Mother Daughter

On Saturday I got to spend the whole day with my little ladies

on a special Mother Daughter date.

My mom and I have been going on what we call "Mother Daughter" for quite some time!

Here's my mom and I on our Santa Barbara Mother Daughter when I was pregnant with my daughters!

 This is our Mother Daughter crew, doing what we love most!

Talking late in jammies, comfy socks and pizza!

I've known these women since I was 3 years old and they have been my mothers and my sisters!

Such special relationships and memories together!

I've been so excited to do more special things with my daughters to pass the Mother Daughter tradition down to my little loves!  We're not on our weekend get-aways quite yet!  But a whole day together, alone and then with some other mothers and daughters, was just the right start!

We started the day with manis and pedis!

 

 Then we met up with our God's Girls and their moms for tea.

After tea we headed to the theater to see the Sea Princess ballet.

What a special day with my little girls and their amazing friends and moms.

I feel so blessed to have 2 daughters.

I pray that we will have the close relationship that I have with my mom because there is 

something really special about a Mother Daughter relationship!

Splish Splash

Just off the heels of our Mexican vacation,

we had a little pool party to celebrate our girls' 8th birthday!

We did a little fun photo wall and as our guests arrived, they posed with the birthday girls by the water wall.

(the photos will later become our thank you cards)

I pulled some old photos of the girls in bathing suits from the time they were 5 month old!

Made me cry a little!

We made some lemon cupcakes and a 

chocolate "8" pool cake!

In the pool we did some fun relays - 

Instead of diving for things, we threw a ton of ping pong balls in the pool and the teams had to jump in, one at a time, get 1 ball and swim it to a basket at the end of the pool.  The team with the most balls in the basket won!

We also did a little noodle race!

A big SPLASH was had by all!

Whew, another birthday down in the books!

Why do they keep growing?

That's A Wrap

The girls wrapped their first show yesterday!

It was so much fun watching them grow in confidence over the past 4 months!

Thanks to all the special friends to came to the show

It meant the world to the girls!

And the flowers!

WOW!

A very special milestone for my little ladies.

Now in honor of Cinquo de Mayo, this exhausted stage mom is off to sit on the beach in Mexico for a week with my husband and recover from the late night performances!

See you next week

Places Everyone, Places!

"and 5 6 7 8"

My little loves are in their first musical performance

Little Mermaid Jr.

I grew up doing children's musical theater, so this has been fun for me

to relive some old stage days!

The girls are in the chorus and get to be sailors, sea creatures and chefs.

With a cast of over 100 kids, they are having the time of their life!

Clothe Yourself with Kindness

In our God's Girls group, we've been talking about the different characteristics that a girl who belongs to God should exemplify.  

We recently discussed Kindness.

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

Colossians 3:12

In the spirit of "clothing" ourselves in these characteristics, we made paper dolls!
The girls each cut out a girls and then I put out tons of scrapbook papers and let them go nuts with their imaginations to clothe their girls!

Look at the shoes and hats!!!
These girls should be designers!

Each piece of clothing was assigned a characteristic:
Compassion was over our legs - a skirt, shorts or pants - because we pictured bending down to care for a child and get on their level to have compassion on them.
Kindness was over our heart - a shirt or blouse - because we felt that true kindness had to come from our hearts.
Humility was over our heads - a hat - because humility is thinking of yourself in a right way.
Gentleness was something soft - a purse or gloves - because to be gentle we must be soft in our words and actions
Patience was over our feet - shoes - because we can run out ahead, but we should walk patiently.

These amazing little girls created lovely paper dolls that I pray will remind them of all the beautiful characteristics God wants them to clothe themselves with everyday!

Funeral

Have you ever been to a funeral..... for a bee?

I have.

I looked out the window to see this little set-up and asked the kids what was going on?

They replied, "we're having a funeral for our dear friends Honey and Hugs."

"Who?" I asked.

"Honey and Hugs, our bee friends who drowned in the pool.  Will you come to the funeral?"

"Um, sure.  I guess."

I loved these posted notes!

"our dear best friends not for long though!"

 Each child did a reading for the bees.

 Each child placed leaves and petals where the bees were buried.

And then they passed a can to collect an offering for the bees.  Leaves were handed out previously for us to use as our offering!

The "service" was so thought out.

Their words were kind and relevant.

They even prayed!

It was quite impressive.

I know these were just bees, but their lives were honored by my children!

Makes me think of the care God gives to all of His creation.

He has made specific places for them to live and sleep.

He has made specific foods for them to eat.

He takes care of all their needs.

How much more does He care for each of His children?

Saturday

After a blogging fast for Lent, I'm back!

The day before Easter, I went to the beach to be still, pray, and prepare my heart for Easter.

"It's the day before Easter.

The day in between.

The day of waiting.

Perhaps the day of the most sorrow.

I think there was a speck of hope on Friday - hope that he still might come off the cross and prove them all wrong.  Hope that he'll actually endure all the suffering and survive it!  But no, he dies.  And now it's the day after and all hope is gone.  He's dead.  There's no reversing time, no matter the desire and will.  He is dead.

So what of all he said?

All he taught?

Was it true?

The frustration, disappointment, anger, complete sorrow - its too much to bear.  How do you move on?  How do you get through?  Will time heal?

Such a hopeless day.

And you try to sleep and hope to wake up from the nightmare - it all wasn't true.

But you wake up and he's still gone.

It is true.

The day of loss.

The day of defeat.

Hopeless.

Death is so final.

The day there was no longer a heartbeat of our 4th baby was so final.  It would no be changed.  And I hoped and I prayed and I wished.  But no, there was no bringing back what had been taken.  The baby was gone.  It was final.  

Such grief.
Such loss.

Such hopelessness.

And I hoped to wake up from the nightmare, but I continued to wake up to the nightmare.

I live on the other side of the miracle of the cross.  I know how the story ends.  I know that tomorrow we'll celebrate Jesus overcoming death and gasping for breath again.

He conquered the grave!

He is ALIVE!

I know that - always have.

That's what makes Saturday no big deal.

I know what's coming!

But Saturday was a big deal.

He could have been crucified, dead, and come back to life a few hours later.

But he didn't.  He was dead - beyond hope.  No trace of life.  And yet hope sprung and life was reborn.

Saturday just might be the most important day of all.

If there wasn't Saturday, Sunday wouldn't be nearly as remarkable and miraculous."

Life is filled with "Saturdays."  The day (or days) in between the suffering and the miracle.

We wait and wait and hope seems to daily fade as the pain and reality overtake us.

Yet Sunday is always there, waiting to bring new life and breathe hope into us once again.

If today is Saturday for you - take heart!  He has overcome the world and Sunday is coming!