Lego Party: Cupcakes & Wrap-Up

It was a pretty crazy party day on Saturday.  Jackson had two friends over for a little party/playdate, then all three of them went to another friend's birthday party (also lego themed!), and then J came home just in time for the family party!  Because the kids were all headed to another party, the only dessert we did after lunch were the marshmallow minifigure heads.  The family came over for cake and ice cream Saturday evening, and I served these lego cupcakes...

Nothing fancy here, friends.  A boxed funfetti mix & (gasp) store bought icing.  I did shove the icing in a ziploc bag with a tip and piped it on to make it look slightly better.  A few sprinkles and a lego candy piece made with vanilla melting wafers and this mold, and voila!

A glimpse of the food table (helpful hint:  don't have one of those fun cupcake holders?  I just stack two different sized cake stands on top of each other!)

Simple, easy tablescape when everything can be done in primary colors.  The beach-ball looking things are a popular gift from our Japanese exchange student.  They matched so perfectly I just threw them on!  The silver tin you see is also from Yoshiki.....it included several kinds of Japanese rice cakes.  Honey, Black Bean, Shrimp & Seaweed....my favorite was the Soy Sauce & Sugar!  Not your typical LEGO party food, but such a sweet gesture from our new friend.

We love you so much, our sweet Lego-loving 6 year old boy!!!

If you missed the previous LEGO party posts, you can check out the marshmallow minifigure heads here, and the goodie bags here.

Linking to:  The Frugal Girls, Tatertots & Jello,

Lego Party: Goodie Bags

Here's another LEGO party idea....goodie bags.  Jackson had a "friend party" which was really a glorified play date with 2 of his best buddies.  We put together some goodie bags as a thank-you for his friends.  They were super easy and turned out really cute.  Again, these were a Pinterest idea.  (Where would we be without Pinterest?!)  I don't know who was the original poster of the idea, because they seem to be a staple at most LEGO parties!

I bought all my party supplies at Walmart - nothing special, just primary colors.  A 3-pack of gift bags was 99 cents.  I used one gift bag to cut circles, and then put them on the other bags with double stick tape so they resembled legos.  Easy peasy.

Now...to fill them up!  Along with random candy, lego-shaped candy (gotta sugar them up before we send them home!), we also made lego minifigure crayons to include.  This was supposed to be an activity at the party.....luckily I did a trial run the day before.

The plan was to chop up a bunch of crayons, fill up the minifigure mold, and put it in the oven.  The crayons would melt and then when they hardened again they would be brand new crayons!  Unfortunately, not all crayons are created equal.

Some melted, some didn't, even after long periods of time in the oven.  When I gave up trying to melt them completely, I let them harden but when I popped them out, several broke right away.  Headless minifigures are not so great.

Hubby came to the rescue when he got home from work.  He melted the crayons in jars in the microwave and poured them into the mold.  This time it worked like a charm (and I am only minus 3 jars because of cracking!)

(sidenote:  we also made minifigure ice cubes with the mold and it worked great!  they were so cute!!)

I also "splurged" and bought a Birthday Party Kit from the LEGO store.  (My new sponsors!  See my sidebar!)  The kit included 10 of each of the following:  invitations, thank you cards, 3D stickers, building tips & tricks booklet, LEGO builder licenses, and special birthday minifigures.  Yes, 10 was more than we needed, but I am predicting many more LEGO parties in this house in the years to come!!  The best part - when I bought it (and as I am writing this post), the kit was on sale - 50% off!  Jackson was thrilled about this - he has wanted a "Max" minifigure for so long!  The Birthday Boy also received a LEGO magnet and special pop-up birthday card in the kit.

Birthday parties are so much fun :)  There's still a few more LEGO party posts on the way....stay tuned!

Linking to:  The Frugal Girls, Tatertots & Jello,

Lego Party: Marshmallow Minifigure Heads

Our sons two loves are currently Legos and Star Wars.  Since we had a Star Wars themed birthday last year, we decided to change it up and do a Lego theme this year for the Birthday Boy.  As I scanned the www for ideas, I knew I had to make the lego minifigure treats found at Living Locurto.  The process was a little time-consuming, but not difficult, and the end result was well worth it!  I made mine just slightly different, so I wanted to share the steps here.

First I used cookie icing to glue mini M&Ms to the tops of the marshmallows.  In retrospect, I probably should have used regular M&Ms, but I had the minis on hand.  (And since hindsight is 20/20, I also should have used something in a lighter color...the yellow wafers weren't enough to completely cover the red & green M&Ms).

