Moore, Oklahoma - disaster relief

This past weekend Jamie and I had been playing a "KID FREE" vacation for ourselves.  I couldn't see going to the beach and not taking the boys with us...we couldn't justify the airfare prices anyways...so we finally had just decided we'd drive to KC or OKC and spend a few days by ourselves, doing whatever we wanted.    

Problem was, I couldn't figure out exactly what we would spend 3 full days doing...shopping?  Reading a book by the pool?  I knew those things wouldn't keep Jamie occupied for long.

Then came Monday, May 20th.  An F5 tornado hit the town of Moore, OK.  Just miles from where I had been planning a little vacation for the weekend.  Instead of spending all our time hanging out, what if we went and helped?  I mentioned it to Jamie and he said "let's do it".  

Then our church ended up doing a supply drive and needed someone to take the supplies down.  

My Armada could pull the trailer.  

Mom said she'd watch the boys (and even keep up with Tate's potty training - which was one worry for me).  

So I booked a hotel (easier said than done.  There wasn't much available.).  

And Saturday morning at 4:30 am, we got up and headed to Oklahoma.

We pulled into Journey Church about 8 am.  Got in line with semi, after trailer, after semi, full of supplies and  unloaded the supplies our church had collected for the disaster relief.

What Journey Church had been able to pull together in just 5 days was amazing.  The parking lot held a 20,000 square foot tent for supplies.  The lot was full of boxes of supplies and bottled water, still waiting to be sorted.  Volunteers were everywhere.

At church Sunday, the pastor mentioned that before the tornado had even crossed I-35, people from this church were already mobilizing relief efforts.  They had been going 16-20 hours a day since the tornado hit.  providing shelter and supplies for hundreds of families.  They even were the ones who provided supplies to the Red Cross when the Red Cross got into town.  The church has even paid for the funeral expenses of some of those lost in the tornado.  The planning and organization that goes into a relief effort like this is amazing.  I couldn't believe how organized the church was in everything they were doing.  Not only providing supplies and support to victims, but also sending out hundreds of volunteers every day to help in clean up efforts.  They also have 2 mobile kitchens providing thousands of meals over the week to victims and volunteers.  People making phone calls getting more support brought in, training people as care counselors to work with the victims who walk in the doors looking for help.  Totally amazing.

The pastor of this church lost his home in a tornado in 1979 in Wichita Falls, TX.  Until Monday, that tornado was the largest ever recorded.  He says now he knows why God allowed that to happen to him all those years ago.  So that he was prepared for Moore, OK in 2013.  

 Journey Church is a HUGE church.  They do all kinds of outreach all over the world.  A few weeks ago, the pastor had felt led that something was going to happen in Moore.  It weighed on his heart enough that he, 3 weeks ago, delayed a different sermon series he had ready to go for Mother's Day and began a sermon series entitled :  "I Heart This City. Nehemiah's Journey."   

Talking about the vision and hope of Nehemiah as he rebuilt the temple.  God's timing.

Supplies filling the parking lot, waiting for volunteers to organize  in the tent

A video Journey Church showed Sunday morning in their services:

March for Babies - for Tate's sake!

This year we participated in our 3rd March for Babies walk.  We run a special every year at the clinic (new patients first visit for a $25 donation to March of Dimes and then we match that donation) and raised $850.

We never have the greatest weather for March for Babies and this year was no exception.  They were having a 100 year birthday celebration so we went early expecting there to be lots of fun entertainment.  There wasn't.  Just 40 mph cold wind.  It was not fun.  Tate was miserable.  I couldn't decide if he didn't feel good or was just cold and came THIS close to just calling it off and going home.  But we made it start time and took off.

Thankfully, this year the walk was on WSU's campus.  If it had been down by the river like the last 2 years the walk would have been really windy, but since we were walking among the buildings the wind was blocked quite a bit.  Towards the end of the mile the sun finally came out and by the time we finished the walk it wasn't too bad out. So then it was time to play:

Dad took Hudson down the hill in the wagon.

And then had to push him back up!

Then everyone started rolling down the hill:

And then it was finally time for pizza.  we found a warm spot in the sunshine and out of the wind, and then Tate really perked up.  Might have just been the pizza!

Tate's 2nd Birthday Roundup!

For Tate and Ashley's 2nd birthday we went with a cowboy/cowgirl theme.  It's hard coming up with boy/girl ideas for a party!  But this one turned out really cute, and since both of the kids were really into horses at the time, it was perfect.

the invites

Some of the decoration.  We had the party at Trinity again, and they had just had a barn dance a few weeks before.  So we were able to use some of their decorations (the big boots sign at the front door, bandanas and cowboy hats).  We borrowed 10 bales of hay from a friend who has horses.  Our original plan was to actually scatter hay all over the ground, but the men convinced us that was not a good plan.

The games we had set up for kids to play.  I bought some  cowboy guns off ebay and set up the tin can shooting station.  In the pig pen, the kids could try to sit on the "pigs" and pop them.  Then we had several rocking horses and stick horses the kids could ride.  And my uncle made us the roping cow and steer - which turned out awesome!

The covered wagon dessert table. 

My {wonderful, talented} uncle made the table for us.  then we just bent pvc pipe and used an old curtain to make the covered part.  The wheels are just cut out of cardboard.  All the decorations came from my grandma's house!

Horse feed:  popcorn and apples

Cow Chow : puppy chow

Haystacks: haystack cookies

Cow pies: brownies

Mini apple and cherry pies

cupcakes with cutouts I made using my cricut.  

the food table.  I got a couple of old pallets and just hung stuff on them.  I used some rope and a staple gun to "write" tate and ashley on the middle one.  

