BIG 4

June 8, 2012

Happy 4th Birthday, David!

Birthday party with friends

Opening gifts with the fam

David's first "real" birthday cake.  Food sensitive David has had watermelon "cake," animal cracker "cake,"  and now a real gluten-free brownie cake! Here's to many, many more cakes to come!

friends

really, truly 4!

A kind, lively young boy, David brings a vivacity and depth to our family that is so sweet.  We are blessed to call him son and brother, and we are thankful for his 4 years and many more God will give to him and to us!

BIRTHDAY

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The Weekend of Teya - May 18 & 19 2012

Teya's first ballet recital, Reverie, with the Cambridge School of Ballet in Lake Nona.  Yes, she is a bunny, and yes, they did quite a lot of hopping.

True friends dress up, bring flowers and sit for the entire ballet! 

Saturday: Teya's 6th birthday.  We continued the festivities with an invitation for tea with Ruth Ann and Elizabeth  Leduc.  What a sweet time with these kind friends!  Teya was uncharacteristically quiet but enjoyed opening her....

....100 cookie cutters!  Nearly every time Teya and David have stayed with the Leducs, Ruth Ann has made and decorated cookies with them.  We are well-armed with supplies, if anyone ever needs to make cut-out cookies!

The afternoon preparations for Teya's birthday party. Abby, a neighborhood friend, joined us in decorating the cake.  Actually, she decorated the cake while I busied myself with making dinner!

The cake, reminiscent of last year's.  Teya has a soft spot for  her name written all over royalty!

Adrian, Stefan, Claudia, Sam, Maggie and Bev joined for dinner, and the neighborhood kids smelled cake and came running.  We managed to polish off the entire cake as Abby and Leo gathered their friends to help us out.  If you feed them, they will come.

Teya's first monster truck from the truck specialist Adrian

Pinata time. THE END.

Teya informed me this week (3 months later) that she really enjoyed having her recital and birthday in the same weekend.  I'm so glad for that, but I hope we don't have to do it again!

This girl is such a treasure.  Very much longed and prayed for, she was a gift worth the waiting.  At six, you are a lovely young girl,  growing into a person who cares for others and is learning to live before Jesus, even with the limp of the fallen world slowing your pace.  You are loved.

A Prayer for a Daughter, Ann Voskamp

Father who breathed into this daughter… 

I pray for this girl being formed into eternity…. 

May the wind always be in her hair

May the sky always be wide with hope above her

And may all the hills be an exhilaration

the trials but a trail,

all the stones but stairs to God.

God, clothe this girl in a gown of grace
Grace, the only dress that makes beautiful,
the style of Your spirit.

Nourish her on the comfort food of the Word,
Word, that makes her crave more of Christ,
have hunger pangs for Him.

Enclose her in communion with You
You, Love who makes her love, who folds her heart into a roof
that absorbs storms for souls,
that makes her tongue speak only the words that make souls stronger.

May her vocation in this world simply be translation

Translating every enemy into esteemed guest
Translating every countenance into the face of Christ
Translating every burden into blessing

When it’s hard to be patient… make her willing to suffer
When it’s ridiculous to be thankful … make her see all is graceWhen it’s radical to forgive … make her live the foundation of our faith
And when it’s time to work… make her a holy wonder.

May she be bread and feed many with her life and her laughter
May she be thread and mend brokeness and knit hearts
May she be dead to all ladders & never go higher , only lower, to the lonely, the least & the longing
Her led of the Spirit to lead many to the Cross
that leads to the tomb wildly empty.

Oh, and raise me, Lord, from the deadness of my own sins to love this beautiful girl like You do…

In the name of Christ who rose

and appeared first

to one of His daughters…

Amen…

Spring 2012

 Leu Gardens field trip - March.  The Harry P. Leu Gardens have been an amazing destination.  Native flowers, plants, trees.... lots of things one might find in a garden :)

 "Weed flower" bouquet for a beautiful flower named Teya.  One of our rules for the gardens (and life outside) is no picking planted flowers.  Weeds are prolific, and we enjoy weed flowers tremendously!

 Lego tower

 Our first garden in Florida.  Outcome was not too superb.  I now know that I can grow okra, zinnias, marigolds and herbs during the summer.  Everything else dies.

 Seedlings...soon to die.

 Our house before the paint job.

 Visit with Noah buddy and the Stanton crew in Chatty.

 Second annual Easter eve dinner with the Selfs

 Meeting sweet cousin Mae for the first time.

 Picnic and biking at Blanchard Park

 David's first biking outing

 The bike dudes.

 Leu Gardens with buddies, Sam, Maggie and Stefan.

Adrian, David and Stefan taking a breather from the heat

What a great spring we had here in Kissimmee!  Full of friends and adventures and growing up in God's great creation!

Of Jungles and other things.

Our backyard, is, apparently a thoroughfare for wild animals.  Two bobcats this morning, an armadillo yesterday and a wild boar last week.  So much for the friendly woods with inviting tree house for the kids.  

Saturday morning, I arrived home from exercising to find a beauty parlor in the driveway and children strewn about.   Philip had also allowed Emma, our 10-year old neighbor to MOW our lawn and Anna, the 8-year old to WASH his car. We are currently going through Deitering withdrawal as the 6 children across the street have returned to their home in Ohio until next December, when we're hoping they'll come back for another 2-month play date!

Thanks, Anna. You did a beautiful job :)

Teya and Eva were charged with sweeping the "hair clippings" from their beauty shop off of the driveway.  

We have enjoyed quite a few visitors in our 3 months in Orlando.  Emily Long (Davison and Ann's daughter) was a welcome addition to the swimming pool rodeo in our front yard.  We are blessed to live in a place where people like to visit, even if we're not the ones they want to see (thanks to Mickey Mouse).  Thank you Selfs, Tuckers, Longs, Gulletts and Bruces for sweet visits, not to mention Nina and Dita!  

You'll find us....

where the bananas are labeled in spanish, 

where the grass is still green,

where sandhill cranes visit front doors in the early morning fog,

 where the open ocean laps tippy-toes,

 where grandparents are happy to visit in the winter,

 where she still needs a hand to hold

 and the size of your castle is only limited by your imagination.

 Where you can meet new friends on a curb during a parade,

 where it would be wise to know what an alligator really looks like,

and where the flamingoes are not plastic and chi-chi the gator DOES sunbathe on the banks of the roadside lake on the way to church.

You might also find us enjoying an afternoon reading books in the backyard with a bowl of popcorn or playing at the park with friends.  We might be climbing trees or looking for mammoth snail shells or empty turtle shells.  If you're lucky, you'll get an invitation from Teya for tea (everyone's invited)! Last but not least, you'll find Phil at work, mostly, which is where he belongs!