Tilly Best Friend Ronald McDonald

Tilly and Ronald McDonald at a BBQ together!

Hanging with my friends!

Editor's Note: Every year Tilly and I are invited to the Ronald McDonald House for a BBQ. This is always an amazing day filled with fun, friends, and food! The Ronald McDonald House of Long Branch provides a home away from home to the families of seriously ill children receiving medical treatment at area hospitals in the two house locations - Long Branch and New Brunswick - They also operate Ronald McDonald House Family Rooms and a Hospitality Suite in the pediatric units of three Monmouth County hospitals. This charity is not only phenomenal because of what they do, but the houses themselves are unbelievable. Our local business men and women have all come together to make the interior and exterior of the house state-of-the-art. This is truly a miraculous charity, so next time you stop into the "Golden Arches" for Chicken McNuggets and fries or to buy your daily USA Today paper throw your spare change into the donation boxes because all of the proceeds go directly to the local houses! A great way to think and act locally!!! Enjoy Tilly's adventure at the bbq!!!

Hey everyone, it is me Tilly, here to tell you another fabulous tale. It has been raining, and raining, and raining for days now. If I wasn't a smart Bully I would think that at any moment Dr. Suess's Cat in the Hat is going to appear at the front door and unleash Thing 1 and Thing 2 on me and Alison. I am especially upset about the rain because tomorrow we are heading over to the Ronald McDonald House for their annual Friends and Family BBQ. It is such a fun  day with all of my little friends, including face painting, pumpkin painting, prizes, awards, balloon animals, and FOOD...my favorite! Tonight I will fall asleep and dream about sunshine, birds, and warm weather. Paws crossed it will work.

Well I fell asleep without a worry in the world. I knew that there was no way that there could be rain tomorrow. I mean how could it rain and ruin all the fun. When I woke up , I opened one eye first and peeked threw my winkles. Then I hopped up and started to prance around the house. It's sunny, it's sunny...YIPPPEEEE and YAHOOO!!! Today is going to be great. Alison was getting everything ready and while I waited for her, which seemed like forever, I sat outside and basked in the beautiful sunshine. It was beautiful out, a perfect 10, I could not wait to get over to see my friends! We loaded everything into the car, including ourselves and headed over to the Ronald McDonald House! We got to the house and headed up the front walk and guess who was there waiting for me... come on and try to guess! Why it was Ronald himself and he couldn't wait to say hello. He was so excited because it had been over a year since the last time we saw each other. Well I wiggled and wiggled and he was hooting and hollering and we were jumping around in a circle with such glee. Then some of our other friends saw all of the fun and commotion and they came over to join in too. Round and round we all went. Skipping, and wiggling, and hootin' and hollerin'! It was already turning out to be a wonderful day!

We all went into the front yard and that is when all of the real fun began. There was a woman sitting at a table and she was painting all of my little friend's faces. She was painting some of them like cats and some looked like dogs....this is my kind of party! Then another woman was making these huge balloon animals. It was really fantastic. She made a parrot and it sat on one girls shoulder, a humongous spider that sat on another boy's head (that one scared me a little bit), and even a giraffe; all out of balloons. Isn't that remarkable. In another part of the yard a table filled with pumpkins and was set up for everyone to paint. My little friends had fun with that too. Everyone was running everywhere. Up the stairs and down the slide, into the playhouse, then out again. This is just about as much fun as this little bully could take when Alison walked us over to this enormous truck. It was big and red and had tons of lights and whistles. Alison said it was a fire truck. Can you believe that? It was wondrous. Just when I thought things couldn't be any better Alison picked me up and put me inside the fire truck! I couldn't believe it!

 

Me in the fire truck with real firefighters

We got to touch everything, and I mean everything. Alison opened every door and hatch in the truck. I would have but I don't have thumbs...humpf! Then I got to press on some buttons and the lights started to swirl and the sirens started to sound. It was so much fun that I started to do a bulldog wiggle! Then it was time for the award ceremony to start so we got out of the truck and watched as all of our friends received their awards. I was so proud of them all for all of their hard work and dedication to making others lives a bit easier. 

As the last award was handed out it we knew it was time for us to head home. So that is just what we did! 

 Ronald giving out awards

 I wonder what will happen tomorrow? I wonder if I will get to meet up with anymore of my famous friends? You will have to stay tuned-in to The Adventures of Tilly the Wonder-mutt and find out!!!