Texas Children's Hospital and the S.P.C.A

This weekend Brenna got a lesson in giving.  Our neighborhood just opened a new section that included several beautiful new model homes.  So, there was a Grand Opening and they invited everyone to come out for free cupcakes, pocket pies, balloons, face-painting, ice cream and pink lemonade.  They were also taking book donations for the Texas Children's Hospital.

So, I sat Brenna down and tried the explain the importance of giving and what a donation was.  We talked about how a hospital was kinda like the doctors office except sometimes you have to spend the night.  I explained that there was a special hospital just for kids and sometimes those kids have to stay a long time.  When I suggested that we give-away some of our books to the children at the hospital, she was completely on board by saying "Not the red books, because I really like those, but they could have the blue ones because we don't read those anymore."  And so the negotiations began!  In the end, while we did leave behind a few books that I thought should have gone (Brenna insisted the they were must-haves) she parted with about 20 books.  She received some very nice compliments as she dropped her books in the donation buckets at each of the new homes that we visited.

But, our lesson wasn't over.  Later that afternoon, Brenna joined some of her friends for a volunteer fundraiser!  Our friend Anna recruited her brothers, cousin, and Brenna to run a lemonade stand and all the profits went to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  Thanks to the humor and generosity of our neighbors the kids raised $22.25 for the S.P.C.A.!

Brenna and the Frog

Brenna is definitely more tomboy than girly girl!  Even though her favorite color is pink and she likes for her Daddy to tell her she's pretty when she's dressed up in her Sunday dress, that's about as far as her feminine side goes.  I don't mind.  I was a tomboy growing up too and even as a grown woman I've never been one much for girly things.  I've never had a manicure or a pedicure in my life and if I get to the hair dresser once every 3 months its a miracle.

Still, sometimes I can't help but laugh at Brenna's idea of fun.  No one will ever mistake her as prissy.  Here's just a few reasons way.

1.  Her bike basket is filled with sticks and rocks that we've collected along the creek trails.
2.  If you ask her to play her most favorite thing inside or go outside, she'll always choose outside.  She'd rather be digging
     in the sandbox no matter what.
3.  Her latest outdoor activity is to go on a safari through the flower beds with her bug cage and butterfly net and catch
     anything that has wings.
4.  She's never picked up a baby doll or barbie and dress-up has never made her to-do list.
5.  If we have to play inside we build things with blocks and magnets, or we play pretend which usually includes pirates or
     dinosaurs.
6.  She's not even 4 yet and we already have 2 chipped teeth because she's so rambunctious. Her legs and arms always carry
     some cut, scrap, or bruise.

So, on our last bug safari, what should we find but this a four-legged hopping friend who Brenna affectionately named Family Frog (because she thought he should be part of our family!)

Blankie

I'm reading a book called Mamarazzi.  I'm pretty sure I'm guilty of this title.  I'd never heard of the term until a friend recommended the book.  It's all about the how-to's of Mom's photographing their kids.  So, it's not so much of a fun-to-read book (unless your a learning photographer) as it is an attempt to simplify the technical terms and techniques of photographing kids.  There's a particular section thats all about not forgetting to document everyday life.  I've always thought I've done a pretty good job of that, since I'll take a picture of just about anything.  But, it specifically talked about capturing kids with their lovey!

Huh!  Wait?  Of course I have pictures of Blankie!   I must have?  She's carried him all over creation since she was born and has never slept a night without him.  So, I head to my photo albums to investigate because I can't remember any specific pictures.  I keep all our photos digital with a separate back-up to ensure we never lose our memories.  I have pictures dating back to 2001, which is about when digital photography really started to boom!  Today I have more than 15,000 pictures all sorted into appropriate albums.  After looking through all of Brenna's Age Albums I realized I had missed a very,very important part of her life.  There were a few pictures with blankie, but nothing that really captured what that grubby little patch of pink fabric really means to her.

So, what to do except get to snapping!  Here's our precious Blankie through the years!

The beginning of Blankie.  Here Brenna is only 4 days old, although she's not too pleased at the moment.

Pandamania at Grand Parkway Baptist Church

After our late night Monday with the fireworks, we were up bright and early Tuesday morning for our churches Vacation Bible School. Our church is pretty small, and last year we didn't even have a VBS because we were afraid we wouldn't have enough kids.  This year we had about 140 kids 2 years old through 4th grade and the theme was Pandamania.  As a comparison, one of my friends was sending her children to the very large Second Baptist Church and they had over 2,000 children registered!  

Brenna had a fantastic time!  I was alittle nervous about it since this was her first "school" type experience. I tried to explain it to her that it would be different from regular church. As we were driving up the first day she said "But Mama, this is regular church!" She loved every minute of it, and I really enjoyed things too. I lead the Bible Adventures for the preschoolers and while it was a blessing to be so active with the kids for the week, a week was plenty! I was worn out!

The first day after Brenna had been with her Bamboo Crew, she ran up to me in the general session and said "Look Mama, I have my very own name tag.  It says Brenna, B-R-E-N-N-A!"  I said, "That's great!  Look, I have a name tag too!"  Her response "But Mama, you got the wrong one!  That's not your name!  It doesn't say M-A-M-A!"

Happy 4th of July

Ok, so this post is alittle late.  Sorry things have been slow on here lately, but we've been busy!  I'll be playing catch-up with a couple more posts over the next few days, so check back soon.

What was suppose to be a nice relaxing long 4th of July weekend kicked off a very long week filled with backyard BBQs, birthday parties, fireworks, and VBS (more to come on this later!)

We attended a 4-year old's Justin Bieber birthday!  I can't believe its already started.  This little girl is just in love with Justin.  Of course, Brenna had no idea who he was and unless he was coming to play, she's wasn't too concerned.

We also attended one of the 4th of July celebrations so Brenna could see a real fireworks display.  She really liked it this year.   We were far enough away, that things weren't too loud, but close enough to enjoy the view!  Here's a few shoots from the weekend.

Rainbow Kitty

Recently, Brenna discovered a new game with her side walk chalk.  She likes to scribble two or three colors over one another and then rub them together with her hand to see what new color she can make.  When Abraham came over to investigate, Brenna gave him a big pat on the head which resulted in a red ear!  And that started a whole new game!  Abraham the Rainbow Kitty!

Brenna's Gymnastics

Well, with the dance recital in our review mirror we looked ahead to the summer.  Since Brenna is a "big girl" now, she likes to make her own decisions.  And her first major self proclaimed decision was about gymnastics.  While she enjoyed her year of dance, it just didn't bring the enthusiasm that gymnastics did.  But, since we paid the tuition, recital fee, shoes, costumes, and professional pics (the list seemed never ending), we stuck it out to the end.  At the end, I told her she could chose to do whatever she liked.  So we went back to gymnastics.  She jumped right back in like she never missed a beat and she loves it!