Best Birthday Party Idea Ever!!!!!!

I love to celebrate my kids birthdays.  We have had some awesome parties over the years.  Bryce's Mad Scientist party was so much fun...Drew's Paintball party last year was great, and of course, Grace's Tutu party this year was adorable.

When it came time to celebrate Alyssa's 15th birthday, I was thrilled that she decided to make a difference in our community in honor of her special day.  She invited four friends to spend a night doing 15 Random Acts of Kindness.  All I can say is, this was an amazing experience.  We had so much fun and I really believe these girls will remember this night for a long time.  More importantly, they will continue to bless others with random acts of kindness for years to come.

The girls gathered at our house, brainstormed all sorts of ideas of kind things they could do for others, and we headed out the door to get started.  We got some awesome inspiration from fellow bloggers.  When I read this post last year, I tucked the idea away in my mind in hopes that Alyssa would concur that this idea rocks. She did!  Thanks so much to "The B Family" for the inspiration!!!!

1.  The girls headed to a local fountain in the center of our little downtown area.  They wrote "Make A Wish" with sidewalk chalk and scattered a hundred pennies next to the fountain.  It was so darn sweet!  Later that night, we drove by the fountain and saw a family with two little kids picking up pennies next to the fountain!  It was so neat!  The girls also each made a wish.  I have no doubt that Alyssa and her friends' wishes will come true some day, because they are an amazing group of girls! 

2.  Handing our Popsicles at an inner-city park

The night of Alyssa's birthday, it was close to 100 degrees outside.  The girls thought it would be fun to give Popsicles to people at a park.  I was excited to drive the girls to a park that was new to them.  The community that we live in is not very diverse.  The girls had not really ever been to the park or area of town that we visited.  This turned out to be an awesome multi-cultural experience for them.  For a change, the girls were the minorities.  It was great.  They jumped right out of the van and headed to the park armed with their treats.  They approached a large family that was hanging out at the park enjoying some time together.  I watched from the van, and was excited to see the family take the Popsicles from them.  The girls also found a ton of little kids at the park to share with.  It seemed a little bit wrong to be offering treats to kids at a park, but these are kids that were tiny, unsupervised, and were so excited to get a treat!  I decided to get out of the van to make sure nobody was upset that the girls were giving goodies to little kids they didn't know.  No worries.  It just felt like a really kind thing to do.  The weather was so hot and the kids were so happy!

The fun continued when the group of teenagers at the park also began to eye up the goodies.  The girls decided that everyone should have a treat, so they walked right up to the group of teenage boys at the park and offered them some.  Fun times.  I don't think this boy has ever had a very blond, Swedish girl offer him a Popsicle at a park.  

The girls agreed that Random Act of Kindness number 2 was probably their favorite of the night!

3.  Delivered card games (Uno, Disney Princess) to the waiting room on the children's floor of a hospital.

(also offered the valet drivers candy bars from our local chocolate store)

4.  Taped quarters and notes to washing machines and dryers at a laundry mat.  

The girls loved this one too.  They also met a few interesting new "friends" who were spending their Friday night doing laundry. ;)

5.  Buried rolls of nickles at a park in an at-risk neighborhood.  Taped to the roll of quarters was a note that said something about random acts of kindness and how they could pay it forward, etc.

6.  Brought pizzas to our local fire station.  The firefighters were so nice!!!!  They invited the girls in to see the firehouse.  This was also one of the girls' favorites.

7.  Taped inspirational notes to the mirror at Starbucks ("you are beautiful" "you are kind", etc.)

8.  Gave out four movie passes attached to movie sized candy right before customers entered the movie theatre.  This one really confused people.  One couple was really thankful, one was skeptical.  The girls laughed about that.  Funny how people are caught off guard when someone does something really nice for them.

9.  Gave someone a gift card to Starbucks.

10.  Taped quarters and notes to toy/candy vending machines inside of the entrance to a store.

(Alyssa noted that I still probably wouldn't let Grace buy anything from those darn machines even if the money was taped to it...she's probably right...we don't need any more bouncy balls!!!)

