Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Oh, and makes wishes come true??

DUH, people! It's SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!!!

Meet Jake. Jake loves Spongebob Squarepants. And all things Nickelodeon for that matter.

Which means when he beat a nasty brain tumor and the Make A Wish Foundation asked him what his biggest wish in the whole wide world was....this cute kid said he wanted to go on the Nikelodeon cruise and meet Spongebob Squarepants and his friends!!

So before Jake and his family head on their Mexican cruise to get SLIMED this weekend we had to send them off in style with a Spongebob party! And since SB lives in a pineapple under the sea, of course we had pineapple juice, with pineapple wedges on our glasses-delish! And all of Jakes favorite fruit! And of course his favorite - chocolate chip cookies!

And what's a party without a great cake. Another great contributor to Make-A-Wish is Publix. They put extra special care into decorating our wish cakes, and Jake's cake was no exception! They personalized it with a special note that said "Jake, Dreams do come true!"

But don't worry, that Spongebob only lasted for a few flashes of the camera....until little man's hands were reaching in, and his face was buried in icing, as he found it necessary to clean him off to take home! It was too funny!

After devouring Spongebob, and just a few cookies, someone spied a gift bag with his name on it....and when those eyes look at you and say "Can I open my pwesent now?" believe me, people, there is NO resisting." So tissue paper went to flying. And you will never see a more grateful child. He loved everything. Big and small.

Never seen a kid get so excited about a t-shirt, but Jake did. And it was his favorite color-blue!

And how about a very cool collector's Make-A-Wish Hot Wheels car-Cool!

And (though the picture's not good with the glare) and cool painting of a pirate ship with a quote that says "Be who you ARGHHHHH!" Jake said "How did you know I love pirates?!?!" I could eat him slap up.

Jake and his brothers ran around the awesome new Soldiers Park we just finished up at Ft. Benning, (his father is a soldier here) and managed to hold him down long enough for a picture or two.

Haley, Jake, and me illegally sitting on the fountain (after the cops busted us for climbing on it already! ha!)

Precious fam shot

This little man, I just cant get enough of him. It was hard saying goodbye after the party was over. He asked if we could have a pajama party that night, and gosh, I really wanted to! He keeps me laughing more than I have in so long! Sometimes it's hard not genuinely becoming attached to these families. You create such bonds, and feel like part of the family. I look forward to them getting back from the cruise so we can get together to see pictures and hear stories, I have no doubt Jake is going to be the life of the party.....just look at that stinker.

**for more pictures of Jake's big party click here!

Aloha!

This may be a long post, because I could talk about this forever (yall know how much I love this stuff) but I will try to make it short and sweet. Maybe I'll just dedicate another post to MAW altogether and just wear yall slap out then...anyway.....so on to this weekend....and the crab explanation....

Lauren is one of our precious Make-A-Wish kids (not really a "kid," she's 18 now) and her wish is to go to Hawaii with her family! She leaves this weekend, and like always my "wish partner" Haley and I like to do a little send off party for the family before they go. Well, in this case what better party is there than a LUAU to send her off in style!!

(the hilarious pink flamingo was the welcoming committee of course!!)

We had food galore!! Pink lemonade with umbrella straws! My mom's delish fruit pizza! Ham and cheese tray! Fruit fruit and more fruit (straight from the islands right?) And there is Mr. Crab above. Along with a hanging parrot, the welcoming flamingo, fish, beach balls, a palm tree, and anything else we could find to blow up and make it feel like we were on vacation!

AND the most FANTASTIC cake from Columbus Corner Bakery, who I cannot give enough props too ever. They put so much special detail and love into our MAW cakes, and refuse to let me pay a dime.

Now. All the admin is over, you've seen the decor. Check out this precious kiddo and her cute fam as they walked up the stairs and we "lei-ed" them!

(Lauren, Mom, sis Morgan, Dad)

Oh uh--look out....before we knew it grandparents started spilling in too! An unknown (but welcome!) surprise! They were precious!!

And we had a few surprises of our own too for Lauren! See these cute "Hawaiian" ladies? Well, they actually live in Jacksonville, FL, and came up 'specially for Lauren on Sunday! You see, Lalee, in the middle, is an 83 year old professional dance instructor of Hawaiian dances such as the hula, who is so fabulous (and of course so humble so I have to brag about her!) that teams are sent from her studio to Hawaii each year to compete in national hula competitions! What?!?! Anyway, Haley got her hands on them and they were so sweet to take time to travel up to Columbus and Lalee taught her some hula moves!!

