happy easter!

happy birthday mimi!

It's Mimi's birthday today! And we are so glad to celebrate her! I took these pictures almost a year ago, but how fun are they?!! We get to celebrate Mimi tomorrow and the kids are very excited to have a birthday party thrown into our Easter celebration! We love you Mimi, and are so grateful for your love and care and prayer for our whole family.

painted easter eggs

We had a random snow day this week and decided it was a good time to dye our eggs except that we didn't have any egg dye. I was looking up how to use food coloring when Ivar said we should paint the eggs. At first I dismissed his idea because I'm a creature of habit, but he insisted, "just get the easel paints out and we'll paint the eggs!" So I blew out two dozen eggs, washed and dried them and stuck a pencil into one end for the kids to hold onto and let the kids paint. It was very messy, but they turned out so beautiful. Our traditional lilac branch easter egg tree is gorgeous this year!

watering the seeds of faith

I started teaching Sunday School when I was 14. My friend Becky and I signed up to teach a class together and were assigned 10 first graders who were in our care for an hour every Sunday morning.

We are a bit infamous with the parents of that first class because of the day we taught about the land flowing with milk and honey. We dressed the kids up in Israelite costumes from the costume closet. I don't imagine we were supposed to just help ourselves to that closet now that I think about it, but I knew where my dad kept his keys, and because he was the pastor I knew he had the grand master key which meant the church was basically my playground.

We dressed all the kids up in robes with ropes tied around their wastes and brown fabric draped on their heads and took them outside where we wandered around, until Joshua led us into the promised land. At that point, we unknowingly led the kids in front of the church windows so that everyone in the sanctuary could see us. I hadn't pieced that together when I hid the twelve pack of mountain dew and box of long john donuts behind the trees. We arrived in the land of milk and honey, and told the kids that this was actually the land of mountain dew and donuts, sat down and gave each six year old a can of dew and a donut.

For years after those parents would bring that day up with me, and it's only now that I have kids of my own that I realize it wasn't the lesson itself that those parents remembered. It was likely the Sunday afternoon they all had to survive with their children all sugared up.

Becky and I taught all four years of high school and helped with VBS too and then I went to college where my friend Lindsey and I taught at a local church for two years. Both of those years we taught our students all the books of the Bible through hand actions that we made up. In the summers I worked at different Bible camps in Montana and Minnesota where I had cabins full of campers as a counselor. Then I worked as a program director in Minnesota and Nebraska and had college kids in my care and trained them to teach the campers that came each week.

I've been thinking about all these kids that have come across my path for the last two decades because I am now experiencing the receiving end. Ivar and Elsie love our kids church. They have 20 minutes each Sunday with a different adult from our church, but often it is our friend Kelly. And Kelly teaches them a lesson and they play a game or do a craft. And my kids soak it up and love every minute.

Today Ivar lost a beloved lego toy (lots of drama...) and then found it. And he came and told me, "Mom! When I found my lego boat it was like when God found his lost sheep! I was so happy when I found it because I made it, just like God made us!"

My heart exploded inside of me because 1) this is a pretty huge connection to make! and 2) I was so grateful for Kelly! To be a parent and to hear the things of God pouring out of your child's mouth that another person has helped pour into their heart is incredible. And it left me so grateful for Kelly and her husband Danny and the way they are helping me train my kids in the way they should go. I felt so thankful for the whole church body and every faithful soul that is doing their small part. For every volunteer that taught my Sunday school classes growing up. For the ladies who got the snack ready for VBS each day. For the college students who were my hilarious and fun camp counselors and pointed me towards the joy of knowing Jesus.

I felt proud and glad that I have been a part of the body, used to help water the seeds of faith in all of those kids throughout the years. But mostly felt excited and inspired to see that the faith in my kids continues to grow and be nurtured. I believe it is the parent's responsibility to train their children in the ways they should go. And that has to be done in the home...one hour on a Sunday just isn't enough to truly pass on the faith. It has to be a part of the parenting and instruction of a child. But one part of that is making sure that my kids have faithful teachers and mentors who also help water their seeds of faith, just like Kelly is pouring into my kids, just like I poured mountain dew and donuts into all of those first graders 20 years ago.

a super successful adult birthday

I have written before of how I've had trouble making the adjustment to adult birthdays. How I still have incredibly high expectations for my special day each year, even though I'm no longer a kid.

