HUNGRY: Brody's Canned Food Drive

One of the service projects I put on our Summer Bucket List was to collect canned/non perishable food items and donate them to a local food pantry. I didn't just want to put fun summer things on our list. I think Brody is now old enough to do things like this and to understand why we are doing them. I want him to learn to be a giver and to have a heart for those less fortunate.

I've always had a desire to start a food cupboard at my church. It hasn't happened yet but I'm hoping that it will very soon. I grew up in a Methodist church that had a food cupboard. At the end of the month my parents would look in the cupboard to see how full it was. Most of the time it was almost empty. I remember going to Costco with my parents on several occasions to buy food for the cupboard. My parents would fill the basket to the top! Sometimes that cupboard only got filled because of my parents. I think that's where my desire came from. I loved that my parents did that. 

I decided to start a page on Facebook called Brody's Canned Food Drive. Of course, I had to do everything cause Brody is only 5 but I assure you, Brody was involved in every step. I kept him in the loop every time someone donated. I wanted him to know everything that was going on so he could see how much work and love went into do this. 

I told Brody that for 10 days we were going to ask our friends to donate cans. Then I asked him how many cans he wanted to collect.... 500!! Wow, that kid has big goals. I knew we wouldn't reach 500 cans but I figured that if we got to 100 that would be awesome. 

Well, we collected cans for 1 MONTH instead of 10 days! Donations just kept rolling in and I couldn't say no. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people wanted to help Brody. Every time we got a donation, Brody would get so excited. He would often talk about the hungry people we were going to help with the food.

 I let Brody go through our pantry and pick our food he wanted to donate. 

 A few of our friends live far away so they donated cans to their local food pantry in Brody's name. I think its awesome that people still wanted to donate even though they couldn't give us the cans personally!

In the end, we collected 204 cans/nonperishable food items. How amazing is that! Not bad for a 5 year old! Here are some of the cans... this was about 2 weeks into our food drive.

 I had Brody write Thank You letters to everyone who donated. I thought it was important for him to do that. 

 

Brody didn't understand why he had to do it because it was "boring." I told him that when our friends open the letter and see its from him, their hearts are going to be so happy! That actually made him want to do it. So he wrote 16 thank you letters and mailed them out. 

Today we took the cans to Mary's Kitchen in Orange. I wasn't expecting what I saw. I guess I was thinking that it was just going to be a pantry that people could go to and take home what they need. We drove down the street it was on and immediately saw homeless people sitting around on the grass. I will admit that it made me a little uneasy. I went with both the boys, Kevin, and my father in law. I guess I just wasn't prepared for what I saw. We drove into the parking lot and there were maybe 50 people inside the gate, lined up to get food. We parked and a man who volunteers at the kitchen came to the car with a shopping cart and loaded the food up. I wanted to take pictures of Brody donating the cans so I could put it on my blog but when I got there and saw everything, I didn't think it would be appropriate to have Brody posing for pictures. Brody and I got out of the car when the man was unloading everything. I got down on Brody's level and calmly spoke to him. I didn't know if he would be nervous with the way things looked there. I told him that all the people there were homeless and were very hungry, that's why there were lining up for food. I told him that the food he collected was going to feed all those people and that their tummies wouldn't be hungry today because of him. He got a huge smile on his face. My heart exploded. 

Coincidentally, in the past 10 days we have stopped 3 times to help people on the side of the road who were holding signs that said "hungry." I'm ashamed to say that I've never stopped for them before. A lot of times I don't have cash on me. And other times I think I'm too nervous to open my window for them. I don't know why. The first time we helped was when I was exiting the freeway. It was just me and the boys. I rolled the window down and gave the man a few dollars. I explained to Brody what I was doing. A couple days later, we were all in the car and Kevin rolled the window down and gave money to a man. We again explained to Brody why we were doing it. The third time it was just Kevin and me going out to dinner. We bought the guy a meal. I've realized that I cant expect Brody to help people when Mommy is too afraid to roll down her window for someone. Lesson learned for mommy.

Next year and every year from now on, collecting food will be on our summer bucket list.

Thank you to all our friends that donated:

Christi and Andrew Gartner

Danielle Eldred

Mary Ann Christine Rich

David and Kristin Wilkinson 

Jenn Garcia 

Becca Woolstrum

Sarah Lightfoot

Rebecca Dudley 

Carol Biniasz 

Amy and Joel Garcia

Christy Boen-Kvenvik

Asa Thompson

Christina Dewitt 

Karin Duncan

Rebecca Swartz

Wayne Seitz and Linda Hollinshead

VACAtion!

