Girl Party!

Ella Reese is such a girl.  And I mean, girly.  Which is hilarious because she is such a wild thing as well.  On Wednesday she came up with a brilliant idea.  She gasps and looks up at me, "MOM!  I have a great IDEA!  Let's have a Girl Party!  We can have a tea party, and put on our pajamas..".  We had done this once last year and she loved it.  I think she loved it most because the boys were not allowed.  While we did our girl stuff, the boys did boy things.  Like fight, kick soccer balls around etc.

"Sure!", I tell her.  "Okay, let's do it tonight! ". She replies excitedly.

Hmmm.. It is near dinner time.  Tonight is not the night. So I promise her that Friday we will have our Girl Party.  And that we can make signs to decorate her room.  We can have special snacks and do girl stuff.  She is giddy.  So giddy that she decides to start making signs right away.  And asks me to print out princess coloring pictures so she can color and decorate with.

So Friday as she is at school Dean and I get ready for the party.  I make a sign to hang on her door.  So Dean too, makes a "boy sign" to hang on his door.  It is a bunch of scribble with the letters D, A and E .  because those are the letters I have taught him to write thus far in the school year.  And he interprets all the scribble and the D,A and E as " Welcome to my boy party.  We will do boy things like play fight and cars."

I find nail polish and lig gloss Ella has never seen before and wrap it in a cinderella bag.  I pull out my curling iron and set out my make up bag.  Knowing she will faint with excitement to know I plan on giving her a surprise make over.

I set out a pink blanket with coloring pages from Tangled and crayons.  It was fun getting it ready.  I even out a heart note in her lunch box telling her that I was excited about our girl party.

So she gets home and we get to it!

Making signs for the party

 Dean and Ella making rapping noises as they color.

 Dean giving Ella a zerbert kiss.

 Silly Dean.  She is giving zerberts to his coloring picture.

 Dean's scary face.

 Every party has a party popper....or whiner.

 Ella's make over!  I curled her hair and put make up on her.  She put make up on me too.

 Dean was not allowed to come in the bathroom.  Too much make up, and hot irons stuff going on.  And no space either.  But every time I put something on Ella, he wanted some too.  Poor guy.  We were waiting for Ryan to come home to do boy stuff with him.  When Ryan did get home, he took Dean out to Best Buy.  A very guy thing.

 Our signs to Ella's room.

 Coloring time!!! Ella decided to make all her pictures into a Tanlged book.  She likes to do that.

 And he nails.  We did pink and purple nails with polka dots.  Ryan came home with the movie Tangled.  And Ella was so excited.  So as the boys were at Best Buy, Ella and I threw in some cookies and started watching the movie as we snuggled in the living room.  It was the best night ever.  So fun.
I think I want to do a Girl Party every Friday night.

Ella kissed a boy

I am coming out of the deep dark vortex of non-blogging to post this.  It is a must.
This is the conversation I had with Ella Reese when I picked her up from school..
Ella: " I kissed Dillon today at school". 
Me: " What!? Where did u kiss him?"
Ella: " On the cheek. He always asks me to kiss him on Fri and Tues. And he always asks me to marry him. But I tell him, 'I can't marry you until you have a JOB, and make MONEY, so you can buy FOOD. And you have to come home and work a HARD DAY. Like pulling wires...or building roofs.". 
Me: " And he has to know how to read..."
Ella: "Yes I know."
Me: " No more kissing Dillon Ella "( Of course I dying laughing this whole time)
Ella: " Yes, I know. I can't kiss him until I marry him."


Hilarious.  And this is the same boy that Ella tells me ," Dillon tells me that every time I wear my braids he wants to marry me!".  Ryan is determined to hunt down this sweet boy at the next PTA meeting and set him straight.  lol!


Oh my,...so to say the least, Ella LOVES school.  Not because Dillon wants to marry her.  But she loves every thing about it.  And every morning when I drop her off to school, and watch her run into the building with her princess backpack bopping up and down...and while she is talking to her little friends...I just tell myself how much I love school for her too.


I'll be back .  I promise.  In a month.  I am slammed with work now.  But I have a bizillion, katrillion pics of the kids to post.  It is sad.  And it is wrong I have not kept up.  I know.  Bad mommy. Bad photographer.

Transforming

My friend Holly just shared this article with me written by a mother about motherhood.  It was so compelling, so true, so rich and so encouraging I had to share it asap.  Carry on mommas!  You are living out the gospel in all your everyday "mundane" moments! 

Rachel Jankovic is a wife, homemaker, and mother. She is the author of “Loving the Little Years” and blogs atFemina. Her husband is Luke, and they have five children: Evangeline (5), Daphne (4), Chloe (2), Titus (2), and Blaire (5 months).

This post is from Desiring God

If I had to pick one word to describe motherhood, I think that word would be “transforming.”