Well. I just turned another year older, and here at the start of my thirty fifth year of life, I believe I am beginning to grow in wisdom. Because I nailed it this year. All of my expectations were met because I met my own expectations! The success of this birthday began early in the week when I ordered my own birthday presents. And the presents I chose were all toys that the kids would love. Ivar has been wanting smoker jumpers for his fire and rescue airplane and has been making a case for why these would be great things for me to get for my birthday. He was convincing and in the end, I actually did want these smoke jumpers because I knew he would be so enthused. And then I got myself a play parachute. It's always been a dream of mine, and now I have one which means play dates are going to rock at this house.

The night before my birthday I cleaned the kitchen, baked muffins for the morning, put out a cloth table cloth, hung my own pennants, wrapped my own presents, got the birthday plate out and set the stage for a fun birthday morning. You might read all of that and think it's sort of sad. But it wasn't! I wanted all of that for my birthday and I have let Rory off the hook for my birthday expectations. I actually took great joy in setting the table for my own party.

But before we had our family party, I met girlfriends at our local breakfast place that serves $5 breakfasts. I organized this myself too and it was such a great way to start the day. I'm hopeful this becomes a birthday tradition for all of my friends in this town! We stayed for an hour and then all returned to our homes, where I found my family just starting to stir. Ivar was the only one up and was so excited to begin the day...or more accurately, to open my presents. He was pretty certain I was going to get some smoke jumpers...

Ivar and I waited for the others and read my Bible together. We turned right to Ephesians and read, "Wake up oh sleeper! The light of Jesus shines upon you!" And Ivar thought that was so awesome, because we had sleepers in the house that needed to wake up before we could open his my presents. 

Then we read about how children should honor their mom and dad so that it may go well with them. And then we read about putting on the full armor of God, which he was thrilled to see was in my Bible too, because he had already learned about the armor at kid's church. We put on each piece of the armor and prayed for our day at Lego Land, that we would be a light and shine bright.

Finally the rest of our family woke up and we met everyone at the kitchen table for blueberry muffins and presents. I got to open my parachute and Elsie and Ivar got to open the smoke jumpers. It was all very exciting.

It was 9:00 and already this day was a success. But then we got everyone dressed and loaded up the car to head to A Mall of Themerica...

(I was going to make this a two-part blog, but I'm just going to plow through...)

Elsie picked out her own beautiful outfit for our special trip to the Mall and she was disappointed that I wasn't going to wear a dress for our special outing. It has been a while since we've been to the mall, and I felt like a tourist. We only went to the fun places, and man we had fun. Lego Land was the top priority, followed by the Disney Store. Legos and Princesses. That sort of sums up my kids these days.

Elsie was spellbound by all of the princess dresses and accessories. That store felt so much like Disney World...the smell was the same, the music, the lights, the happy workers.

This was Hattie's first time in the stroller. Which is crazy, but she was born in October and we haven't been anywhere that has required a stroller since. We ran from the car into the mall and she was smiling so huge the whole time. Her eyes were set on mine, trying to figure out how she was gliding along so smoothly. It was awesome and hilarious. And she was incredible the entire day. She napped and smiled and was happy to be taking in the mall. This was when we were in Barnes and Nobel eating birthday dippin' dots.

We ate at the food court and watched the roller coasters, went to the American Girl doll store, watched the fun at Build a Bear Workshop and decided to call it a day. It was so fun and the perfect way to spend a birthday, doing things my family all loves (and Rory was a good sport to even be at the Mall of America...not his first pick!)

So that's the story of my successful birthday. The bottom line: plan it yourself, but plan it for the one's you're with, plan it so it's fun and special and plan it so that it is certain to be a very happy birthday. Here's to 35!