Practice

To prepare for the wedding she'll be flower girling in this January, Ella has been doing lots of practicing. She puts on a dress up gown and marches down the hallway chanting, "Step slowly, step slowly, drop petals...and smile!"

Oh and Delia is officially a walker now (and apparently a dress-up lover too!)

Happy Birthday, Delia (Finally!)

Tonight we finally had opportunity to celebrate Delia. We threw her a first birthday bash that was hugely successful. The party was perfectly set at church and carried a "Party Animal!" theme. Our first activity was a jungle obstacle course (we told all our kid guests to bring their bikes for parking lot games and races). Dave designed this fun game that had kids snaking through pillars, pedaling through rain forests, bat caves and a whale's spout, then grabbing bananas from this tree like monkeys. So much fun! The fastest riders were rewarded with boxes of animal crackers. The kids went back to playing on this course for a straight hour before leaving!

On your mark, get set, GO!

Next, I took over by directing an animal craft. The kids decorated these wooden stand-up puppets in their choice of lion, zebra, monkey, giraffe or cheetah.

After a dinner of pizza, green garden salad and fruit salad, we busted out the cake-- GIANT cupcakes. After the singing and blowing out of the number one candle, we were amused by watching Delia literally dive into her chocolate cupcake. She did just as she was supposed to-- smearing frosting all over herself in a combination of glee and confusion.

Then the present opening frenzy began. Each kid "helped" open the gift they brought and we came home with new outfits, jammies, little vehicles, a fridge magnet game, an Usborne farm book and some money for the piggy bank...so generous!

The best part of the afternoon was just the opportunity to celebrate the joy Delia has brought into our lives with the friends we love most.

We Have a Walker!

Sure enough, it started last week (on her birthday!) while Dave was gone. Each day she gets a little more confident.

A Changed Man

Dave safely returned from his mission trip a few days ago. It was an incredible life experience for him and his youth group. Some of his stories and pictures are amazing and I am encouraging him to write a blog about it-- he says he will...soon. The girls, of course, are so happy to have Daddy home. Dave learned some neat lessons about what's important in life and in some ways is "changed, " but I titled this blog after his physical change. Notice something missing? Delia has never seen Dave's naked chin!

It's Official!

Tonight, after 72 hours apart, baby Cole was placed into Kris and Eric's arms. Papers were signed, a ceremony was held and prayers of thanks were offered. He went home with them to begin his life as their son. What an amazing journey of faith this has been. To use the words Kris ends each email update with: "God is good!"

Welcome to the family, little guy!

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!" Week

I went into my Dave-less week with a pretty good attitude. I dubbed our days without him "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!" Week and stuffed our calendar with play dates, outings and road trips. Of course, several cancellations were required when we got sick for the first part of the week, but since then we've been livin' it up!

First up was a gracious invitation from Amy and Jonathan to join their MOPS group for a morning of Water Fun. Spread all over the church's lawn was a variety of ways kids could have fun getting wet: slip n' slide, sprinklers, bubbles, pools, etc. After this perfect summer activity we went out for lunch together to a fun restaurant called the Lunch Pail. With walls covered with antique metal lunch boxes and a great menu of soups and specialty sandwiches, this was a treat!

Next we shared, not one, but two days and meals with Jetta and the kids. The first was a scheduled play date, the second was an impromptu get-together when swim day was cancelled. The kids swam "Oakie" style in a big, metal trough filled with water. I loved hearing Ella's laugh as she played energetically with her friends. The combination of dirt she crawled through, water she played in and sticky, fresh fruit juice she let run down her tummy left Delia the dirtiest she's ever been in her life. Good thing she was stripped down to a diaper (this is a required uniform for those under the age of 2 at Jetta's house!) Then we sat out on the porch and munched BBQ chicken pizza and homemade frozen yogurt pops.

