Dream Day
Week #1 - Getting Started
What is it?
Dream Day is about recognizing our peers with developmental disabilities and provide them with a fun-filled day that focuses on achieving their dreams. Dream Day is a "legacy project", which means that this project already existed before my group and I took it over. Dream Day has existed for two years prior to this year, and because the groundwork for the project had already been completed, it was relatively easy to start back up. Thanks to them, we still have existing funds to use, a better understanding of how to get in contact with parents, and a list of Dream Day ideas to present to our disabled peers. Some of the past Dream Day projects include: a trip to the colts game, and 18th birthday party, going to the nail salon, and riding in a firetruck.
Inspiration
I was inspired to take on Dream Day because of the huge impact that it has on kids. I have worked with the special-ed kids in the past, and even doing the smallest of things can make them smile. Of course, everyone in the school is nice to these kids and talks to them, but I think that it is important that we do something bigger to make them feel special and loved. Another factor that went into my decision to be apart of Dream Day was the families of these kids as well. Some families do not have the resources or the money to take their kids on a fun night-out. Being able to take that weight off of these stressed-out parents is almost as important as pleasing their kids. In addition, I love to talk and interact with these kids. They make me smile and laugh so much just by being themselves. Each kid is unique and different in their own way, and it is cool to see all of the different personalities wrapped up in each one.
Money
Money is always something that you should be concerned with when working on a project, but you shouldn't let it put a limit on your ultimate goals. We have found that it is possible to get money through donations, sponsorships, fundraisers, and grants. Their are many different options if money becomes a big issue. With this project specifically, we are going to try our best to contact as many organizations a possible to get donations. One you discover what you are planning for a Dream Day, you can try and get gift cards or free tickets donated as well. It is important to take each project one at a time, and find the cheapest (yet still quality) way to complete each Dream Day.
Process
As I said before, Dream Day is an easier project to start because of the hard work that groups have put into it in the past. That being said, their were a lot of things that we had to figure out before beginning. Before we started the detailed process of our project, we presented a brief overview of it to administrators and teachers within our school system. When we finally got started, the first thing that we decided to focus on was meeting with the kids. We had to email Mrs. Westerman (in charge of the resource development class) and set up a time that we could come into her class and talk to the students. In preparation for this, we constructed a packet that contains information about Dream Day to send home with the parents. In this packet, we included a letter to the parents, a list of questions about their child's likes and dislikes, and our contact information. While we were in Mrs. Westerman's class, we pulled our peers that could communicate well aside and asked them the questions that were included in the packet. Unfortunately, some kids do not have the ability to communicate as well, so we sent their questions home for their parents to fill out. After this step, we regrouped back in Mr. Large's room and began to prioritize which projects should be worked on first. This is an important step because some kids have birthdays that they want to celebrate or have a seasonal wish such as going to a Colts Game, and their is a small time frame that we have to make these things happen.
Our First Dream Day!
We decided to begin with Kinsey's Dream Day. Kinsey loves to listen to Christian Music, and her favorite artists are Chris Tomlin, Matthew West, and Jeremy Camp. Coincidentally, Jeremy Camp and Matthew West are touring together in concert for the first time ever. Right when we saw that these two artists were performing on stage together, we knew that it would be the perfect Dream Day for Kinsey. The two available dates that the tour would be in Indiana were October 14th and November 15th, so we needed to start working on putting this day together right away. Avery and Victoria started calling different places to see if we could get tickets donated to us or buy tickets at a discounted price. They tried calling a few numbers on Matthew West and Jeremy Camp's website and also got into contact with K-Love (a Christian Music radio station) to see if any would be willing to help us out. While they were doing this, I was emailing Matthew West's manager, Rachel Pinkerton. I have still not been able to get a response from her. Right now, we are stuck in a tough spot because we really want to take Kinsey to this amazing concert, but it is so hard to get into contact with people. Although things are moving slowly, we are still hopeful that things will work out with a little bit more work and persistence.
Expansion
Dream Day is an amazing project idea, so why just limit it to kids with developmental disabilities? There are kids all over Indianapolis who do not have the same opportunities that we do and are craving recognition from someone. This year, my group and I decided that we wanted to try and expand Dream Day to kids living in foster homes and orphanages. This will be a much harder task, however, because it will be much harder to get into contact with the kids since they aren't apart of our school system. We have made a little bit of progress in our attempt to expand Dream Day. We met with a representative from Hands of Hope, an orphan care ministry, and discussed ways that we could improve the lives of the the kids living their. We exchanged contact information and will stay in contact with them throughout the year. Although we want to expand Dream Day, it is still important to maintain the original idea and that is why helping disabled kids within our community is our first priority.
