Princesses and Kings

We went to my friend's daughter's princess birthday party this weekend. I was suddenly immersed in a pretty pink princess world yet to be discovered with Jessica being only 7 months. Now we are not just talking a few balloons and princess plates and cups. My friends has never been known to skimp on a birthday party. There was a little throne for pictures upon arrival, a huge painted mural, castle cake, crown shaped sandwiches, princess shoe shaped cheese, and decorations galore. At one point during the party they had all the kids stand at the door to head outside to the "ball" and one by one each child was announced and proceeded down a red carpet to go and dance amidst a sea of bubbles under the tent they had set up. The children were all dressed in royal attire, princess costumes everywhere and she even had royal robes/capes made for the boys to wear to be kings.
It was such a sight to see as each child was made to feel so special. I absolutely loved the princess feel of the party. Even the boys strutted their stuff coming down the red carpet. Everyone likes to feel beautiful and dashing once in a while. We like to feel special and loved and that we are worth the fuss. I know that I was made to feel that way growing up and I am so incredibly thankful for the family I was blessed to grow up in. So many people don't get that opportunity to grow up knowing that feeling. I think that is why I love birthdays so much, because it grants us that opportunity to tell someone that they are worth it, that they are special and we are glad they were born. Whether it is with a party or gifts or just a hug, people need to know they are loved and appreciated. Hopefully my little prince and princess will know without a doubt how wonderful I think they are and how special God has made them!

Finding your Freedom

There is so much that I could write about and I probably should post about 10 new posts just to catch everyone up with our Summer. The kids and I just returned from a trip North to see my nephew get baptized in PA. We made some stops on the way there and the way back and all in all took 11 days of visiting and traveling. It was wonderfully exhausting. We loved seeing family and it was wonderful to get to offer Ristow a variety of fresh and new experiences. He rode horses, flew kites, rode amusement park rides, fed bread to a giant pile of carp, ate giant marshmallows, bought his first comic book, stayed up late looking at it in front of a fire and got to fish off the front of a boat. It was a big trip for Ristow.

But, my favorite thing that Ristow experienced was completely unplanned and unexpected.
We rode the boat over to a beach at the far end of the lake and there found 3 giant piles of sand that had been dumped there and not yet spread out. Now Ristow is not much of a get your hands dirty kind of kid. He plays in the sand, but not to the point of ever really needing to rinse off good. What I witnessed when he ran over to that first sandpile was awesome.

All of a sudden he found a new and wonderful freedom in the sand. He climbed to the top with much determination and effort. Then slid down and starting rolling in the sand and making sand angels. He covered himself in it and did not once stop smiling. The kid who liked to make a castle and that's it, now was immersed in the infinite possibilities of the sand.
Maybe it was the fact that it was in a different form or that the quantity was so ridiculous, but it allowed him to just play and have fun with no rules of what was expected of him.

It really got me thinking about what kind of experiences that we have as adults allow us that kind of creative freedom. Sometimes I feel like our faith is like that giant pile of sand and is waiting for us to discover ways of experiencing it. To not care what others think but to enjoy it, to play in it and to glorify God with it. I loved that Ristow discovered that he loves playing in the sand, I love that he discovered even more about his ability to conquer his goals and I love that he expressed so many creative ways to play. He is such a great kid and I am glad to have witnessed his joy!

The Sweet Joy of a Sleeping Baby

Such peace, such tenderness, such beauty all reside in the face of a sleeping baby.

