Daddy

This is the message Ella dictated to me for Dave's Father's Day card:

"I love you, Daddy! I love you because you are kind and loving to me. You are good at letting me not be scared and playing blocks with me. You love Jesus and always put a band aid on my owies."

So, to paraphrase Ella, Dave:
-loves his daughter unconditionally
-has a kind heart
-keeps and makes his daughter feel safe
-has a relationship with and interacts with his daughter
-loves Jesus
-mends and ministers to his daughter when she is sad and hurt

Limited and small, I acknowledge, but a pretty good glimpse of our Heavenly Father, don't ya think? :)

Mt. Hermon 2009

Just this morning I sat in our little cabin the woods cradling and praying with my sobbing 4-year old. We all just completed what, after 2 years of attending now, I am going to call our "Best Week of the Year" at Mt. Hermon and Ella did not want to leave. "Why can't we live at Mt. Hermon?" she stuttered.

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The week was so full of amazing highs I am overwhelmed at the task of recording it on the blog for our memories. The best way I could think to describe it is like a wonderful buffet of delicious foods. We packed as much onto our plates as was possible for where we are in this stage of life and had the time of our lives feasting. I long to describe each little entree we sampled, and even the ones we just couldn't, but that post would go on virtually forever.

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So instead, here is just a quick peek at some of the dishes we sampled in the 7 days we lived in the redwood forest of Mt. Hermon with our most beloved church family members. What we indulged in left us feeling warm and full.

.Here's our little cabin. It holds fantastic memories for us this year since we did excellent with sleeping and napping in it. It's built over the creek with a sweet back porch, so I sat out there and ate up a whole book while the girls napped.

Last year we started going to Mt. Hermon to escape a week without Dave, since he's up the hill counseling for HiCamp. We quickly learned this Christian Family Camp is so much more than just distraction, though. It turns out a built-in bonus is that we DO get to spend time with Dave. We went to visit HiCamp one day. He came down to visit us another and we met up with him and his high school group at the Santa Cruz beach a third day.

One joy this summer was witnessing the maturity just one year brought. I had so much fun with my girls! We'd end each night cuddling, singing, reading and praying in our big bed. The girls played together great and I so enjoyed watching them interacting with each other and their friends. Here they study one of Mt. Hermon's infamous Banana Slugs.

This S'mores night may have been Delia's favorite of the whole week. Besides her first experience with this classic camp treat, she also love, love, LOVED the "Meadow Dancing" (line and square dancing) that went on in the field until dark.

On the day Dave visited, we spent the afternoon partaking of some family activities. First we took a row boat out on the river, then we went to the craft room. Both were hits (as was a little more quality time with Daddy)!



Yesterday we "creeched." This is a Mt. Hermon term for play on the sandy beach by the shallow and bubbling creek. In future years the girls can climb the waterfall and travel along the rocky shores some more. Just wading, splashing and tossing rocks was great fun for this year. And last night's final program for all the kid campers was just as adorable and high-energy as ever.
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My greatest pleasure this year was simply experiencing love. God's love was constantly evident in the glorious creation around us and the songs my girls came out of Day Camp singing each night. His love was woven into our morning and evening messages and worship. Mostly, His love was poured out on us by the church family we attend this week with. With long hugs from my sisters and arms linked for warmth, we shared a time of worship and communion in the outdoor sanctuary, Victory Circle. This service was a highlight of the week for me.

Boardwalkin'

Since it was perfectly fun last year, we played the treat that is Santa Cruz Day exactly the same. Taking the hour long, open air train ride down the mountain to the coast. Enjoying a morning of kiddie rides and the sights, sounds and smells of the Boardwalk. Spending the day with our good friends the Girards. Eating our lunch and napping on the soothing train ride back up to camp. Ella said this was her favorite day.

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Beach Bums

Snapshots of our day by the ocean:

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Packing up and enthusiastically answering my "Hey guys, where are we going?" question.

Gal pals-- Julie and Char. Love them!

Delia digs in (above) and embraces her inner diva (below).


Ella gets buried (above) by Daddy and Mikaela and chased (below) by waves.

A special find.

Probably a Good Idea for This One

Perhaps a helmet as well!

Christian Education-- A Good Investment

Dave and I grew up in a Christian School. I have always taught in Christian Schools. We've sat in committee meetings and interviews and tossed around terms like "Christian Worldview" or "3-Legged-Stool" or "Faith Based Education." I think it was around Easter when my preschooler asked me, "Mommy did you know that if we don't sing 'Hallelujah' to Jesus then the stones are going to have to sing it?" that I really got it, though. This is something I had never mentioned to her and when asked where she heard it, she simply replied, "School." The Bible is jam-packed with commands to "instruct" and "bring up" and "impress upon" our children the way of the Lord. What a daunting challenge! As a parent, I discovered that Christian education is the necessary supplement to what we teach our girls at home. How could I alone possibly teach Ella and Delia everything about the Bible? Children in Worship and Awanas and Christian School teach our kids the things we are sure to miss. What a blessing that we are not in this alone and can rely on these resources!

