A Week of Presents

So, though Ella's actual birthday will be spent entirely in a passenger van driving through the desert with a bunch of highschoolers, we made sure she felt plenty celebrated all week long.  And all of you helped with that!  Each morning Ella has been excited to pick a present from the pile and open it.  Here are a few pictures to show you the happy face each of your thoughtful gifts prompted...

 Grandma and Grandpa ordered the #1 thing Ella has been wanting for the past year: a basketball hoop!  It's actually a gift for the whole family, and one we've used almost every day.  I love watching Ella and Dave playing Around the World and other b-ball games together.

 Auntie Heather and Uncle Jeff know Ella perfectly!  From them she received a super cute running outfit and an art kit.  When school work has Ella writing about or describing herself, "runner" and "artist" are always the words she uses.

 Auntie Kris and family sent Ella one of her new favorite dolls.  She read Shannon Hale's Ever After High series this year and has been obsessed with all parts of it-- even forming her own "Ever After High Club" with her friends at school.  The dolls allow her to act out and play the stories now too. 

 Another gift for the whole family-- Miss Amy and her family gave Ella an awesome bag of ladybug gifts: a kit where we can send away for baby bugs and watch them grow and transform, a ladybug book, and a magnifying glass.  We need to be home for more than a few days and that won't happen this month, but once we get this ladybug observing experiment started, we know we're in for a fascinating treat!

 Ella asked me to put "a pocket Bible" on her wishlist and Anna sent Ella that.  It's The Message version, which Ella is already fining very interesting to read.  Since she keeps her big Student Bible at school during the year, this will be the perfect one for personal use at home.  Bibles are such cool gifts.  Thanks, Anna!

Auntie Karen and family, knowing we have a grand hiking adventure in our near future, sent Ella these cool hiking shoes.  When I visited the area we're headed to in college, I got to do some the hikes we have on our itinerary.  They involve scaling rocks, ascending ropes, and shimmying across crevices.  Legit hiking shoes are a must and these ones are cute too!

Good buddies Meilani, Giada, and Zayla sent Ella this adorbs skirt and tank outfit. My favorite thing to share and gift their mom with is cute clothes, so it makes me smile to see our daughters follow suit!

And here is what Dave and I gave Ella this year.  I love to tease my daughters, but she did not find the Justin Bieber paper as amusing as I did!  What was inside sure made her smile, though!  It's a fancy art kit, a variety of different size canvases, and enrollment in a 7 week drawing and sketching class at our local junior college for this summer.  

She put this gift to use right away and made this for our anniversary on Wednesday.

Thank you for your prompt and generous gifts, Friends and Family!  You made our almost-9-year old girl have a wonderful week!

Baby Praying Mantis

A Conversation

This actually happened about 2 week agos, on the last time the girls would go to school on a Friday.  But, Dave and I were laughing so hard about it, I wanted to be sure to write it down.  Friday was always Show and Tell Day...

(In the car)

Delia: NUTS!!!!

Mom: What? What's the matter?

Delia: I forgot a Show and Tell and today is the last day this year to do it!

Mom: Well, why don't you show your friends something different-- something about you.  It doesn't have to be a toy.

Delia: Yeah!  How about if I sing and do the Just Dance motions to "Istanbul Not Constantinople"?

Mom: Um, maybe you can think of something else.

Delia: I know!  I'll show my class the special talent God gave me: ballet moves.

Mom: Do you know many ballet moves yet?  What would you show the class?

Delia: How about I ask one of my friends if I can just do their Show and Tell WITH them?

Mom: Would you have wanted to share your Show and Tell with anyone else?  I think it's kind of an individual thing.

Ella: What time is your Show and Tell?  If we're not doing anything important, I can come and play the piano for you!

Mom: This is supposed to be about Delia, Ella.  But, thanks for the offer.

Ella: I can quick write a poem that she could read?

Mom: Again, that's not really about Delia.

Finally, it was decided that Delia would bring the Psalty Kid's Praise CD that we keep in the car and sing a song for her class.  Maybe even the one she sang in the microphone for her preschool program.