Our New Crab Community (The Spidey update)

Well, I am happy to report that our pet hermit crab Spidey is still alive!
Since the unfortunate "we thought you were dead" incident, we have upgraded Spidey's habitat considerably with a bigger tank and more climbing sticks and a nightly buffet that would put many restaurants to shame. We also thought it was time to get Spidey a friend.
At the pet store Ristow picked out a pretty, shiny "girl" hermit crab with a shell painted like a pineapple. (though almost impossible to tell if a hermit crab is a boy or girl) He was so excited and her name was, yes you guessed it, pineapple.
Well, within 30 minutes of her introduction to Spidey's tank, Pineapple had all claws and legs bared and was attacking Spidey trying to take over his shell. It was awful! I felt so bad for Spidey. I gave her a few chances and finally had to take her out of the tank before she hurt him. Then I read that a hermit crab would rather be pulled apart limb by limb than let go of its shell. yikes! and if you remember from the "sorry, we thought you were dead" post, Spidey's big claw was accidentally lost in the chaos, so now he is unable to defend himself from crazy shell stealing crabs.
After begging the store to let us return Pineapple they said ok and asked us to bring Spidey in too so that they could better match up a suitable tank mate. We searched through the whole tank and found two crabs with very small claws that the clerk thought would work and of course now we had to buy two more crabs instead of one because the pressure would be taken off of Spidey with three in the tank. Boy, am I a sucker or what?
So now our new crabitat consists of Spidey, America (who is painted like a flag) and Racer (black with a yellow and orange stripe down its back). While they are not the best of friends yet, the two new crabs have not attacked Spidey, only been a bit intimidating, which is a territorial issue. Spidey is bit traumatized still but I think with some therapy he will pull through. It's just character building right?
I will try to get a picture tonight of them all out a about.

My Not So Green Thumb

This summer we thought we would try our hand at a small garden.
We have 2 tomato plants, 2 strawberry plants, 2 pepper plants, a row of peas, 2 rows of lettuce and 2 rows of spinach. I am not known for being very successful with plants, so needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled when things started to sprout and bloom. Now I did buy the tomato, strawberry and pepper plants already started but the others we planted from seed.

So far we have harvested 2 small strawberries and a few little lettuce leaves and a very pretty jalapeno pepper is just about ready for the picking.

Today I was out there pulling weeds and showed Ristow that his third strawberry was just about ripe. He was very excited, and since we only have one producing plant right now, it was a big deal to have another berry on it. Well I was being ever so careful pulling weeds from the lettuce that I stepped back and squashed the lone strawberry. Booooo. Ristow was not too thrilled with me for that. And we noticed that someone or something had broken one of the pepper plants. Man, things are going downhill fast.

We will keep tending the garden with our limited knowledge and skill and hopefully get a chance to eat some of the rewards. It definitely has been a fun experience though, and maybe next year we will actually have enough for a whole salad ;)

May Brings Sunshine, Swimming and Baby Giggles

Yesterday we had a great day. Christopher's mom Beth was here visiting and we had a wonderful time with her. After taking her to the airport, we had lunch and headed to our friend's pool. Jessica got to go swimming for the first time and absolutely LOVED it. But to be honest, she seems to LOVE everything right now and she is finding things pretty funny. She laughs at her brother, she laughs at the soccer ball being kicked back and forth, she laughs at water being splashed, she laughs at silly noises.
Oh, to see the world new again like a child and truly appreciate the joy that the most simple things can bring!
Here are some pictures and a video of Jess laughing!

The End of Preschool

Ristow is officially done with Preschool. He has been going to our church Preschool program since he was 18 months old when I took a position teaching there. Four years later he is done and ready for Kindergarten in the fall. We are all very excited for this transition.
Ristow and the other students put on a great program last week. They sang songs and then they had their graduation program. They performed wonderfully and I am very proud of him and the work he put into it.
I know you will probably think me a horrible mom, but I have never understood the need for preschool graduation. They get caps and gowns and everything. Doesn't this take away from how special it truly is when they actually graduate the larger things in life, if they are used to such a big deal being made about everything they do? Don't get me wrong, it was sweet seeing my son dressed up and walking across the stage, but I just felt like it was a little much for preschool.

Anyway, after the graduation program he expected gifts and a party and to go out to dinner. I know some highschool kids who never got that much. Well, we did give a few small tokens of congratulations and Grammy and Poppy took us all out to dinner to celebrate. It was very nice.
I hope Ristow knows how much we love him and are proud of him.