11.  Wrote inspirational notes and hid them in books at Barnes & Noble.

12.  Gave a gift card to Barnes & Noble to a little boy who was in the store.  The girls explained that they were doing random acts of kindness and that they wanted him to buy a book.  This was awesome, because he was with his family and they really thought it was cool.  My hope is that some of the people the girls met will continue to pay it forward and bless others.  I suspect this boy and his family will.

13.  Approached a man and his daughter who were in the check-out line at Walmart and gave him a gift card to the store.  The girls said that his reaction was priceless.  They said he was giddy with excitement and was almost brought to tears!  So sweet!

14.  Paid for the person behind us in line at McDonald's.

It was fun to sneak in the drive through and go to the window without an order.  When I drove up, the worker tried to hand me her order, but when I then handed him a Seroogy's candy bar and told him that it was for him and we wanted to pay for the lady behind us, he smiled, laughed, and said "you guys are awesome!"  The girls had fun watching the reaction of the person behind us as we drove away.  

15.  Chose random people out of the phone book and mailed them a card with kind words and a two dollar bill inside.  This was fun because the girls wrote such sweet words.  When we googled the street name of one of the people to find out her zip code, it turned out that she was a resident in a nursing home...made the act of kindness even better!

  And to end the night, the girls rolled up a two dollar bill and encouraging note and attached it to a helium balloon.

The girls ended the night by letting the balloon go and watching it fly away in the starry sky.  

It was a great way to end the night!

What an amazing night. 

What an amazing group of girls. 

Please consider this idea, because in addition to spreading joy to others, these five ladies learned how easy it is to bless others.  They also learned how awesome it feels to do so.

(*Thank you to Jessica for sharing the Random Acts of Kindness printables.  You can find them here. )

Happy 15th Birthday Alyssa!!!

15 years ago my life was blessed beyond measure. 

 My first child was born.  

I was in heaven.

I knew that she was beautiful, precious, and amazing, but little did I know that...

 she would grow up to be truly beautiful on the inside as well as the outside,

that she IS precious- a teenager that doesn't make us crazy with worry or frustration,

and we had not even begun to realize how amazing she is.

Thank you for being such a sweet sister.

 Thank you for being an incredible daughter. 

Thanks for bringing so much joy into our lives each and every day.

Wishing the sweetest girl the sweetest birthday!

Our First Whitewater Rafting Trip...

Great Video: "Black Hair 101"- must share with anyone who questions your daughter's hair!

Well, I never...

I never thought I would post a picture of 50 Cent on my blog.

I never thought I would learn from and respect a former drug dealer, rapper that uses foul language, man that repeatedly uses the "N word" and sings incredibly degrading lyrics about women.  I don't really approve of the persona that is 50 Cent, but...

Curtis Jackson does have a heart for Africa.

50 Cent has partnered with the UN World Food Program.  He launched a charitable energy drink called Street King (SK) Energy Shots.  His mission is to feed a billion people in Africa over the next five years.

It turns out that traveling to Africa in 2010 opened his eyes to the poverty and hunger across the continent.  

Through his partnership with the UN World Food Program, every SK Energy shot that is sold, provides a meal to a hungry child.  Huh.  Who would have thought?

(by the way, I've never even had an "energy" shot and probably never will, but if I did want to have one, this would be the one I would choose)

I recently watched an interview that Oprah did with Curtis (50 Cent).

The second thing that surprised me about 50 Cent, is that he has a faith in God that caught me a bit off guard.

I absolutely loved one of the things that he said in the interview...

" Either pray or worry...don't do both." 

 He explained that if you pray to God and then still worry, you are disrespecting God.  Huh.  Never would have thought that my current chalkboard quote would come from a hard-core rapper...another great example how we shouldn't really judge others without getting to know them.

Another fun thing that surprised me this week, was that I found super cool Ugandan paper beads at Target!

I actually came across these super cute sandals:

And they were on sale!

The company that makes them is called BuyumbaSoles.

The paper beads on the sandals are handmade by women in Uganda.  BuyumbaSoles has pledged to make a donation of $100,000 to support underprivileged children in Uganda.

