The Rainbow Tea Party

I have precious twin girls who just turned 6. 

Because the have a shared birthday party, I let them each decide what theme they want, and regardless of what those themes are, we make them into one party! 

For their 4th birthday, we had a Pink Pig Red Butterfly Party!

This year - A Rainbow Tea Party!

It's important to me that my girls' get to participate in the planning of their parties and help with some of the decorations.  This year they made the tissue paper rainbows (you'll see a few more of those!)  and put together this welcome sign for our front door.

 One of my favorite places in our backyard is under our lemon tree.  It always casts the perfect shade in the afternoon, so naturally it was the perfect place to set up the tea table.

 There had to be a chandelier over the tea table! 

So I made one out of ribbon and colored wine charms.

When the little girls arrived, they selected a fancy hat to wear to the party.

The the little girls decorated their own cupcakes and placed a rainbow topper with their name in it.  They their cupcakes were placed on individual cupcake pedestals (one of my favorite things of the party!)

Outside they could make rainbow jewelry to get even more fancy!  And get a rainbow painted on their fingernail.  My mom used to paint fingernails at my birthday parties when I was little, so it was fitting that she was there to carry on the tradition!

By the way, my mom's sweet head piece was her mothers!

After nails and jewelry making, it was tea time!



Our menu was simple:

pink lemonade (tea)

tea sandwiches -

turkey, ham, and pb&j

rainbow jello in wine glasses

petit rainbow fruit skewers

We had a brief intermission for Pin The Cloud On The Rainbow!

The birthday girls really wanted to play this game, so they planned the whole thing and made the lovely rainbow themselves!

Then we returned to the table for birthday cake and ice cream.

(I'm going to post this cake recipe on Monday - it was out of this world!)

Identical twin girls teach my son's Sunday school class and in regards to the birthday, they asked me, "does each girl get her own song?"  "No," I said, "We usually just sing 'Happy Birthday' once."  They gasped and demanded that we sing twice and each girl get her own song!  So this year we started a new forever tradition - each girl gets her own song!

As each little girl was served her own decorated cupcake on the pedestal, they also were given ice cream in these crazy cute ice cream cone tea cups!  I saw them on pintrist and couldn't resist!

Oh, white gloves were handed out with dessert too!

And then my favorite part of the party happened.  Completely on their own accord, all the little girls gathered on the grass and started dancing!  There were fancy dresses spinning all over and it was a scene of innocence, freedom and beauty.

I didn't capture a photo of the favor bags, but the girls went home with their hats, gloves, rainbow jewelry, rainbow button candy and a rainbow colored water bottle.

It was a fancy, colorfull day!

Some details:

1.  plastic table cloths are amazing, inexpensive decorations!  I used them to cover our pool equipment fence (ruffled of course!) and they made a beautiful backdrop.

2.  I made the cupcake pedestals from candle stick holders from the dollar store, wooden discs from the craft store, paint and embellishments.  Easy and adorable.

3.  The ruffled rainbow table cloth - the truth is I saw it and loved it!  I bought the fabric knowing it would be way too much work to pull off for a non-sewer!  At 10pm the night before the party I had the brilliant idea to use my hot glue gun and not the sewing machine!

4.  I made the fancy party hats and can make them for you if you are interested.

WHEW! 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Embrace The Fascinators

Here is a sneak peek of our Rainbow Tea Party celebrating my girls' 6th birthday!

We had lots of fun at this fancy tea party that started with our fancy hats!

It was a magical day with lots of fancy, colorful fun!

Come back tomorrow for all the pictures of the Rainbow Tea Party.



Some Of My Favorites

Today I’m sharing with you some of my favorite things in the blogging world!  I could list way too many, but here are some of my favorites!

Finiky Baby
My friend started this blog because with the birth of her second daughter, she had to go on a strict diet because the precious baby girl has a sensitive belly.  No dairy, nuts or caffeine!  Her blog shares some great recipes and ideas of how to survive with a finicky baby!!  Check it out!

House of Turquoise
My new obsession - this site!
It’s pure house décor eye candy!  Enjoy

Enjoying The Small Things
Everyone should read this blog.  Seriously.  Everyone.  Enough said.

Under The Sycamore

I have sobbed reading this blog on several occasions.  Plus her photography is lovely, her children beautiful, her style very fun, inspired and cheery and she loves Jesus.  Cool.

The Tom Kat Studio
One of my favorite party idea blogs
So many yummy ideas, photos and treats!

Another favorite thing of mine was stumbling upon this McQueen Party my children threw in their play room and took my camera to document it!  They love to throw parties like their Moma! 

Speaking of parties, get ready for some Rainbow Tea Party pics on Friday.

And lastly, I keep forgetting to post my “What’s For Dinner” ideas on Monday, so check out my latest (literally late-st!) on the right!