I then put them on lollipop sticks, dipped them into the melted yellow candy wafers, and using the same trick as I did last year for the pretzel light sabers, stuck them in the egg carton to dry.

Using these special pens, I tried my best to draw faces on the little guys.  As you will see below, I'm no artist.  But thankfully, my almost 6 year old didn't care.  The expressions reminded me of one of those magnets....you know, the kind with all the faces, and it also has a small magnetic frame???  they say something at the top to the effect of "Today I'm feeling...." and then you put the frame over your mood.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?  I haven't seen one in awhile, so maybe not.  Anyway, if we made up a magnet, here's some of the faces that would appear......

Today I'm feeling.....

Cheerful

Cool

Angry

Worried

Flirty

Scared

Pirate-y

Disappointed

Suave

On this special day for our almost 6 year old we were all feeling very....

HAPPY!!

Bonus - the marshmallow head made for a cute display on the party table!

Please note:  The "scared" face can also double as the "I'm on fire!" face!

More Lego party madness on the way!!

Linking to:  A Turtle's Life for Me, House of Hepworth's, The Frugal Girls, Tatertots & Jello,

Happy Spring!!!

I absolutely love spring.  My favorite season just makes me happy - yes, there's often a lot of rain, but with that rain comes flowers, fresh air, and new life.  And we can't forget the free Rita's Italian Ice.  And the free iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts.  *Happy Sigh*  Yes, I love spring.

The spring decorating hasn't exactly been completed (or even started) at this point because we've been busy with birthday parties, exchange students, and LIFE in general.  But if you are new here, I wanted to share some of my favorite SPRING posts from last year....I'm excited to get some of these decorations back out and make my house all springy again. 

#1:  Thrifted Cheese Dome/Cloche & Easy Nests

#2:  Easter Treats

#3:  Burlap & Sharpie Spring Pillow

#4:  Kid's Project - Cupcake Liner Bouquet

#5:  (possibly one of my favorite projects ever) Spring Wreath

Happy Spring!!

Extended Wait Times

Yesterday I had really good intentions.  I was planning to get a post ready last night and post it this morning - a fun, lighthearted, fluffy post, probably about the marshmallow Lego minifigure heads I'm making for the par-tay this weekend.

Then I checked my email.

We had one from the Africa staff at AWAA.  It read in part, "As the wait time trend has continued to increase, we see the need to amend the timeframe in order to better represent expectations for families receiving referrals.  The wait times are increasing from 14-18 months to 18-24 months for a male or female infant or toddler."  Further down, it also said, "If clearances for children continue to be processed at the current rate, wait times could increase again in the future."

Suddenly I really didn't feel like writing about nice things, like butterflies, rainbows, unicorns, or lego marshmallows.  I wanted to curl up in a ball under the covers and not come out until there was some good news.  (I didn't, of course.  I put on my happy face and continued with our evening dinner plans - a Chinese/Japanese buffet with Jon's parents, our exchange student, and another exchange student whose host family (all four members!) are currently ill.  It ended up being a great evening, for which I was very thankful!)

I have a journal of notes that I keep for each of my kids.  For my kids that are here, I write about the funny things they do and say, the new things they are learning, etc.  For my Africans, I write about how I can't wait to meet them and where we are in the process.  Here's what I wrote this morning...

"We got an email from (our family coordinator) yesterday saying that the wait time has increased to 18-24 months.  I felt undone with disappointment.  Trying to trust in God's perfect timing, but it is hard.  All I can think of is, that's at least one more - or possibly two more Christmases without you.  And that the brother Jackson wants so badly to share a room with will be so much younger than him.  I want to go to Ethiopia and plead my case -

"Don't you understand?  We are ready NOW!"

"The thing is, I had this all worked out so our son would come home and fit (age-wise) perfectly in our family."

"I was so great at getting all that paperwork done!"

"Things went so smoothly for us - they were supposed to continue to do that!"

And then the questions began-

Are we not hearing God right?

Should we expand our age range?

Should we transfer all our info to a different country?

Should we apply to do a concurrent adoption?

The questions are there.  The answers are not.  So we wait."

Bit of a downer, no?  That was definitely my mood this morning.  Even after opening up my Bible Study and completing a lesson all about FAITH.  (Yes, I tend to be stubborn at times).  I was being cynical and realized I was even annoying myself when I caught myself rolling my eyes at scoffing at Chuck Swindoll's pronunciation of one of Pittsburgh's three rivers.  (Yes, Mr. Swindoll, with great respect I can now admit that there could be more than one way of saying Monongahela).

