Spreading the Adoption Love

My friends Joey and Courtney are adopting from Ethiopia. As part of their fundraising to bring her home, they have created some CUTIE t-shirts. I wanted to share their blog with you so that you could support them in their efforts. So, go check them out and get a t-shirt or two.
These Dreams of Mine

Throw me some bones...

Okay naming a baby is SOOO hard. It becomes even harder when you have been a teacher, you have 3 boys... and 7 nephews. We THINK we know what his "called" name will be but do not know if it will be his first or middle name (even though after Baylor I said I would never make a child go by their middle name again). To add to the stress, everyone in our family has an l and an a in their name. It was totally not on purpose but it is there...even for Brent whose first name is actually William (and do not suggest we use William- it is already another named family member). So I need help, throw me some bones... I will probably veto them all (cause that is what I do- or have a reason why I cannot use it) because I am tired of searching the net and playing the name game. And for those of you who do not know me well, I like unique names because our last name is one of the most common names. Also, don't suggest AL because well that is just not going to cut it.

(Oh... the called name does not have an a or l in it at all)

Wordless Wednesday

Labor of Love

I had to post this. Callan loves Lego sets. He is not really putting them together yet, but he loves playing with them and watching them be put together. As I spent most of my day Saturday (Callan's birthday) doing exactly what he wanted me to do, I found myslef putting together Lego sets. To be exact on Saturday, I put together 3 Lego sets (and 2 on Friday). The big one I put together had almost 800 pieces, and as I sat with him at the kitchen table digging through the pieces and putting it all together it occured to me... I spent more hours laboring over that one Lego set than I did in labor with him 6 years ago.

But when you see someone enjoy something so much, it does not really matter... it was yet another labor of love and by dinner the pain of searching for pieces and the numbness in my legs from sitting so long was already gone.

Let the FUN begin

My Callan will be 6 tomorrow. SIX??!! That means you have to use 2 hands to count and that means he is a BIG BOY!

At first he decided that for his birthday he wanted a Nintend@ DS (hand held game), but last weekend he went to his friend G's birthday party sleepover... and there was no turning back. (We have a birthday rule you can either pick a BIG present or have a party but not both that is why he was holding out for the DS). He had so much fun at the sleepover, he decided that it was worth the wait until Christmas for the DS and he has invited over a few buddies for tonight.

So stay tuned for the adventure. Believe it or not, I have never done a sleepover before, and I am kind of scared.

He did however get a special day at school. It was Pirate Day! So he got to dress up at school, and of course mom delivered cupcakes for him and his friends.

To sleep or not to sleep... that is the question??!!

Luckily, the answer was sleep.
The boys did great here in Friday night. Everyone arrived by 6PM, they tried to eat Pizza and cake, but really just wanted the freedom to run and play. I had tried to find the boys some little flashlights for their party treat, but had trouble locating the flashlight department. You will notice in the pictures that they are holding these glowstick/flashlight/lightsaberish lights. They were a hit. I am glad they liked them, just not so glad that Callan handed them out the MINUTE they walked in the door and added "I am not supposed to tell you but this part right here is a loud whistle".



I think Brent, Eliza and I were the only ones who really ate cake, but Callan had fun with his friends singing to him and helping him blow out his candle. (LS if you see this, don't gasp, he was just "helping" and Callan loved every minute of it). And of course time for presents. However, I only got one picture because it happened so fast that it was all I could get! They were all so excited to give Callan their gifts.







My plan was to let the boys watch a movie. It went kind of haywire. First the movie was scratched and did not work, so I had to take it back for a replacement. I got Star Wars:The Clone Wars. And, although they loved it, they had all seen it several times and preferred acting out the ENTIRE movie. Brent however, watched the entire thing (even when they left and went up to play). Poor J, Eliza staked her claim on him and kept trying to play with him all night long. He was so sweet to her. So sweet, that we had to tell him that it was okay for him to play with the boys and walk away from her. I think Eliza may have her first crush, because she was all about this boy.




Finally at wind down time, we pulled out the mattress and blankets and pillows and came to an agreement about the sleeping arrangements. Everyone brushed teeth and piled into bed while watching a last episode of Batman. I went on upstairs as not to invade the boy party and Brent slept with them in the basement. They were all well on their way to sleeping by 10:30 (except for the small complaint from Callan about all the coughing and snoring keeping him from sleeping), and they slept all night. Brent did say someone groaned off and on all night and that he kept getting up to make sure everyone was accounted for, but not any other peep was heard until 6:30 AM.



Brent and I went to work on Pankcakes, sausage and eggs and again most of them preferred to play... but as for me and my son, this little shindig was a HIT!

It takes a village to raise a Davy Crockett

Baylor received the part of Davy Crockett for his 2nd grade program at school. I had asked a few weeks in advance if I needed to create a costume for him to have. I was told that they thought they had it under control. Evidentally whatever they had fell through because I received an e-mail Wednesday morning that they had nothing for him (his program was Thursday night). So as any mom would do, I began making phone calls. All in all I think I spent 2 hours on the phone trying to track down a coon skin cap (and I cannot begin to tell you how many people went out of their way calling toy stores and historical gift shops, offered to pick one up in Nashville, and put out an all call on FB). Luckily I found 4! Plus I scored on a bag full of fabric scraps from a friend who said she keeps things like this around because she is always having to come up with stuff for kids school (RHE). I threw this together and Baylor was proud. I also have to say I was one proud mom that my son stood up in front of the entire 2nd grade and their families to sing a solo and have a speaking part (there were only 3 solos), and then do it again today in front of the entire school. He did great!!!

Thank you Tonya, Kyla, Christine, and Callan's teacher Miss Ross for hunting down some coonskin for me.