The days of a busy mother are made up of millions of transformations. Dirty children become clean, the hungry child fed, the tired child sleeping. Almost every task a mother performs in the course of a normal day could be considered a transformation. Disorder to order, dirty clothes to clean, unhappy children to peaceful, empty fridge to full. Every day we fight against disorder, filth, starvation, and lawlessness, and some days we might almost succeed. And then, while we sleep, everything unravels and we start again in the morning — transforming.

Days of these little cycles add up and suddenly you see a big transformation. A nursing infant has become a boy on a bicycle, a baby bump has grown into a toddler, and children have been changed into brothers and sisters.

Then there is the kind of transformations that we do — not because we work at it, but because we were created to do it. You eat your lunch, and your body transforms it into nourishment for a baby. Taking something too big for an infant, and still finding a way to feed them with it — with the goal of growing them up to do it themselves.

Pregnancy and nursing are only a small part of a child’s life though — and this cycle is clearly not only a physical one. It is the spiritual cycle of food that is so much more important, and so much less talked about. Christian mothering is a constant cycle of nourishment — both physical and spiritual.

WE APPLY WHAT WE BELIEVE

In the same way we take the food we eat and make it into something the baby can eat (and our bodies simply do this without us willing them to), so we take what we believe about God and the gospel and faith and life, and we apply it in the places that seem too little for it.

Imagine yourself in your kitchen trying to make dinner for a group of little kids who are tired and should have eaten a half hour ago. Imagine that things are going wrong beyond that — maybe you are out of something you assumed you had, children are fussing with one another, and maybe your littlest is still at the age where they come stand on your feet and pull on your pant leg. Bonus points if you are wearing maternity pants and this little person is actually capable of pulling your pants down. You are hot, you are tired, and you are sick of it.

This is no time for a gospel presentation. There isn’t time. There isn’t anyone to lead the discussion around the felt board, because you are still scrambling to figure out dinner. This isn’t a time for a gospel presentation because it is a time for gospel application. This is a time to take the grace that God has extended to you, and feed your children with it. Apply what you believe about God’s mercy and kindness and long suffering towards us, and pour it out to them — in a form they can believe in. Unrest like this is just like a baby crying for a bottle — only what they need is spiritual milk. They need you to feed them, not with a lecture, but with application.

YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED

Mothering is a job that is full of difficult moments. Diapers blow out in stores when you have too much in your cart to just walk out. Sudden carsickness can leave you pulled over on the side of the road wondering just how much can be done with half a bag of wet wipes. You need to take what you believe and apply it to these difficult moments. Does the Bible teach us that God is disgusted by our frailty? That he doesn’t want to carry our burdens? That he doesn’t have the energy to deal with us?

The good news is, you don’t need to have been through some elite mother’s training camp to apply the gospel in your life. You need to believe. Trust God, give thanks. Laugh. Believe — and that will feed your children. Rest in God, and your children will learn to. Extend God’s kindness to you, to them. Forgive them the way God forgave you. You have everything you need to spiritually nourish your children, because you have Christ.

The gospel is not just something to talk about Sunday morning while you are in clean clothes and the kids are looking orderly. It is not limited to quiet times and reflective moods. It is something to apply while you are in a difficult position in the back of the car trying to buckle a child up who is playing the kazoo and needs their nose wiped.

God is not above these moments. He is teaching us, and leading us, and refining us, in them. He wants to see our faith in action. He wants to see us feeding our children with the grace that he has given to us.

MIMIC THE GOSPEL

Of course, this side of heaven we will not do perfectly. Harsh words will be spoken, patience will wear thin. Frazzled mothers will act frazzled. And when this happens, our own sinfulness does not detract from the power of the gospel, it illustrates why we need it. Do not use your own mistakes as an excuse to wallow about what a bad mother you are. Repent, seek forgiveness, get it right, and move on. Believe. Be forgiven. Extend that forgiveness, that belief, that joy, to your children.

As you go about your daily transformations, set your heart on the truth. Mimic the gospel in what you do. Bring peace, bring order, bring joy, bring laughter. Bring it because it was brought to you. Give, because it was given to you. The gospel is not too big to fit into little situations. It is too big not to.

And my little "transformers"....and one more on the way! I think I need 5 transformers.  I've got a lot of transforming to happen in my heart!!!

School has begun!

School has officially begun for Ella Reese today!  So fun!  I have to wake the kids up at 6:30 to make it to Ella's school by 7:45.  Which 7:45 is considered late.  So I am getting myself up at 6am and I will try for earlier next week.  So early we rose today and everyone was excited about Ella's first full day of Kindergarten!  She squealed in the car when I asked her if she was excited.  And being the mama chick I am, it was so weird to just drive up and have her walk into the building by herself.  They are suppose to go to the cafeteria until the 7:45 bell rings.  Then they go to their class.  And Ella Reese only went to one of the two staggered enrollment days ( half days with only a few kids in her class), so I was nervous she would net remember where the cafeteria was etc..  But after I reminded her of where to go, she was like,

"Okay!".  She hopped right out of the car and headed inside.  I think I was more nervous for the both of us!  