Week #2 - Kinsey
All-In Tour
Our first student that we chose to focus on is Kinsey Bandy. As discussed in my last post, my group was in the beginning stages of putting together her Dream Day. It has taken us longer than we would have liked to create Kinsey's day, but we know how excited she is going to be when we tell her she is going to a Jeremy Camp and Matthew West concert. That being said, we could not abandon this specific dream just because their were many obstacles in our way.
Tickets
The hardest part about this Dream Day is the expense of the tickets that we would need to purchase in order to make it happen. At first glance, it would have cost us $74 per ticket. That number was way out of our price range so we began emailing different people from the tour to see if we could get any tickets donated for free or at a lower price. I emailed Rachel Pinkerton from the Matthew West tour and described our project briefly, but still tried to add a lot of information about Kinsey to incorporate emotional appeal. After I emailed Rachel, I realized that I would need to conduct a lot of more emails throughout this project. To save time, I typed up a generic email that I can use and edit whenever I need to get in contact with different businesses and organizations. While I was emailing people, my group members, Avery and Victoria, were in the hallway making calls to the locations that the concert would be held (Purdue University and Ft. Wayne). After our emails and calls didn't seem to be making any progress, we tried to send a tweet to Jeremy and Matthew to see if we could reach out to them personally. We knew that this probably wouldn't work but we were trying every form of communication available to us.
Grant Money
After we were realized that nobody was responding to our emails and that many places did not offer ticket donations, we had to consider an alternate form of getting money for the tickets. A couple of other groups were struggling with finding enough funds to keep their projects alive as well, so we all applied for a Generation One Grant that offered $250. This grant required us to fill out a short document that asked questions such as what our project was about, what impact our project had on our community, and why we decided to participate in the project. About a week later, Mr. Large informed us that we had received the grant money! Although we were ecstatic to receive the grant, we knew that we have many other kid's Dream Days to create and couldn't spend all $250 on Kinsey's.
Baskets
Another thing that we have been working on in the time that we haven't been emailing and calling people is finding and purchasing items to go in Kinsey's Dream Day basket. A Dream Day basket is something that we can give to her after the day and will consist of a picture of her at the event, her favorite candy, a notebook and pen, and a few bracelets with inspirational sayings on them. The basket is an important part of Dream Day because it gives our peers something to remember their special day by. The basket insures that they will not forget about the day and give them more things to be excited by.
Week #3 - Blake
Tacos!
As we awaited Kinsey's concert, we began working on Blake's Dream Day. One of Blake's favorite things to eat (and just in general) are tacos. If you ask him a question, nine times out of ten, he will respond with "tacos!". Because of his love for tacos, we decided to throw him a taco party! We had this idea at the beginning of the year when we interviewed all of the kids and talked about their likes and dislikes. Blake's enthusiasm for tacos inspired us to create the best taco party ever. When we were just thinking about the party, it seemed very simple and easy to plan; however, once we actually started to work on it, we realized that it was going to take much more work than what we originally thought.
Details
In order to prepare for this specific Dream Day, we had to go back and ask Blake a lot more questions about what kind of tacos he liked. It was very important for us to provide him with everything that he loves to eat. From that meeting, we learned that Blake, alongside tacos, likes: chocolate cake with chocolate icing, spicy queso, white milk, Hershey's chocolate, and hot sauce. At the end of all of the questions, Avery and I asked, "is there anything else you want at your taco party?" and Blake responded with, "you!". Getting this sweet response from Blake showed Avery and I that what we are doing is so important. These kids are so kind and giving Blake his Dream Day will bring the biggest smile to his face.
Planning
After we had all of the information that we needed, we came back up to Mr. Large's room and began brainstorming on what we should incorporate at this party. We began listing the obvious things, such as everything you would need to make a taco. We also included chips and cheese because we know that all of Blake's classmates will happily eat that. Once the food was decided, we began to think of different activities to plan during the party. We had just seen an adorable taco piñata at Walmart while shopping for Kinsey's Dream Day and we knew we wanted to incorporate that in Blake's Party. In addition to the piñata, we planned to play "pin the tail on the donkey" and "hot potato". We tried to plan our games as a Mexican theme in order to make the "taco" in the party stand out. We also plan to make a treasure hunt for the kids. This will entail making various clues to different locations in Mrs. Westerman's class. The winner of all of these games will either receive a full-sized candy bar or a stuff-animal taco.
