The Celebration Continues into the Night!!!!

Tonight we had a special celebration in honor of Katie's last clinic day. This was a small family party that would have been held at our house had our yard/house not been a complete disaster. Our friends let us have the party at their karate studio (American Shaolin Kempo Concepts) in Shrewsbury. My friends Mary & Eileen decorated the studio Friday morning with decorations that Katie & I had picked out. The decor came together really beautifully... The room looked perfect for this party!!! A BIG thanks to Mary & Eileen for helping to pull together such a special celebration!

Katie requested the orange boa and her shirt reads, "I just BEAT cancer and now I am going to Disney World".

We hung her bravery beads where everyone could see how much bravery this one little girl has exhibited over the past 2 years.

When Katie was first diagnosed, my good friends - Mary, Shelly & Eileen - bought orange wristbands with Kaitlyn's name on them for us to wear while she fought her battle with Leukemia. Tonight, we gave out purple wristbands with her name on them. We chose purple for 2 reasons - 1) It is Kaitlyn's favorite color and 2) It is the color of cancer survivors. I still haven't quite been able to take off my orange wristband yet, but I am hoping that soon I will be OK with taking it off. In a way, it honors everything that she had to go through to become a survivor.

After a tear filled thank you speech (if that's what you can call it), we popped an orange balloon as a way to symbolize "saying goodbye to leukemia".

All the party goers - We love you guys!!!

In the center of the room, the kids played freely. Watching them play was the entertainment for the adults. From a musical mat....

To Elefun...

To karate lessons by Master Phil...

And even some musical chairs...

Katie had more energy than anyone...you would never have imagined that she had a chemo treatment just that morning. This kid knows how to have a good time, that's for sure!!!

Thanks to Kerrie for providing the kids with so much to do when I was too drained to even think of a single thing for them to do...you did much better than I could have :-)

Katie, we love you more than you will ever know and we are so happy that all of this is almost behind you. You are an amazing little girl who I truly admire. I hope you always know how special you are!!!

The night ended for Katie around 10pm when she finally decided she was tired. Here she is just being goofy with Eileen, Mary, Shelly and Me.

To those of you that were there, what I was TRYING to say is that we never would have gotten through the past 2 years without your love & support. I hope I got at least that much across through all my tears.

You know the saying, "It takes a village to raise a child".... Well, it has taken all of that & more the past 2 years and we appreciate how much you have all helped us out in some way. Whenever we needed something, one of you were there. We cannot say thank you enough for being our support system while we were trying to stay strong for Katie. We love you all very much!!!

To those of you that were not there...stay tuned. We will begin planning the the BIG "end of treatment" party when we return from Disney!!! Get your party hats ready - we love you all very much too!!!