On Memorial Day, we decided to do something special as a family. We needed a time to just be the three of us and make a memory. So, we headed to Pinicon Ridge Park. We rented a paddle boat and had a great time putzing around exploring nature. We were treated to spying an eagle, an eagle's nest, and three baby eagles peering out of the nest. We saw numerous geese with their goslings toting close behind. We saw turtles and frogs and fish. Aria pedaled. Mommy pedaled. Daddy pedaled. We stuck our hands and feet in the water. It was relaxing and refreshing and just plain fun!
Then we had a picnic and played at the playground until it started raining. We drove around the park for awhile in hopes it would quit. It was light enough for us to take a quick walking trip across a cool bridge that had fun lights on it.
It was a fabulous family day! Just what we needed with our three day weekend!
The lilac bush is bigger. The child is bigger. The hair is longer. The brain is fuller. The confidence is greater. The friendships are deeper.
People say it all the time, but man they sure do grow up fast. Above she was 3 and now she is 4. Above she was cautious about leaving mom and now she loves to spread her wings. Her creativity has magnified and her excitement for school is brimming. Wow! What a difference a school year makes!
One of Aria's favorite picture book series is Doctor Ted, Firefighter Ted, and Artist Ted, all by Andrea Beaty. Ted is quite the character. In the books he becomes a doctor, a firefighter, and an artist. He "saves" the day with his new skills, while annoying his mom, teacher, and principal. They are quite funny! We can hardly go to the library without checking out one of them.
Most recently we have Artist Ted. In the book, Ted can't find a paintbrush or paint, so he makes his own. For paint he uses ketchup, mustard, chocolate syrup, toothpaste, and jam.
One day, as we were reading, I asked Aria if she would like to paint with those things. What four-year-old would answer "no" to that? Certainly not my kid! So we got out some condiments and started a masterpiece. We didn't have jam I was willing to use for painting, so we used some vanilla pudding with pink food coloring instead. Otherwise, we used the same things Ted did.
Aria had a great time! It was smelly and gooey, but oh so fun! Unfortunately, I said we could not keep the picture forever because the mustard smelled pretty bad. But, we do have a wonderful memory and an excellent connection to one of Aria's favorite books!
And my Mom planned the best surprise ever! Over the past year, my parents, my dad especially, have developed a love for the music duo of Danika Holmes and Jeb Hart. Jeb plays an awesome guitar, which is what my dad loves, and Danika sings. They currently live in Nashville, but are from this area and come back to perform quite a bit. At one of their local performances, my mom learned they do house concerts. She thought it was the perfect idea for my dad for his 60th birthday.
The celebration happened about a week before his actual birthday on Mother's Day weekend. It was easy to tell him we were coming to visit to celebrate Mother's Day. We decided not to have a huge crowd jump out and surprise him, but to just have Jeb and Danika show up at the house and start setting up for the concert. It was so awesome to see the look on my Dad's face when they walked up onto the deck. He was totally blown away!
This picture is a still frame captured from my video camera, but you can still see the surprise and joy on my Dad's face. We didn't want the big concert crowd to show up right away because we knew Jeb and Danika would need to set up and we knew my Dad would want to chat with them one on one. What we didn't know was that Jeb would give my Dad a mini guitar lesson during that time! Bonus surprise!
While they played, the rest of us worked hard to set everything up for the 40ish guests coming to view the concert. It was crazy how my Mom made food and prepared the house as much as possible without my Dad knowing. She even stored stuff in the neighbor's refrigerator. It was totally worth it! Pretty soon, guests started arriving and my Dad was in shocked and surprised mode again. Many people came and he was so honored they were there. He had family, friends, and co-workers from long ago, as well as current friends and co-workers. My Dad was so blown away by everyone who kept showing up. It was fun!
Then they sang. And they were really good! This was the first time we got to hear them and it was great! They are working hard to make it in the music industry, and I would say they are well on their way. One of their original tracks was recently in a movie! One big perk is their playing of the song, "Forever Young." That song has always been a special song for my Dad and I. I remember playing it on cassette tape over and over again. It was the song we danced to for the father/daughter dance at my wedding. Of course we were both crying as they sang it.
It was really fun how my parents' basement was transformed into a social concert lounge. People sat around, ate, drank, and enjoyed the music. It was such a good day! I had my friend Whitney make some special cakes for the occasion. She is quite talented!