Arts and Crafts
Earlier on in the planning process, we came across a banner that read "Taco 'Bouta Party". We loved this slogan, but didn't want to spend any of our limited budget on it. Instead, we traced and cut out huge letters on the big paper that the media center provides for the school. Then, with the help of Mr. Gaw, we painted our letters in the colors red, green, and yellow. Since we wanted the letters to look more like a banner, we taped a piece of string behind them. The plan is to string the slogan up on the wall of Mrs. Westerman's room. While Avery and I worked on preparing the banner, Victoria traced, cut out, and painted a donkey for "pin the tail on the donkey". For the donkey's tail, we are going to use yarn that we borrowed from Mr. Gaw.
Difficulties
Although this party is created for Blake, the other kids in Mrs. Westerman's class will be participating in all of the fun as well. Since we need to incorporate every kid, we had to get a head count on every person that would eat the food we provided (many of the kid's have a modified diet) and how many people would be participating in the games. Mrs. Westerman helped us count up all of the kids, and from that we were able to know how much food we should buy. Another thing that we had to take into account when planning the party was the different temperaments of each kid. We had to choose games that wouldn't cause any fits of anger or make the kids upset. Furthermore, we had originally planned the party for the Wednesday of this week during our fourth period (Mr. Large's class). Mrs. Westerman had cleared that date with her schedule and we thought that we were good to go. Unfortunately, we learned that labs were on lockdown that Wednesday. Being able to have an open Lab B was important because that was when we were going to set up the food, decorations, and games. Luckily, it was easy to switch the party from this week to next week. Now, the party will be held on an open lab day: Tuesday. We are so excited!
Week #4 - Results
Since my last blog post, so much has happened. We successfully completed Kinsey and Blake's Dream Day! It was amazing to see how much happiness the Taco Party and concert brought to Kinsey and Blake. Because of the mixed up schedule of our Taco Party, we ended up having to do both Dream Day's within the same week. Blake's Taco Party was on Tuesday and the concert was on Thursday...it was definitely a busy week.
Taco Party
The Taco Party took a little bit more preparation then we had anticipated. The night before, I made all of the food and took it into school on Tuesday morning. I didn't bring that much, just the basics such as: taco meat, chips, cheese, sour cream, tortillas, and queso. We set up the Taco Party in Lab B and planned to start it in our 4th period class. Unfortunately, setting up the decorations took longer than we thought. We realized that we could not hang the piñata up in the room because there was a chance that it would fall, and we didn't want to accidentally hurt anyone. Since we didn't want to waste the money we spent on the piñata, we put the it on the ground and just had the kids wack at it...it actually ended up working pretty well. Pin the tail on the donkey worked fairly well, but it was a little bit hard to get everyone to listen and actually play the game correctly. The treasure hunt was fairly successful as well. Some of the kids were really into it and excited, but a few refused to participate. Surprisingly, the game that took the least preparation was the most loved by everyone. We played hot potato for the longest amount of time and all of the kids enjoyed the music immensely. When it came time to eat, some of the kids wanted to still go to the cafeteria for lunch, which ended up being a good thing because if they would have stayed then we would not have had enough food. Those kids ATE A LOT, at least much more than I expected. Overall, I think that the Taco Party went very well, but I probably would want to focus on doing things more one on one with the kids in the future.
