Day 6

Kenna's bento for Day 6 was just a mismatch of things I had around and ideas I had seen on the wonderful bento blogs that are out there. Check out the suggested blogs to the right for some inspiration:)

She had salami, a babybel, montery jack cheese, baby carrots, egg ladybugs, and a sliced Anjou pear. She also had some pirate booty, cherries, and a mini blueberry muffin.

Day 5

No bento for Day 5. Friday is pizza day. Mc didn't want to take her lunch. I did have a wonderful lunch with my hubby at a local Italian resturant. YUM! Then we took Kierstin to the park b/c the Texas humidity was giving us a break. I tell you this child has no fear. The toddler playground was not shaded and was scorching so we went over to the big playground. She did every slide and even hung on the monkey bars a bit! What happened to my baby? She is definately getting too big!

I fell off the wagon...

Well it happened...I forgot to blog. Well I didn't really forget...I avoided which is so much worse! So back to the bentos I had been making just not blogging about. DAY 4 bento was inspired by Melissa at Another Lunch. Here's the link to her Bunny Foo Foo muffin tin: http://www.anotherlunch.com/2010/07/mtm-hare-today-goon-tomorrow.html

My kids are big fans of the WeeSing videos. It all started with my mother buying them for Lauren when she was little and we of course had to buy the dvd's for Kierstin. The one with Little Bunny Foo Foo is The Big Rock Candy Mountain and instead of field mice they are called Meecy Mice. I had to remind Mc over and over that the other kids in her class most likely would not know what Meecy Mice are so she had to say field mice. I didn't have everything we needed to make Melissa's exaclty, so we imporvised a bit. She has strawberry mice with cherrio ears, sugar eyes, and fruit snack tails, a kiwi goon with sugar eyes and fruit snack mouth, a Bunny Foo Foo egg, a few kisses, raspberries, and a ham sandwich make with the fairy from the SandWishes collection from Lunch Punch. The Good Fairy has 2 cucumber and carrot wands and fruit snack and montery jack cheese star decorations.

Our Adoption Story

Well, ours is about as atypical as you can get, but in a wonderful way. I found out in Dec. 2006 that I had a heart condition my whole life and never knew it. I had gone in for foot surgery and found myself at a cardiologist within the week and still with a bum foot. I was not put on any medication but was told to monitor how I felt and call if I had any problems. I didn't think it sounded like a big deal. So in January I met the love of my life and we were married in June. Now when I had gotten my divorce from John I had made a pact with myself that IF I ever got married again, my new husband would have to be ok with my kids and if he had any, his kids, being the only ones. I just didn't think any more kids were in my future. I prayed for a man that would love my children as his own. Boy did God answer that one. David is the best step father I know. But this changed something in my heart. David did not have any biological children. I saw how much joy the girls gave him and knew he deserved the chance to have all the experiences he missed out on. So we started trying to conceive. That's when I started having more and more problems with my heart. After a very bad "episode" my cardiologist made the decision that he could not recommend another pregnancy because he could not promise that my heart would not be damaged. I had to think about the kids I did have. I was heart broken and went home and headed straight to bed where I cried for the rest of the night. I can't imagine the heartache my friends who have miscarried have faced but I know how it feels to grieve for the baby that could have been. I woke up the next morning determined. David and I had discussed adoption on the very first day we had met. We were both open to the process. I knew this was the path God had for us all along. Then my mom got sicker. She had been diagnosed with Multiple Myleoma and her kidneys had failed. My father had died of cancer and my grandmother had died from complications resulting from dialysis. And now my mother was battling both. It was hard on her. She had been independent her whole life and had raised us alone since I was 2. So she decided to stop her treatments and passed away 2 weeks later on August 4, 2008. Adoption was still on our minds but I needed some time to grieve for my mother. So in December 2008, we started filling out paperwork with an agency one of my best friends had used. We finished our home study on January 31, 2009. The next day I was driving to work listening to KSBJ like I always do and heard the song While I'm Waiting by Josh Wilson. I prayed a silent prayer that I would be patient and fully trust in Him while we waited for our baby. I knew He was in control. Well, 9 days later I got a call after school from David saying that I needed to come home immediately. Being me...I wouldn't leave until he told me what was going on. He asked how soon I wanted a baby. I was dumbfounded. He explained that the agency had just called and they had a drop-in placement. A baby girl was leaving the hospital the next day and she was ours if we were ready. I raced home after letting my principal know that I might not be back for 3 months:) The agency sent us a picture on my phone. We looked at her and knew she was the one we were supposed to have. So we made a mad dash to Target to get the basics because I had gotten rid of all my baby stuff! We filled up 2 shopping carts! The next morning we left at 6 am and got to Dallas about 11ish. Then we met our baby girl. She was beautiful. We met her birthmother who is also gorgeous and her grandmother (you know it...gorgeous!). When we told them our story, Grandma began to say, "Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord!" I knew this was right. She settled into our family and has provided so many laughs, so much love, and has strenghtened our trust in God. On January 7, 2010, she became officially ours. We love her and she lights up a room like no other:) I feel God leading me down the adoption road again. I pray I can hold on to the trust in Him Kierstin gave me. More updates on that later.

