Fundraiser for Olivia!

So, yesterday was the day.
Finally here.
All the planning and cleaning and organizing paid off and it was a huge success!
We had over 100 people show up for our fundraiser to help us bring our Livi home.
It was actually very overwhelming to look around and see how many people wanted to be there to help us out.
What a blessing to know we have so many friends and family that support us.

Here's how it looked on the inside.....
Our entry way......

A table to introduce everyone to Livi along with a guest book for everyone to sign and write something for her.

We had signs telling where everything was located....




The family room was set up for the silent auction (with so many things that our good friends donated and got for us)




and the living room emptied out to make room for the pasta dinner.....


The garage was completely transformed into a carnival for the kids.








All the kids (our boys included and Tyler's friends from school) that helped out with running the kids' games.....

And to top it all off....a friend who did his DJ thang for us and a rockin' dance downstairs!





Thank you, Thank you, Thank you everyone!!!
We will never forget it and we love that it will be a part of Olivia's story that we'll be able to tell her about how everyone helped get her home to our family....to her family. God bless all of you!

pics by kids

This is what happens when you leave your camera laying around.


I'm thinking this tells me one of two things.....



Either I have a future photographer on my hands......


or I just have a lot of junk laying around my house.

Cleaning

It's probably a bad sign of how well I keep up with the housework when every time I do major cleaning, my allergies kick into high gear. I'm thinking I need to dust more often.....
I am spending every moment this week getting ready for our fundraiser this Saturday. There is so much still to do, but there are so many things that can't be done too early. Like, I'm not spending an hour cleaning bathrooms today because it will have to be done again on Saturday before everyone comes. I can't clean the carpets until I have picked up everything else and gotten the furniture moved out of the way. And I can't really do too much for the food yet.
But I can clean, and I am diggin' in today with a vengeance. I love when I can just put on my faves playlist on the computer, crank up the volume, and get moving. It's amazing what a woman on a mission can accomplish in one morning.

Sunday Snapshot: Pumpkins and Costumes

In an effort to cram absolutely everything into one day....
we decided (after going to church and getting Subway for lunch)
to head to the pumpkin patch to play and pick out pumpkins before diving into the evening's events.
We headed to a place nearby where there was plenty to do and have fun with.
We took a hay ride......

Walked through the corn maze....what was left of it....

did some pumpkin bowling....


and took advantage of the photo ops.



When we got home, we got all the pumpkins carved....

and got costumes on.


Tyler headed to a friend's house, seeing as how he is officially too old or too cool now to trick or treat with his brothers.....
We laughed when Kaylee showed up in her bubble bath costume...

and had a really fun time over all!

Out of the mouths of babes

Every Monday, I volunteer at school in the lunchroom so I get to see the boys for a bit. Last Monday I was talking to Tanner while he was eating and noticed a super cute little Asian girl sitting next to him. She looked like she was probably Chinese. Of course, I wanted to just squeeze her cuz she was so darn cute.
She asked me if I was Tanner mom...."yes".
I asked her what her name was...."Amelia".
She got up to go outside and I leaned down to Tanner...
"ya know, Tanner, Amelia looks a lot like your new sister looks....she has the same black hair and those brown eyes...."
Tanner said to me without missing a beat...
"Yah, 'cept Amelia doesn't have a hole in her lip like our sister does."
Very true....and too cute.

Yesterday, Tanner had show and tell and brought a picture of Livi to show his class. When he got home, I asked him how it went.
Good.
Did you tell them about Livi?
Yes.
Did you tell them where she lives?
Yep, I told them she lives in China right now, but that mom and dad are going to get her and bring her home.
Did the kids ask you anything about her?
Yea, they asked why she has that hole in her lip.
(Apparently this "hole in her lip" is an intriguing thing for kindergartners)
What did you tell them?
I told them that was just how she was made.
Awwwwwww, how sweet is that....

Last night the boys had their first wrestling meet of the season. The 4 younger ones all are on the team now so, basically, if we're not there....a third of the team is gone. Coach told us to stay healthy. HA! This was Tanner's first time out ever. He's been loving practices, but a meet is a whole different thing. I really wasn't sure if he would go or not. I was a tiny bit thinking he might say no when they told him it was his turn. But....he didn't. He got up on that mat facing an equally small guy and took him down and pinned him in about 30 seconds. It was hilarious! He was smiling, practically laughing, during the whole thing. I think he was really loving all the cheering for him. In all fairness, his "pin" he got on the guy came when the other little kid basically just layed his shoulders on the mat. Tanner didn't excatly have good form on him.....but hey, we'll take it. He's officially hooked. Tony wrestled next and went all 3 rounds without a pin, but beat the kid by points, so that was great! Trae also got his guy. He could have had him pinned about 6 times, but he kept putting an arm under the kid's neck and it got in the way. He even had him in a cradle hold (that's a really hard move to learn and excecute, but if you can, it pretty much ensures a pin) where I think he had him, but it didn't get called. He beat him by a score of 16-4 though, so that was awesome! Timmy won his match as well with a pin. It took him about 30 seconds to get that, so that was an awesome round for him. He actually had a second match that was an exhibition and won that as well. That was funny too cuz he is friends with the second boy he wrestled and they were kinda smiling during some of it. We were sitting by that boys dad and laughing cuz they were having a lot of fun out there....still trying and wrestling hard....but having fun.

Getting ready

We are having a fundraiser to help with the expenses of bringing Olivia home. Invites got sent out a couple weeks ago and suddenly it occurred to me that this thing is less than 2 weeks away. Holy cow! There is so much to do. We are having an Italian dinner, a silent auction, a DJ with dancing, and about 10 kids carnival games. And all this is happening at our house.
**This is the part where you drop your jaw and decide that Jen has officially lost her mind**
I looked at other places, really I did. But everything else was either too expensive, not big enough, no kitchen, bad location, etc..... So, thanks to some coaxing from my equally out of his mind brother, Pat....I decided to have it at the house. Sometimes Pat is just what I need to make me feel like I can do stuff like this. Jay is not the kind of person I can bounce these sort of crazy ideas too....he's too cautious and thinks too much. I get an idea in my head and then start to figure out a way to make it happen. Period.
Actually, I think it's going to turn out to be the best option all around. We won't be limited to a timeframe, we won't have to haul everything to and from, we won't have to give out directions to our friends, and all the kids with have stuff to do.
Here's the breakdown of the whole layout.
The foyer will have our ticket sales table.
The garage will be full of kids' games.
The main level family room will have tables set up with the silent auction stuff.
The living room with have the tables and chairs set up for dinner.
The kitchen will have the food buffet line.
The upstairs bedroom will be set up with toys and coloring table for the kids.
The downstairs will have the DJ and light show (compliments of our friend) for dancing or just hanging out.
What I don't know yet....
...where we will put everyone's coat?
small potatoes considering everything else. :)