Celebrate

One of my favorite things to do is celebrate. I wouldn't say I'm great at it, but I like to try to make memories with my family...especially my children. There are many things in life that are worth celebrating - health, friendship, freedom and life are just a few that I take for granted. Ahren's Awana verse this week is "Serve the Lord with gladness..." Ps. 100:2. I need to remember this!

One of the ways I like to celebrate is to make the kid's birthdays special and make them feel valued. We just have family parties, but they definitely know that everyone is there for them! I try to make them a special cake in a theme that they are interested in. Yesterday we celebrated Lydia. She is 4 now. I tried to make her a Barbie cake. It was a complete failure. Just to prove it...here is a picture.


Barbie was too tall for the dome shaped cake, so I tried to put a round layer underneath, but had to cut it to size. Icing a cake that has a cut edge is nearly impossible - unless there is a trick I haven't learned yet - and I'm quite willing to believe there is! So...Lydia just got a regular round cake. I really don't think she minded - thankfully!

The last 4 years have been so fast and so slow at the same time. She loves to be a girl - dress up, makeup, babies, sweets - especially chocolate, coloring and being prissy. Some would say she's a lot like her mother! She hates getting dressed, making her bed and generally doing anything she doesn't feel like doing when asked to. She is all girl and I love her!



Her life was so fragile at the beginning. In the NICU for 10 days after birth. She weighed 7lbs 9oz and 19". She was my smallest baby born at 38 weeks. At just 3 days old she was put on a respirator and in the process made my heart almost stop. That was such a scary moment. But God's grace is sufficient and she made a full recovery after a dose of surfactant (the sticky stuff in your lungs necessary for breathing). Medicine is such a blessing! Today she has no side effects from the shaky start to her life. She is growing and as healthy as can be.

One other thing I like about our small birthday parties is the limited number of gifts that come to live in our house.



This is Lydia with her gifts: some makeup, two Barbies, new sheets, new quilt (not pictured), new clothes, a new game, some jewelry, a couple of tiny tea sets, play dishes and apron and a Barbie fishing rod (also no pictured).

Birthdays are one of my favorite things...