The Celebration Continues Part 1 Decorations

Makenna's favorite movie  and character  for a while  has  been  Little Mermaid, Ariel.  For that reason she was determined to have an Ari party for her fourth birthday.  At first thought, Mamma Kim thought this would be an  easy party to  put  together.  As the details began to fall into place and one thing lead to another the decorations  grew bigger and more elaborate  thus more time consuming.  About 10 minutes before the party we were finishing up all things mermaid and of course there had to be lots of bling involved.

Ariel greeted every  guest as they entered   the door.  That was not even a thought until last night about 9pm when Mamma Kim decided  the door needed something.  Thank goodness for the pazzle. It saved the night.

Lots of sugar and chocolate  are always good things to give kids to get them charged up  for  Moms and Dads.  We wanted to make sure they had plenty of each.  Everything from candy sea shells to a marshmallow octopus. 

                               Candy covered pretzels

                                       Marshmallow  Octopus

                                                  M  & M's

                                            Sour Patch Octopus

                        The treasure chest with King Triton's mighty trident

                              Goody Buckets for all the little guest

                               The table centerpiece contained jewels and stones just like the treasure chest in the Little Mermaid.  Makenna has read the book so much she knows all the  details from memory and insisted  we not  leave out one detail.  Mamma Kim loves details and was glad to oblige for Precious Baby.

 Jelly  fish went along with our theme very nicely and Makenna loved helping make these  for her party.  We have been enjoying them hanging for several weeks now.

                    Makenna and her  mighty trident, just like King Triton

No Little Mermaid party would be complete with out Makenna having her very own Ariel outfit and in the words of Makenna, "Mamma, I have my very own fin just like Ariel."

Cupcakes must  have been pretty  good as Miles ate two and wanted a third and  his Mamma would not let him have it.

Food table  included Sea cookies, sea shell candy, octopus hotdogs, Mason's favorite, Sushi rolls, mermaid pretzels, goldfish, M & M's, sour patch octopus, marshmallow octopus, and chips.

 Happy Birthday my Precious Baby.  I love you  to the moon and back.  You are worth every bit of effort and then some it took to make your dream come true with an Ariel birthday.  I hope it met every expectation you  had for your party . Four years old came much too quickly Precious Baby, please do not grow up so quickly.

Fairpark

How does one little girl deserve so many special treats?  Not sure how others do but we have the most precious little girl around so she gets lots of treats.  Sunday after church her Mamma and I decided to take her for an afternoon of fun.  We were going to Veterans Park to the Splash Pad but it was so crowded we could not even get close.  I like going to Fairpark much better anyway and there are never as many there.

Makenna napped until we got to Fairpark then she was out of the car to see where we were.

She was the  only one there for a little while and she took a few minutes to check out what was going on.  Two other little girls came up and they all played in the water, squealing when the water would spray high.

Childhood laughter is the best kind of laughter.  Oh to experience that through the eyes of a child is a blessing directly from Jesus.

As we got ready to leave, Makenna was hungry nothing new to us these days.  This child is always hungry.  We were going to take her out on East Main to get ice cream but she had different ideas and wanted Sonic.  She got a vanilla milkshake and I got a hot fudge sundae.  Guess mine looked better that hers because she wanted mine first then she would eat hers.  That is usually the way this story goes.  Why does my food always taste better than hers?

Marching Orders

God gives all of us marching orders if we are His children.  The children learned this year in VBS at Faith Baptist Church that just as God gave Noah, Nehemiah and Jonah orders, He also gives us orders, which He expects us to follow.  Noah followed God's orders and did Nehemiah but Jonah did not follow what God told him to do.  There are consequences for disobedience.  Jonah stayed in the belly of the fish for three days until he sought forgiveness.  Disobedience always brings punishment.  Throughout the day the children learned about marching orders from God through Bible stories, songs, missions speakers, crafts and recreation.  It is my prayer that each child makes the decision to be in the Lord's Army. 

Mrs. Debbie, Mrs. Sandy and Mrs. Amy taught Makenna's class.  Their sweet and gentle spirits made such an impression on those chatty three year olds. 

