Good Friday: Car Wash

Because today was a BEAUTIFUL 84 degrees outside with a nice cool breeze to keep the sweat off, Brooklyn and I decided to clean the car to surprise Kevin for our "Good Friday" good deed!

The car was LOADED with garbage, empty sippie cups, and food crumbs (that I mostly ended up cleaning) but there was also a lot of dust and grime that needed some scrubbing... and that's really where Brooklyn came in.

She scrubbed and scrubbed as hard as she could, even though she couldn't reach most of the dirty spots, and when she was done she smiled from ear to ear and said, "Mommy, dad is gonna be SOOOO proud of us! I can't wait to surprise him!"

The whole job took less than 20 minutes, but it definitely made an impact on Brooklyn. She was thrilled with her hard work and I'm pretty sure Kevin will be too! :)

Good Friday: American Legion Veterans Luau

Today for our "Good Friday" good deed, our entire family went to perform for the American Legion Veterans of War! (We were so busy dancing that I wasn't able to get any pictures until we got home and I shot this one of the girls, but to me that is a good sign that we were having fun.)

The show was done by the Polynesian dance group that I perform with called Halau Hula O Puanani. Kevin and I and a few of the other girls in the halau performed a 45 minute show for the Veterans while they ate dinner and waited for a special appearance from ELVIS! ... and from what we could tell, they all had a BLAST!

Brooklyn and Lily helped me all day to get costumes together and pack things up for the luau, and then they helped to carry things into the building and set up our dressing room... and aside from that, they both behaved like perfect angels while Mommy and Daddy were running in and out of the dressing room between numbers.

The luau was a great experience for Kevin and I, as well as the girls, and I was so glad that they could do something good and fun, and learn about their culture at the same time. Anyway, hope you all had a good Friday too!

Good Friday: Sidewalk Sweepers

Today our grounds crew was out and about, mowing lawns and whacking weeds. Even though they clean up after themselves quite nicely, I thought it would be a great opportunity to let the girls serve. So we headed outside for our Good Friday-good deed!

B and L each got a broom and went to work sweeping up the grass that had scattered on the sidewalk.

Lily didn't really have a clue what she was doing, but she had a blast following her sister around with the broom.


Brooklyn was actually pretty adept to using the little broom and managed to clean up several piles of grass and loose dirt!

After a while Lily caught on and managed to spread the grass around the sidewalk with the little broom before running off with the dustpan.

When we were all finished cleaning, I sat down with the girls to talk about what they had just done. It was so fun to see how proud Brooklyn was of herself. She even told me that she felt like she made Jesus very happy!


And just for fun (and since Father's Day is this Sunday) I thought I would tip you off to some fun subway art I found online:

You can find the "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home..." as well as the "Because I'm the Dad" pieces at the Holiday Snob by clicking HERE.

The "Dad, Dada, Daddy" piece and the quote for the bottom right piece can be found on The Crafting Chicks website by clicking HERE.

Have fun with them and have a fantastic Friday!

Good Friday: Community Clean Up

Today was another "Good Friday!" So, after a hearty breakfast and a quick switch from Pj's to play clothes, we were out the door to do some good!


I equipped Brooklyn with a pair of tongs and a reflective vest and put her on trash pickup duty.


Lily lucked out with bag duty, which eventually turned into "sit in the stroller and stare at Brooklyn duty...whilst the bag hangs on the stroller!"


We went to a field right next to our apartment and got to work cleaning up the rubbish!


The girls worked great together! (Again, that probably had something to do with Lily's attachment to the stroller... but still!)

And I think they even had moments of feeling warm fuzzies!

We found everything you could think of at the side of the field (but I only pointed out the seemingly safer pieces of garbage to Brooklyn.)


At the end of about 45 minutes of work, and after covering about 100 yards of space, we took our very full trash bag to the dumpsters and headed home to wash our hands and have a snack! (I love how Lily looks utterly wasted in this picture despite the VERY light amount of work she actually did.)

Later on, Brooklyn and I talked about our service and she expressed feelings of happiness and was noticeably pleased with herself, which in turn, pleased me!

And now for a fun update:

After last week's good deed for our maintenance guys, we had the misfortune of losing function of our air conditioning unit! It turned out to be a broken line inside the wall that had to be opened up and fixed, and then re-patched and painted! It was so hot that day, that the fire alarms in our house kept going off from the heat and humidity!

Well, as soon as the maintenance guys walked in the house and saw us they asked, "Hey! Are you the guys that brought us those cookies?" I told them we were and they started piling on the praise for the good grub and the adorable pictures that Brooklyn drew them. After that, they got to work super fast and did an amazing job, all the while telling us that they were going to take good care of us! They finished everything that day which NEVER happens when you're renting!

Anyway, its not often that you actually get to experience such an immediate reward for doing something nice, and I just thought it would be a fun story to share! Happy Friday everyone!

Good Fridays!

I recently read an article in the June 2011 edition of Parents Magazine that talked about building your children's self esteem by teaching them how to serve. The article, titled Raise a Kid who Gives, talked about the differences between building your child through praise versus action. I was shocked when the author stated that parents who pile on praise often create children who are selfish and entitled, and that empathy is only developed through direct contact with others.

After I finished reading the article, I decided to implement Good Fridays in my home. Basically, each Friday my girls and I will do a little service project together, whether its picking up trash or going to help a neighbor sweep their porch. It doesn't have to be a huge undertaking, just a task that is heart-felt.

So today we decided to thank our maintenance crew for all the hard work they do for us, and for being so kind and professional when they do it.

We started by making a little thank you card together. I let Brooklyn have complete artistic control of the project and it turned out to be a great idea!

She drew this awesome brachiosaurus on the front cover all on her own without even being prompted. I didn't even know she could draw anything besides blobs with smiley faces!

Then she drew a picture of Rapunzel on the inside (also a surprise to me) before I put "Thank You" stickers in it and folded it up.

After we finished the card we got to work making some Oatmeal M&M cookies. YUMMO!

12 minutes after putting them in the oven, we moved them to cooling racks, let them cool, plated them up, and then headed over to the maintenance office.

Our first attempt at service didn't make it very far. Just after we hopped off the front porch, Brooklyn dropped the plate and burst into tears!

Luckily, we had a second batch in the oven! We packed it up and walked over to the office. (I tried to get a picture of the actual delivery but it turns out its pretty hard to take pictures with a plate of cookies in one hand, keys in the other, a 3 year old hanging on your pant leg, and a 1 year old on your shoulders! Oh well...) The maintenance dudes loved their cookies and were very appreciative, and hopefully, my girls are a little closer to having great self esteems too!