More pages from the bright pink lifebook

I keep meaning to post more information about Ro and Ree’s lifebook, and then, well, life just gets crazy. It’s actually finished (at least for now), and the girls tote it all over the place. They like to say "It tells the story of how we were born in China and how we became a family," which pretty much nails it. And they frequently look through the binder, point out fave areas, and ask new questions, which is exactly what we hoped.

Ro and Ree’s lifebook is just under 50 pages now. After procrastinating on this project for four years, I just had to do it already and stop obsessing about design choices and how to make it look perfect. So I wrote it in Microsoft Word and printed the pages out on our computer. And the funny thing is that it ended up being absolutely perfect for us. Each page is in a plastic sheet protector, so Ro and Ree can enjoy the book, girlhandle it, spill on it, take it outside, basically do whatever they want with it. If any page gets ruined or they want additional information added, I just print that one out again.

Hey I’m by no means a lifebook expert, but when you’re writing this kind of book don’t forget:
- This is your kiddo’s story, so start it with his/her birth, not your adoption process 
- Make sure this is the story of your child, not the story of your adoption experience (Eg: Say what your child was doing/wearing/saying/ eating/holding on family day, don’t just say how you felt about becoming a family)
- Include at least one picture or graphic on each page (trust me, the text-only pages will be totally ignored) 
- Include interactive items and questions throughout the book (questions about maps, calendars, or photographs are fun)

Here are some close-up pages from our book, in case anyone needs some ideas. Feel free to use any of this wording, the folks who shared lifebooks with me and the forums I joined were so helpful and I appreciated every single person who said “Use this, it works.” The pages aren’t consecutive (they’re just a few highlights):

Here’s the outline I ended up with. The girls love scanning the TOC to find what they’re looking for and then flipping to the right page:

Another adoptive parent sent me the wording for this page and it was so simple and perfect for this age:

We have a world map page and also this country page:

This is Ree’s favorite page. She brought the lifebook to school for sharing, showed everyone this page and explained about Hubei, then passed out sesame treats:

One of my favorite blog comments ever was when I was asking how to approach this subject and one commenter said something like “The first time I ever used the term birthmother I almost fainted, but it gets easier, I promise.” And boy was she right.

You can google any date and find a calendar image to use like this one. The girls get a kick out of it:

We were so lucky that the disposable camera we sent to China came back filled with pictures from the foster family. Priceless:

I didn’t have a photo for this page and thought sticky-note images would jazz up an otherwise text-heavy page. Now it’s one of the girls’ faves:

If you’re stuck on making a lifebook for your kiddo, hopefully these sample pages, or some of this wording, or even the idea that you can do a binder instead of a daunting graphical book will help. Thanks to everyone who helped in this project by sharing your lifebooks and your words with me – your help was invaluable.

PS: If you’d like to see more posts on this, click Lifebooks in the menu bar at the top of this page. Also, this is an extremely personal book, so if you don’t like our wording, our layout, or our content choices, please keep your opinions to yourself and just use them to make your own lifebook wonderful.

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Post #30. Holy moly, I actually did 30 posts in 30 days!!!!! Thank you so much for checking in on us this month and for all the wonderful comments. This spring fling has gotten me out of my blog funk and I will definitely be posting more often now. Thank you also to the other rockin’ spring fling bloggers who joined me in this quest. If I’d been doing this on my own there is no way I would have hit 30 posts: And babies make four…, Another Journey, Birdie and the Queen Bee, Catherine’s Chatter, Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom, Dragonflies, Journey to Motherhood, Koprowski Kids, Life with L and M (julialaine.net), Love and a Little Craziness, Mindful of Mine, Moments with Maisie, No Ordinary Family, One Plus One Equals Four, Our Boy and His Cricket, Searching for Sophie, Spectacular S, Three Kids = Chaos, To Vietnam and China, We’re Here.