Jonah made an impression on the 3-4 year olds, or Makenna anyway.  She told me after VBS was over all about Jonah not obeying.  That gave me a prefect opportunity to to remind her that we expect her to obey just like God does and when she does not obey we are not happy and neither is Jesus.

Thank you Lord, for those opportunities to teach my Precious Angel about my loving Heavenly Father.

My sweet baby, with her fish hat they made in crafts. 

Jumping

As a special treat, I decided to take Makenna to JUMP, a place with a variety of bouncey houses.  She was the only one there and I thought she would love it and I would never get her out of the place.  Little did I know in about an hour she would be ready to go.  It was realy loud with all the pumps keeping the inflatables blown up and Makenna does not like that kind of noise.  Guess it was a lesson learned, we will not be going back there. 

Mamma here I come, take my picture.  She was more interested in getting her picture made than anything else.  That would be my fault because I have taken so many pictures of her from the beginning.

This may take too mych effort and energy for my Precious Baby to do all that climbing and jumping.  Surely she should be worn out and nap well ohe afternoon.  No such luck there, she was just overly tired and whined all afternoon.

Makenna said she would rather go to the "ducks on the pond" aka Central Park at the mall, or as Mamma Kim calls it germ city.

All kinds of emotions

This Father's Day has been a time of mixed emotions for me.  I am beyond blessed to still have my sweet Daddy with me.  For that I am so very thankful.  The last 9 months have brought to my mind the reality that life can be taken at any moment in time.  Thank you Lord for the gift you have given me of a loving Daddy who, first and foremost loves you with all his heart and secondly loves his family unconditionally.  I pray the things I learned from him I can pass on to my children.  Happy Father's Day, Daddy. I love  you.

At the same time I am so thankful I still have my Daddy here with me, I am reminded of the agony that comes from losing a parent.  Nowhere is that more evident than in the life of my children.  As each day passes losing a pappa should get easier but I am not sure it never does.  All of my children have  said numerous times, "I wish I could just talk to him one more time, ask him one more question, but that was not to be." I have done the same thing. So many times, I have turned to ask him a question or tell him something and he is not there.  I am so thankful for the time we had together and the many memories we made as family.  We all still laugh at some of the crazy things  he would get all of us into.  Today as Annacarmie and I were eating lunch something came up in conversation and she looked at me and I looked at her and tears just started streaming down both of our faces.  Not only did I lose the love of my life but my children lost their daddy, aka "Pappa."  Anticipating this Father's Day seems to have been especially hard for me.  I have thought alot about John and the legacy he left for his family to follow.  I do not know why he was taken so young but I do know God always has a plan in all that happens.  I am just not understanding His plan right now. I wanted John and I to enjoy life together for many more years than we were afforded.  Life is tough any time, but over the last six years I have learned how tough it can be without the love of my life to share it with.  However, I would rather have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Little did we know that this would be the last Father's Day we would get to spend with Pappa.  We love you and miss you greatly.  Your absenece has left a great void in all of our lives.

I hurt for the grandchildren who never got to meet their Pappa.  He would have loved them and they would have loved them.  Oh he loved those babies but at that time he had only grand daughters.  He so wanted a grandson also.  He never got to meet Mason, Drew, Miles or Brent.

There are so many things that we will never again get to experience with him.  Never take one minute for granted because you never know when that might be your last minute.

I hurt for my Precious Baby because growing up without a Daddy present is never easy.  Why her Daddy's life was taken so quickly the past year in a horrible accident I cannot explain to her.  I can tell her, her Daddy loved her and one day when her life here on this earth is over she will see him again in Heaven.  To a three year old, these  things are so difficult to explain when other children have their Daddies still.  However, the foundation of Jesus was being built from the day she came into this world and she knows her Daddy is in Heaven, which is a wonderful place.  Now she wants to know when her Daddy will come back here to see her.  No child should have to experience the difficulties of life as this.  Once again God has a plan and this did not take Him by surprise.  I know this will go into making my Precious Baby the person she will become, a mighty warrior for our Lord. 

Today as her Nanna and Pappaw took her to her Daddy's grave site, Makenna hugged the tombstone and said I love you Daddy.  Precious Baby, all I can tell you is life is difficult at best.  There will be many trials along the way but remain firm in your faith and never take your eyes off of God. He will comfort you in those difficult days and direct your path.