Concert
The concert that we took Kinsey to happened to fall on a snow day. At fist, we weren't sure if we would be able to take Kinsey because of the icy roads. As the day progressed, however, the snow began to melt and we were excited that everything would work out. My dad and I picked Avery up and then Kinsey around 4:00. It took about an hour and a half to get to the concert so we wanted to make sure that we left with plenty of time to spare. When we picked her up, we went inside her house and talked with her mom for a little bit and made sure that she knew all of the details of the night. Unfortunately, we had been driving for 20 minutes when we realized that Avery had forgotten the tickets. We had to turn back and meet her mom halfway to retrieve them. During the car ride, it was fun to get to know Kinsey and what some of her interests were. She really likes to swim and loves to listen to music. We listened to some of her favorite songs, such as "Church Clap", "The Cat Came Back", and "Hot Dog", at least four times each. We stopped at Wendy's for dinner and Kinsey ordered the chili because it was one of the few things that was gluten free. We arrived at the concert a little bit late due to Avery's forgetfulness, but only missed a few of Matthew West's songs. It was really cool to see Kinsey interact at the concert. When a song was played that she knew, she would get really excited and jump up and down. Because of the long drive home, we left a little bit early. As we were walking out, Kinsey said "I wish we could stay here all night". I think that warmed all of our hearts so much and made the three hour round trip so worth it. Since Kinsey refused to sleep in the car, we enjoyed talking to her about her family, Thanksgiving plans, and favorite foods. I loved taking Kinsey to the Matthew West and Jeremy Camp Concert. It was very impactful on my life to get to know Kinsey on a more personal level. Although she couldn't remember our names until we pulled into her driveway to drop her off, I know that Kinsey had a great time with us. After Thanksgiving break, we put together Kinsey's basket (described in previous blog posts) and gave her a picture of the three of us at the concert. She really loved it and told us that she put it up in her room. It think that it is important for us to continue and make these baskets because it helps the kids remember the event and look back upon how much fun they had.
Week #5 - Starting Again
Since we finished both of the Dream Days that we were working on, it was time for us to start a totally brand new one. The person that we chose was Chase. When we interviewed Chase earlier in the year, he said that he loved to play video games and hang out with his friends the most. As we started researching what we should do for Chase's Dream Day, we came across many different arcade places that we though Chase would enjoy going to. Fortunately for us, the place that we liked the best and had the best deals was Main Event Entertainment. Once we set our sites on this venue for Chase, we emailed many employees and left comments on their website. After a few days with no responses, we decided that we could improvise a little bit if we had to. Victoria, Avery, and I all signed up to be a member of Main Event Entertainment so that we could earn the 10 point arcade game card. This would save us money on playing arcade games, so now we only had to pay for the bowling and the laser tag. Luckily, Claire Miller, a sales manager at Main Event Entertainment emailed us back and seemed very enthusiastic about our cause. We immediately called her and asked if she could present us with any deals or discounts so that we would not have to pay as much. She asked us to give her a few dates that we thought would work for us, and we told her that sometime over Christmas would be the easiest. She told us that she would talk to her manager and then get back to us with possible days that we could come. After Main Event Entertainment seemed to be the place that we were going to go, we went down to Mrs. Westerman's room to talk to Chase. We gave him a packet that contained information about Dream Day and how to get ahold of this. We also asked him what friend he would want to bring with him. Hopefully Claire will get back to us soon about possible days we can go with Chase!
Week #6 - Chase and Expansion
Last blog post, we were awaiting the response of Claire Miller, the sales manager at Main Event Entertainment. Since we had not gotten a call or an email from her, we decided to take matters into our own hands. We called her and reminded her of who we were and what we had originally asked her earlier in the month. Luckily, she was still interested in our cause but had just forgot. This shows how important it is to be persistent with people you contact, because, in most cases, they want to help but just continue to put it off until reminded. We told Claire that a Sunday afternoon would be the most ideal time to visit Main Event. At the end of the call, we finalized a date (January 27th) and a time (12:00-2:00). She told us that she would see how much of a discount and get back to us within the day. We were very fortunate for he to offer to pay for our whole experience at Main Event. This experience will include a bowling lane and tickets to play the arcade games.
The next thing we needed to do was contact Chase's and Blake's parents (the friend that Chase chose to bring), and clarify that this date would work for them as well. We got a response back from Blake's parents that he was free to come, but we are still awaiting a response from Chase's parents. We are CROSSING our fingers that he is able to go, or we will have to reschedule a totally new day, which would take up more of our time.
As we wait for Chase's parents to contact us, we decided to try and start another Dream Day. We have completed about every kid that was able to participate in the high school and thought that it would be a good idea to expand to New Palestine Junior High. I texted Erin Amones, the resource teacher at NPJH, and set up a time during the day that we could meet-up. We told her about what we did and showed her pictures of past Dream Day's that we had done. She was more than happy to help us out with our project! We asked how many resource kids were in her class so we could print enough packets off for them to fill out the next time we came. It turns out, we will have 6 more Dream Days to plan in the coming months! While we visited, we also got to meet some of the kids. It was super fun to meet Dwayne, Cameron, and Dylan. We will be going back to NPJH next week to help the kids fill out these packets and get a grasp on their likes and dislikes so that we can start planning their Dream Day!