Once a year we get to take a mini vacation. We stay in Temecula at a friends guest house. We usually go to the San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park but this year we decided to go to Sea World! I haven't been to Sea World since middle school when I went with the marching band. Yes, I was a bando. I played the flute like nobody's business. And by that I mean, I pretended to know how to play the flute for four years but really I barely knew how to play the b flat scale. Kevin hasn't been since he was a wee lad. So we cashed in our coins (roughly $119!) and went to Sea World!

Brody was beyond excited at the thought of going. Every time the commercial comes on he begs me to take him. And Cohen, well, Cohen still poops his pants so he doesn't really care.

 
Here are the boys at the entrance to Sea World. Yes, I dressed them alike the entire trip. Kevin's loves it.... not really.

 

 I was really excited to get a picture of Brody with the star fish. I have a picture of me at Sea World holding a star fish when i was his age. Sadly, for us, but fortunately for the star fish, you aren't allowed to pick them up anymore.

 Took me forever to get a picture of Brody sitting by the glass. He was so scared at first. I think he was afraid that the fish were going to get him. 

Sharks!

Then it was time for SHAMU! Is the whale still called Shamu? Didnt the real Shamu die years ago? This must be Shamu the 13th or something like that.

 

I will be honest and say that I was super excited to see the show. I remember it from when I was little. Makes you feel like a little kid ooooing and aaaahhhing over a whale. But we did NOT sit in the splash zone. No thank you!

Brody was super impressed with the show. Really, he wasn't paying attention half of the time and when the whale would jump out of the water he would miss it and say, "what just happened?"

This is his impressed/I'm not paying attention face. 

 

Turtle's in a half shell, turtle power! 

 I love the colors here

 

Brody wasn't scared to stand in front of this one! 

I also have a really cute picture of my brother Adam and me in front of the flamingos when we were little. I was hoping to reenact that photo. I even brought my red ruby wizard of oz shoes for Brody to wear... not really.  But now there is a lame fence around the flamingos. Apparently, Sea World cares about the safety of their animals.

Some more photos from Sea World. Don't be fooled by Cohen sitting in the stroller. He wanted to be held most of the day. 

Grandpa came with us!

I was surprised Brody actually went on this ride. And who knew that Sea World had rides now!?

My boys and me waiting for the sea lion show to start. You can kind of tell here that I am really burned. 

Kevin and the boys

The Beluga Whale is probably my most favorite thing in the ocean. They are so beautiful. Sadly, my pictures of them are horrible. They were swimming by me way too fast. 

 

It was a long day at Sea World but very fun, with the exception of the HORRIBLE UV sunburn I got. I wont post a picture of that... its too disturbing. 

Sea World was just day 1 of our super fun vacation. Day two was a trip to Professor PennyPickles Workshop and Kid Museum in Temecula. Our friend told us that this place was a must. The museum is a house, Mr. Pennypickels, full of science and discovery. Lots of fun for the kids!

Exploring!

Discovering!

Cohen in the music room

The random toilet paper display

Mommy and Cohen

PennyPickles was super fun! 

On our third day of vacation we went to Old Town San Diego. We visited the Sheriff Museum.... because it was free! 

Baby Helicopter. So silly, babies dont fly helicopters. 

 

Brody Picking out his first gun

What's this guys name? Scruff Mcgruff? Something like that. Cant remember the name but he's the reason why I never did drugs.

Uh Oh. Daddy got in trouble! Brody had too much fun putting Kevin in handcuffs but refused to let us put him in handcuffs.

C.H.I.P.S.!

Brody locked us in jail. We let Brody take a few pics of us in the cell but knew they wouldn't come out very good so we had the lady at the museum take one for us.... She is just as good at taking pictures as Brody is. So here is our blurry picture.

After maybe 20 minutes Brody was finally brave enough to go in the cell

 He even let us lock him in! He was smiling so I told him that jail isn't fun and he isn't allowed to smile. This is his attempt at not smiling.

Brody in the back of the cop car. I told him this better be the only time he is ever in the back of one. Again, he was smiling so I told him to make a sad face. He really does look sad! I sat in the back of it. Talk about no leg space! And its not like I need a lot of leg space at 5 feet tall. Guess they didn't design those things to be comfortable. 

We walked around Old Town some more and went into the Wells Fargo Museum... I could help but sing the song when I walked in... "Oh the Wells Fargo wagon is a comin down the street. Oh please let it be for me!" Wow, that takes me back to the my 4th grade music show. Here is Cohen next to a HUGE horse... don't worry, its fake. I know it looks so real.

I tried to explain to Brody that before cars, this is how people got around. He wasn't interested. 

Then we went to lunch and this happened... and it was A-MA-ZING! 

Mommy and Brody being silly

Wish I had taken more pictures but its a lot of work when you are yelling at a 5 year old to stop touching everything and trying to entertain a baby. But our trip was super fun and we are definitely going back next year for another mini vacation.