Our own birthday card

When a kid in Callum's class has a birthday, his teacher has all the kids make birthday cards for that child as a way to celebrate their day.

The birthday child, in turn, makes a card for his/her parents.

This is what Callum made for us. ❤

I've been horrible at blogging this last week or two because I've been laid out due to my back (which I'm sure is what he's referring to). But, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel .... I've been on steroids for the last few days to help with the pain and inflammation, and will be starting PT again on Monday. I'll see my back Dr for a follow up next week too, since I had another MRI done this last week as well.

Thankfully, now that the boys are older and more self sufficient, I feel like I've been able to take better care of myself and recover faster than past flare ups. (I'm also, generally, in better shape, stronger and weigh less than I did several years ago, which no doubt has helped!)

Of course, cards like this always help too.😊

Feeling old....

Callum got a birthday card signed from our friends at Disney.... 

the boys asked us, "What does 'hashtag one' mean?" 😂😂😬😱👵🏼

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We have a 7 year old!

Happiest of birthdays to our crazy rock star. Love you more than words can say. 😘😘😘

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Thank you Make A Wish!

Well, I think it's safe to say we had a fabulous time on this amazing trip from Make A Wish!

The boys were showered with gifts and goodies every day at the Give Kids The World village, not to mention all of the great toys they bought on their own while in all of the parks. I thought I should take a few pics of Callum's biggest score yet - he found the very last Hank (the septopus, from Finding Dory) on our very last day at Disney - Hank is one of Callum's favorite Disney characters, so we were all happy to see him get it. :)

Our flight home was pretty long and tiresome, but we made it!! Callum took a couple hour nap, which I'm glad he was able to do, since he was pretty tired and overstimulated by the entire trip. I'm not sure how I lasted, I guess because I had to ;-) but I'm pretty sure I was the happiest of us all to finally be home. Heehee

Still, we owe so much to Make A Wish for such a grand trip! Thank you thank you!! It was really special and everything we could have hoped for!! We originally thought we wouldn't do a Wish for Callum but I'm so glad our oncology team talked us into it. I'm sure the boys are going to remember this one forever. ❤

Fun in the Village

Jon and the boys toured other attractions in the Village, riding a few more times on the Carrousel, getting a last ice cream cone, playing some video games and a few holes of mini golf.

Meanwhile, I found a bench in the shade and laid on my back - sitting is the worst and walking/standing isn't that great either when it's this bad - plus I knew I needed to "store up" some time because we had a long day of travel ahead of us.

So, most of my view yesterday was the last pic - watching the clouds move across the sky. ;-)

Callum's Star

We took it easy yesterday morning since it was our last day of the trip (and my back was still extremely aggravated). We spent most of the morning packing up all of our millions of stuffed toys in our bags and loaded everything up in the car to check out.

Since our flight wasn't until the late afternoon, we spent our last hours hanging out in the Village. While Jon checked out and returned our keys etc, the boys and I went back to the Castle to see where the Star Fairy had placed Callum's star. It's in the Star Tower, in the Panda circle (the last pic shows where exactly it is, recorded in their system, in case we ever want to come back to see it again). Speaking of coming back, we are now Give Kids The World alums, and can come back to visit the Village anytime we want! :)

Magic Pillows

After we gave Callum's star to the Star Fairy, we walked around the castle and explored a little. We met another fairy (I can't remember his/her name), who lived in a tree and made the boys each their own Magic pillows to take home with them. After they each got their pillows, we grabbed some ice cream from the ice cream parlor, and then Callum rode the carousel a few more times, before walking back to our villa.

While I'm bummed my back decided to fail me this trip, I'm glad it allowed us time to get back to the Village early today, so the boys could spend a few more hours in this very special place.