The grand finale to our "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!" Week was a road trip down south to see the Girards. Ella got to have a sleepover in Beth and Allie's room (which was only enhanced by the princess sleeping bag she borrowed!) The kids did great playing together, so much so that I actually saw little of Ella! She was too busy running around in their beautiful back yard, dressing up, playing "school," "house" and "Mt. Hermon" and doing crafts with her buddies. Our friends always welcome and care for us so warmly when we visit.

Dave is scheduled to return Saturday night. Is it Saturday already? My how time flies when you're having so much fun! :)

Behold the Future...

Dave is already fretting about his 3 girls sharing his 1 full-sized bathroom!

Celebrating A Day of Good Gifts

Today was a fantastic day and perhaps just in contrast to yesterday which was possibly one of the hardest of my life. Having nursed both kids back to health alone I found myself with their stomach flu. It is nearly impossible to be a mom (even a bad, watch-5-movies, use the pacifier-all-day, go-to-bed-way-too-early mom) when you are battling a stomach bug. So, when I woke up today feeling more like myself and finally having happy kids, we celebrated the gift of HEALTH!

*****

Then we got a fun birthday package from Grandma and Grandpa. Delia loves pushing this new shopping cart around and Ella loves making our grocery store an even more fun thing to play now. Ella also loves to remind Delia that she needs to share (even though I think Delia got about 2 pushes on the cart before Ella took it over for the rest of the day!) I built it myself...with a screwdriver and a hammer. Aren't you impressed?

And the last and best gift we celebrated today was one we just learned about: a new nephew/cousin! Dave's sister Kristen left for the hospital with the birth mom this morning, participated in his labor and birth and welcomed Cole Jacob Jayden around 7:30 tonight. Jacob is named for Eric's grandpa and Jayden is the name the birth mom gave him while she carried him. This perfect little guy finally makes Kris and Eric parents and he is such a blessing! Please continue to pray with our family as the birth mom does exercise her right to take him home for 72 hours. He'll be returned to Kristen and Eric on Saturday. Pray for days that go quickly and peace.

Oh, My Sweet Delia!

Exactly one year ago we were given a wonderful gift: our spunky, curious, life-lovin' little Delia. I know every mom must say on their child's first birthday, "But it went so fast!" and I'll add my voice to that sentiment. I remember every detail of her birth as if it were yesterday and her year of milestones blurs with the speed at which she seemed to hit them. (This week we had 2 more big ones-- taking 4 confident steps and nodding her head "yes" and "no.")

My favorite thing about Delia is her passion. She has little middle ground and seems to function at a 10 on the emotional scale most days. She never just gives you a hug. She wraps her whole little body around you and squeezes with all her might. She is never just happy. She kicks her legs, claps and even gives an extreme open mouth smile in her ecstasy. She is never just sad, either. Capable of screaming for hours on end, she won't surrender her discontent without a good fight. The passion with which she tackles each day makes me smile constantly and love her overwhelmingly.

My baby is one. Wow!

No, This Is Not a Birthday Party Post

At about midnight last night Ella woke up throwing up. Delia joined in first thing this morning. An obvious cancellation and postponement of today's party was in order. It's been a frustrating day. Not just because the kids are sick, but because we had so many great things planned: the conclusion of our intense week at Bible school (I had to make hasty, early-morning sub arrangements), this celebration of Delia with our closest friends and our last bit of time with Dave before he flies off to help others. No one was more disappointed than Ella. Throughout the day she would whimper, "I'm feeling much better now. I can go and sing!" or "I'm not sick anymore, now can we go to the party?" For her sake, we let Delia open 2 big gifts that arrived in the mail. The cute rocking giraffe from Karen and family and this music/game playing touch dog from Heather and Dan were both huge hits. Thanks Aunties! You sent these gifts as just birthday presents, yet they became much more-- pulling us out our sick gloom for an afternoon!

