Make-a-Wish Send-Off Party

We went to Annie’s Make-a-Wish (MAW) send-off party tonight at Dave and Busters. Our wish granters were there to celebrate with us.   We ordered dinner then reviewed all the papers and info they had for us about our trip.

 

Annie with wish granters Bridgette and Mindy

After we ate, they presented us with lots of gifts! Justin and I each got a beach towel, as well as the three girls. Annie got a huge bag full of presents, from a special MAW edition Barbie doll to tons of bubble stuff and princess themed toys and stickers. Molly and Lexie got smaller gift sacks too of princess stuff—stickers, notepads, pens, bubbles, etc. We're so touched by all their kindness. They are so incredibly generous.

It was exciting to hear all about the privileges we’ll get as a MAW family—front of the line access to rides, best seats at parades and attractions, daily gifts from Give Kids the World resort, daily character meetings at GKTW too. It’s all so special.

We each got a card for arcade games at Dave and Busters so we went to play. We did ski-ball, a huge Connect 4 game, a huge Fruit Ninja game, basketball hoops, air hockey and other games to win tickets.

Annie cheering on Dad

Molly and Lexie loved the air hockey.

Annie did one game where she just had to pull down on a bar to spin the wheel and it would land on
either 40 or 70 tickets, but she hit the jackpot winning 500 tickets! It was so awesome and all of us were cheering and clapping for her! It took a while for the machine to spit out that many tickets!

Annie hitting the jackpot and Lexie collecting the 500 tickets!

Then Justin took Annie to do a crane game to try to grab a small stuffed animal from inside the bin. I told him those never work, but we took our time lining it up from 2 sides of the machine, aiming for a cute little pink and white penguin. Annie hit the button to drop the crane and she got it!! She got the pink penguin! She’s one lucky girl at these games! I couldn’t believe it!

Annie with the pink penguin she got from the crane game, and the other toys they bought with all the tickets they won.

 We had an amazing time tonight with our sweet wish granters!  The food was fabulous, the games were great, and we were humbled by all the generosity we received. We've looked forward to this trip for so long, and now it's hard to believe it's finally here!