Day 3 bentos

Simple, fast bentos for today. Momma is getting exhuasted with all this getting up early:) McKenna has salami, colby jack or polka dot cheese as she calls it, and triscuits. In her other layer she has blackberries, raspberries, a mini chocolate chip muffin and pirate booty (which she still can't say without cracking up even though I have explained it over and over). Mc really wanted to use the girl pick so we decided to bury her in the sand!

Lauren has salami, pepperoni, summer sausage, and colby jack cheese in her lower layer. She has balckberries, raspberries, kiwi, a babybel, a crayon pretzel, and two blueberry cheesecake mini muffins. She also got triscuits in a baggie. I finished packing her lunch and she got out the picks, gave me a puppy dog face, and of course I added some to her bento. Funny how she thought I was nuts a week ago...

Day 2 bentos

McKenna got a sheep bento. I really didn't like how this one turned out but love the Lunchbots containers! Such a good size. In her bento she had a sheep-shaped (say that 5 times fast:P) ham sandwich with foodwriter and sugar eyes details. Bean sprouts, flower carrots, flower cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes make the background . In her duo, she has a fruit salad of kiwi, clementine, and cherries in one side and a babybel and crayon pretzels in the other. Lauren came home yesterday starving, starving, starving. She has D lunch so everything is gone except the regular school lunch so she asked for a bento. She got a Sherimiya inspired ninja. You can check out her blog at Happy Little Bento. So she got a fruit salad of a clementine, blackberries, raspberried, kiwi, and strawberry with a nori wrapped egg. She also got pepperoni, salami, montery jack cheese, and a baby bell. And to top it of 2 crayon pretzels and some cherries. She was happier today (only having a small snack before dinner) and is already planning her bento for tomorrow. McKenna was starving when she got home so she got a snack bento of pirate booty, cherries, and a mini chocolate chip muffin.

First Day of School

I know that it was yesterday and I should have posted then, but...ok there is no excuse. Anyways, McKenna loves her new school and her teacher. She looked ever so cute and I actually got to walk her to class! That's actually something I have never been able to do because I have always had my own parade of parents to convince to leave my classroom, mountains of supplies to conquer, and kids to wrangle. I was not one of those parents by the way:) I did tear up leaving though...guess I have always had my own beginning of school chaos to distract me from the fact my girls are getting so big. We even drove Lauren to school too after hooking her up with some Starbucks. Can't believe this is her last year before high school. When did I get old enough to have a teenager??? So then we got home and by we I mean my sweet baby girl, my DH and myself. Due to the fact that I am chopped liver when her Daddy is around...I was soooooooo bored! I know! I thought I would have more to do. I cleaned my living room and dining room, vaccummed and dusted. And worried...I said I was not a helicopter mom but I was not entirely sure where Mc's bus stop would be. I am a planner, so this freaked me out! And it should have. They dropped her off on the street behind our house and three houses down from ours! DH was out in the area waiting but the driver said she could not add a stop on our street. I called transportation and they said they would see what they could do. (It didn't change today. UGH!) So that's how I spent my first official day as a SAHM. Didn't think there would be a learning curve...but I sure hope there is one!