PBBB&J Pancakes

What are some of your favorite sites in blog land?

Make Out Monday - Traveling Romance

It's Make Out Monday friends!!  In an effort to be intentional with our marriages, this is my monthly challenge to keep dating your husband! 

you can check out details of the Make Out Monday challenge here 

The theme for the month of May is

Traveling Romance

Flashback to a trip you've taken together.  Pull out the photo album.  Watch the home video.  Decorate your table with a souvenir purchased on the trip.  Cook a meal that you had on the trip.  Have fun remembering the journey together!

My husband and I worked in college ministry prior to getting married.  Prior to dating in fact!  We had the awesome privilege of leading a team of college students to Thailand and Burma on a mission trip.  Our Traveling Romance date took us to Thailand!

This beautiful fabric I bought in Thailand was our table cloth.

See... it really is from Thailand!

We have a fabulous Thai restaurant that we love to get take-out from, but in an effort to save a little money, I made a few Thai dishes. 

 Curry Tom Gai

Thai Peanut Noodles with Prawns

And for our entertainment, I pulled out the video I took while we were in Thailand.  A few years back my dad took all my mini hi8 tapes and put them on DVDs for us - such a treat!

We weren't dating on this trip, but I was so in love with him!  Throughout the video I kept pointing out to my husband, "I was so in love with you then!"

More than it being a lot of fun to remember some outrageous adventures in Thailand, it was inspirational to see the people we met there and hear their stories of God's faithfulness in their lives.  From the women at The House Of Love who were sold in the sex trade and now suffering from AIDS, to the incredible people living in refugee camps, we were changed then when we met them and blessed to be reminded of their stories as we watched the video.

It was a wonderful date.

Now it's your turn!  Pick a trip you went on with your husband - it doesn't have to be international - it could be a weekend you spent camping, your honeymoon, anything!  And create a little date around that trip and have a wonderful time remembering together.



Grateful For The Bounce House

I had hoped to do a Rainbow Tea Party post today and share all the fun photos from my little ladies' 6th birthday party last Saturday, but one of those little ladies has been running a fever for the past 3 days, so a simple post of Gratitude will have to do!

The little ladies received a crazy birthday gift from their grandparents....

A bounce house with a water slide!

My folks were afraid that this gift would be a big burden for the parents.

Really?

The kids play in this for hours with tons of laughter!

Burden?  I think not!

I'm grateful for this dream come true bounce house in our backyard. 

I'm thankful for an incredible mom who helped so much with her granddaughter's party.  I'm grateful for an amazing dad who helped just as much.  I'm grateful for God's blessing to our family.  I'm grateful for friends who celebrate life's joys with us.  I'm grateful for television.  (Is that ok to say?  Especially Interior Therapy and American Idol)  I'm grateful for this beautiful Spring we've been having - it's not the typical  90+ degree Spring, but a lovely, overcast, cool, drizzly Spring!  I love it!

I'm grateful for full nights of sleep.  I'm grateful for sweet children who are innocent and full of wonder.  I'm thankful for a fun international date with my husband (more on that Monday).  I'm grateful for my amazing Bible study leader - Rita - who is a stunning woman of God.  Most of all I'm thankful for a risen Lord.  I just love that death couldn't keep Him down and that I have a relationship with a God who is alive!  Awesome!

Happy Weekend and I'll be back Monday with a fun Make Out Monday post!



Embrace THE Man

Yesterday I wrote about the amazing blessing God gave our family on Tuesday...

a new position for my husband at work so that he will no longer have to work the graveyard shift on the weekends.  Praise God, our family might return to "normal" in a few months!

 I'm so grateful for this hard working man!

He truly goes above and beyond to take care of our family.

I love you babe!

God Is Faithful

We’ve been praying about something for a long time in our family.  Our extended family has been praying for something for a long time for our family.  Our friends have been praying for something for our family for a long time.  And yesterday God answered all those prayers.

 When I went in to see my perinatologist back in 2008 to find out the sex of my third child, I knew in my heart that the doctor was going to say, “It’s a boy.”  I was 100% confident.  I knew because although my husband never said it out loud, I knew he longed for a son.  His father is his best friend and their bond is so powerful.  His father was his Best Man in our wedding.  I know that my husband wanted to have that same relationship with a son of his own.  As I drove to that appointment alone, I was overwhelmed with God’s love for our family and His love for my husband.  I just knew that He was going to bless my husband with this desire of his heart.  And I didn’t even flinch when the doctor said, “It’s a boy,”  I already knew.  God tells us that He gives us the desires of our heart when we delight in Him (that second part is the most important, not the first!)

