First…our 2012 Halloween must be documented. Here’s the crew in their costumes (imagining what we’ll look like next year with baby Z with us–I can hardly stand it!)…
As you can see–daddy was just daddy. Mommy, however, well…I was a boy-scout courtesy of Parker’s uniform…
THEN…after lots of fun trick-or-treating…our Frankie baby turned 4 TODAY! We have a weekend full of craziness this weekend…and the next…and the next–so we had his preschool friends and a few others over to celebrate on his actual birthday for lunch. He really wanted to have a LEGO party. I whipped out some LEGO fun the night before–and this is the fun we had today…
They colored these…
We played pin the head on the Lego man…
For the craft–I decided to let them sponge paint yellow paint to make a LEGO head on a shirt–4 year olds can totally handle sponge painting over a big stencil like this…
Some of the t-shirt masterpieces…
I did my best to create a LEGO cake out of bread pan cakes, marshmallow halves and icing…
Then it was time to sing happy birthday…
Oh.
My heart.
He is now 4.
But still my baby.
Always my baby.
Happy birthday Frankie baby!!! We love you to pieces and more pieces!
We ended our day with our November tradition…starting our Thanksgiving Tree (the one we use now):
Each day we take a leaf (die cut from Hobby Lobby using yellow, orange, red and brown leaves) and each person thinks of ONE thing they are thankful for that day. We write our name on the leaf along with what we are thankful for and add it to the tree. By the end of the month, with our family of 5 we have about 150 leaves full of thankfulness!!! I take the tape off the back at the end of the month, put them in a zip lock bag, write the YEAR on the bag and tuck it away to treasure for always. I simple LOVE getting different years out and reading through them!!! Makes me melt every time!
You can find my step-by-step instructions on how to create your own Thanksgiving Tree on canvas HERE.
If you don’t want to invest in a canvas one this year and you need something really quick–you can make one on Kraft paper. We did this years ago before making our recyclable canvas one that we now use every year. (Here’s the first one we made several years ago…)
Blessings to you all this Fall season!!!
I’m finding myself feeling all out of sorts as I talk with others…seems to happen to this momma’s heart when I’m waiting for a child across the world. Normal worries VANISH–and I find myself becoming a bit of an alien. I was some where last night and it seemed all the moms were talking about committees they were on…tennis this and that…and all I could think about was how thankful I was to have my 4 children with me–and how I can’t wait to have my 5th one with us too. Ever feel like a fish out of water??? I am thankful for adoption and how it has changed me. I no longer know what jeans are cool to wear, what school district I “should” live in, what neighborhood is the “to be in hood”…all of that–hog wash. It doesn’t matter. What if we spent our lives being concerned with these things??? So–put on your white-washed out-dated jeans, throw your hair on top of your head and if you ever feel like a fish out of water too…you can just come hang out with me. Or you can come volunteer at the next Created for Care retreat cause there are a whole lot of out of water fish there too:)
Off to CHILL before a big full day tomorrow. See why we gotta homeschool?? Not sure how we’d fit all this in otherwise;). Sure–my kids probably won’t be scientists or…whatever it is genius folk do—but we will have fully lived…and THAT is ALL that matters:)
xoxo,
andrea
by admin
As soon as I master (copy) one of your adorable craft ideas, you come up with another one! 🙂
We are loving the Fall Bucket List so I’m sure I’ll attempt this one too. But seriously, if you just took orders, it would be so much easier!
And I’ve become that fish out water happily flopping right next to you on dry land. For example – last summer I was at a luncheon with some sweet ladies, but all that was talked about was brand name purses, sunglasses and what to buy for someone’s birthday. I blurted out, “you know for the same about of money that you would spend on that purse, you could rescue 3 girls out of a brothel in India through IJM.”
I haven’t been invited back.
🙂
My heart longs to adopt and maybe that’s why I already feel a bit like a fish out of water… I don’t know (or care) what’s trendy. I do know that I love my family and I love God’s plan for us… wherever that takes us! Thanks for the Thankful Tree idea! I like that much better than using actual sticks for the tree! Have a wonderful weekend!
I DO know what you are feeling! I won’t go into details because it probably wouldn’t be holy thoughts, but I can relate and I just try and focus on God having ME in this situation right now whereas they might be working on other areas. We finally received our written referral for our two little guys after verbally accepting them a week and a half earlier! So glad to be on this roller coaster with you. Blessings
We lost a referral a few weeks ago for twin boys. Even though our hearts were absolutley broken, we know that God is in control. But, I do so often feel like a fish out of water, because I but don’t relate to people some days. Thankful for the three kiddos that we have right now, but really longing to know who we have been waiting for all this time! Thanks for sharing your heart. Made me feel more “normal” today! 🙂