handsful

Our church’s annual Easter outreach “All Cracked Up” was this past Saturday.  It started out a little chilly, but warmed up nicely and we all had a good time.  Lainey stood by the sign like we told her to, but she decided she didn’t have to smile. 

Egg hunts were divided by age, and Lainey’s age (the one that Randy and I were in charge of) was planned for the b-ball court.  The eggs were already out there when we arrived.  Problem…it was windy on Saturday, and the eggs kept rolling out to the edges of the court.  Our kids and friends attempted to spread them back out, but one gust of wind and they were right back.  Oh well, they tried. 

Ready, set, go!  See Lainey in the middle?  We had to prod her to get her out there, and then she basically just walked around like she had no clue what to do.  ??  Thankfully, a little boy with a basket full of eggs shared with her. 

Call me cheap, but I didn’t buy her an Easter basket (gasp), so we used this pink bag.  We’re a non-Easter bunny/Santa/Toothfairy family so my kids are obviously deprived. 

Payton, Marley, and friends help her go through her loot.  They were looking for a special yellow paper that meant she’d won a prize.  She did.  Silly Putty!

After the egg hunts, it was time for a KidStuf show.  The teens dressed up for fun…the cute little ladybug on the right is Abbey. 

Next, was the Manhunt.  A special egg hunt for the big guys.  There were gift cards for a certain chicken restaurant (see the cow?) and a golden egg with a Lowe’s card.  Food and tools…motivation.  See the guy in the middle with the wide brim hat?  My guy. 

He zeroed in on the sandbox.  Afterwards, he told us he did find a silver egg, but left it there so a guest could find it.  Should I believe him?  :)

This face wouldn’t lie. 

Abbey snatches the camera, and helps prove that I was there. 

Lainey finds her smile surrounded by her brothers and their friends. 

I hope you celebrated Palm Sunday today.  This week we remember Jesus, his sacrifice, and then celebrate the truth of his resurection.  Happy Easter!

How sweet.  Ethan is teaching Lainey how to play his guitar!  I love it when the big kids share their lives with Lainey.  I’m sure L will give him a big hug and kiss for this privilege. 

Or, maybe she’ll just steal his guitar pick.

What do you get when you combine 5 preteen boys, a dad who is only chronologically in his 40’s, air soft guns, ammo, pizza, midnight movie, sticky explosions, a potato launcher, 2 sleepovers in a row, junk food, Guitar hero, and bible study? 

You get Randy’s Real Life Group’s PROGRESSIVE SLEEPOVER!  Weeks ago, the guys were all talking about doing something special as a group.  Those discussions turned into a full-out, all-things-boy weekend.  The itinerary was:

Arrive here at 6pm Friday night

Play, hang out, make explosions, and shoot potatoes into the pond behind our house

Riddle/illusions/word search competition

Guitar Hero (boys sing LOUDLY)

Bible study

Leave for the midnight showing of Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Get home around 2:30, go to bed

Wake up at 7:30 for a work-day at church

Air soft gun fight in the field behind church

Go to the next house for more bible study and another sleepover – more playing, junk food, etc. no doubt

Get up for church

I’m fully expecting my boys to come home after church on Sunday and collapse into heaps on the couch.  But, the fun they’ve had will be remembered. 

More pics of their time here on Friday…

Love this shot.  All 5 boys working on illusions and riddles surrounded by soda, pizza, and an array of artillery and ammunition. 

Here is the “other” boy, pumping up the potato launcher.  Fuzziness credited to Ethan, the photographer. 

Potatoes must go THAT way.  Grunt. 

What’er you lookin’ at?  Haven’t you ever seen potato shootin’ before?

Next…

Set up soda.  Decide the lucky kid to drop in the Men*tos candy. 

How about Ethan?  He’ll do anything. 

jumping back and…

Cool. 

I think that’ll be enough to describe the whole weekend.  After they wake up from their naps tomorrow.

Click the link below to go to the Change This World website – if you read an earlier post of mine, you’ll remember that is the organization that arranged for the Jr. High at our church to package 15,000+ meals for Kids Against Hunger.  They did a write up on their trip to CFC.  You can see the back of Abbey packaging meals (black and white striped jacket) and a pretty interesting picture of Randy having a hair net malfunction.  Only MY husband. 

http://www.changethisworld.com/2010/03/15120-meals-by-middle-schoolers/ 

Reading this makes me even more proud of my kids taking action in this world for Christ, and it makes me want to find even more opportunities to make even a small difference.

So, last week a mom posted pictures on the Luoyang Orphanage Yahoo group we’re members of.  She had sent a birthday cake to her soon-to-be daughter…there are organizations that allow you to do this, they deliver the cake to the orphanage and everything.  We’ll be doing that in July for Dylan’s 3rd birthday.  Anyway, she added the pictures to the yahoo site and told the other waiting families to check and see if any of our kiddos might be in the pictures. 

Well, I’ve looked through ALL the photos posted on that site, in the off chance I might recognize Dylan…even though the latest pictures we have are almost 12 months old.  (We have to wait until May for our agency to request new pictures and updated stats of him.)  In all those photos, none have ever jumped out at me as a possibility for Dylan.  Until…

I was looking through my friend’s pictures and I stopped at this one. 

He’s sitting beside the birthday girl (I cropped the picture).  Is that Dylan?  My friend thought so, after she compared this photo to our referral pictures.  And, someone else on the board posted that she enjoyed the birthday pictures and said “I see Donna’s son, too.”  I asked them why they thought so, and they pointed out…same hairline, eyes, ears (left one looks a little larger, like in our referral pics), and left eyebrow is a little more pointed, too (like we’ve seen in the referral pics). 

After checking other pictures on the Louyang site, I found that someone else had JUST posted a few more from this month.  They were in China with their daughter, and were able to visit the orphanage and take pictures of some of the kids.  And, there he was again…

Scroll down and compare these to our referral pics – understanding that he would have obviously aged quite a bit.  I really see it in his close-up with the red background.  What do you think??

inside and out.

Forgive the picture quality, but here are the contents of the care package we sent Dylan today.  A few toys, photo album showing him his new family, a camera that we hope is used to take pictures of him, and treats for the nanny’s and children. 

We sent 2 care packages to Lainey while waiting, and sadly neither were received by the orphanage…we have no idea why.  So, we’re praying this one makes it.  It will let him know that there is a family waiting for him (China usually doesn’t officially inform the orphanage until travel has already been approved, and we’re months away from that). 

On another note, Randy did some tweaking to the Pages part of the blog – some of them hadn’t been updated since we began Lainey’s adoption.  Oops.  That’s been taken care of, so check them out :)