Make-ahead mashed potato casserole

An awesome little barbeque joint just down the freeway serves this cheesy mashed potato casserole dish to die for. When we eat it, we just groan in happiness.

Well now we can have it anytime we want, because I finally found a recipe that tastes just like it. Mmmmmmm! It’s from a Taste of Home magazine (does anyone get that magazine - it’s fun to find new recipes to try every month). I flagged it for Easter brunch, and Ma graciously prepared it (yay for us!). That thing was gone so fast I almost didn’t get to taste it.

First, here’s what the casserole looks like preassembled the night before and ready to pop in the fridge. (Yeah, yeah, wish I had a picture of it after cooking the next day – but I’ve already mentioned that when good food is sitting in front of me the camera is forgotten):

We made only a couple of changes from the original recipe, including trying these frozen, steam n’ mash potatoes for the first time – handy little things. The recipe works with any ol’ kind of potatoes, of course.

Make-Ahead Mashed Potato Casserole

Ingredients

• 9 medium peeled and cubed potatoes (or 2 24-ounce bags of frozen potato cubes) 
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup 2% milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 6 bacon strips, chopped
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 3 green onions, chopped

Directions

• Cook bacon until crisp, set aside to drain on paper towels.
• Bring potato cubes to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 10-15 minutes until tender, drain. (Or, prepare two bags of frozen potato cubes).
• Mash potatoes with cream cheese, sour cream and butter. (We don’t own a potato masher – gasp -- so we just use a hand mixer.) Stir in milk and seasonings.
• Plop potato mixture in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish (we use our glass lasagna pan); sprinkle with cheese, onions and bacon. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. (That’s the BEST part – no need to run around like crazy on party day, the work is all done the day before.)
• Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 40-50 minutes or until heated through. (If you have a convection oven like we do, you can easily bake three of these babies at the same time.)

Oh man, this stuff is so good!

View printable recipe (I’m trying something new – can you let me know if the printable works?).

Now, does anyone have any more casserole or slow-cooker recipes I can check out? I’ve been trying to get more adventurous in the kitchen and it’s really fun.

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Post #29. No pics from Tahoe yet, but they’re having lots of fun according to phone reports. Check out these other spring fling bloggers: And babies make four…, Another Journey, Birdie and the Queen Bee, Catherine’s Chatter, Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom, Dragonflies, Journey to Motherhood, Koprowski Kids, Life with L and M (julialaine.net), Love and a Little Craziness, Mindful of Mine, Moments with Maisie, No Ordinary Family, One Plus One Equals Four, Our Boy and His Cricket, Searching for Sophie, Spectacular S, Three Kids = Chaos, To Vietnam and China, We’re Here.

Spring break with the grands

Ro and Ree, those lucky ducks, got to spend spring break with all four of their grandparents. Getting the original members of Team Salsa together is always memorable and always fun. Grandparents are a kick, aren’t they?

• Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting.  ~Author Unknown
• On the seventh day God rested. His grandchildren must have been out of town." ~Gene Perret
• To a small child, the perfect granddad is unafraid of big dogs and fierce storms but absolutely terrified of the word "boo."  ~Robert Brault
• If I would have known that grandchildren were going to be so much fun I would have had them first. ~Lois Wyse

Ma and Pa flew back to Texas yesterday, but the smiles from their wonderful visit remain. I’m guessing that making lollipops, the Bunny Bash, and watching Tangled with Ma and Pa will be among the girls’ top memories from this trip:

And the girls are right this minute cruising up the highway to Tahoe on a short grandparents-only trip with BobBob and Wela (heaven help them – my parents, not the girls):

TubaDad and I have BIG plans to sleep in, get a massage (me) and do some golfing (him), and go out for a romantic dinner. I’m calling this one a good spring break all the way around.

So, what did you guys do for spring break this year?

PS: Mouseover the images to see who’s who.