The quoted phrases are my Dad's two favorite songs to play on the guitar. And the guitar cake was a perfect replica of my Dad's Martin guitar. What a special day it was! I think Jeb and Danika really enjoyed it, as well. All of the audience had a great time and my Dad certainly felt quite loved. We finished our birthday gift off with a book from Aria and I called, "60 Uses for Papa" with 60 pictures of Papa and Aria doing their favorite things.
A great husband/dad/papa only turns 60 once, so I'm glad it could be such a joyous event!
Aria's good friend Eadie turned four a few weeks ago and we got to celebrate her birthday, cowgirl style! Eadie's mom is really good at picking a theme and finding all sorts of creative ways to celebrate within the theme. From the games, to the treats, to a buckaroo making animal balloons and hats, it was a great party! Yeehaw!! I really enjoy watching the girls interact with each other these days. Sure, they are friends because their parents were first, but they do choose to be friends and have a lot of fun together. They also know each other well. Aria and Eadie have a lot of fun playing dress up together and Aria really wanted to get Eadie a new dress up dress for a present. When Eadie opened the present, she was so excited! I loved seeing Aria think of a present she knew her friend would love and they would enjoy playing with together!
One of the perks of being a stay at home mom is doing random fun days with Aria. I'm so glad we can just pick up and go to the Children's Museum for a fun outing, just the two of us. I think we skipped rest time on the day we went and just explored. I didn't bring my big camera so I could play and have fun with Aria. But I did have to snap a few shots with my phone.
The first time we went to this museum, Aria was just over one year old. I remember her doing these very same things, but on a whole different level. It is crazy how fast she grows up! I am thankful for the time to make memories and learn and grow together. There is nothing better than being her Mom!
One of Aria's Christmas presents from Justin's parents was tickets to Elmo Live at the end of April. We had great seats and enjoyed watching one of her favorite characters dance around the stage. The best part was room right in front of us for Aria to jump and dance around with the music! She also enjoyed some cotton candy. I'm not sure how anyone can eat that stuff, but she liked it! :)
At the end of April, we got a new swing set for Aria. Her old set was starting to make me a little anxious when three kids were on it at once, so it was time for an upgrade! A funny story about picking out the play set, Justin and I searched a lot before presenting the idea to Aria. We showed her some pictures of the one we liked and she was excited at first, but then said, "No, it doesn't have a telescope." Of all the things to want on your play set. We assured her we could buy a telescope and put it on and then she decided she liked it.
One sunny Sunday afternoon, Daddy and Papa went to pick up the play set and we started laying out all the pieces and putting it together. There was a lot of wood.
However, very shortly into the process the sky looked a little dark off to the southwest, so I checked the radar. I saw tornado warnings west of here, so I thought we should shut down the building and get the stuff in the garage. I didn't want it to blow away before we even built it. So we started carrying armfuls of wood into the garage and by the end of getting it all in there it was raining pretty hard. Daddy and Papa decided to keep building in the garage, but about 5 minutes later the tornado siren started going off. So, Aria's new swing set was partially built in the garage during a tornado warning. Luckily, the weather was never very severe here and it passed quickly.
We ended up having the swing set in the garage for a week until we could move it back out again and finish building it. It was sure hard for Aria to wait to have it all done, but it was definitely worth the wait! She has spent hours and hours on it already! Oh, and it is not a play house. It is a secret hideaway.
I think I am finally getting the hang of this french braid thing! Aria's hair is so long, so it is easier. But, two braids is the easiest because of her goofy part in the back. And, she finally likes having them, too!
About a month ago Aria was headed to spend the weekend with Grandma and Papa, but before she went we decided to do a little adventure with Grandma. We headed out to the Raptor Center near Lake MacBride. What a cool place! Basically the Raptor Center is a home for raptors that have been injured and can no longer survive in the wild. We had a great time visiting eagles, owls, hawks, falcons, vultures, and more. It was a beautiful day so we had a picnic and threw rocks in the lake, too. Aria really enjoys birds, so she loved talking to and seeing the birds. At first when walking on the path to the lake, Aria didn't want to get to close, for fear of falling in. However, with a little coaxing from Mom and Grandma, she was soon throwing rocks in and climbing all over. Here are some pictures from our day.