I just love that there are so many products that consumers can buy that also help others in need.  

I think it is so much more fun to give a gift that is also part of a cause that is close to my heart (I've had so much fun giving Suubi jewelry as gifts, tiny TOMS baby shoes as baby gifts, many adoption fundraiser

 t-shirts and accessories as Christmas gifts, etc.).  

So, lesson of the week...keep your eyes open for companies that have a heart for Africa.  

You never know where you will find them!

20 Years!

~lucky husband

lovely wife

had a wedding

built a life

chased some dreams

caught a few

here's to making more come true~

Happy 20th Anniversary!

(how is that possible? 20 years? look at us...we were babies...we have learned and grown so much over the past twenty years...looking forward to many more wonderful years of learning, growing, and loving)

Grace's Summer Hair

Summer has finally arrived in Wisconsin, and so has Grace's summer hair.  

I have been telling Grace that "the braids are coming" for the past month.  

She was NOT excited about the idea because she remembered how long it takes to do them.

What she didn't remember was how awesome it is to have her hair braided for the summer.

Last year I hired someone to help me (someone who actually knew what she was doing).  She basically taught me how to do the extensions.  It is much easier on Grace if I do the braiding, because then she can take breaks throughout the day without me feeling bad that another person is at our house wanting to get done with the whole process.

So, as soon as Grace's dance recital was over, I began to count down the days until our big braiding day.

When the big day arrived, I brought all the kiddos to school, gathered my supplies, plopped in a DVD that Grace had been wanting to watch, and got started.

It was 9:00 a.m.

 Here is Grace about 11:30.  I'm about 1/4 done.  I start by parting her hair into four sections.  Each section is divided into about 18 little squares (like when doing box braids-  as if I really do box braids on a regular basis).  I use tiny black rubber bands at the top of each square (because that was what I was taught to do).  Some people don't.  Grace was still smiling 1/4 of the way through the process...

We took several breaks throughout the day.  I braided through MANY t.v. shows, DVDs, phone calls, etc.  I braided Grace's hair while she ate lunch.

I was still only 3/4 of the way done when it was time to pick the kids up from school.  Grace was NOT happy about going to pick up the kids with her hair half done.  I promised her that it wouldn't be a big deal, and what do you know?  The first thing the other kids did when they got in the van was comment on how her hair was not braided in the back!  Grace was (dramatically) annoyed. Ugh.

We had to take a little break to get one of the boys to baseball (thank goodness we have Alyssa to help babysit so that Grace didn't have to be humiliated at the ball park).  I skipped out on the game early to head home for more braiding.  At this point, my back and fingers were really starting to get sore.

 Here we are about 8:45p.m.  I feel as tired as I look.  Grace is DONE.  She does NOT want to pose for a picture.  She is "serious!."

 9:00p.m. The home stretch.

 9:30 p.m. All done!!!!  This is all the extra hair that is left over after I finish off the ends of the braids.  

Grace is all smiles again.

Grace loves her "Sassy" hair (I still think it's funny that the brand of hair we use is by Sassy).

She is having fun flipping her hair over her shoulders.  

The kids at school thought she was pretty cool with long hair and braids.

She is getting a lot of positive attention for her new look, and she loves it!

Now she says she loves to have long hair again.  

We will keep the braids for most of the summer (with the occasional touch ups here and there).

AND, yesterday I had the ultimate complement paid to us...we were at Walmart doing a little shopping, and a very nice African American woman approached me and tapped me on the shoulder.  She asked me where I had Grace's hair done.  She was curious because she has two daughters and was thinking of having their hair braided.  Well...I think I beamed when I was able to tell her that I DID IT!  She smiled at me and was a little surprised.  Her husband joined us and there we stood together in Walmart checking out Grace's hair...me giving her pointers on how to do extensions!  It just seemed very funny to me...

If you have a little girl with hair similar to Grace's, I really encourage you to give extensions a try for summer.  They are so low maintenance.  They are great for water.  They seem to really protect Grace's hair.  They also make little girls feel super cool!