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Post #28. Oh my gosh, I’m actually going to make 30 posts in 30 days! I’ve still got the mashed-potato casserole recipe to post and also want to do a more in-depth look at the girls’ lifebook, and hopefully my folks will send a pic or two from Tahoe that I can share. Check out these other spring fling bloggers: And babies make four…, Another Journey, Birdie and the Queen Bee, Catherine’s Chatter, Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom, Dragonflies, Journey to Motherhood, Koprowski Kids, Life with L and M (julialaine.net), Love and a Little Craziness, Mindful of Mine, Moments with Maisie, No Ordinary Family, One Plus One Equals Four, Our Boy and His Cricket, Searching for Sophie, Spectacular S, Three Kids = Chaos, To Vietnam and China, We’re Here.

How to make tissue-paper flowers

Quite a few folks asked about the big tissue-paper flowers we had hanging from the ceiling during the Bunny Bash. They were homemade, and are easy to make once you know how. Each flower takes about five to eight minutes (depending on how speedy you are). Here are the instructions and a few tips I learned along the way:

Materials for each flower:
8 sheets of 20x30” tissue paper, thin wire, scissors, fishing line

Tip: Buy 20x30” sheets of tissue paper (like the size they sell at Target or Amazon.com). DO NOT try to make these flowers with the smaller 20x20” tissue paper that most stores sell (like Walmart, Michael’s, Diddams, and Party City) or your flowers will be misshapen, lopsided, and generally crappy looking and you will think that you are terrible at crafts and doing something wrong. (And you will have to beg your poor friend Maggie to get back in the car after already wasting an hour struggling with the small paper and drive to four more stores looking for bigger tissue paper, and then you will have to pour a glass of wine to relax before starting again.)

Alrighty, stack eight sheets of 20x30” tissue paper and fold the stack accordion style into 1.5” folds. Maggie and I found that it was fun to do some flowers all in one color, some in two colors, and some in three colors. The variety looked nice once they were hanging:

Cinch the middle together with a piece of wire (a twist tie will do in a pinch) and then twist the ends of the wire to make a loop for hanging.

Cut both ends of your tissue so the edges are rounded. (Any good pair of scissors we have in this house is immediately used in the garage or to cut chalk or dirt or something else unsavory, so our scissors are all dull and we had to basically saw through the paper. Whatever... it worked.)

Gently pull each piece of tissue paper away from the center. If you pull too hard the paper will rip, but you can repair any rips with a tiny piece of scotch tape. Everything is ok, just breathe, take a sip of wine, relax, and keep going:

Another rip? Where’s that damn tape?:

It’s best to hang the flowers immediately after fluffing them, or they’ll start to settle, plus your husband will be a little cranky that massive piles of tissue paper are covering every surface in your kitchen:

Don’t they look all purdy hanging up there? I used fishing line for the hanging, by the way:

I hung them at varying heights from all the recessed lighting cans in the kitchen and also from the center bar in the outside craft tent:

Also, this is one of the rejected flowers made from the too-small tissue paper. It was completely bare on one side and I just couldn’t get it to work, so I started to crunch it up and throw it away, then realized it didn’t look half bad when smooshed together and only seen from the top. So I jammed it in an Easter basket and called it done.

So there you have it. Tissue Paper Flowers.

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Post #27. A few people pointed out that even a post saying I’m not feeling well enough to post counts, which is good enough by me! So, for the record, yesterday’s “non-post” is going to be #26 and this is #27. Check out these other spring fling bloggers: And babies make four…, Another Journey, Birdie and the Queen Bee, Catherine’s Chatter, Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom, Dragonflies, Journey to Motherhood, Koprowski Kids, Life with L and M (julialaine.net), Love and a Little Craziness, Mindful of Mine, Moments with Maisie, No Ordinary Family, One Plus One Equals Four, Our Boy and His Cricket, Searching for Sophie, Spectacular S, Three Kids = Chaos, To Vietnam and China, We’re Here.