Week #7 - Main Event Entertainment
This Sunday, Avery, Victoria, and I got to finally take Chase to Main Event Entertainment! I was a little bit nervous beforehand, but it turned out to be a really fun day. Avery and I met Victoria at her house around 10:15, from there we picked up Blake at his house, and then we picked up Chase. We exchanged phone numbers with their parents so that we could update them throughout the day or text them if anything went wrong. It was about a thirty minute drive to Main Event Entertainment, and we got asked "are we there yet?" before we even left Chase's driveway.
At around 11:20, we arrived at McDonalds for lunch. Earlier in the week, Victoria and I went to McDonalds to get a $20 gift card to make it easier to purchase on the day of. Blake ordered two cheeseburgers, a medium fry, and a sprite. Chase ordered a cheeseburger, medium fry, and a Dr. Pepper. At McDonalds, it was fun to talk to them about their days and what their favorite movies and songs were. We had to take Chase's phone away from him a few times because he kept wanting to text his parents, and we didn't want his parents to be bothered while he was with us. Both boys ate all of their food really easily and even asked for more.
Once we arrived at Main Event Entertainment, I went up to the front desk and explained that I had talked to Claire Miller on the phone about Dream Day, and showed him the emails between the two of us. I was nervous that they may not be notified about Dream Day or that they might make us pay, but everything went smoothly, and they opened a bowling lane for us and gave us arcade cards! We bowled for an hour, and they seemed to really enjoy it. We put the bumpers up for Chase and Blake so that it was easier for them to bowl, but other then that, they handled it really well. After bowling, we got to play in the arcade for one hour! Although our deal didn't include the boys getting any tickets, they still loved playing the games.
Overall, I think this Dream Day went amazingly. The boys got along great, and neither one of them got upset or threw any fits. Two hours plus lunch was a perfect amount of time because, by the time we dropped them off, they were super tired. I had so much fun hanging out with Blake and Chase and am excited to plan the next Dream Day!
Week #8 - NPJH Meeting
This week, my group and I traveled to New Palestine Junior High to get some information about the students there so that we could get started on our next Dream Day. There are seven kids in the special education program at NPJS: Cam, Kameron, Dylan, Jenny, Jill, Dwayne, and Addi. During this meeting, we talked with Erin Amones, their teacher, and she gave us some great ideas for each of the student's possible Dream Days!
Jenny: indoor water park, nails/makeup
Cam: indoor go cart
Kameron: cookies and canvas
Jill: nails, spa day, makeup
Dwayne: horses, buffet, Agape (horse program), monster trucks
Addi: makeup, hair
Dylan: main event entertainment, dave and busters, arcade games
We have decided to combine Addi, Jenny, and Jill's Dream Day all in one. All three of them have the same love for makeup, hair, and nails. We thought that we might try to get their nails done somewhere, as well as their hair. We were also thinking that we could use some of the prom dresses leftover from the dress sale and give them a total makeover. Since Addi has a history of seizures, and Jenny has very big tantrums at times, we would need for their parents or Mrs. Amones to accompany us on their Dream Day. However, we still want to be there and be apart of their day, because they really enjoy having their "girls" (what they refer to us as) with them. We are going to start researching and communicating with nail and hair salons right away in order to make this Dream Day happen as soon as possible!
Week #9 - Planning
These past few weeks, we have been working on the girl's and boy's Dream Day at NPJH.
We contacted Studio 52 and secured a date to take the girls on April 20th at 3 pm. We wanted to be able to take them to Studio 52 they day before their formal, but unfortunately, Studio 52 was unable to do it on that day. Because we won't be giving them a makeover for a specific event, we thought that it would be fun to give them a photoshoot! We plan to dress up with them so that they don't feel secluded from us. We have been in constant contact with Mrs. Amones about getting parents on board and notifying them about the times that these events will be taking place. All of the girls are able to go on April 20th which is very exciting. We also had to ask Mrs. Amones the girls' dress sizes so that we could find them a dress that would fit. We contacted Mrs. Pratt, who was in charge of the dress sale this year, and we communicated over the course of a few days to find a day that we could head over to NPI to pick out dresses for the girls. Melissa Hurst met us at NPI on our block day, and we spent about an hour sorting through dresses and finding different styles and sizes that the girls would like. We probably picked out about 15 dresses, so the girls could choose from a variety. The girls will be able to keep the dresses when we are done with the photoshoot, so that will be fun to give to them.
