Seven!

My baby is seven!  How the heck did that happen?!

While I like creating birthday posts so that we can look back on them in future years, I'm also going to share some details of our Moana birthday party for any random Googlers out there who might happen to stumble across this post.  Much of what's on Pinterest related to Moana parties revolves around decorations and food.  I don't care much about either of these because a) the kids couldn't care less about decorations or fancy themed food and that's really who the party is for and b) it gets expensive.  What I cared about was how to keep the kids busy and entertained during our party, which had to be 100% indoors because - January!  So here's what we came up with, most of it was pretty simple but all the kids seemed to enjoy it, especially my birthday boy and his very eager little brother.

Keep the kakamora in the air!  Super easy: decorate some brown (or gold because that's the closest thing you can find) balloons, hand one to each kid and challenge them to keep the ball up in the air and off the ground for as long as they can.  Scary faces are optional;)

Pin the tail on Heihei - Enlist your super talented and artistic sister (or friend) to draw Hei-Hei, cut out some feathers, blind fold the kids and boom.  (Isn't Heihei awesome?  Seriously, I think my sister should open an Etsy shop and sell these kind of party games!)

Coconut bowling - "Consider the coconuts, consider the trees, each part of the coconut is all you need..."  Combine any kid bowling pins and a coconut from the grocery store and you're all set to play.  I recommend asking the kids to start with the coconut on the floor and push it rather than drop it to make it roll.  Luckily no coconuts or family room carpets were damaged by this game.

Find the Heart of Te-Fiti - I bought some modeling clay from Michael's and followed a YouTube video to create our very own heart of te-fiti.  Then the kids took turns hiding it around the house.  The hider would let the other kids know if they were getting "lava" or "ice" (hot or cold) as they searched.  Or, if you're Little P, you would tell the kids "coco" when they got very close ("because hot cocoa is hot Mom!")

Personalized Maui fish hooks - Once again, get your artistic sister (or friend) to trace out the shape of Maui's fish hook, then trace and cut the hooks out from cardboard (Amazon prime boxes that arrive at your house full of gifts are perfect for this project).  We set the kids up at the table with crayons and a couple Moana sticker pages and let them go to town.  Out of respect for the other kids' privacy I won't post it here, but we got a great picture of all the kids holding their hooks up and smiling:)  Plus - party favor!!

Nope, not done yet.  As a special treat this year we bought a pinata.  No Moana connection here, although we did decide to name it "Neigh Neigh" and called it Heihei's cousin!  I had the kids hit the pinata from youngest to oldest order and, perfectly, it started splitting when Little B (the oldest) finally had his turn.

 
Finally I let them all help make some tamatoa slime, a Pinterest idea.  Although slime is supposed to be really popular with kids, none of them were that excited about it and I can't say it did much for me either.  Oh well, never hurts to have something sparkly at a birthday party.

And finally cake!  Once again, credit must go to my incredible sister and her artistic abilities, which my parents gave 100% to her:)

We finished the day off with family, watching the Eagles playoff game and enjoying pizza and more cake.  Little B happily spent the game in front of the fire building Legos from his friends, unwrapping family presents, and then building more Legos and Playmobiles.  He is happy to be 7 and we can't wait to see what the coming year brings for him.  You are rocking life so far Little B and we love you!!

Closing out the day with mommy-son cuddles - just like 7 years ago:)

Children's Message - Resolutions

I have been pondering the idea of using this space to share more of what I do professionally, especially as I draw closer to finishing school and find myself working more, and therefore have more to share.  As a Christian educator, when I set out to write a lesson or a message, I often start with a Google search to see what ideas are already out there.  Sometimes I find good content, or at least enough to give me a starting point, but I think there is still plenty of room for more (hopefully high quality) content to be shared. 

I am given the opportunity to give the children's message during Sunday morning services once every couple months, and I usually try to connect my message with that morning's Scripture passage and/or sermon message.  And yes, I'm the kind of person that writes out every word I want to say, which makes it easy to share in this space!  So onto this week's post -

Children's Message - Based on Ephesians 1: 3-14, connected to New Year's Resolutions

Good morning everyone (welcome children)....