Lalee teaching all the ladies some hula, baby! We were so clueless. And she was SUCH a dance teacher! "Straighten dos arms la-dies! Pop dos hips!" "Look at ma-ma go now!" Too stinkin' cute!

Mom, Dad, and Lauren. We had our mini-luau at the new marina at Lake Oliver in Columbus, which I didnt even know existed until last week, and I'm so glad one of my Bunko girlfriends filled me in! It's beautiful! Perfect place for sunsets and pontoon rides and picnics...and luaus! Me, Lauren, and Haley - This cute chick has been waiting a long time for her wish to come true, and we are so grateful to have been a part of it! I hope she has the very best time in Hawaii, swimming with dolphins, relaxing on her spa day, snorkeling, and at her family's private luau! I cant wait to see all the pictures when they get home! Love you Lauren!! E pili mau nâ pômaika`i me `oe ! !!

(Means "Best Wishes!" in Hawaiian!) :)

**For more pics of Lauren's big day, click here!

Coming Up...

An explanation...soon. Promise.

In the meantime, gotta run. Feeling a little crabby. ;-)

Happy Birthday, America!

I love the 4th of July. I get all patriotic inside. You know I can't sing...but when I hear Lee Greenwood, I'll belt it with the rest of 'em "cause there aint no doubt I love this laaaaaand! God Bless the USA!" I have a new found respect for soldiers too. Which makes me love this holiday even more. And my job at Ft. Benning working for the Army has opened my eyes to what they actually do for us, how hard they work, and how often they go unthanked. My dad was in the National Guard, a Major at that, but I was younger and didnt understand fully what he did for us. I have soldiers (around the office we call them "greensuiters") in and out of my office every day. Heck, I gotta yield for herds (well, I think they're officially called formations, platoons, etc) of soldiers crossing the street in front of me on Ft. Benning every day! I see Bradleys and Blackhawks and soldiers parachuting right above my building, and yes, I hear firing from nearby ranges. And I've never felt so safe. I know they're putting they're lives at risk, even just training at Ft. Benning daily, preparing to go to the Middle East, or a Southern border, or a flooded region close to home, for me. And my family. And yours. How humbling. But they'll tell you, "Just doing my job." Well, if my job is to make sure their barracks (where they sleep) or latrines (bathrooms) or training facilities are built to the best of my ability by God I'm gonna do it. Funy thing is, if I was building this same cafeteria (mess hall here) outside Ft. Benning for a private party, we'd be concerned with making sure the customer was happy with the perfect paint color, and the design in the floor tiles, and the brushed nickel door hardware. Here, our customer, our soldiers, are concerned with one thing--is it big enough? Can they get 300 soldiers in for "chow" at the same time because schedules are time and time is valuable and we must eat and hit the ranges to train some more. No fancy-smancy here. It's about Army values, and training. Anyway, I digress. No, I'm no joining the Army. But like I said I get all proud to be an American. I love my job, I'm proud of who I work for. I love that they get to wear the flag every day on their shoulder. That's a bad-a** for you. Remind me to should you what awesome opportunities I've had here, just for working with these amazing people (like skydiving with an Army Ranger!!) A.n.y.w.a.y.....so the fourth...was relaxxxxing. It was home to Mama and PaPa Bear's, where we played HGTV and redecorated a little. well, not Dad. He could care less...about everything but the budget. He was on the hunt for a Jeep. He thinks he needs a new toy. So Mom and I think we need new duvets, curtains, shams, occasional chairs, door hardware, bathroom countertops, tile.....you get the picture. It's fun decorating with someone else's plastic--ha! And it is looking beautiful too! Which leads me to this....I would love to show you my newly fluffed pillows at mom and dad's...... And I would love to show you us playing with Ethel, Dad's lab, in the yard this weekend..... Or maybe our late afternoon boat ride to see the fireworks..... Oh, I know, how about dinner on the patriotic plates Mama picked up special for the 4th..... Or how we all walked out ready for church on Sunday all in UNPLANNED coordinating black and white outfits. Too cute.... But wait, I cant. It probably would have helped it I actually remembered to put the memory card in my camera as I was packing for the weekend. Tsk tsk tsk.

Just the same.

Happy Birthday America. Gotta love us--the land of the free, and definitely the home of the brave.