The boys' Dream Day has been a little bit more difficult to plan. Originally, we were going to take the boys on separate Dream Days. We had planned for Kameron to go to Cookies and Canvas, Dylan to go to MainEvent Entertainment, and Dwayne to go to a stable to ride horses. However, Mrs. Amones suggested that we combine all of their Dream Days into one big party at an arcade place. Dwayne's birthday is on April 14th so we were going to go to Great Times and book a "party room". All of the boys would have came and celebrated with him. Avery, Victoria, and I were unable to make that date though, and Mrs. Amones would prefer us to be there to help with supervision, so now we are trying to find a new date. Because next weekend is Easter, and we already planned the girls' Dream Day for that Saturday, the boys' Dream Day will probably be pushed back to sometime in May.
Week #10 - Makeover
Over the weekend, we got to take Jill, Jenny, and Addi to the hair salon at Woodland Terrace. Avery and I brought the dresses over, and arrived 30 minutes beforehand so that we could make sure everything would be planned out smoothly. We talked to Wendy Parish and told her what we expected of her and what she should expect from the girls. We were a little bit nervous going into the day because we didn't want any of the girls to be let down. However, once they got there, everything ran very smoothly. The girls got their hair, nails, and makeup done by three professionals who worked in the studio. All of the girls got along really well and it was fun to just sit and talk to them while they were waiting for their hair or nails to be finished. About halfway through the makeover process, Avery and I went out to the car and started to bring in the dresses. This was another part of the day that we were nervous about because we didn't know if any of the dresses would fit the girls. Luckily, all of the girls found a dress that fit them perfectly! We helped them get dressed when their hair and makeup was done. It was a little bit of a struggle at times to get them to follow directions, but for the most part they behaved super well. After they were all dressed, we took them upstairs and took a bunch of photos of them. They seemed to really enjoy taking pictures (especially Jenny). It was sad saying goodbye to them at the end of the day, but they seemed super happy with what they got to do and gave us big hugs. After they left, we helped clean up and left. The day was super fun for the girls and for us, and the experience is one that I will never forget.
Week #11 - Great Times and Elizabeth
Over the last two weeks, we have been planning two separate Dream Days. One of these Dream Days took place over this past weekend, and the other Dream Day will be taking place this upcoming Saturday. Elizabeth is a high schooler here at NPHS who is in a wheel chair and can not communicate very well. Because of these set-backs, her mom had to come with us on the Dream Day so that she could help us communicate with Elizabeth and be there in case of an emergency that we didn't know how to handle. This past Saturday, Avery and I met Elizabeth and her mom at Greenwood mall around 2:00. We ate at the food court and talked for a little bit and then started shopping! This was probably our most difficult Dream Day yet, just because it was hard to know what Elizabeth liked and what she didn't like. Elizabeth's mom helped us get a $40 Old Navy gift card and a $50 Macy's gift card. With this money, we bought Elizabeth a new backpack and two new outfits. It was fun seeing when Elizabeth got happy about certain things that we would show her. The mall was a little bit crowded on Saturday so it was hard at times to wheel her around from store to store. Avery and I ended up leaving the mall around 4:45. Overall, I'm glad that we did it for Elizabeth and I had a good time, but I think an outdoor setting would be better in a wheelchair because of how crowded it can get indoors.
This week, we have been planning Dwayne, Dylan, Cameron, and Kameron's Dream Day. We are going to take them to Great Times on Saturday from 1:00-3:00. Since we have a lot of money still in our grant, we are able to give them each $20 worth of play points. Play points will allow them to either play arcade games, mini golf, go-kart, or play in the playhouse. We also purchased $40 more worth of play points so that we could take part in some of these activities with them. Since the year is wrapping up, we don't feel as nervous spending some of our excess money. In the beginning, we were trying to conserve as much money as possible so that we didn't run out. I'm glad that we did this because it has allowed us to plan this Dream Day for the boys that probably would have been too expensive if we weren't frugal with our money earlier on.