How is 2018 going?  Has it been a good year so far?  There’s a specific word that you might have heard a lot in the last week or so, and that word is “resolution.”  Can anyone tell me what that word means? (Allow time for answers, repeat the kid's responses for congregation to hear.)  It’s a decision to do or not do something.  And often at the start of a New Year many people feel like it’s a good time to start fresh and make some changes to live better lives so they make “New Year’s Resolutions”.  Did any of you make a resolution of something you want to do different this year?  (If needed, offer suggestions, like being nice to your brother or sister or picking up your toys when you’re done playing)  What about the rest of the congregation, raise your hand if you made a resolution for this new year...

Sometimes resolutions work great and we follow through and succeed at making the change we wanted to.  But sometimes we forget about what we wanted to do different, or it gets hard and we decide to just let that idea go.  And that’s just the way it goes for us humans.  But do you know who always follows through?  God!  That’s one of those special ways that God is bigger and greater than us, God can always be trusted to do what God says God will do.  In a couple minutes Pastor Steve is going to read a passage from a book in the Bible called Ephesians and it’s a big complicated passage but it can be summed up in three words, are you listening close?  God loves us!  From the very moment God created us all through history until today, God has always loved us and we have always been God’s people.  And we always will be.  So as we go out from church today and keep living our lives in this new year, I want you to know deep, deep inside your heart that God is following through on the resolution God made: that no matter what’s going on in your life, good or bad, God is loving you and is always with you.  Will you pray with me?

Loving God, thank you for this fresh new year.  As we live and grow and learn, help us to always know and feel that you are loving us, and inspire us to share your love with others.  Amen.

new year, new thoughts

I have seen a couple friends posting on Facebook this week about what their word of the year is, what word they want to define their life in the coming months.  Although I don't usually engage in this exercise, I saw the question enough to ponder what my answer would be and I decided my word would be "persevere".  2017 threw a pretty major punch at me and I'll be living through its after effects throughout the coming year.  I'm prepared to put my head down and push through, but it's definitely going to take some perseverance.

You know who did not persevere to stay up till midnight?  This guy.  Maybe next year dude.

 
I'm also not usually one to make New Year's resolutions but without really meaning to I kind of have.  One resolution that we'll be working through as a family is to read every single book that the boys own and decide what to keep and what to pass on.  I check out 15-20 books from the library every week, so the ones we own have been pretty neglected.  Time to either enjoy them ourselves or pass on the literary wealth!

Little P's bookshelf

Little B's bookshelf

Everything removed from the shelves and stacked together, not sure this picture does it justice!

My seminary class last semester was about living a Christian life and trying out different practices in our everyday lives to help us live more faithfully and know God more fully.  One practice that stuck with me is "presence," as in conscientiously remembering God's constant presence with us.  During that week in class we were challenged to choose a phrase that had spiritual meaning to us and then try to remember to say it every time we stood up or sat down, or walked up the stairs, for example.  I chose to say my phrase every time I picked up my phone.  As you can imagine, that happened many, many times a day and after the first couple days I got better and better at remembering the phrase each time I picked up my phone.  I decided to continue the practice into the new year, but with some adjustments.  For this first week I wrote my phrase on a sticky note and put it on back of my phone.  Then, if I can get into this habit too, I'll set my phone down face down so that I see the note each time I pick it up and be reminded to pray/breathe the phrase.  This practice will take a bit of discipline, we'll see if I can keep it up.

I set a Goodreads goal to read 40 books this year, which I think is manageable, although I'm starting off with a 900 page biography of Robert Kennedy so we'll see how long that takes!  I'm trying to find at least ten minutes each day to play piano, but I'm not confident I'll be able to keep that up once my (final!) semester starts up in another week.  A thoughtful family friend gave me a gratitude jar and pads of paper for Christmas so I'm trying to get in the habit of adding a thought every night, as cultivating an attitude of gratitude is healthy in so many ways.  And finally, I've been pondering how to use this blog space more productively and am thinking about sharing more of what I do professionally at church, so hopefully/maybe stay tuned for more of that content.

Whether I was ready for it or not, a new year is here, and despite the baggage I'm bringing from last year, there is much to look forward to in this year too (graduation, Disney, both boys in school!) so from all of us to you - here's to 2018!!