Happy Birthday Penelope Mei and #RAKforher

Today Penelope Mei turns 2. 

I was completely prepared to be a hot mess today. It is physically painful to know that I missed her birthday. I hate it so much. I was sure I would mope and pout all day. 

To say the day turned out different than I thought was the understatement of the century!

I woke up to the best surprise I could possibly have besides getting my girl, new pictures! We were able to send Penelope a birthday cake. Today we got pictures of her birthday party!

Her cake looks super yummy!

Ok, how adorable is she? So, so beautiful.  

She got to share her cake with her friends! 

Love her barrettes, they're Minnie Mouse! Love this spunky little guy next to her. 

So they pictures would have been more than enough, but it got better. My fabulous sister Sarah decided we could do something good with today in Penelope's name. 

She started 24 hours of Random Acts of Kindness in Penelope's honor. #rakforher if you're part of the twitter world.

                                 

Personally I think what transpired today was kind of amazing. Sarah started it out last night with buying the polar pop of the next guy in line. From there, it has snow balled. I know I won't get everything, but I have to get this down. 

Penelope, today so much joy was spread in your name. I hope you could feel the love from the other side of the world!

~Rebekah gave 2 free casual passes to her coworkers. I assumed that meant she didn't call them out for a terrible outfit but maybe it's a real thing?

~I brought donuts for my office.

                                    

~Kelley made a donation to Make a Wish in Penelope's name

~Rebekah bought lunch for her coworkers

~Lisa made a donation to Planned Parenthood in Penelope's name. She also did this most amazing blog post, go check it out! She rules.

~Sarah paid for someone else's spin class

                                               

~I donated to CCAI's Henan Project supporting orphanages in Penelope's province in China.

 ~Monty bought lunch for his crew

~Rebekah's boss who we have never met donated to the Samaritan's Purse Christmas Drive in Penelope's name

~Dayna Lewis made chili for her neighbor

 ~Suzy Steber and Sarah both gave away lottery tickets


 ~Sarah sent Penelope flowers

~I donated to the Jeff Collins Suck It Cancer fund. Sarah said donations were up today!

~One of Rebekah's coworkers bought drinks for the people behind her in the drive through line

~Dora made a donation to the Oblong Christian Children's Home

~My friend Jill Michl took gift certificates for free ice cream cones to the entire Ste Marie School! She did it anonymously but I'm calling her out! 4 kindergarten classes, 2 pre k classes, and all the staff.

She has Penelope's initials on them :)

This is Dexter's class proudly holding their treasure!

I'm copying what fabulous Principal Kathy Johnson posted on the school's website and facebook page....

Today at approximately 1:00, an envelope with enough coupons for every Ste. Marie Elementary student and staff to get a free ice cream cone from The Freeze was delivered to SME.

When I delivered the coupons to each class, we talked about Random Acts of Kindness and what that meant.

One kindergarten student said, "If everyone did that, then the whole world would be nice to each other!" To the Random Acts of Kindness person: THANK YOU FOR BEING NICE!

 This turned out to be so much more than I ever could have imagined. The idea of well over 100 kids going home and telling their parents not just about their ice cream cone, but what it means. This is huge.

~Sarah rounded out #rakforher with one more polar pop give away

Please know, I'm not posting any of this to point anyone's good works, though there were a lot of them! I want you to have a chance to share in the joy that my family, friends, and perfect strangers brought me today. I can't imagine a better gift than joy. Today I received so much, my cup runneth over. I'm not sure words can do justice to what this represents to me. In short, Penelope matters. Not just to me. Today she mattered to so many people.
I know Penelope will read this some day. I'd like to think that this is one she reads a lot.

Thank You Thank You Thank You to everyone who participated in #rakforher. 

Sarah thank you so much for thinking of it. It was so much fun. It's not too late to pass it on! 

And to Penelope, I promise we will never miss another birthday again!!