The birthday boy and girl

Trail mix snack bags that were take home treats for the kids.  

Hudson couldn't keep himself out of the desserts!

bomp pop

One night when we were out playing with the neighbor kids the Ice Cream Man drove by.  The neighbor kids all got ice cream - and hey - what's summertime without at least once treat from the ice cream man?  

So we let the boy's share a bomb pop.  (I didn't think Tate would really care (boy, was I wrong!) and I already paid $3 just for the one popsicle, so I was NOT going to buy another one!

Happy again!

Summer Vacation 2012

We took the boys back (well, back for Hudson.  Tate hadn't ever been there!) to Turner Falls for our summer vacation.  This time we rented a different cabin, but in the same area as the one we rented last time.  The cabins are awesome! 

There was plenty of room for all of us, although this cabin wasn't really ideal for little ones.  The master bedroom was upstairs, while the 2 other bedrooms and futon were downstairs.  And these were the stairs:

The hole in the floor and ladder totally freaked me out the whole time we were there.  We didn't have any accidents though.  You could also go outside and down the deck stairs and come in the outside door to get in the basement, which is what we did most of the time.

The boys had a blast playing down by the river and digging in the mud. 

On the first full day there we went to Turner Falls.  Hudson loved this the first time we went, and he was about Hudson's age, so I thought Tate would have a blast.  Unfortunately, Tate had BAD diaper rash that day and was pretty miserable playing in the water. :(   We had thought we'd go back again in the afternoon after naps, but with how bad Tate felt, we ended up just staying at the cabin the rest of the day.  There was still some fun to be had while we are the falls.  The boys enjoyed throwing the rocks the most.

We brought along the boy's 4 wheelers for the trip.  Unfortunately, neither one could go very well in the grass, so they mostly just rode on the deck.  Which was a little dangerous when they got to the edge.

We were there over 4th of July so we took some of our own fireworks.  We drove down (about 30 minutes) to lake Murray for their firework show.  Waited forever for it to get dark enough, almost ran out of gas, and then when we got back, saw that the people in the cabin closest to us had put on quite their own firework show.  We should have just stayed there and let the boys watch theirs!  

The highlight of the trip was most definitely the hot tub.  We kept it pretty cool and the boys (especially Hudson) loved swimming in it. 

I bought some worms and Jamie tried to take Hudson fishing.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to get hooks, so we had to improvise.  No fish were caught. Surprise, surprise.

On our last day there we took the boys down to Lake Murray (again) to go swimming in the lake there.  Again, neither of them really wanted to get in the water.  Hudson enjoyed climbing on the rocks and Tate stayed on the beach for the most part.  After lunch, Hudson finally decided he'd go in and he and Jamie went out and played for awhile in the deeper water.

All in all, it was a lot of work to take a family vacation.  We cooked most of our meals at the cabin so I had a lot of food I'd prepared beforehand, plus the packing, going to the store once we got there, and all the planning and driving to our destinations.  We decided if we ever go back there, we'll just plan on hanging out at the cabin the entire time and not worry about day trips.  And Jamie and I said the next vacation we should go on will be "kid free"!  We needed our own vacation after the family vacation!

one happy family!

So, it's been a little while....

I took a little, okay, long hiatus from blogging.  But I'm back.  Hopefully.  No promises, but I'm going to try my best!   First up, I'm going to blog some pics of Tate's 2nd birthday party (6 months ago) and maybe a few other things from the past year, just so that I have them here for posterity sake.  So bear with me.

Hudson's Major League Birthday Party!

(Yes, I am WAY behind but better late than never!)

I can't believe my baby is 4!  How did that happen?  We celebrated Hudson's 4th birthday party with a Major League baseball party.  Hudson LOVES baseball.  It seems to have surpassed basketball as his favorite over the last few months....of course, that's probably only cause it's baseball season....come winter, we'll be back to basketball, I'm sure!  But anyway, he had told me long ago that he wanted a baseball birthday party this year....so baseball it was!

The invites:

                                (Front)                                                                          (Back)

Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd....buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks....and sunflower seeds, cotton candy, pickles, pretzels and popcorn too!   For the food I went with all traditional baseball style food.....and the main dish was hot dogs, of course.   I decorated in red and blue, and even made cute little pennant flags with baseball quotes on them to put in each dish. But it was pretty windy so those didn't cooperate....along with the CONCESSIONS sign I made.  It was blown up on top of the pavilion and stayed up there the rest of the party.  Oh well.

The main entertainment for the party was a baseball game, of course!

 And then a water balloon fight...and a little kite flying by the princess.

Then Hudson opened all his presents....

And then it was time for cake...balls.  Baseball cake balls this year.  They didn't turn out as I had envisioned, and then the heat got to them as well...but they were still delicious.  And I served the kids' cake and ice cream in the cute little baseball helmets.

Then it was time to break the pinata....We have done a pinata at all his parties (except his first birthday) and he demanded another one this year.  So I made this one.  I might have put a few too many layers of paper on - it took a lot of hitting to break it open!

And enjoy all the goodies inside!  I bought baseball cards, baseball tattoos, pencils, and fun dip, blow pops and sour gum balls (all the good stuff I always bought at the concession stand at a ball game when I was little!)

Thanks to everyone who came to help us celebrate Hudson's birthday!  He had a great time and is very much enjoying being a BIG 4 year old now.