Sunday, December 7, 2008

Christmas Party :-)

It was a great time! The pictures are on my blog:
www.theousleyfamily.blogspot.com

Thanks everyone for making this such a fun time!
Mindy

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Christmas Party Info!!!

2nd Annual Guatemalan Adoptive Families Christmas Party

It’s almost here! And I could NOT be more excited! Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love it. The snow, the decorations, the festive mood, and most importantly…the CHILDREN!

Here is the information for the upcoming party:
Saturday, December 6th 2008
At
Massillon Recreation Center
1:00 – 4:00
505 Erie St. North
Massillon, OH 44646

Please join us for lots of food and fun!
We will have a full lunch, gifts and crafts for the children, and of course Santa will be making his appearance again this year!

There will be two OPTIONAL gift exchanges:
ADULT EXCHANGE – Please bring a Christmas kitchen towel for this exchange.
ORNAMENT EXCHANGE – Please bring a NON-gender CHILDREN’S Christmas ornament for this exchange.
Both items should be wrappedJ

Cost per family this year will be $30.
I have had significant problems in the past with people RSVP’ing and following through with payment. Therefore for this event there will be stricter rules regarding this. You must RSVP to me that you are coming by:
NOVEMBER 21, 2008
and ALL payments MUST be received by:
NOVEMBER 26, 2008

Please understand that up until payments are received that all purchases come out of my pocket. Please note that if your RSVP is not received by NOVEMBER 21st that you will not be able to attend. It is crucial that I have the final guest count for food and other purchases by this date. If you need additional time to send in the payment please just contact me personally. As always, I do NOT want people to not come because of financial reasons so if this is the case for your family I completely understand and you just need to contact meJ So make sure you write down the above dates!

In past events, there have always been two or three of us willing to set-up and clean-up. I really need more people to volunteer to do this. Please remember we are ALL a part of this awesome group and your help is needed.

I also need several people to volunteer to bring Christmas cookies to the party. Please do NOT bring more then 2 dozen cookies as we had a lot of left-overs last year. I would really appreciate you taking the time to bake some cookies for the party. There is nothing better then Christmas cookies!!

Lastly, I wanted to give everyone a quick update on our Guatemalan Sponsorship Students Pedro and Ana. They are doing wonderful! Believe it or not, it is time to renew our sponsorship for them because in Guatemala students begin school in January, not August like they do here. They just finished up their school year in October. In order to renew their sponsorships so that they can continue to attend school, we need to raise $300 between all of us. It is also a Guatemalan Tradition for families in Guatemala to eat tamales at Christmas. However, our families cannot afford the things necessary to enjoy this tradition. For $30 a family we can order a Tamale Basket for our families that will be delivered to them along with a wrapped Christmas gift. Therefore, I would really like to see us raise $360 in order to do the baskets for our families as well. Please do not feel that you have to donate to this cause, this is and always will be optional.

So here is what I need from you!! I need to you to e-mail me back to let me know if you do intend to come by NOVEMBER 21st. This year I will not being handling the money as I have delegated some of the tasks in getting these events together to other members of our group. Your payments will be sent to our Vice-President, Gina Rihn.
Please print the section at the bottom of this e-mail and return it with your payment.

Thank you for your understanding and I can’t wait to see all of you!! I know it will be another awesome time and I am looking forward to seeing all of your beautiful children share in the beauty of the holidays. Christmas is such a magical time and I love that we get to spend part of that time together celebrating in the joys of our children. I will see you all soon and as always, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Have a safe and wonderful upcoming holiday season!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Christmas Party....

Final plans for the Christmas party will be coming out in the next few days...check your e-mail! Can't wait to see you there!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Boo at the Zoo CLEVELAND!!!

The date will be:
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24th
CLEVELAND METROPARKS ZOO
ADMISSION:
$6 FOR ADULTS (12 and over) THROUGH SEPTEMBER 29TH AND $7 AFTER THIS DATE
$6 FOR CHILDREN (2-12) THROUGH SEPTEMBER 29TH AND $7 AFTER THIS DATE
CHILDREN UNDER TWO ARE FREE
TIME: 5:30 – 8:30 PM

We will meet at the FRONT ENTRANCE BY THE GROUP MEMBERSHIP BOOTH. Once we all go into the Zoo we will head over to the food area for dinner. You can buy your food there or feel free to pack a dinner. There is a McDonalds and Pizza Hut I know for sure.

Here is the link to the page that talks about the event and also leads you through online purchases of tickets: http://www.clemetzoo.com/events/event.asp?event_id=7

Due to the fact that our group has ENORMOUSLY grown, we will not be purchasing tickets for everyone this year. It will be up to each individual family to purchase their tickets for this event. You can do this by either picking up your tickets at the box office at the Cleveland Zoo or ordering them online. I have attended Boo at the Cleveland Zoo countless times and I can tell you that it DOES sell out typically for every night. It is VITAL that your order your tickets well in advance and NOT purchase them the night of. I would hate to see families drive to Cleveland without tickets only to be turned away because the event has sold out. So PLEASE get your tickets soon. They are $1 cheaper if they are bought in September and the website will walk you through the online purchase process.

Even though I will not be buying the tickets for the group, I still would like to know who is planning on attending and who is not. So please e-mail me if you intend on coming that night OR leave a comment on this blog. Make sure to put WHO you are:-) THANK YOU!

I can’t wait to see all our little ones dressed up and ready for Halloween! It’s just around the corner! See everyone soonJ

Copy and paste this portion and please e-mail it back to me ONLY IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND:

YES! My family will be attending the event and we will have _____ adults and ______ children. (PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR NAME TOO)

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Welcome!!

Hello everyone! Welcome to our blog! I will use this blog with the purpose of keeping everyone updated in a more general approach as well as adding pictures of our events. Don't worry if you don't have a lot of computer time and can't or don't want to check the blog for updates. I will still update the group via e-mail with all important dates and reminders. However, upcoming events and imformation will be added to this blog for your reference.

Our next event will BOO AT THE CLEVELAND ZOO and I will post more specifics and information in the upcoming weeks!

If you have a family blog, and would like it added to the sidebar of THIS blog, please let me know and I will add you to it!

Thanks and let me know if you have any questions!