for a good cause

The little pumpkin and I are finally feeling better - yea! And...yesterday was the big fundraiser so now I'm feeling lots better - much more relaxed. The fundraiser was a huge success. Over $40,000 raised to benefit child abuse victims! Part of the fundraiser was a competition of gingerbread houses, with categories for kids, amateurs, and professionals.

Not knowing how challenging building a gingerbread house could be, I gladly signed us up to make one. I did cheat and buy the kit from Michael's since it was for the kids category. My first mistake was not reading over the instructions before getting Grace all excited about making a gingerbread house. Here she is pondering which set of sprinkles to use first :) I even found these cute ornaments at Michael's when I bought the kit. I'm thinking I may do a little "baking love" mini tree this year with one of my vintage trees and put all these ornaments on there. Wouldn't that be cute???! Grace was super excited to help me mix the icing...maybe because by now she knows I'll give her one of the whisks to lick after we're all done? And here's where I ran into trouble... Had I read the directions ahead of time I would have known that the sides needed to set for 1 hour and after adding the roof, another 2-3 hours. Yikes! That would have been waaaaaay past Grace's bedtime since we started this little project late Sunday afternoon. She did get to help with some of the details - can you tell which ones??? I'm seriously not saying, because a lot of what looks like a kid did it is actually my work of art (or lack of?) She did place the snowmen all by herself - a mama snowman, daddy snowman, Grace snowman, and Hudson snowman :) And although we didn't win the contest (yea right?!) her little house DID raise $25 for child abuse victims during the silent auction!!!!!!! Way to go!

I have to share this with you...the night of the fundraiser as I was walking around checking on all the houses and bids, I took notice that my sweet hubby couldn't help himself and had made the starting bid of $10 on Grace's gingerbread house. Made my heart swell with love for him thinking about how he couldn't stand his little girl's house to go without a bid. Love that. It's the little things for me. Thank you Lance for being her superhero! And no, the $25 final bid wasn't from either Lance or I...just in case you were wondering!

So to celebrate the fundraiser being over and mama being a lot less stressed, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch today. And if a picture is worth a 1000 words, then that megawatt smile says it all! Even Hudson had a turn. Yes, son I feel the same way about Barney - not impressed. Now safely away from that giant purple dino, Hudson could finally relax :) And there's that toothless grin that melts my heart! In honor of Veterans Day, Hudson wore his red, white (socks), and blue.

Thank you to all our Military men and women, active duty and veterans, who so selflessly serve our country so that we can enjoy all the freedoms we/I so often take for granted, like spending an ordinary Wednesday with my two little munchkins and my mom at Chuck E. Cheese's just because. I'm especially thinking about you Grandpa today on Veterans Day and yesterday on the anniversary of your birthday! Thank You! I love you and I miss you.
XOXO and again and again.