No post today

I'll do two posts tomorrow. My stomach has been doing flip flops all day -- I'm going to bed early and hopefully will feel better in the morning. Night!

Bunny Bash 2011

We abruptly stopped sleeping at 7am when two eager, dancing girls ran into our bedroom yelling “It’s Easter!!!!!”:

Apparently the Easter bunny did good.

By 10am, the Bunny Bash decorations were in place, and the food was all cooking:

Two eager bunnies Could Not Wait for their friends to arrive:

At 11:30, we yelled “On your marks, get set, go!” and leaped out of the way as the adorable bunny-tail-clad kiddos sprinted hither and yon looking for the almost 300 eggs hidden around the yard:

Once the eggs were all found, we had some wildly energetic playtime (and I had a glass or two of wine). The line for BobBob’s monkey bars was constant, and the playstructure and pink car were never, ever empty:

Then the kids filled the craft tent, turning out cute peeps in nests and peeking bunnies while sneaking jelly beans and scribbling away at coloring sheets and bunny mazes:

On all counts, Bunny Bash 2011 was a huge, whoppin’, hoppin’ success. 

(Ro left, Ree right)

Many, many thanks to the dream-team of cooks, decorators, fix-it and idea men, helpers, egg stuffers, photographers, and cleaner-uppers who helped make it happen:

In the end, every kid left with a bucket full of eggs, a huge smile, and a slightly bedraggled bunny tail. And Ro and Ree drove off into the sunset in their beloved pink car toting a ginormous pink bunny and a spare princess crown.

Then there was intense napping across the land. Now if that isn’t a happy Easter I don’t know what is.

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Post #25. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!! Check out these other spring fling bloggers: And babies make four…, Another Journey, Birdie and the Queen Bee, Catherine’s Chatter, Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom, Dragonflies, Journey to Motherhood, Koprowski Kids, Life with L and M (julialaine.net), Love and a Little Craziness, Mindful of Mine, Moments with Maisie, No Ordinary Family, One Plus One Equals Four, Our Boy and His Cricket, Searching for Sophie, Spectacular S, Three Kids = Chaos, To Vietnam and China, We’re Here.

A really long, really good day

It was a great party, one of the best. I’ll post more about it tomorrow. Just one after-party pic for now:

I like the way Ree has collapsed right on top of the beloved new Hoppy Loppy bun.

Night all.

Bring on Bunny Bash 2011, we're ready!

TubaDad’s new barbeque was delivered (coincidentally just in time for the party) and our little never-ever-eat-inside-when-you-can-eat-outside girls heartily approve:

The kids’ craft tent was installed (thanks to our awesome friends for loaning it to us and delivering it):

And the tent was christened with bubbles:

Three hundred eggs have been stuffed and are ready to be hidden. The last decoration has been glue-gunned and is ready to be hung tomorrow. And mounds and mounds of food are ready to be plated or popped in the oven (including one of the mashed potato casseroles that Linda whipped up this morning, mmmmmmm):

Oh, and the Easter Bunny paid a visit and this lovely sight is awaiting the girls tomorrow morning:

Now I think I’m going to finish up a couple of last-minute things and then catch a few winks.

Bring on Bunny Bash 2011!

PS: Thanks to Kristi for the awesome event name, I’m thinking we’ll need t-shirts printed with it next year.

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Post #23 of my Spring Fling 30 posts in 30 days. Thanks for your fun comments!! These great bloggers are also participating in the Spring Fling and are kicking butt with this challenge: And babies make four…, Another Journey, Birdie and the Queen Bee, Catherine’s Chatter, Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom, Dragonflies, Journey to Motherhood, Koprowski Kids, Life with L and M (julialaine.net), Love and a Little Craziness, Mindful of Mine, Moments with Maisie, No Ordinary Family, One Plus One Equals Four, Our Boy and His Cricket, Searching for Sophie, Spectacular S, Three Kids = Chaos, To Vietnam and China, We’re Here.