Chance's Hundred Acre Wood

It's time again for the Festival of Trees! My sister Megan has been working hard for months and months to put this darling tree together in Chance's memory. Many people donated money and time and ideas and the end result is fabulous!

Each tree has a plaque where people can read the story of the person that the tree was made in memory of.  I loved what Lauren wrote:

Our sweet Chance was taken from us much too soon.  He spent his last 3 ½ weeks at Primary Children’s, receiving great care as he valiantly fought to stay with his mom and family.  As a baby, Chance would go to sleep listening to the music from Kenny Loggins’ “Return to Pooh Corner”.  He loved Winnie the Pooh; in fact, there is a Pooh bear on his headstone to remind us of the carefree and joy-filled days of Chance’s young childhood.  He brightened the lives of all who were lucky to know him. 

          In the song we hear:  “a few precious things seem to follow throughout all our lives.”  Chance was certainly a precious boy who eternally impacted many lives. 

          His mom, Megan, would sing to him the rest of the song:

“After all’s said and done, I was watching my son

Sleeping there with my bear by his side.

So I tucked him in, I kissed him, and as I was going,

I swear that Old Bear whispered, Boy welcome home.”

As Megan kissed Chance for the final time in this life, in a room at Primary Children’s, we know our Heavenly Father whispered, “Boy, Welcome Home!”

Megan made beehives and plaques with famous Pooh sayings and darling "Hunny" pots. The tree also had pinecones and sunflowers and bees flying around. Megan put together puzzles, my mom made a cute quilt (right hand side of the above photo), she got an autographed photo of Kenny Loggins and she is playing his "Return to Pooh's Corner" song.

Megan found all kinds of books and puzzles to go under the tree...

...and she found so many darling Pooh and friends figurines. It all came together perfectly!

My mom and a few aunts and cousins came and helped us on decorating day... it was so fun to see all of Megan's hard work come together.

Many of the trees are donated in memory of someone who has passed away. As we decorated and I looked around, I was struck by how many people were there and how much time, money, and effort goes into the Festival.  Collectively, there has to be a lot of grief and sadness, but on the other hand, there is a huge amount of love and healing. I love that people are able to put their energy toward such a good cause.  All proceeds go to Primary Children's Medical Center.

The Festival is going on Wednesday, November 30th to Saturday, December 3rd at the South Towne Expo Center, and this cute tree is on row C, number 9. For more info, visit their website at www.festivaloftreesutah.org. If you are in the area, I hope you can go and visit "Chance's Hundred Acre Wood."

Sunflowers

This yummy recipe, a fancy decorating tip, and some mini chocolate chips helped me make these beauties:

Maybe not quite as artistic as Van Gogh, but much tastier.

Leaves!

It took our trees a whole day or two to shed most of their leaves... we raked and raked and the kids jumped and jumped. (In their defense, they raked a bit and bagged the leaves too!)

Little Quirks I Love

Just like all kiddos Miss Sophia has some of the funniest habits. She loves to get ready for prayers (not always when it's really time to pray) and "folds her arms" like this...

She also has a thing for ice. The way she gets it off of the floor when she drops it is both horrifying and amusing... it might be a little less horrifying if the maid at our house (that would be me) had a regular schedule for cleaning our floor.

And this is her, so proud of her innovation in not letting any of her ice go to waste. Waste not, want not.

She likes to show us her body parts too, and more often than not she shows us her nose by putting her digits inside of it.

Funny girl!