Operation Christmas Child

Yesterday we had a sweet time of community and serving the Lord. We got together with our group to work on filling shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. We turned it into a little mission project for our group, to make it more personal for us.

Don't know what Operation Christmas Child (OCC) is?

It's a fantastic opportunity for us, who've been blessed beyond what we deserve, to give a little Christmas cheer to children who otherwise won't be getting anything for Christmas. What's more? They get to hear the life-altering message of the Gospel. 

Their Mission? From their website:

The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

We have not done this in the past, but my heart is in it now. I absolutely believe this is something we will do for years to come, and involve our children in the giving process. 

Last night, we met our group at a dollar store and shopped for our boxes. My husband and I decided to do two boxes, one for a 2-4 year old boy (think: Cohen's age) and a 10-14 year old girl.

Here is our little boy's box:

contents:

2 simple board books, doctor play kit, toothbrush, toddler toothpaste, 4 pairs of socks, bouncy ball, small car, 2 note pads, jumbo crayons, fish bath sponge, bar of soap, Q-tips, bag of suckers and small blue t-shirt (the plush baseball did not end up fitting)

About $16.00

All packed in! (minus the baseball!)

It's like a fun game of Tetris to make it all fit. I just imagine his sweet face opening this box around Christmastime. Has he ever had a Dum-Dum before? Does he have clean shirts? Has he ever held a new crayon in his hand? I get teary eyed, because it's so easy for me to imagine my sweet Cohen opening this box. There would be certain joy on his face, and he has most of these things. It thrills my heart that we are able to do this. 

For our young girl (10-14 years old):

contents:

colored pencils, pencil sharpener, pens, crayons, note pad, tooth brush, tooth paste, bag of ring pops, purple comb, hair ties, watch, Q-tips, bath sponge, bar of soap, 3 pairs of socks

About $15.00

Stuffed in the box!

We had a great time of fellowship shopping for and putting together these boxes. We are so thankful to have the means to give to this great cause.

Best friends. These two wanted to play with the toys, of course. :)

If you are interested in contributing to this project, please, please visit their website. Our church, Watermark, will be collecting the packed boxes until November 18th, I believe. 

Please remember to think of others this Christmas season. If you're able to give, give. If not, offer your time somewhere. Help share the love of Jesus Christ (the reason for this season) to children and families all around the world.

A Little Man's Mustache Bash Baby Shower {part 2}

So, in the previous post you saw how we decorated and pulled off the 'Stache Bash. This is all the guests (our precious friends) enjoying the party.

The Hostesses! (me, Ashley and Sallie)

Miss Maggie Moo!

See how fun???! This is Patrick, Daddy-to-be!

Jackie's sweet Momma, Stacey! She and her hubby came all the way from Austin for this shower!

Soon-to-be-mama, Jackie!

Patrick again, with all his props!

Me with Patrick and Tyler. :)

Jackie and her parents!

Me with the guest of honor!

Almost got our whole group together for a throwback picture!

Though he thought it was a little creepy, Mr. Cole sure liked his mustaches.. no? ;)

Our sweet out-of-towners, Brittany and Preston!!!

Brittany offered up a fun announcement.. She's 10 weeks pregnant!! Yaaay! 

Our game of the party. Draw a baby, on top of your head, with a mustache. Jackie gets to pick the winner. 

Concentrating...

Going through the hopefuls...

Cory wins! It's hard to see, but there is a round shape (head) with a crooked shape (mustache) drawn there. :) Congrats Cory!

Me and Britt!

The ladies! Sallie, Maggie, Ashley, Jackie, Brittany and me! I'm the only non-prego lady here... besides Mags, but she's a baby. :)

Goofy parents! :)

They played right along! Thanks for coming Stacey and Dale!

Add in Patrick's awesome Mom, Leslie!

Cory and Ash

Tyler and Sallie!

My loves! Hector and Coco! :{)

"Stink Bomb", "Your turn, PK", "OH CRAP"

"ipood.com", "50% chance of showers!!", "Be sure to cover!"

"Howtochange.com", "#lilmustache12", "Insert poop here"

How sweet are they? What a fun shower! We can't wait for this little guy to get here in January. He's got some wonderful parents standing by out here. 

Did you miss the party planning details? Find them here!

A Little Man's Mustache Bash Baby Shower {part 1}

I had the honor of helping host my sweet friend, Jackie's, baby shower today! I've been dying to share this party on here, but didn't want to spoil anything for her.

We've known since like... 12-13 weeks that Jackie and Patrick were having a boy. And she's 30 weeks now! So, I pretty much immediately wanted to do the 'Stache Bash' baby shower. It's ultra trendy right now.. if you Google "Baby Boy Showers" it'll probably be in the top 5. And so it was, we started planning for a Mustache Bash. I picked yellow and gray as our colors. (also trendy right now...sorry!)

I think I'll just start with pictures and explain as I go. Enjoy and please ask questions if I leave anything out!

 I saw printables like this all over the internet, but none for free... so, I made my own! And flowers by Sallie!

"I'd love to stay and chat but I really mustache (must dash)."

 Please excuse the lighting.. hoping this is my last party with our awful digital camera. :) Ashley made this adorable banner with scrapbooking paper and onesies with ties. (There will be a better picture later on, where you can see it clearly.)

 I bought plain cups and embellished them with mustache stickers. They look hilarious when you put them up to your mouth to drink. I ordered these fantastic paper straws from The Enchanted Frog.

 Tissue paper pom poms in our signature colors. Do you know how hard it is to find gray tissue paper??

Another fun sign I made for the welcome table.

I made a lot of these little cards.. HIMYM fans out there? At the end of most (if not all..) episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" they show one of Barney's "Bro Code" rules. So I picked 12 of the most appropriate ones and placed them about the party for people to have fun with. They were a hit! Very funny addition. (Ex. A Bro does not comparison shop., Bros do not share dessert., etc.)

Diaper Thoughts!

 I made a cute little printable with a baby on it for this one. I have a picture later of all the sayings our guests came up with!

 Of course we had to have a photo booth! I made a bunch of mustache and manly props. This was a huge part of why this party was so fun! I will share all the photo booth pictures in a separate post, this one's heavy as is! I just made sign from a little chalkboard. "Pick a prop-strike a pose"

These are the favor bags. Simple Party City bags with two mustache mugs and a hand sanitizer in them.

Simple Target mugs, made awesome by painting on a mustache. It was a couple's shower, so there were two in each bag.

I made little printables for the hand sanitizers (from Bath &Body Works) that said "We mustache (must ask) you to clean your hands before holding the Little Man!"

Get the idea?

Here, I made a little bunting of ties and mustaches. :) Easy, with coordinating fabrics from Hobby Lobby, backed with a little iron-on interfacing. Then I just cut out the ties. The mustaches are cut from that stiff felt you can buy at HobLob, as well. I strung them together with twine. I added hot glue for the mustaches.

More of the "Bro Code" cards. And beautiful flowers arranged by Sallie!

Start of the gift pile!

There's Sallie! Getting her spinach and artichoke dip ready!

Sallie did amazing with the food! Ordered Zoe's Kitchen's chicken salad (it was DE-Lish!)

A perfect fruit salad.

THE Cake! From Nothing Bundt Cakes. Thank you Ashley, for making this happen! It was red velvet, the Mom-to-be's favorite flavor. It was amazing. There were chocolate chips mixed in there. Oh wow.

Sallie also made this refreshing punch!

The spread! And check the next post for all the wonderful pics from the party (including photo booth pics!). There are some memorable ones! Click here to see {part 2}!