As I relayed this long conversation to Dave (it took most of the car ride to school), he was cracking up.  Knowing me well, he asked with a smile, "Is this Show and Tell drama something you can relate to at all?"  NO!  I was probably the kid who kept my Show and Tell hidden in my bag, or intentionally forgot it, so I wouldn't have to stand up in front and talk about it!  Sometimes I wonder where my kids come from! :)

A Family Divided

Since we are always at Mount Hermon/HiCamp over Father's Day, we decided to give Dave his present a little early.  It was tickets to see this Memorial Day Cubs vs. Giants game in San Francisco.  What is making baseball watching extra fun in our house lately is the rivalry between those of us who like (or maybe just feel loyal to) the Cubs and those of us who prefer the thrill of victory and thus cheer for the Giants. :)

It was a gorgeous day for a ballgame!  We got to the park a little early and enjoyed walking around before it got crazy nuts with its sell-out crowd.  The girls hung over the wall to watch the Cubs take batting practice and held their breath each time a caught ball was tossed to a fan.  They never got one, but it was fun to be so close to the players!

Then we went down the big Coke slide, played on the trolley a bit, and peeked at the boaters hoping to catch a Splash Run.

 There were a lot of them on this day off!

 It was very cool to be in the ball field on Memorial Day.  Lots of uniformed service men and women were in the stands and lots of special recognition occurred during the National Anthem and flag salute time.  We were all given little flags to wave too.  We felt very proud and grateful to be Americans!

 We've named Delia the Cubs' good luck charm.  She has been to 3 Cubs games now (in Chicago, Oakland and SF), and they have won every time!  Even when they were not supposed to, like today!  Dave says we need to take her to A LOT more games!

  

One of my favorite parts of today's game was watching how into it Ella got.  She follows the Giants a bit and knows the players.  She was really cheering when they got the first few runs.  And when the Cubs took a shocking 8 to 4 lead halfway through the game, she flipped on her rally hat and screamed for a comeback.  She made us shake hands that no matter who won, there would be no teasing.

It always feels a little strange to cheer for the opposing team, but there was plenty of Cubbie Blue in the park today and we encountered nothing by friendliness.  We've been joking about our family being 3/4s for the Cubs.  Ella even spent the Target gift card she won for having the most reading points on a Giants shirt.  It made us smile when several people commented on our little defector and told her she "had the right idea" as we walked around. 

Anchors Away, Dear Friends

This year we've had the great privilege of seeing God reveal His plan firsthand through our good friends Pastor Lloyd and Heidi.  Months ago they confided that Lloyd was beginning the journey to possibly becoming a Navy Chaplain.  As we kept updated on the fascinating process, we learned so much about how the military works.  We prayed them through things like the passing of innumerable tests and interviews at the Pentagon.  We saw God move every mountain that stood in their way and make it more than clear that this was the path He wanted our friends on.  And because God has been so faithful in revealing His will, we have peace saying goodbye and trust that, though the adventure that awaits our friends will certainly have its challenges, God will continue to hold them in His hand.

We were honored to be in attendance at Chaplain Lloyd's commissioning today.  It was held on the USS Hornet, an actual WWII aircraft carrier, now turned into museum and docked in the Bay Area.

The commissioning was really cool! It was held on the back deck of the carrier.  A captain led Lloyd in taking his oath, one similar to the one the president takes.  Heidi pinned Lloyd's chaplain cross pin on his lapel.  Friends and family members spoke briefly. And then we were dismissed by the Hornet's 93 year old chaplain leading us in a rousing chorus of "God Bless America".

After the ceremony we were invited to tour the USS Hornet!  This was fascinating.

We loved learning about how the Hornet was the carrier that brought the Apollo astronauts back to land.  We saw their landing capsule and then walked the same footsteps Neil and Buzz walked-- footsteps that were previously on the moon!  We saw their quarantine quarters and all sorts of neat memorabilia honoring the Apollo missions.

The flight deck was our other favorite thing to see.  Here we took a peek at lots of old parked planes and marveled over the "airplane elevator" and "runway on a ship".

 It was cool to see the San Francisco skyline off the back of the carrier.

The girls loved climbing up and down all the tight ladders and staircases.  They also thought it was fun to try out the triple-decker bunk beds in the crowded sleeping quarters.  We learned that the higher you ranked, the higher up the bed you could go.

This was a real life history lesson!  It was really cool to walk around and actually touch something that had such an important role in the battles over the Pacific during WWII.  The above picture soberly illustrates just how many Japanese planes and ships were destroyed by the soldiers of the USS Hornet.

