On the way to the Halloween party, she started to have second thoughts about her costume.
“But, I don’t want to be a dinosaur ballerina.” I assured her that she didn’t have to wear her costume.
“I want to be a camel.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have a camel costume.”
“Do you have a crocodile costume?”
By the time we got to the party, and she saw that all the other kids were wearing costumes, she was thrilled to be a dinosaur ballerina again.
This was the annual Halloween party for the kids at Gilda’s Club. Gilda’s Club is an amazing supportive resource for people whose lives have been impacted by cancer: the patient, and their family and friends as well. Their kids program is wonderful. Events like this kids party allow kids to make friends with other kids who have cancer in their lives, and build a support network of peers who understand what they are going through. The get a chance to be in a situation where having a mom with cancer is normal, and they’re not the weird one.
Gem is flourishing in this environment.
She loved the craft station, and is so proud of the mask she made.
After a thorough consultation with the make-up artist, she finally decided on whiskers to complement her ensemble.
Sitting still for the face painting was the hardest part. It tickles.
The best sight of the evening was watching her perform an interpretive dance to the Halloween music. Then she upped the bar and performed her dance inside the haunted house.
This is the first time she’s really gotten into Halloween, and she LOVED it.
Her favorite toys laid out on a piece of pretty wrapping paper
Carefully wrapped
and topped with a pretty bow…
Berry Christmas, Mommy!
presented with both hands and a proud, beaming smile
It’s not just her toys. She’s used this one piece of paper to gift me with a book, a deck of cards, a shoe, my cell phone, the remote, and a dirty fork. But she has discovered the joy of giving.
My Dad was a shutterbug; he loved to take photographs, and he took a lot of them. That’s where I get it from. This is a wonderful thing for collecting a treasure trove of family memories. On the other hand, neither he nor my mom were the organizing type who enjoyed putting together photo albums. As a result, I’ve inherited about 30+ boxes packed full of random family photos and other mementos.
I’ve got my work cut out for me.
Add to that, I’ve got the world’s S L O W E S T scanner.
Yes, yes, I know. I can pack them all up and ship them off to a service that will scan them all in for me, quickly, and for a nominal fee. Nominal being defined as an arm and a leg, and my first-born child. But I’ve already lost a few body parts in the past couple years so I have none to spare, and I wouldn’t give up my first born for my life; that option is not on the table.
So back to the slow scanner, and my ADHD.
[That’s Grandpa. He was a dentist. I’m sure his patient there would be thrilled to know he’s been immortalized in my blog. Just doing my part here, helping everyone live forever.]
ADHD? Oh, yeah. I get distracted easily. Especially when going through old pictures. I was that kid who could never complete cleaning her room because I KEPT FINDING THE COOLEST STUFF IN THERE. Sorry for yelling, but you have no idea just how cool some of your own stuff can be. Especially when you’re supposed to be cleaning.
There’s just so much to see in here.
There’s proof that my dad once had a mustache
There are good times
adventure
garage bands
and precious memories
What am I going to do with all these pictures? I’m really not sure yet. For starters, I’ve got to get them scanned in quickly because they are starting to fade, and some are falling apart. Also, storage space is becoming a problem; my husband has accused me of being a photo-hoarder, and he’s not entirely wrong.
But once they’re scanned in, what next? I’m going to upload them to our family Flickr page, and hopefully family members will help with tagging names, dates, and locations, and then at least we will have the photographs in one central location that is accessible to everyone. After that? Well, that’s a few years out yet. I’m telling you, it’s a lot of photos. They have their own closet in our home.
So, now it’s time to get back to work. I’ve got some skeletons to dig out of my family’s closet
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