Give Kids The World Village

I figured, because I'd be talking a lot about the Give Kids The World Village, I would show some pictures and give some brief descriptions of the different venues.

This is the House of Hearts. This is where we checked in and where they had staff 24 hours a day to take care of any issues that came up.

 They had a 7 hole miniature golf course. We never had time to play a round but saw the dinosaurs every time we came and went.

 They spared no expense. The place was beautiful.

I love the whimsy of the dinosaurs.

 This is the Amberville Train Station.

 They had miniature trains and a whole city set up.

 Jarrad brought Ocean in here and the old man that tends to the train station took them on a behind the scenes tour to show her how everything worked! She loved every minute of it.

 There was a huge game room with the old classics as well as all the new Wii and XBox360 games.

 You could take remote control boats out for a spin,

or take a ride on a real train!

 Julie's Safari Theatre was where we met Disney and Universal characters for photo-ops and autographs.

 They had a real concession stand. 

The theatre was also used for some evening events like "Village Idol" for the kids to sing for judges and Safari Double Dare.

 The Ice Cream Palace was open from 7:30am to 9:30pm. One of the Village's catch phrases and favorite aspects of the park is "Ice Cream For Breakfast!"

We took them up on their "anytime" ice cream option several times throughout the week. They will make anything you want from scoops of ice cream with a plethora of toppings, to shakes to sundaes.

 This is the Castle of Miracles. It is home to all kinds of fun things.

 Rusty here guards the front of the castle. Don't let his round belly fool you. He is at the top of his game.

 Father Time... keeps... time.

 The ceiling was covered in gold stars that contained the names of all the kids that have ever had a wish and were lucky enough to get to stay at the Village.  

 This was Tom Foolery. He was up to shenanigans at all times.

 The Enchanted Carousel was open pretty much all day for unlimited rides and it was a great distraction for in between times with Ocean. Seven loved it too. He quieted down every time we put him on it.

Ol' Elmer, I'm sure he did something interesting but I never found out what that was.

This was the Star Fairy's corner where you placed your gold star. In the night she would place it somewhere in the Castle of Miracles to be immortalized for all time!

 Matthew’s Boundless Playground is the world’s largest and only life-sized version of the game Candy Land.

We never had a chance to visit the playground because we were so busy with everything else.  

 This is the Gingerbread House where you can get a hot meal. The menu changed daily and was served buffet-style. There were lots of volunteers here and they refused to let you carry your own tray so you always had an escort to your table.

 The tables were all covered in peppermints (with a clear coat over them. No licking the table.) Apparently 27,000 of the candies went into the making of the place as well as 2,000 dolls. (They are up by the rafters. Not at ALL creepy.)

This was another room in the house. Ocean liked to sit in here next to a friend she made during the trip. Melanie was visiting from Pennsylvania. She had a seizure disorder and had been through 11 brain surgeries already and she was only 8 years old. I wouldn't have known if her mom hadn't told me. I thought maybe she was the sibling of a special needs child.

This is the chapel. It is available at any time of the day for any spiritual need. 

The stain glass is beautiful. 

 Keaton's Korral is where they had horseback riding twice during the week.

There was a pond stocked for fishing. Catch and release only. Apparently they frown upon trying to feed yourself straight off the land there. 

 All the villas were different and adorable.

 This is the Park of Dreams home to the most fun water park.

The pool had lots of water features as well as a zero depth entry. Then they had a water playground that Seven just adored. In fact, Seven had a really fussy morning on Monday. During breakfast he just wouldn't stop crying so we agreed to take turns eating while someone took Seven for a walk. I took the first shift and wandered over to the Park of Dreams. It was our first visit to the pool. As I pushed his stroller closer to the water so he could hear the water sounds, he slowly stopped crying. The view, the sound, it was all magical to him and at that moment I considered just staying in that spot for the week. It was a short lived thought. There was way too much fun to be had outside of the Village.