Last week, Aria got her third opportunity to sing on the big stage in "big church" with her Little Praises choir. My girl still really loves to sing and she loves being a part of Little Praises! The teachers are wonderful and the songs she knows from her weekly practices are great to hear around the house. Aria would much rather Little Praises continued on through the summer, but I'm sure the teachers love their break! The other day we were discussing summer swimming lesson plans and Aria said, "But mom, we can't have swimming lessons on Wednesdays. I have preschool and Little Praises and FX on Wednesdays." I told her we don't have those things in the summer and her response was, "What in the world am I going to do?" She loves her Wednesday events!
Back to last Sunday. You just never know what will happen when you put a bunch of 3-5 year olds up on stage in front of the church. The kids get to sing in all 3 services, so it makes for a long morning. By the last service, most of them are a little squirrely. That is why we record every song, every service. You just never know when a boy will sing the whole song in a falsetto voice or a girl will tell her Daddy that a certain boy wants to marry her. And, you have to hope that at least one of the songs will be a recording of the kids' faces instead of the back of their heads turned around looking at themselves on the big screen. I picked the two videos I thought Aria did her best. I wish I could include them all to get the full effect, but I'm not waiting that long for them to upload.
Here is Hallelujah Lord and Jesus Loves the Little Children/Oh How I Love Jesus
I heard about the Easter Un-Basket from a friend too late in 2013 to make it happen for Easter then, so I wrote myself a note about what I wanted to do in 2014. I also researched it on the Internet and fell even more in love with the idea.
I have always thought there needs to be a bigger celebration at Easter, but I haven't quite figured out what it should be. I've always wondered about Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets. I am definitely not a fan of the Easter bunny. I have a desire to give presents at Easter because it is a time of great celebration, but I also want it to have meaning.
The Easter Un-Basket fixes some of that for me. Some may call it the un-Easter basket, but I don't like that. I don't want any kind of "un" in front of Easter. Here is how we did it.
On Good Friday, we went outside and gathered 5 rocks each. Aria chose the number we gathered. Then we sat on our deck and thought of sins we struggle with and wrote them on our rocks. Aria thought of and wrote her own on her rocks. She was incredibly thoughtful in listing things she really does struggle with instead of random things she knows are wrong, but rarely ever does. It was another sign to me that her faith is real. We talked about how rocks are heavy and sins weigh us down. We then put all of our sins in a basket and covered them with a red cloth to represent Jesus' blood. We left them in the middle of our kitchen table for the weekend, right next to Aria's white rose.
On Saturday night after Aria went to bed, we transformed the setting. When we were originally discussing how we wanted to do this activity, Justin and I wanted the basket to be about all of us because Jesus died for all of us. He takes away all of our sins. While we didn't really want to give each other presents, we didn't want Aria to be the only one with blessings in the basket instead of sins. Note to self, start thinking of blessing ideas and shopping for them sooner than Good Friday next year.
On Sunday morning, here was our table:
On the left is the empty tomb where Jesus' body was placed. In the middle is a new basket with Jesus' name on it and inside are all of our sins, covered with a white cloth. On the right is the original basket with our names on it and special blessings for each of us. One of Aria's blessings was a hula hoop, which is what is around the baskets. Attached to the hula hoop is Romans 8:38-39 where it states that nothing can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus. Just like a circle has no end, God's love for us has no end. Aria also got a cross necklace which we purchased to remember her giving her heart to Jesus. The little card the necklace came on actually said, "My heart belongs to Jesus." Aria got an Adventures in Odyssey cd, which are stories that are practical examples for kids to live out their faith. We also gave her a water bottle with the verse from John about Jesus being the living water inside of us. Justin got a new water bottle, too. There is a colorful plaque that has Philippians 4:8 on it, which is one of our family verses this year. And Justin and I both got books to help us grow our faith.
Our theme was to put things in the basket that either symbolized our faith or would help us grow in our faith. Of course it is really easy to find things for Aria, but it was a bit more tricky for mom and dad. After doing the basket and trying to think deeper about the meaning this year, hopefully we will have better ideas in the future. I don't want to buy stuff just to buy stuff, but I want to help us all think about how Jesus suffered severely on the cross so we could have the life we do today. The symbolism was powerful. Aria was equally amazed that all of our sins were in Jesus' basket as she was with the blessings that were in ours. Our sins were just gone and we did absolutely nothing to deserve it. Amazing! It gives me the chills to think about it.