An Early Gift for Our Birthday Girl

This year Dave and I picked out a grand gift to celebrate Delia's first year of life. We got her the Storybook Cottage play house. Desiring more outside toys and finding this one half off encouraged us to buy this special present. Dave needed to help build it and wanted to watch the girls enjoy it a bit, so we gave it to Delia early (and we were just SO excited too!) Delia immediately was all over her new house: opening and closing the door, crawling out the secret fireplace passageway and climbing any part of it she could get on. Ella thinks it's a present for her too and quickly made it homey inside, adding pillows and dishes to play "house." I think back to all the sheet-covered card tables my sister and I set up as houses during long summer days of play in our backyard. I know this will be something the girls will grow into-- playing, imagining and bonding together!

The Frantic Life of Those Involved in VBS

This week our church is putting on its summer Vacation Bible School. We are all involved: Dave does A/V, sound and photography, I am the Bible teacher, Ella entertains all by singing her heart out and dancing during the two large group sessions and Delia gives the nursery staff second thoughts about volunteering in this capacity! We spend about 4 hours at church each morning and come home exhausted. This week feels crazy and we're kinda in survival mode right now, but I think the involvement is worth it.

Pastor Bruce's family has been visiting this week so Ella gets to sing and dance with his granddaughter Olivia every day. This makes her SO HAPPY! Today was only the second day, yet Ella seems to have all the songs and motions down so she found herself a place on the stage with the worship leaders and went nuts! Watching her enthusiastic praise makes us SO HAPPY!

I haven't had a leadership role in Bible school for a long time, but decided to step up this year. I teach Bible Blast, which means I have 4 shifts of students that come to my classroom to hear/experience a Bible story. I am fond of the Power Lab material this year. The stories all encourage much activity and participation. Today we put oatmeal in blindfolded students' eyes to make them feel that they were the blind beggar being healed by Jesus. Yesterday some students broke out in leprosy and had to be quarantined! (pictured). Tomorrow the students will walk on water like Peter (it will really be Oobleck.)

It is fun to be in teacher mode again, but definitely challenging to slip back into Mommy mode with the little energy that is left after the frenzy of managing 100 wild Bible school students. Poor Dave, I am living for the relaxation and quiet of next week and he'll be working his tail off on the mission trip!

2,508 Stroopwafels!

Dave leaves for his mission trip next weekend. He takes 2 leaders and 10 students with him. To help raise money for this service project in tornado/flood stricken Iowa he organized another big fundraiser: selling our favorite Dutch cookies. The response was overwhelming with orders for 209 dozen cookies (2.508 individual cookies!). The team made good money, but worked hard for it! Another little shout out to Heather for the awesome cookie maker-- ours was by far the best. (Granted the other 10 irons being borrowed did come over from the Netherlands with some ancestor 30 years ago!) This gift, along with the realization that we could actually make Stroopwafels and the practice our visiting family granted us is what inspired this fundraiser idea.

A Fourth Filled With Family Fun

Happy 4th of July, Family and Friends! We hope your holiday was as full of family and fun as ours was. There's not too much to report, we had a pretty low key day just enjoying each other and following the 4th of July "Rules":
You must eat watermelon
You must grill your dinner
You must wear something displaying a flag
You must see fireworks

Besides the holiday staples we also enjoyed some fun extras:
Red, raspberry, flag pancakes
A long bike ride through the country
Sparklers, Delia going crazy climbing the playground and an entertaining game of Daddy/Ella frisbee while waiting for fireworks
A stars and stripes craft
And some delicious naps (the girls broke a holiday rule in my book by waking up when there was a 6 on my clock!)

All in all, another memorable 4th. Happy birthday USA!

Product Recommendation

We just got an awesome book and I had to share it with y'all! This Hand Art book by Chicken Socks (the same publisher that brings us Klutz craft books) has gotten use every day since we bought it at the toy store with a gift card. Our crafty Ella loves getting her hand traced to color and decorate one animal after the next. Besides suggestions and ideas for creature making, the book also comes with crayons, a package of google eyes, pom-poms and glue. The artwork it inspires is so stinkin' cute! It sells for $9.95 and we have found it to be worth every penny!