You Can Make A Difference

As many of you know, I follow many sites for kids with cancer and have done so for the past 5 years. It is amazing to me that those families who are fighting and those who have lost the battle do so much for others. If you would like to participate in these wonderful Christmas giving oppportunites, please go to the appropriate websites.

Lidia, who is a breast cancer survivor herself, has started the Tiny Sparrow Foundation; an organization that photographs terminally ill children with their families at no cost to the families. Their goal is to photograph 50 terminally ill children in 2010. Help them reach their goal, by donating here.

The Maxey Family has lost 2 children to cancer in the past five years. This year they are holding a virtual blood drive in honor of their two daughters. Donate blood or platelets in memory of Madeline and Annette, and let them know on their website. Their goal is to get 100 donations in the month of December.

Kate McRae is currently undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. She and her family are hosting Kate's Crazy Cool Christmas Project to benefit Phoenix Children's Hospital's oncology floor. Donations needed include:

TOYS: Hotwheels, barbies, action figures, legos, etc

GAMES: Videogames, board games, game stations (playstation, WII, game cubes, etc)

MUSIC: Ipods, cd players, cds, headphones, etc

CRAFT ITEMS: Paints, beading kits, markers, drawing pads, window paints, wood art, etc

CLOTHING: hats, Pjs, slippers, etc

PERSONAL CARE: Nail polish, body lotion, chap stick, etc

You can send your items to:
Cornerstone Christian Fellowship
Attn: Kate's Crazy Cool Christmas
2211 E Pecos Rd Suite 2
Chandler, AZ 85225

Or if the desire strikes you, pick up some of the items on the list and donate them to your local hospital.

Leave a message for Jack. He recently relapsed with High Risk Neuroblastoma and is undergoing paliative chemotherapy beginning on Monday. Jack and his sister, Kate, are having fun seeing where the notes are coming from. They have notes from Canada, London and Texas. We can so do better than that!

Best wishes for a very Merry Christmas!

Ornaments and Paper Villages

I am THAT mom who loves to do the craft project at all of the class parties. I have been involved with the twins' classes since Kindergarten and I have gotten the reputation as being "the crafty mom". Crafting with Oona started out as a way to have fun on Tuesdays and now has taken on a life of its own-other kids have found out about it and they want to come and participate. I am thinking about starting a craft club for the girls beginning in January so I decided to invite another girl in Ammy's class over yesterday. Enter Olivia! (and actually, Oona missed yesterday because she was under the weather.)

Being that I am THAT mom, I am always on the lookout for crafts that would be fun and easy to do with large groups of kids. Earlier this week, I was over at Kelly's Korner and she posted about ornaments that she made last year. I had a bunch of clear glass ornaments left over from last year so I bought several bags of paper shred (Michaels carries large bags of paper shred, but I found small bags at Target in their gift wrap section for 99 cents) and the girls went to town.

Apparently, we like to craft while sitting on top of the table.

These ornaments were super easy to make. All you do is stuff the ornament with the paper shred until it is full. We used a chop stick to push the shred through the little hole. Then we put the top back on and attached some ribbon.

Then adorn with stickers to personalize.

Some of the finished ornaments.

Since the first craft was super easy, I pulled out another craft from my closet--I bought these several years ago and thought the girls would have fun making them. I just did a google search and it appears that you can no longer get these kits. I ordered them from Paper Source. They do have a bunch of neat paper projects like an Amaryllis Flower Kit, a Poinsettia Wreath Kit, a Gingerbread House Kit, and a Mini Bauble Ornament Kit just to name a few.

The girls totally got into decorating the villages. The neatest thing is that they fold up into a card and you can send the village to someone.

Happy Crafting!

P.S. See how pretty the paper shred ornaments look on the tree!

Hello Winter

It's hard to believe that it was 60 degrees earlier this week! It started snowing at 9:30 this morning and has been snowing ever since.

Basketball games and soccer parties canceled for the day.

I'll just have to sit by the fire and knit.

Darn.

P.S. I told you I had a new obsession!

I Now Know Where Jerry Springer Finds His Guests

The other night I received a phone call from my friend, Lisa, offering me tickets to go see WWE's Monday Night RAW in Baltimore. I knew that Kellen would love to go so I called another friend and she and her son went with me, Kellen and Tristan.

I should have known that it was going to be a different crowd when we pulled into the parking garage at the arena. I park in this garage all the time and I have never seen a police officer taking money at the ticket booth. (Clue Number One)

The police officer looked at me and my friend and asked if we already had tickets for this event (Clue Number Two).

It was unlike anything that I have ever seen. Haven't these women heard of ponytails?

Verne Troyer (Mini Me from Austin Powers) was the guest host. Did you know that he is only 2 feet 8 inches tall?

The crowd was totally into the different matches and many of the people made signs that they held up throughout the night. They also held up glow sticks in a "X" for Tag Team, D-Generation X. Scary how this team has such a following.

The outfits were skimpy and the bodies were huge. Do you think these guys take steroids?

Grown men walk around with plastic belt souvenirs. Where do these people store the belts when they are at home?

Kellen was totally into the X thing!

The worst thing about going to Monday Night Raw was looking across the arena and seeing people who knew us! My brother-in-law and nephews were there too! I will never live this down!

Before you know it, I'll be going to tractor pulls and monster truck jams.

Crafting With Oona

We did not have our usual "Crafting with Oona" session yesterday because Allie had to get two teeth pulled. (I would have prefered crafting as I HATE going to the dentist and just being in the office gives me the willies)

Anyway, this is the next craft that I plan to do with the girls: Retro Ornaments made out of recycled cardboard tubes (we seem to have an inordinate amount of toilet paper rolls in our house) and pipe cleaners.

Family Fun had this craft in their latest issue--There are so many things to do to make these unique and beautiful. Family Fun suggests painting the tubes before hand as an alternative to the natural look.

I am thinking of several different variations...

dipping the pieces in glitter

painting the tubes and just putting glitter on the tops and bottoms--glass beads would also be pretty (I like to use up supplies from past crafting projects when possible)

I'll post pictures when we finish. Send me pictures if you do this craft with your little ones at home! I'd love to see the results.