of Cami rockin' and relaxin'

After our naps, we went exploring the magical village we were lucky enough to be LIVING in...

We found the pillow tree, which is home to a sleeping owl.  If you can wake him up, he gives you a magic pillow filled with sweet dreams.

Cami signed her very own GKTW star which she put into the special star chest.  

When she opened it up, her star was gone.  

The star fairy (you can see her on the Candy Land board) had taken it up and put it on the castle ceiling, where it will stay forever.

"Chugga, Chugga, Choo-Choo" 

Next we found the train station.  Caden was in pure heaven!  

They even let him drive the train!

Then it was time for some ICE CREAM!!!

I cannot stress enough how each and every detail in this place is made for kids.  Everything from the bathrooms to the sidewalks are designed for little ones. This is one of the awesome garbage cans they have.  It's nose had a suction where you'd put the garbage.  It would say "feed me some garbage please" and "I love you"!

They thought of EVERYTHING!  So cool!

Next stop: swimming!

The pool was perfect for the kids (surprise, surprise).  

Pat and I were able to relax a little and watch them play together.

After a bath and dinner we headed to the Winter Wonderland celebration.
Where we met Santa...

Santa told the kids they could go pick out any gift they wanted.
This took Cami awhile.

There was a Christmas parade, cookie decorating, snow cones, cotton candy, and story time with Mrs. Claus and Christmas music all around.

Before heading home, we finished the night up with a carriage ride.

After we got back to our villa, the kids had a surprise visitor knock at the door.
Ms. Merry (Mayor Clayton's wife, who is featured on the Candy Land box) came in her PJ's to tuck them in.
More like to get them all hyper and WILD!
She had them jumping on their beds and giggling like crazy!

I am convinced that Ms. Merry was playing an evil joke on me that night because after making the kids bounce off the walls, she went right ahead and tucked Grandma Di-Di into bed. SHEESH!

  Now I had two crazy kids and one Gram fast asleep to try and be quiet for.

  Thanks a lot Ms. Merry, thanks a lot!  

No, really, we love you Ms. Merry even though you are one...Crazy Bunny!

I dont think there is any other place in the world where you can fit this much fun into one day.  Give Kids the World was so fabulous and I am not kidding when I say, I might like it better than Disney World.
It is THAT good!

That's all for now folks.
Day 5 it's back to the theme parks!