I’m promising to update more frequently. We have a LOT going on and I want to document it all for when I ever get a chance to scrapbook 😉
June was a busy month.
Maddie graduated from St. Dominic School on June 15th. It was a beautiful day and I’ll admit to having shed a few (thousand) tears.
June 17 was a VERY big evening for Olivia. We were invited to the Aqua Turf to share Olivia’s story at the Miss CT Gala. This is the kickoff to the Miss CT pageant. Maddie had her annual end of school party at Mountain Grove which she chose to attend instead. Olivia was in her GLORY with all the pretty ladies, their gorgeous dresses and of course, all those CROWNS! Olivia made us incredibly proud when she chose to give a speech herself. There was not a dry eye in the room when she was finished and she received a standing ovation. The directors of the pageant were so impressed they actually made Olivia an honorary “diamond” and gave her a crown. It was truly a shining moment for Olivia and “the hands” were going a mile a minute. She asked me after getting her crown if she would get a sash too? LOL. She then spent the rest of the evening dancing with the other girls. She made fast friends with a little girl who had the same dress on as her.
This was such good timing, as the next morning I woke up Maddie and took her to Disney as her graduation present! It was just the two of us. We went from June 18 – June 22 and stayed at the Port Orleans – French Quarter. How I told her: I had been telling her we were going to start getting up early in the morning and running. We had also been telling her that her graduation gift wouldn’t be arriving until Saturday. On that morning I woke her up at 5AM and asked her to come downstairs. We handed her a graduation card that told her to look in the trunk of my car for her gift. She opened the trunk where two suitcases were in there (with the bright yellow Magical Express luggage tags on them), along with her Mickey ears and a small Mickey Mouse. She couldn’t believe it and kept saying “Really? Now?”
Maddie actually planned the entire trip – from dining to park days for my “client”. We did a lot of “new to us” things – such as water parks (which she had last been to at the age of 3), Disney Quest and closing the Magic Kingdom at 2AM. It was a great time for just the two of us to spend time together and bond.
June 25 I took the girls and Maddie’s best friend to the Miss CT pageant in New London. The Miss CT organization had invited us to attend after Olivia’s speech. Olivia got to see some of the new friends again and we got to see Miss Southington, Morgan Amarone, become Miss CT. Olivia went on stage with our friend, Scott, from the CT Children’s Medical Center Foundation to help him present the outgoing Miss CT, Brittany Decker, with a thank you for all that she did for the Hospital in the past year.