Wedding dress repurposed

In an effort to decrease the amount of stuff I own (and will therefore have to move), I opted to donated my wedding dress to Alexandra's House.  Alexandra's House is a perinatal hospice organization that works with families who have a terminal diagnosis for an unborn child (i.e. -- moms who are pregnant but who know the baby won't live).  I volunteered for a time with the organization, and I simply adore Patti, the founder.

I asked if she'd be interested in my wedding dress and would have a volunteer who could make it into gowns for babies.  Yes!

For memory purposes, here's what it looked like a million years (and much more hair, and much less gray) ago:

And here are the baby gowns that some volunteers made.

They're beautiful and I'm so, so pleased.

Misc fun

Coop was thrilled to figure out how to recline the back seat and pretend to be asleep:

Fun with Molly and Estelle:

In a play at school:

Cooper visits Topeka

 One weekend, Alan took Cooper to the capitol building in Topeka:

Apparently, they got to hear some deliberation about budget cuts:

But the real reason they went:

Coop did a report on John Brown for school, so he was thrilled to see the mural!

Baby Syl

I spent a couple of days here recently:

The parking lot:

Baby Syl's room (he had an infection from his last surgery, which put a shunt in his brain to drain a cyst):

Naturally, I gave him Diet Coke and peanut butter M&Ms:

Sitting!

I wore this necklace on the drive (one that Cooper had made for me -- he picked it out special for my trip):

Excitement

Opening the letter to find out which 4th grade classroom he will be in:

An awesome tank in a park in Iola:

Clone troopers in Walmart:

Drawing

Some of Coop's recent drawings.

Alan:

Hitler:

And then drawing on the big easel pad (we bought it for the easter party and had some left over):

Belated Easter Party

Coop wanted to have his annual Easter party but, given scheduling issues, we couldn't host one until April 10, two weeks after the fact.  No matter.  Festivities were a hit!

First up, painting:

Next, pictionary:

And then the long-awaited easter egg hunt:

Lastly, we tried something new.  Egg Roulette.  I had a dozen eggs, 8 of which were hardboiled, 4 of which were raw.  I let any kid who was willing pick one and then smash it on his / her head to see how lucky they were.

This was the first go-round.  Only five were brave (hint: watch kids 1, 3, and 5):

We played again with the remaining seven eggs (only one of which was raw), and guess who was lucky again:

Misc

At the Emporia Zoo with Grandma, Grandpa, and Zoey:

School picture day:

Coop used his allowance money to buy this antique looking phone:

I found the perfect street while I was in Boston for a conference:

Coop spent one entire evening reading a new book that came in the mail. Even got to stay up late to finish:

Vehicles

Coop has taken an interest in vehicles lately.  It started as a quest to learn / recognize the symbols of various cars.  (I'm relatively useless in this game.)  But he's decided that he LOVES Jeep Wranglers. So we stopped by the local Jeep dealership one day, and they were kind enough to let us crawl in one:

And Coop also wanted to try out the Dodge Charger (or Challenger?  I can't remember...):

We drove to the Emporia zoo one day to meet Grandma Joan, Grandpa Cecil, and Cousin Zoey.  Nearby, we found the veteran's memorial park with this awesome tank:

Work

Homework!  Math worksheets!  Which Coop completed while having dinner out at Culver's, so he would still have plenty of play time at home:

Dying Easter eggs:

Working the cash register at the local antique mall:

Board-breaking to earn his green belt:

Stuffing easter eggs in anticipation of our annual easter party (this year, two weeks late due to scheduling issues):