Party Pictures, Round 2

The welcoming signs were hung around the park to point people in the right direction.

The kids helped with some of the decorating. Finn was lifted up high by Grandpa Dayton to make sure things looked just right.

Julia jumped to measure the height of the purple fringys.

Once the decorations were up, an assortment of memorabilia documenting Julia's cancer journey were placed around as well. Julia acquired a long string of Beads of Courage, each one symbolizing an event or hardship that she met along the way.

A table full of pictures and other things to remember her journey was also displayed.

And of course the legendary 23 feet long timeline explaining everything that happened October through July was up for everyone to see.

Amanda and I had known for several months, but at the party we finally broke the news to the kids. Julia had been granted one of her wishes through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This October the four of us will be spending a week in Florida visiting Disney World and some other fun places! We're all super excited! Finn has never flown so he's extra excited about that.

On another Disney note - After the Make-A-Wish process was well underway but before we knew all the details, a friend of ours had quietly gathered donations from people and presented us a gift of Disney gift certificates. We were very touched by the gift and plan to use them at a future date to reinforce the current memories and make new memories as a family.

Another wish Julia had had was to get a giant rainbow cookie that was as big as our house (and with no frosting). We all had a good chuckle at that one and told Julia that it just wasn't really conceivable to make a cookie that large. And while that is true, Julia's Grandma Colleen and Grandpa Dayton arrived at the party with...a giant, frosting-free rainbow cookie! It wasn't nearly as big as a house, but we were all surprised and it was hilarious to see Julia's reaction.

It was great seeing Julia so happy and just as awesome to see how happy everyone else was too. The two shots below are with grandparents and the two after those are great-grandparents.

A photographer friend of ours took all the pictures in this blog post. While she was taking the below picture, I accused her of condoning the monkey-like behavior of climbing on picnic tables. But I guess if it turns out cute, all is forgiven.

It was fun looking at all of the pictures afterward because I didn't realize some of the great posed shots that had been taken.

The nonposed are great too. In this one I see: reflecting, absorbing, and content happiness.

And finally, the photographer, Tania, and Julia.