Back in March I came up with a plan for my own version of Resurrection Eggs to help Aria grasp the meaning of Easter more clearly. I made my plan similar to what we did last year. I wanted to tell more than the Easter story; to focus on Jesus' life on earth. My goal was to help Aria understand her Savior beyond His death. After completing all of our reading and activities, I think Aria has a good four year old grasp of who Jesus is. She understands a little about Jesus' time on earth and what he did while he was here. We read the Bible so often that she knows so many of the stories very well. So note to self, next year I want to go back to focusing on the story of Jesus' death and resurrection around Easter. We can go into more detail and deepen her specific knowledge of those weeks.
Back to this year. I came up with 20 eggs. Each egg had a Bible verse and an object clue. We started with Jesus' birth and ended with the Holy Spirit coming. My goal was to read from the Bible every day and do some sort of craft or activity to connect to what we read. Aria loves doing crafts and they are great physical reminders of what she learned. She also loves to act things out, which definitely helps plant the story in her mind.
One thing that came of our eggs this year was Aria learning how to read verse references. We talked about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John being the Gospel and the books that tell about Jesus' life. She learned how to read the number references for the chapter and verse, too. We read the verses from my Bible every day. Sometimes we read the story from one of her storybook Bibles, too. Here is my list:
1. John 3:16 and the story of Jesus' birth. We made a star like the one over Bethlehem when Jesus was born.
2. Luke 2:49. The story of Jesus as a boy in the temple. We built a temple out of toothpicks and marshmallows.
3. Matthew 3:16-17. Jesus' baptism. We made stick people Jesus and John and acted out the baptism with some gold glitter and a dove.
4. Matthew 4:19. Jesus calls his disciples. We made 12 notes for friends and family to tell them Jesus loves them like the disciples did.
5. Matthew 6:9-13. Jesus teaches how to pray. My goal was to learn the Lord's prayer, but Aria was not interested so it didn't stick.
6. John 9:11. Jesus heals a blind man. We acted it out like this:
7. Mark 11:7-10. Palm Sunday. We made palm branches and acted out Jesus' triumphant entry to Jerusalem.
8. Matthew 26:14-16. Judas agrees to betray Jesus. My original idea was to find a place to give our money to do the opposite of what Judas did when he accepted money to betray Jesus, but we ended up not doing that. I think we had a busy day and we just read the verses.
9. John 13:6-9. Jesus washes his disciples feet. We washed each other's feet.
10. Exodus 12:12-14. The story of the Passover in the time of Moses. I included this to help Aria connect what Jesus was celebrating with the disciples and the same sacrifice He made as the lamb was used for in the time of Moses. Aria really likes the story of the plagues and knows it well. I think she somewhat grasped the connection to Jesus, but it is definitely an idea to explore further. We made a cotton ball sheep because they sacrificed a lamb and because Jesus is the Lamb of God.
11. Luke 22:14-20. The Last Supper. Of course, this is the day that Aria told us she asked Jesus to live in her heart! We ended up not baking bread together like I originally planned because we were celebrating Aria's faith!
12. Luke 23:46. Good Friday. Jesus died on the cross. We did an Easter unbasket this year. I will post more about it later, but we wrote our sins on rocks and placed them in our basket. I was amazed at Aria's sincerity with this activity. She wrote sins she really struggles with. It was wonderful symbolism.
13. Mark 15:42-47. Jesus' body was placed in a tomb. We wrapped up our Jesus stick person in cloth and placed him in the garden tomb we made and closed it up.
14. Matthew 28:5-6. Easter Sunday. Jesus is alive! We made Resurrection rolls. We discovered Jesus was not in the tomb. We found all of our "sins" in Jesus' basket and blessings in our basket. It was a great day!
15. John 20:10-18. Mary sees Jesus near the tomb. We planted some flowers as a sign of new life.
16. John 20:24-31. Thomas doubts that Jesus is real. We made holes we could put our fingers in like Thomas did to Jesus, only ours weren't in our skin.
17. John 21:4-6. Jesus eats fish with the disciples. We ate some goldfish, too. We were going to make a fish craft, but didn't have time.
18. Matthew 28:19-20. The Great Commission. We put stars on a world map of places where we donate money to help others learn about Jesus.
19. Acts 1:7-11. Jesus is taken to Heaven. I found a really cool craft where you use a plastic cup and a piece of yarn to pull Jesus up into the clouds. I didn't take a picture, but it turned out really cool!
20. Acts 2:1-4. The Holy Spirit comes as flames on the disciples' heads. We made a picture of 11 faces to represent the disciples and tissue paper fire on their heads.
