Masquerade Ball

What an event to remember! Lilly was asked to speak at the 1st annual Masquerade Ball. It was magical!

I didn't quite capture the beginning of her presentation. It starts out as... "Hi. My name is Lilly. I'm excited to be here tonight to help my friends..." And then you can watch the rest of it.

Jay and Nathan, another hero, had the same masks! Nathan thought that was pretty awesome!

Cami and Lilly were asked to hand out flowers to all the ladies. It was fun to get to know Cami and her family. Lilly is already asking when they can play together again. 

We had fun getting dressed up! What a fancy night!

Jazz Bear asked Lilly to dance. She used to be so nervous around him, but has grown to love him!

Silly girls! Autumn, Cami, and Lilly had fun playing together and wandering through the aquarium. 

DANCE TIME!

We love Ellie and Colton and are so glad they are part of the MMF. We can't imagine our lives without them!

Lilly LOVED Hiroko's dress! It was like a disco ball!

Eclipse 6 is an acapella group that performed - they were so good!

Rich and Trina... Oh how we love you! We will be forever grateful for all the smiles, laughter, and memories you have brought to our family. You are truly Angels here on Earth! We will never forget this amazing night. So glad we had the opportunity to be a part of it. 

Halloween Party!

Our family loves dressing up for Halloween! It's mostly Jay's fault... It's one of his favorite holidays. Ever since we went to Harry Potter World in Florida, Lilly has found a love for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

Jay made our wands. Lilly loves casting spells on random people or dueling with her Dad. We even went to the grocery store looking like this! One cashier said to Lilly "Wingardium Leviosuh!" As to which Lilly quickly responded,"It's Levio-SAH!" Ha!

The reason we got all dressed up was for the annual Halloween party with the Mascots!

Red the pony. So cute. So small. Still couldn't get Em to pet him. 

We love Nick and Dick! Our girls talk about them often. Matt (the driver) of Birch and Sons is so great and always takes special time for Miss Lilly. We first met Matt when Lilly was the Princess at Millie's Princess Run. It's hard to tell from the picture, but Lilly is sitting in the driver's seat of the hay wagon. She talked Matt's ear off the entire ride! 

Instead of roping a fake calf, Lilly wanted to rope Willy instead!

She's a sassy sassy girl! We wouldn't have it any other way!

Crafting and Candy and Playing, Oh My!

Emery, of course, was still so afraid of the mascots. But she did have fun playing all the games! As soon as we left, Emery started talking non-stop about how she "loves Willy... And he was a pirate and had silly earrings! And Blue Bird Felix was dressed up as a superhero... And Bumble was there. And Kodiak. And even Santa!" I wish those crazy zoo animals could see how much she truly does love them, even though she doesn't show it! It was a fun fun night! Thank you to Mascot Miracles Foundation for always bringing joy to our family! We Love You!

Mascot Bowl

Last week was the Mascot Bowl. The Jazz Bear puts it on every year and the money that is earned from the event goes to help kids for Christmas. It is so fun!

Last year Lilly was a VIP for the night and got a special football signed by all the mascots. This year she brought her same football to get signatures that she didn't get last year. There are a lot of names on that ball!

Willy made sure to blow kisses to Emery when he saw her. And, she even waved and blew kisses back! We think she loves Willy the most - still from a distance - but don't tell Felix!

Four men jumped from an airplane. That was fun to watch! Lilly said she WOULD NEVER EVER DO THAT! 

I don't know how those huge mascots run or even see in those costumes. It makes for great entertainment!

The mascots won! What a fun game!

The night ended with fireworks! We will be back next year, but this time we will go a lot earlier to get better seats. If you've never been to the Mascot Bowl, come! It's every September and it's something we look forward to!

CureSearch Walk

I'm behind on blogging... But better late than never! On September 26th was the CureSearch Walk. Last year we weren't able to participate because Lilly was so sick and in a hard phase of treatment. We were so excited to go this year. CureSearch is a walk to raise money that goes directly to childhood cancer research. Less than 4% of government funding goes to childhood cancer research. More needs to be done for these kiddos fighting this hard battle. It is something that is very near and dear to us and we will participate in this event for years and years to come.

Such a fun day for Lilly and Emery. Face painting was the first thing on their list of things they wanted to do. 

And then the mascots showed up and the girls got so excited! We were happy to meet the newest mascot Griff. Emery was so glad Princess Merida was there and then stayed FAR AWAY from her other furry costumed friends!

Lilly finally got to meet her friend Madeleine. She reached out to Lilly when Michalla passed away and she came all the way out here from London for the CureSearch walk. She has just relapsed again and we are praying this new treatment she is going to try will work for her. We love you Madeleine!!!!

Jay and I signed up for the Be The Match bone marrow registry. It is something that is so important to us. If Lilly ever relapsed she would have to have a bone marrow transplant. It doesn't take much to sign up. Just a swab of your cheek. I would love to be able to help save someone's life!!!

Look at all these BRAVE kids!

We will walk for you Lilly. Every year. 

I love this picture. LuAnn is a mama who lost her sweet Abi to cancer last year. She is remembering Abi by sprinkling pink glitter as she walks. We love your family!!

With being so busy with trying to sell our house, we didn't recruit a lot of people to be on our team for the walk this year. But, you just wait... Next year we are going to get a much bigger team and raise more money for childhood cancer research. Join us next September!

Lilly found a couple of her nurses that she loves! 

What a fun day!