Having said all that, last night we celebrated the completion of Ella's first year of Christian Preschool with her Kid's Praise Program. At the end of this year we see so much growth and maturity in Ella. She can cut beautifully and draw people with all their attributes. She is strong and can balance, do jumping jacks, climb and hang upside-down. She can say and recognize all her letter sounds and numbers and write them. She can tell us all about Jesus and heaven. She is confident, helpful and has a heart full of love for God. It's been a great year and she's so excited to go back and be a "Star" (in the 4 year old class) in the fall.

These are Ella's two best school friends. The other night she got a little teary when she thought about not seeing them all summer. Above, Avery. Below, Anna.

PROUD Daddy and Mommy. Once again, the program was adorable and we couldn't take our eyes off of Ella standing so still, hands clasped, singing her heart out!

Guess What Movie We've Been Watching...

Here are a few hints. Each night before bed, Delia curls up on the floor and says in her little Delia language, "The sun has gone to bed and so must I. Goodbye!" She waves and makes me carry her to bed like a "bee-bee."

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Ella spreads her arms and spins around the living room singing, "The hills are alive!" Then she puts on her new dress-up dress, the one with like 5 layers of swirly petticoats, and dances around singing, "I am sixteen going on seventeen." Our favorite is Ella's request of Captain Von Trap at the party: "I'd like to stay and taste my first adult drink. Yes?" Delia always shoots her down with an intentional, "NO!" And, of course, she gets her "banjo" out of the sporting goods tub and sits on her stool for this performance...

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Weeks ago, The Sound of Music was on TV. The little part my girls watched with me was enough to make them fall in love. We actually own this movie and discovered that one of our DVD's special features was a play list of just the songs. We've been in Fraulein Maria imagination world almost every day. We even dragged out the old VHS of Dave as Frederick from when our high school performed this musical!

Delia Translator

I remember writing this post when Ella was in that beginning stage of talking. Since this blog has morphed into my personal scrapbook, I thought I jot down some of my favorite Delia expressions too.

"Eee ennn!"

Translation: "The end!"

Whenever we read a story, Delia relishes her role of giving us closure-- shutting the back cover and declaring the end.

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"No goot-goo."

Translation: "No thank you."

It's worth noting that Delia is SO polite. Without having to be reminded, she naturally says "pees" and "goot-goo" for everything she wants and is given and even the things she does not want. Of course, I love this about her vocabulary.

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"Daddy hummmm!"

Translation: "Daddy's home!"

Delia's the second one in the house to alert me to this each day. Lily, with her high-bark and dash outside, is the first.

"A-hugga-me?"

Translation: "Will you hug me?"

This is the sweetest thing! She asks this several times a day and you know I will drop whatever I'm doing to oblige.

"All done nigh-nigh!"

Translation: "I'm awake, come get me!"

Yes, this is what I hear rattling off my walls each morning and afternoon.

"Hi Gramma!"

Translation: "Hello virtually any woman older than my mom!"

It's adorable when she wanders around greeting the ladies at church this way, I dread when it's spoken to someone no where near being grandma-aged at the grocery store.

"I SEE NOW!"

Translation: "I may be small, but I fully expect to enjoy whatever you big people are doing!"

To use the cliche-- I'd be rich if I had a nickle for each time I heard this one. From the animals at the zoo, to the spider I've squished, to the garbage truck to whatever we are reading/cooking/crafting, Delia thinks she must be part of the viewing action.

And it's not me overusing it, by the way, Delia always speaks with an exclamation point! :)

Beautiful Big Girl

The Big Birthday Outing

Today completed our celebration of Ella's birthday with a family outing to our Oakland Zoo. I am happy to report 3 things. One, we all had an awesome time-- one of the best zoo outings ever. Two, no one broke any bones (Ella made us each promise we wouldn't as we were walking in). And three, in terms of the membership fee (but not in terms of the ER deductible) we paid last time we went, after just 2 months, our membership has paid for itself! Yay!

We did a few things to make this trip to the zoo a little more special for our birthday girl. First we named her the "Boss for the Day" and let her decide what we'd see and in what order. Of course, this meant we started at and spent most of the time in the children's zoo. Also, we got Ella a little key that she could use to unlock boxes of narration and information at each animal we visited. Dave and I found this fascinating and learned all sorts of new things. Did you know, for example, that lemurs have scent glands in their wrists and use them to lubricate their long tails with smell and then confront each other to have stink wars?

(Open this picture bigger to see someone hiding over Delia's left shoulder.)

A cool and overcast school day really kept the crowds down.

The girls love this meercat viewing area. They need to climb through a tunnel to get to it.

Ella's special surprise today was an introduction to a rather extensive ride area. Yes, in previous visits Dave and I did engage in an evil parenting plot to keep this whole side of the zoo a secret from her. Our membership gave us 14 free rides, though, and today we took some of them on the carousel, little cars and train. Ella said this was the best part of the day. When we asked what her favorite animal was, she even answered, "The rides!"

If you want to see all the pictures of the zoo, present opening and cake double click on the Picasa slide show in the sidebar.