dang it!

This just keeps happening to me.  Every year I get older.  I don't like getting older, but I do like gifts and cake..... So, I keep putting up with it. 

This year has been a crazy year for a birthday.  I was scheduled to go to Lincoln City with some friends but the horrible earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, causing a Tsunami alert here on the Pacific Coast and they evacuated Lincoln City.  Also that day we had a going away party for K and R ( our niece and her hubby)  who are leaving to hike the Pacific Rim Trail starting in April.  So, we didn't celebrate my birthday on my birthday.  Instead, we  all got together the following Saturday (the 19th) at our home to celebrate.  It was fun.  We had an impromptu pizza party along with some yummy cake given to me at the farewell party the week before.  I got a new NIKON camera (if you wonder why this is huge refer to this post)!!!  YEAH! and I also got a new external hard drive (so important!!) and a fun new cookbook.  Twas fun, fun, fun!!  My favorite part of the whole experience was the sun coming out inspiring me to drag my beautiful nieces outside for a little picture taking by aunt Hope.  They're rather used to me pointing a camera at them but they're pretty darn tolerant of my getting in their face and bossing them around and with my wonderful new camera I got some beautiful shots of them!!!  Yeah!

I love St. Patrick's Day

I have a thing for celebrating holidays.  I love to do a little somethin' special for my fam.....  I think my holidaycentric style comes from my mom who did the wierdest, but funnest (Ok, I know it's not a word but it fits, OK?) things for holidays (like dressing up our vacuum cleaner for every holiday!).  I also think that since I'm an adoptive parent I put more attention into creating special moments.  As I have studied adoption, and reactive attachment disorder and bonding issues the one of the best pieces of advice is to create family traditions....and I do traditions.

Every year I do a St. Patrick's day dinner.  It's frequently squeezed in between meetings and other crazy stuff.  I just fix a dinner and we all wear our green hats....simple, simple....but, memorable.

On the menu this year
Irish soda bread (yummmmy!  best batch eveh!)
corned beef, potatos & cabbage (ala Costco * Can you say simple?*)
a little bubbly
and some rainbow cupcakes (yummy white cake recipe!!)

It was fun, it was short & simple and over in just a few minutes (as hubby bubby had a meeting)....all this and I am sick too....  the trick is pre-planning......

fun fun fun

anybody out there do anything fun for St. Pat's?

Spring is here!

My Blog is primarily a family blog...BUT.... I also use it to document some of the things that I do, mostly so that I have a record of what happened when and what I did.

Every Spring I am in charge of a Recognition Night for my Activity Day Girls.

The most recent one was this past Sunday.

It's exhausting to get ready, lots of tracking down parents about records and achievements....m u l t i p l e copies of certificates as I update things at the last second....and CHARMS...cute little charms that the girls get on their bracelets to keep track of their completed goals and be celebrated in front of their family and friends.

It's totally worth every second of work spent on it.

The girls are always excited (they line up....LINE UP!!!) and wait rather impatiently for Recognition Night to start.  They sit (all on their own) largely in the front row.

The girls are the program for the evening.  One of our eldest girls conducts the meeting, while another conducts the music and this time we had a girl who was comfortable playing the piano (been trying to talk one of them into that for 6 years!!).  The girls give the talks and the prayers and I even ask one of the girls to do the artwork for the invitations, program & certificate.  They're so sweet!  I have so much fun.....

this artwork adorned everything this recognition night.

Miracles Happen

I believe in Miracles.
I believe Miracles happen every day if we just look for them.

This past week I had a series of miracles happen in my life.  It was a week of itty bitty daily miracles.  Proof that God listens and loves.

Then, there are the big miracles.  Like all of the LDS missionaries being found alive in Japan.  I believe in Miracles.  I believe that they don't always happen when we want them to happen.  But, they do happen.

I believe in Miracles.

George Bernard Shaw

Lately it seems like I've been making lots of mistakes.  I just can't seem to catch up with my life.  I've been frustrated.  As I've been struggling I stumbled across a quote by George Bernard Shaw

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."  I like this quote.  It makes me feel competant.  I liked it so much that made a vinyl saying of it for over my creative space in my office.  

funny how a change in perspective can help change our attitude.

ps. honorable is spelled correctly, my camera just couldn't take the whole thing in... yes, I can spell!  Also, yes I know my t is crooked.  I'm embracing my mistakes.  I left them in there deliberately!  HA!

more carnival photos

If you are wondering what these are photos of....refer to my previous post We Believe!  these are some of my favorite pics from the carnival I was in charge of last week.  I have to give credit to my amazing photographer....Miss Britney Means.  She's a wonderful young up and coming photographer and she was kind enough to come take pics for us. 

I couldn't resist making these scrabble tile like blocks.  I spend so much time thinking about the word believe that I finally exploded in creative believe madness!!  ha ha ha!!

my cupcakes bordered by the believe boards I made as gifts for the girls who attended.

Warning! Serious cuteness ahead!

It was all so much fun!

memory game!

balloon pop!  DEFINITE FAVORITE OF THE GIRLS... but, LOUD!

the wheel of faith!!

twister!  A of F style

faith walk...... (kinda like a cake walk...only with dice)

I've said this before, but......I AM SO LUCKY!!

We Believe!

Every year for the past 3 years I've had an Article of Faith Carnival for my Activity Day Girls.  It was started as a way to encourage the girls to learn their articles of faith and it succeeded.  This year it was more successful than previous years.  I have some of the photos to share, others I will share as I get a hold of them (they were on a different camera).

The foundation of our carnival is games that encourage the girls to repeat the articles of faith as many times as they need to until they are comfortable with them and also to be rewarded and praised for any efforts. 

The games that we played were:
balloon game
name that tune
fishing game
matching game
twister
life walk
wheel of faith

As they play games they received stamps on lanyards for every Article of Faith that was accurately (100%) recited.  6 of the girls recited all 13 correctly.  33 Articles of F were passed off!!!  FYI: That's a lot!

WE finished our carnival by eating pizza and yummy 'Bee' themed cupcakes and each of the girls received a certificate with the articles of faith that they passed off, goodie bags with chocolate 'trophies' in them (Yummy!) and I also made some decorative plaques that have the definition of the word believe.  All in all I think this was a very successful activity.  I had so much fun.

I could not have done any of this if I hadn't had a lot of help.

I work with 3 wonderful women and one wonderful councilor who showed up and planned and supported me the whole way.  Teamwork makes it all work.  I am so proud to be able to work with these amazing women.

Also:  the girls!  They come with such positive attitudes and such bubbly enthusiasm to do whatever has been asked.

I am so lucky!