Wordless Wednesday & giving back to Children's hospital

This will be a FAR from Wordless Wednesday because it means too much. Too much to me, too much to many many children, and too much to many many parents. Here are my wordless Wednesday pictures, and PLEASE read after for my tricks & treats for today, which will detail a great, positive, easy and CHEAP thing that you can do, that will make such a difference, and teach such a positive lesson to your children.

Last Halloween, my sweet little boy spent the holiday in Children's hospital. This was his second surgery within two months. My son was very very lucky, he only had to have two surgeries, four procedures, and he left the hospital. His first he had his adenoids removed. Soon after we visited the Children's hospital again for a sleep study, in which they found my sweet baby boy stopped breathing 24 times AN HOUR!!! Then he had his tonsils removed, and during that they discovered he had a flap that kept falling in his epiglottis that needed to be clipped. The day we left with all of our bags (he stayed for three nights the second time, and, at eight months pregnant,  I left him for only a hour with my husband, so we had lots of stuff!). When we checked out, the sweet old gentleman at the desk asked my husband if it was laundry day (I had the pillows and my son further back), my husband said we were going home, and the gentleman said "that is the best news I've heard all day!". This was after the elevator ride in which a dad told us he was so happy for us that we were getting to go home. I am posting a link here about the actual stays and surgeries if you would like to read them. But for today, here are a few of my "Wordless Wednesdays" from those two events.

My son before the surgery, wanting to get out of the room and play!

This is simple, just a little wire to measure levels and an iv. But still scary (yet kinda cute) none-the-less.

 My son after one of the surgeries.Since he LOVED animals, we referred to this as his "monkey cage"

My son admiring the super neat ball-thrower-bouncer-dinger thingie

Little man recovering. They gave us an actual bed on Halloween night since I was about to pop with baby girl, and little man slept best with me.

My sweet bug "gappopin" (as he said) through the halls on Halloween, in his cute little giraffe costume.

My son had very simple surgeries, and we had an ENT that I trusted with all of my heart. I knew he would be okay, but NO procedure is simple. I can't even put into words the faces we pretended not to see, the tears that no one could dry all the way to the heart, the fears no one would even speak of. But it still made me sad that on the first Halloween he would really remember, my little guy would spend it in the hospital. But there were events. He made a craft with some girl scouts. We went on a walk with the wagons outside of the hospitalI have the best friend in the world, so much so that since my hubby had to work she came and stayed with me and my son on Halloween night after her children trick-or-treated, but still, he missed Halloween, and so did many other little ones that we saw that day. So I made a decision. My son would not forget all his "friends" at Children's. So this year, we made at least some of them a little surprise.

I called the Children's hospital, and they said the only thing they can't do is food, so each cup has stickers, a Halloween bracelet, a Halloween pencil and eraser, a Halloween ring, and a personal note. For the fun cups, I got the idea from a Hershey's website actually. They are really very simple to make

For the cat:

Either a black 6-10 oz cup or a cup with a black piece of paper glued around it

A long white chenille stem cut in thirds

A 1/4 inch of pink chenille stem to wrap around the whiskers and be the nose.

Two googly eyes

Two long triangle foam pieces for ears

A long white chenille stem for the tail

For the bat:

Either a black 6-10 oz cup or a cup with a black piece of paper glued around it

Two long triangle black foam pieces for the ears

Two foam wings

two googly eyes

two small white triangle foam pieces

For Frankenstein:

Either a green 6-10 oz cup or a cup with a green piece of paper glued around it

Roll the top of the cup on black felt to determine length of hair needed. Cut different size triangles out of bottom of felt to make it look like hair

A tiny piece of white chenille for the scar

1/2 inch pink chenille foam folded for nose

1/2 inch of black chenille for the eyebrows

Two t-shapes of white foam for the bolts

Two Googly Eyes.

Just glue on according to pictures and fill with goodies. Make as many or as few as you can and deliver to the hospital for Halloween.

If you don't have the time or patience for this, but still want to do something, my local hospital said they are always needing crayons, markers, colored pencils, construction paper, scissors, play dough, water color paint, bead kits, craft kits, lego kits, playing cards, crossword puzzles, activity kits, dvd's, batteries, coloring books, and other similar items. You can also go to your local children's hospital website and donate directly.