 We’ve all been praying for a long time that God would provide a new assignment for my husband and that he would be spared the hardships of working the graveyard shift on the weekends.  It has been extremely tough on our family.  It has been a large contributing factor to my anxiety as I’ve become a single mother 4 days a week.  My husband can’t go to church because of that shift.  We cannot join a small group and get some Christian community that we long for because of that shift.  We struggle to have a social life with other friends who are off on the weekends and we are not.  Not to mention the physical strain it has put on my husband to be up all night 3-4 nights a week and then change to sleeping at night for the other 3-4 nights a week.  It’s quite simply horrible.

 But then a door opened.  A leadership position in a division he had worked in for the past 5 years became available.  Because of his obligation to work the graveyard shift for 1 year, he technically isn’t eligible.  But isn’t our inability God’s opportunity?  I just knew God would make a way.  We started praying.  My husband got away several times alone to pray and seek God and on those occasions God met him and spoke to him.  I was 100% confident that God was going to make a way to bless our family in this way and set us free from the disease that this current work position was bringing into our family.  I felt that same overwhelming love of God that I felt in the car driving to my doctor’s appointment when I found out I would have a son.

 This process over the past few months has really stretched and grown my husband’s faith.  After he interviewed a week ago, they said he would know by Monday if he got the position.  Monday came and went with no word.  It was like that Saturday when Jesus was in the grave.  It was quiet.  Would He really raise again? Would the prophecy be fulfilled?  Would He really keep His word?  Saturday was a day filled with nail biting.  And then Sunday came!  The God of the Universe kept His word and raised His son from the dead and radically changed our lives forever.  He is faithful. 

 Tuesday we got the call that my husband got the position.  I was in Trader Joe’s when he called and told me, so I couldn’t scream!  But all I felt was, “of course you did!”  I know God’s great love for our family and I knew He’d make a way.  He always does.

All glory to God for His never ending faithfulness.  Praise God for His amazing love for our family.  And thanks be to God for the ways He stretches us and grows us so that we can become more like Him.  And congrats to the most handsome Sergeant I know!

A New Life - Medication

One thing I haven’t written about in regards to my anxiety disorder is medication.  Initially when I met with my physician, she gave me several great alternative tools to deal with the anxiety.  For me, a huge part of this is changing my life style and thinking in many ways.  Having more balance in my life, learning to relax consistently, and “dialing it down a bit” in all areas.  It wasn’t until my severe break down at Christmas that I was prescribed drugs to calm me down.  I was so terrified and desperate for help.  It was Christmas night and we couldn’t get a hold of our doctors to save my life!  We even tried my OBGYN!  We just needed someone to prescribe me something to stop this nightmare.  It wasn’t until the next day at 2pm that we finally talked to a doctor that prescribed me Xanex.  I was so scared of what that might do to me.  I kept telling my husband, “tell him I’m small.  Tell him I want the lowest dosage.”  I was afraid that one pill would put me to sleep for a few days (which I probably needed!) and that thought scared me.  When I finally got the pills, I was very hesitant to take one, but per my husband’s insisting, I did.  I didn’t fall asleep.  I didn’t turn into jello.  I didn’t feel wonderful either! 

But I did mellow out enough to go sit with the family for the rest of the day.

 When we returned home after the holidays and met with my physician again, she told me that right now I must keep the Xanax on me at all times.  I am not to go out without the medication.  For now it is a tool for me and I am to take it when I need it.  These words were like a death sentence to me.  Not leave my house without drugs?  What?  I didn’t want to tell anyone because I kept thinking, “what parent is going to let their child come play at our house with an unstable mother who must have pills in her pocket at all times?”  It was horrible.  It almost became one more thing to panic about!  “Wait, I have to go back and get my pills.”  Thankfully I didn’t need to take them again, even though there were times when I could have and perhaps should have, I just didn’t feel comfortable taking them.  My body is pretty sensitive to medicine and regardless of other’s experience with Xanax, I wasn’t confident of how my body would uniquely react.   (Sadly, this was just a huge lack of understanding of this medication and the effects it would have on my body.)

 As I wrote about last week, things have been going well and as I’ve seen progress being made, I’ve also been leery of slipping back into my old ways and falling back into an unhealthy lifestyle.  If you’ve been reading here for a few months, you know that I’ve been working on my daughters’ birthday party – something that I dream about for months and love to create!  I’ve learned to start my projects early and not leave things to the last minute so stress is kept to a minimum.  I thought I had done a good job of this for the Rainbow Tea Party.  I really have been crafting up a storm for the past few weeks.  But come Saturday, I was racing around to put it all together (with the fabulous help of my parents and the little birthday girls!) and as I watched the clock move too quickly, I started to feel myself getting worked up.  The party was at 1:30pm, and at 1pm I went to get ready.  As I sat down at my vanity I felt a wave of anxiety come over me.  “No, not now, I don’t want to miss this.  I can’t miss this.”  My mind started racing with all the details of the party and as I prayed and begged God to set me free I got up and found my pills.  This party was so important to me and my girls that I just couldn’t miss it.  I got my husband, explained what was happening, and took a pill.  He prayed for me, I asked my mom to pray for me and just pushed through, trusting that everything was going to work out.  As guests started to arrive, I was not 100 %, but when my girlfriend dropped off her daughter, I pulled her aside and asked her to pray for me.  She laid her hands on me and prayed over me.  I went back inside and we had the most wonderful, colorful, fancy, precious birthday party.  I’m grateful for that little pill that helped stop my chaos.  But most of all, I’m grateful for the power of the Holy Spirit at work within me and for the body of Christ that held me up in prayer.  My friend Hillary prayed for me throughout the party and it was so awesome to see her after the party with a huge smile on my face and peace in my heart – both physically and spiritually.  I know it blessed her too to see that God answered her prayers and allowed me to enjoy my girls’ special day.

