Service Event Recap

~Read this first~

On Saturday I hosted my service event, "Show Somebunny You Love Them." To be honest, I'm struggling with how to recap the day because it exceeded my expectations! I was beyond thrilled with the turn out. I'm hesitant to write about everything because I don't want to leave any details out so I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking.

About 50 children and their parents spent some of their afternoon with us, including a Daisy Troop. As you walked in, you were greeted at the registration table. You signed in and got a name tag. Once you were registered, you went to the crafting room. Each child got to choose to decorate their bag with one of three different bag designs: a bunny, flower or coloring sheets in Easter themes.

This is one example of how the flower bag looked.  Isn't it cute? It's my favorite.

There were volunteers at each table showing the kiddos how to decorate the bag.  Once the bag was complete, the child received a shopping list for either a little girl, little boy, teen girl, teen boy or adult woman. Each list was different and dictated what "stations" the children shopped at. For example, if you had a little boy list you would not stop at the cosmetic table. Makes sense, right?

The shopping lists were designed to be easy for kids to follow and understand on their own with minimal help from their parents.

The shopping stations were set up in rows so that the kiddos could go from station to station very easily.

Check out the toy table; we collected over 2,400 items total!

Lots of shoppers, shopping!

Aidan had such an awesome time! He made a total of nine bags. One little girl made 21 bags!

I worked at the "oral care" and "shower item" table. Once the child picked items to satisfy the requirements of their list, they received a stamp on their shopping list so that the person working at the "check out" knew they had visited every station.

When a child visited each station, the goal was to get them to think outside of the box. For example, when Aidan stopped at my station and had a little girl list he grabbed a Transformers toothbrush. Maybe some little girls DO like Transformers but I encouraged him to think about what a little girl might want versus what HE would want. I think this was challenging for some kids but the idea behind this project was to put kids in a situation that would encourage talking about helping others and allowing them to think about what children their age might want or need when they don't have much of anything.

I absolutely could NOT have done this without my dear friend Mel. She is simply amazing!! She thought of all the bag designs and many of the other little details. We were able to make a total of 238 bags AND we still had some individual donations left over which will also go to The Hope Center.

Aidan with another bag done... the day after our event, Aidan said to me "Thank you Mom for inviting me and letting me come and help. I had a really fun time."  I have no words. NO words. This boy makes me so happy.

In addition to the event itself we hosted a bake sale. All proceeds went directly to The Hope Center. We raised an additional $140 JUST from baked goodies! I thought that was amazing!

When I think about all of the problems in the world, hunger, poverty, the exploitation of children to name a few, it seems like there are so many negatives and nothing positive. It feels impossible to make a difference. If we all thought like that though, nobody would do anything and nothing would change. Although individual efforts may not seem like a lot, they add up and they DO make a difference. Just look at what we were able to do. I am really at a loss for words when trying to express my gratitude to those that helped make this possible. This event would not have been successful without the help of my moms group, all of the volunteers, the people who donated items, those who baked for the bake sale and Mel. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Little Man Tea Party

This past Sunday I co-hosted a baby shower for one of the lovely ladies in my moms group. I thought I would share some of the decorations and ideas from the shower with you. Who doesn't need a little inspiration when throwing a baby shower or any party for that matter?! (just a little side note...most of the ideas originally came from here, we just recreated them) So much fun...

The general theme of the shower was "tea party", which was super cute in itself, but the host of the shower didn't want to be responsible for setting-up/taking down all decorations, making food, planning games, etc. Her thought was to have individual people "host a table" at the shower, which basically means if you decided to host you were responsible for decorating your table, setting up/taking down all decorations and hosting the guests that sat at your table (bringing them their tea, etc). Maybe I live on another planet but I had never heard of this before and thought it was an awesome idea.  Throwing a party is A TON of work and I personally really enjoy it but I know some don't, so this idea of "host a table at a shower" might really appeal to you.

Because I love planning parties, I knew I wanted to host a table. My friend Katie and I teamed up together. We went back and forth with what we wanted the theme of our table to be. We finally decided on a "little man" tea party.  I had hesitations at first because I knew I wanted to use this theme for Gray's first birthday party and I wasn't sure I wanted to repeat a theme (blame the party planner in me) but then I realized I could reuse some of the decorations so the "re-user" in me decided to just go with it.  Plus, we knew no one else would use this theme, so it was a win-win situation.

This was our centerpiece...we used our husband's ties and wrapped them around the inside of the hurricane. Then we tied a tie on the outside. I also ordered these to put in the center piece. We thought the props would be a fun way to let the people sitting at our table get involved with our theme. Plus, they made for some super cute photo ops! 