Good mood or no, I set to work doing party prep, with a local Christian radio station playing in the background.  That, my friends, was a miracle in itself.  Usually when I'm in a bad mood, I listen to country music....because the people in those songs seem to have waaay more problems than me!  James Macdonald's "Walk in the Word" came on, and I listened more closely because he is someone I have respected a lot since he visited our college a few (ok, several.  maybe bordering on many.) years ago.  Yet again, God met me right where I was at.  The title of the sermon was "Peace in the Storm."  Can I get an AMEN?!

I highly encourage you to go listen to the sermon here.  It should be available for a few weeks.  Some of my favorite points/quotes.....

• "God knows it is hard to trust Him.  He sees us in the moment.  That's why he makes promises."
• "Biblically waiting on God is resting in Him.  Don't let the one thing become the focus of your life."
• "You don't need to see signs that God is working!  You don't need to know exactly what is happening!"
• Hebrews 6:15, NKJV ~ "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." (The "he" in this passage is Abraham, and is referring to the promise of a son).

So yes, we wait.  But we wait with hope.


And now, for your viewing pleasure, the totally random picture of the day.....

...this little girl sure keeps me smiling!!!

Our Latest Fundraiser

To me, this blog is a mish mash of pretty much everything that's going on in our lives or running through my mind.  It's not only the DIY projects we do around the house, but a record of day to day life....a virtual family keepsake, if you will.  So, sorry to my followers who are looking for some sort of cute crafty thing or some new decor.....there's been none of that lately.  Zip.  (Although I'm gearing up for Jackson's LEGO Birthday party this weekend!!)

This post is mainly going to be about our latest fundraiser, along with a shout-out of THANKS to my sister-in-law.  She organized it.  She invited people.  She gave up two Saturday afternoons to run it.  She dealt with pregnancy tiredness.  She fed people who came and gave them gifts.  Then she gave us the money!  I know all of you who are fundraising families are jealous right now!  Let's face it, fundraising is not fun.  I view it as a necessary evil, because we just don't have the $35,000+ we need to adopt from Ethiopia.  (You can see the post of why it costs so much here, and how much we've been able to pay here.  It's probably going to end up costing more, because as wait times increase, things like fingerprints and home studies expire, and we will need to redo them.  Which begs the question - how do fingerprints expire???)  It was SUCH A BLESSING to have a fundraiser that I actually did not have to plan or ask people for money!

So the details....  my sister-in-law is an instructor for a really popular form of exercise....the name is trademarked and I don't want anyone to get in trouble, but it is a fun "shake your booty" type of exercise that involves loud music and aerobic & dance moves.  And rhymes with Mumba.  She teaches this class at a local gym and offered to do it as a fundraiser.  Since space was limited to 12 people a class, she tried to get people to sign up in advance.  The owner of the gym, also a friend and an adoptive mama, allowed her to use it for free after closing hours for the purpose of the fundraiser.  It was approximately a two hour time commitment for those who came, which included an introductory lesson, and lots of snacks and chatting time afterwards, along with doorprizes.  Those who attended understood it was a fundraiser, and there was no set fee, but they were asked to provide a donation.

It was a huge success!  Between the two classes, 16 people attended.....I figured if every person gave $10, there's $160!  But their generosity exceeded my estimation....the grand total raised was $505!!!   THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE INVOLVED!!!!

Are you a fundraising family?  Maybe you can take this idea and tailor it to your situation!

And because posts are so much better when there's a picture (sorry, no pics of my sweaty friends at the fundraiser!) here's one of my two cuties...

I would love to hear other ideas for creative fundraisers!!

3 Months DTE

I had been meaning to give monthly updates on our adoption journey....suddenly 3 months have passed since our DTE (Dossier To Ethiopia) date!

(photo source)

If you've read some of my previous posts, you know that things have slowed down quite a bit with Ethiopian adoptions.  When we were first DTE, our expected wait time for a referral was 10-16 months.  Now it has been extended to 14-18 months.  Frustrating, yes, but trusting in the Lord's timing!

We are in an online group with other families from our agency, and there is an "unofficial wait list" kept up to date, so we know (again, very unofficially) how many people are ahead of us, etc.  Because of the range of our request, we are listed in a few categories.  I plan on updating these each month so you can follow the numbers along with us!

As of today, 3/2/12, we are....

#69 for an Infant Boy

#33 for Twins/Young (<4) Siblings

#22 for a Toddler Boy

Because our lowest number is for a toddler boy, this is the number I keep track of the most.  When we were newly DTE, we were actually #19 for a toddler boy.  Because of others ahead of us expanding their age requests, we have drifted back several spots.  Again, frustrating, yes.  But we know God is using these numbers going up and down to match up lots of wonderful kids with their forever families!!