 It’s hard for me to write this.  Even now as I know I’m going to do a Birthday Party post later this week, I’m afraid of what you might think of me as you look at the pictures of the party, “oh yea, she had to take medication before that party.”  I’m nervous for the moms who had daughters at the party to read this!  I feel a little bit like a failure.  I know I shouldn’t, but I’m embarrassed and feel weak at admitting such a huge struggle I have.  Adding the medication fact to the story only seems to make me look worse.  It’s really hard for me to admit that I don’t have it all together.  Not that I think it is important to “have it all together,” but honestly, as a follower of Jesus I truly believe that His promises to us are our inheritance and we can claim those promises and the power that is freely ours through Jesus.  So why then am I struggling with anxiety when I’ve given Him full control of my life?  Why am I stressed about things and consumed by them when I know the Prince of Peace gives peace, not as the world gives, but the peace of God to guard my heart and mind?

 On the other hand, I know it is important for me to share this story honestly.  I know that while I laid on that bed on Christmas, losing my mind, God spoke to me and said, “you will share this story and others will be healed because of it.”  I know God can completely heal me from this anxiety.  Just like I know that Jesus could have come down off the cross and saved himself – he totally had the power to do that!  But God had another plan.  A plan that included extreme suffering of his son and a plan that included extreme freedom for his daughter – me.  I would never say that God is causing my anxiety for a reason.  But I would say that God is using my anxiety for a reason and he is redeeming what is being taken from me.  For this season of my life, and I pray that it is just a season, I will keep the medication in my purse at all times and see it as a mere tool if I need it.  And I pray that I don’t.

*This will be my last post in the "A New Life" series. 
I'll give updates from time to time.  Thank you for your prayers and encouragement through this series.  I hope that in some way God has spoken to you through it.

Grateful Heart Friday

I’m bringin’ back an oldie but a goodie today – Grateful Heart Friday!  It’s been awhile, but I truly believe that a content heart is a grateful heart, so…

I’m grateful for my rock star neighbor that watched my son 2 mornings in a row (last minute!) so I could help out at the school.  I’m grateful for Chelsea Cameron and her challenging wisdom that she shared with me for the past 22 weeks in her class.  I am a better wife and mother because of her.  I’m thankful for sweet friends who made my daughter’s birthday so special with cards, phone calls and homemade gifts.  I’m thankful for uninterrupted nights of sleep!  Praisealujia!  I’m grateful for crazy rain and Midwest-like stormy weather.  I’m grateful that there is no rain in the forecast for my girls’ birthday party tomorrow!  I’m grateful for the 2 moms that skipped out of our Bible study lecture with me yesterday to just sit and share life together.  I’m grateful for all the prayer support for my husband and his interview on Wednesday – still praying he gets the new position at work to restore some kind of normalcy to our family!  I’m grateful for a God who loves me deeply, specifically and intimately.  I’m thankful that He crafted a detailed, specific plan to rescue me from my sin.  I’m grateful that I am not a slave to fear or the lies of this world.  Most of all I’m grateful for unconditional love and forgiveness.

Happy Weekend!

Monday I’ll post my final post for the New Life series

Embrace The Birthdays

I really do love the Embrace The Camera challenge! 

(For more details, go here)

As my girls 6th birthday party is approaching this Saturday, I decided to look back at their past 5 birthdays and see if there were any photos of me with the birthday girls.

The girls' Polka Dot 1st Birthday

Sadly, I see that in the early years, there really aren't.  I'm always the one taking the pictures!

The girls' Noah's Ark 2nd Birthday (one little lady was sick)

The girls' Ladybug Luncheon 3rd Birthday

The girls' Pink Pig Red Butterfly 4th Birthday

I only seem to be in the cake photos! 

Last year, thanks to Emily challenging me to get in photos with my kids, I got a good picture of me with my birthday girls!

The girls' Fairy Garden 5th Birthday Party

You can bet I'll be in some photos this Saturday!!