Cute signage to go with our theme :)

Because the main theme of the shower was tea party, we used china for our place settings. On the tea cups, my lovely friend Katie came up with the idea to put little "wet your whiskers" tags on all of the cups. She just printed them up on her computer, cut them out and then tied them with ribbon onto the cups. So cute and SO easy! 

Don't you just LOVE these cute necktie napkins?! I do! The idea was to make the napkin look like a dress shirt with a tie so that if you tucked your napkin into the top of your shirt, it would look like you were wearing a tie. We used scrapbook paper, cut pieces out in the shape of ties and then glued them together. I love all of the different patterns we were able to use. The first picture shows more than one tie. 

We found this cute little onesie on Etsy and HAD to have it because it went so perfectly with our table..it was also part of our gift for the mom-to-be for her little man! I thought it was a lovely day and I think we pulled off our little man theme quite well. What do you think?!  

Looking to help others? Here is your chance...

A couple of weeks ago I talked about this idea...and how excited I was to get the ball rolling. Well, I am thrilled to finally announce the event. SO, without further ado, I would like to tell you all about "Show Somebunny You Love Them..." a kid friendly service event. My mom's group and the Little Warrior Organization (to read more about the Little Warrior Organization, click here) have joined together to host this awesome two-part event.

First, we are going to be collecting donations for The Hope Center. The Hope Center is a local organization that aims to prevent homelessness.  The items we are collecting include:  Kleenex, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo/conditioner, deodorant, gloves, bibles, children's books, etc. For a complete list of items, please click here.  Our hope is that these items will help warm the minds, bodies and souls of those who access the Hope Center this upcoming Easter season. Items can be dropped off locally at Ascension Lutheran Church located at 1415 Dopp Street, Waukesha, WI OR mailed to the Little Warriors Organization:  W233N6089 Lilac Drive, Sussex, WI 53089. Items are being collected from February 1st- March 21st. This event is a great way to talk with your children about helping others.  Talk to them about what it means to be homeless. Answer their questions, even though they may be difficult. Let them pick out the toothbrushes or books. SHOW them what it means to help others. Often times we talk with our kids about helping others but do we really act upon that?

Then, on Saturday, March 24th from 1:00-5:00 children of all ages and their families are invited to meet at Ascension Lutheran Church to create and decorate Easter bags. Once the bag is designed, the children will be filling their bags with the donated items. After all the bags are decorated and filled, we will be dropping them off at the Hope Center.  If you are interested in attending, pre-registration is recommended so that we can plan ahead and know roughly how many people to expect. However, walk-ins are certainly more than welcome. If you would like to pre-register for the event, click here.

We can't save the world and we can't prevent homelessness. BUT we can help and every. little. bit. counts. Please consider donating and then join us on March 24th!  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to leave a comment. I would be happy to answer any and all questions. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

SuperMamas!

Last night I had a Supermoms meeting with some of my favorite ladies. The Supermoms is a group that originated through my church and has blossomed quickly. We started small with two mamas who founded the group and now we are up to 40 members, which I think really says something considering we come from a relatively small church. We are all Christian women and have similar interests. There is usually an event every month, sometimes more than one. So far, we've done a cookie exchange, hosted a book club, date night, several play dates, and MORE.  Coming up we are hosting the Love and Logic parenting series, which I personally am SO excited about!  I. LOVE. my fellow Supermoms.  They are the kind of ladies who you feel like you've known your entire life even though you've really only known them a few months. They immediately make me feel comfortable and at ease. They listen and share advice on parenting AND we can all relate because we have something in common...being MOMs! I could be having the worst day (or week...please see post:  patience really is a virtue!) ever and these ladies "fill my cup" right back up. I don't know how else to describe them other than to say they are simply amazing.

During our meeting last night we talked about becoming a bit more focused within our group and dividing up into subcommittees instead of having the two founders plan EVERY event. Those committees being service, social and spiritual.   I immediately knew which committee I wanted to focus on...SERVICE. Which I truly believe I have a passion for AND added bonus it fits in perfectly with the purpose behind this blog.

Right before the holidays started I saw this idea all over various blogs and I fell in love. I knew right away that I wanted to participate. I brought the idea to my fellow Supermoms and they loved it too.  In fact, one Mama, Melissa, thought we should collaborate. She started an organization in honor of her son Owen who passed away this past May. The organization, The Little Warriors, aims to make available children and family friendly service projects to communities in Waukesha (WI) and the surrounding area. So first thing on our  agenda is to turn the Blessing Bags into a service project for community and I couldn't be more excited!

Something I struggle with as a mom is how to explain the idea of grace and helping others who are less fortunate than us to Aidan specifically. Everything is still very much about "him"...but I think that is part his age too. I am really so excited and looking forward to using this idea to teach  my boys about service and helping others and cannot wait to bring all the details to YOU! Here is to looking forward to all the fun that is sure to come. *cheers*