When our friend Lloyd completes basic training and deploys on his own ship for several months, we'll now have a much better understanding of what life might be like.

Finally...A Friend Party for Ella!

This year, for Ella's ninth birthday, she wanted nothing more than a party with her friends.  Third grade has been a great year for growing closer to old friends and making lots of new ones, so it seemed the perfect way to celebrate.  Plans for a mission trip had us scheduling this party a little early, but Ella certainly didn't mind.  Since we got out of school yesterday, it was actually a really fun way to kick off summer.  Ella chose to have 7 friends join her at Color Me Mine for a few hours of arts of crafts.  Sandwiched between the last week of school and departing on a mission trip, this party was low-key and stress-free, so I loved it too!

The girls each got to pick one piece of pottery to paint.  It was fun to see all the different choices and all the different artistic styles come out!  Some girls were done quickly and some could have stayed longer than the 2 hours.  If they had time, each girl got to decorate the apron we gave them to wear also.

When I asked Ella how she wanted me to decorate her cake this year, she politely asked to forgo the cute cake and just have the delicious ice cream cake with Snickers-- again easy for me!  For snacks, she also served her 3 favorite fruits: strawberries, cherries and cantaloupe.  

Her friends know her well and were so generous giving just-right-for-Ella presents.  A favorite was this "My BFFs Have My Back" shirt, signed by each friend in attendance!

Before we all leave to drive across the country and serve with Dave's youth group, we have a friend's military commissioning, a wedding, grad parties, a ball game, and more birthday parties to attend.  Since the week is already so nuts, we said this party was Ella's "Big Thing" for her birthday.  Family, you've been so wonderful sending your gifts early and they currently lie in an enticing pile.  We told Ella she could open one each day. :)

Happy Birthday Week to our favorite 9 year old!   

These Shoes

Back in August, our whole family opened a new chapter in our life story.  This chapter would have our youngest in school full time.  It would have our oldest challenged in 3rd grade  And it would have me leaving home for the first time in 6 years to start working again as a teacher at the kids' school.  With great anticipation, and gleaming new shoes, we dove into this different chapter.

Today, we close that chapter with the same bittersweet feelings you experience when any great story comes to an end.  We are eager to open the next chapter: a summer jam-packed with fun plans (starting tomorrow already!).  We are thankful for the wonderful year we had-- especially for teachers who taught not just math facts, science lessons and spelling words, but also how to have a good heart, be a disciple of Christ, and strive to do our best for God's glory. We celebrate all we learned, how much we grew and how we were blessed each day with the health and energy we needed to tackle its challenges.  Yet, we bid farewell to a routine that has been REALLY good for us for 10 months now.  And I am left to contemplate how I can feel so happy to be done working for a few months, yet so sad to say goodbye to each of the sweet students who take a piece of my heart out the door with them.

We may feel a bit like these first day of school shoes today-- sorta sad and a little worn out.  But, we are ready to swap out the old school shoes for some summer flip-flops and see where the next season's journey takes us!

I Probably Shouldn't Be Laughing...

"No DELIA'S! alowd!"

Retreat to your own place and make (grammatically incorrect) art that expresses your feelings-- this is perfect illustration of how our oldest handles the annoyance she sometimes feels for her feisty younger sister.

Family 5K

We spent our early morning hours today participating in a 5K walk/run to support the choice for life through our local pregnancy center.  Ella and Dave signed up to the do the run, and had the goal of running at least one whole mile of it (with Guatemala and school, their training kind of came to a halt).  We were all super proud that Ella was not only able to run the entire 3 miles, but did so at such a fast pace, Dave could hardly keep up with her.  She came in 18th overall!  I was proud of Delia too, who signed up to be my walking buddy.  I knew that even a 3 mile hike would be challenging for this gal, but she also tackled it with minimal complaining and a good attitude.  And we were even able to come in at just under an hour.  What was fun about this race was how many church, school and community friends we knew, since the pregnancy center is a ministry our church works hard to support.  The course was looping, so there were several places where those running in front passed those who walked at the back.  We think the crowd full of familiar faces offering encouragement and high fives definitely had a part in motivating Ella to run like she was on fire and Delia to walk with a smile!

   

If you are wondering if Delia and I will ever join the other half of our family in running the 5K,  the answer is probably not.  We ran for the finish line and those 40 steps were enough running for Delia and I 'till next year! :)