And the sweet thing was that on the car ride over, she told me, "I am going to miss you...", so very sweetly.  It was so precious!  I was so excited to see her when school was out! She had a blast and can't believe she gets to go again tomorrow and all week long.

So here are First Day of School pictures of both kids.  The ones of Ella are from her first half day of school, and the ones of Dean are of him on his first day of Preschool.  He is going to Cedar Springs 2 times a week.  Which those days will be my photo biz work days.  

This is a book Ella Reese wanted to make to bring to her first day of her half day.  She insisted she wanted to make a book.  So laid out the materials for her and she went after it.  All I helped her with was how to spell the title of the book.  She wanted to show her teacher, but I knew that there was like  80% chance that she would end of giving it to Ms. Price.  So that morning I took pictures of it while Ryan made fun of me.  But I was right.  She did give it to her teacher after all.  So I am sooo glad I took pictures of it!!!!

This is her with Ms. Price her teacher.   And Ella Reese drew herself with her back pack on, you can see the straps over her shoulders, and in one hand  is a juice box and the other is her books.  And yes, she does her 2's and 3's backwards if I am not there to help her.

This is her and her little buddy who is seated next to her, Dillon.  She met him at the open house and remembered his name.  So cute!  And for some reason Ella Reese put glasses on herself...?

This is me coming to pick her up from school.  She is out the window in the building, and I am coming up to pick her up...

And this is Dean coming out of the car door, she says.

Picture time!!!!

I love how her back pack is so big on her ....just reminds me how little my booger is!

So excited!!!

I asked her to show me how excited she was.  So this is her "running to school".

And her excited face.  Which really looks more like she is attacking me...

In her class at her seat.  Dillion is the brown headed boy next to her.

And Dean was so bored when we got home.  As i cleaned up the kitchen , I looked over and he was laying on the ground with his blankie rolling a car on the ground.   It was so pitiful.  Soon after I convinced him to play with a puzzle.

Dean's turn!!! This is dean's first day of Preschool!  He was so excited, which surprised me.  As I was packing his lunch he said, "Can we go to school now?".  I thought this one would be my timid one.  But he was so ready and eager to go!  My sweet boy!!!

Of course, I had to get pictures of them together!

My sweet dean-o bean-o!   When I came to pick him up from class, they had apparently been teaching the kids how to recognize their names.  And Mrs. England asked me if I wanted him to be able to read and write "Dean-o", because that is what Dean told them his name was.  Hilarious!

He popped right in and started playing!

Dean's wonderful teacher Mrs. England!

This is what he made his first day.  He was so proud!

So today marked the first day of the start of the school year for the kiddos!  Ryan and I are so excited and full of faith for what the kids will be learning and able to participate, and the opportunities for us to develop relationships within our community!

I am actually amazed this has not happened sooner...

In the 30 minutes I took to meal plan, Dean and Ella cut paper into confetti sized bits of paper,  cut tassels off my throw pillow, Ella Reese cut Dean's hair,...and Dean cut hers. 

Coming back to the blog world to tell you....

Hello all!  It is me, Lillian.  Remember me?  Chinese with 2 kids,...mom blogger ?  Oh yes, that was me.
Well, I had to come back from the grave of loser bloggers to share fun fun news!
As I type this, it is the eve of my baby girl's 5th Birthday.  Wow, does time fly!  I can't even believe she will be five!  But the fun news is that she learned to ride a bike yesterday!  It was so exciting and fun to watch her!  Ryan popped her on a two wheeler with no trainers for the first time and no joke, in 30 seconds flat she was off.  I know, I could not believe it.  The secret to her success? A kids balance bike.  Ours is a Strider.  It has no pedals and it teaches kids to balance.  So we took her to the church parking lot and she rode around like a pro!  We went again today and put Dean on a smaller bike we found on craigslist.  And same thing, in 30 seconds he was off riding a bike too!  It was so fun to watch!So I have pictures from Ella's first go on a bike,..but bad mommy forgot the camera today when Dean has his first bike ride.  Boo.
                                         

 My sweet baby boy!

 LOVE!!!

 Ryan hates for me to take pics of him.  So I literally snapped this super fast.

Ella was so dramatic the whole time.  The bike is so hard to pedal and it weighs a ton.  So every few feet she would go, she would stop, jump off the bike and say she needed a rest.  Well, i looked over one time and saw her "resting".  Hilarious!  My 5 year old Drama Queen!