Emily's Sweet Sixteen

Emily’s sweet 16th birthday was celebrated a little bit belatedly because we did not host her official birthday party until the first weekend in May. On her actually birthday Masamo and I surprised her at school with sixteen balloons and a birthday tiara. Unfortunately Emily was not allowed to carry the balloons around with her all day at school (not that she wanted to) and had to leave them in the school office until the end of the day. In true teenage form she accused me of being mean (jokingly) when I would not take the balloons back home with me immediately so that she would not have to walk out of school with them at the end of the day (and thus bring attention to her). I explained that the entire purpose of the balloons WAS to bring attention to her on her special birthday. It was her sweet sixteen and she should embrace it! Here are some pics from her actual birthday.

Emily decided to have a big birthday party this year and invited 20 girls to her party from both church and school. About 12 of the girls were actually able to make it and I think they had a pretty good time. It was held from 4-10pm on that Saturday. The girls arrived and once enough of them arrived they played a game until it was time to eat. We grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs, per Emily’s request.

The bucket-head brigade entertaining themselves outside

After dinner they had a little down time while Jason and I set up the main even for the evening which was an “Amazing Race-style” game. We had seventeen different challenges set up for the girls to accomplish each with different point values attached to them. The challenges they faced ranged from doing the “Hokey Pokey” for Ella to riding a tricycle to counting a container full of buttons (there were 709 of them by the way). We did not make them eat anything disgusting as Emily didn’t want anyone throwing up at her birthday party. The girls were divided into five teams and had to wear a bandanna of a certain color to identify their team. The game took about an hour or so to complete and it was great fun to watch them run around completing the tasks at hand.

After the game came birthday cupcakes, ice cream and presents. Emily, Jason and I all worked hard on Emily’s chosen cupcakes. We saw the idea in a Family Fun magazine and Emily decided that is what she wanted for her birthday. Here’s the link to the directions if you’re interested… http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/queen-for-a-day-cupcakes-877102/

Let me just say that they were mess and a pain in the rear end to make. We made full sized cupcakes instead of minis like the recipe calls for. The crowns, made out of banana Laffy Taffy were hard to soften enough to cut and we had to tweak the directions slightly to make them easier to make. Here’s a picture of the best looking one, which I also presented to Emily when we sang “Happy Birthday” to her.
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Masamo enjoying a cupcake

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Video of us singing Emily "Happy Birthday"

Emily opening presents

The girls finished up the evening with a bonfire outside. It had been drizzling off and on all day and the rain stopped enough that Jason was able to go out to our fire pit and start a fire for the girls. We had marshmallows available but I think they had a better time taking pictures of one another with my new camera.

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It’s amazing how quickly our children grow. My precious baby girl is nearly an adult and is very close to getting her drivers license. It is hard to let go but I thank God that it comes in stages and not all at one. I have to keep reminding myself that God gave Jason and I a few short precious years to raise our children and that we are preparing them to live wisely once they are adults. I have shed a number of tears recently with many different emotions attached to them as I watch Emily grow into the beautiful young woman God is molding her into. Jason and I pray that she chooses to serve Him wholly and faithfully as He has called her to do.

Easter 2011

Easter was pretty traditional for us this year. The day always starts out with the kids finding their Easter baskets. I remember doing this as a child and really enjoyed it so the tradition has continued into my family.

We went to church to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is one of my favorite times of year at church. There is so much hope and happiness in the air.

Later that afternoon we went over to my sister’s house to celebrate with my family. Because we had been having so much rain we had to do the egg hunt in her basement instead of her backyard as originally intended. It was great to just relax and spend time together as a family.

We also took this opportunity to briefly celebrate Emily’s birthday which was two days later.

Our spring break this year came the week before Easter, as usual, but since Easter was so late this year many other schools in our region had already had their breaks. The week was pretty rainy, as was all of April, and so we were not able to spend a lot of it outside. Emily, in fact, went to Pennsylvania and North Carolina with a school friend of hers for her entire spring break.

On the Tuesday of our break we went up to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton. We had never been there before but had heard several good reports on it and so decided to give it a try. Jason took the day off of work and we all headed up to enjoy the day together.

The whole museum (which is small compared to some others we have visited) is geared toward kids and giving them a hands on experience with science. You could explore everything from space to recycling to a tidal pool. This was definitely a winner in our books. Here’s a link to their website! http://www.boonshoftmuseum.org/

Discovering Water

Discovering Dinosaurs

Discovering a Tidal Pool

Discovering Electricity

Masamo was particularly facinated with this robot.

Discovering --> Silliness?

Ella playing the "harmonica" in jail

Discovering Animals

Ella's Essay

Ella's school ran a contest recently and it challenged the kids to write an essay about flight. The rules were pretty vague and they only gave some broad suggestions as to what was required. Ella's teacher made their whole class enter the essay contest and so Ella entered. Much to our delight Ella came in 9th out of the 299 essays that were submitted!!! She received a glow in the dark Crayola craft kit as a prize. I'm so proud of Ella! Here is the essay that she submitted.....


As soon as the sun slipped beneath the horizon, I woke up. I looked around the darkening cave, other bats were waking up. Some stretched their wings while others immediately took off. I glided through the darkness squeaking every now and then, to locate a tree (I live in an orchard, just so you know).I found a tree, a peach tree, and searched for a ripe peach. My fellow bats and I searched every nook and cranny in the orchard, but found nothing. “We will have to leave!” my dad said. ”Oh great,” I said. Everyone has always feared leaving, and definitely not on an empty stomach. But it was time to take to the sky anyway. “I will stay with the other females to look after the babies.” my mom said. As we took off into the night I thought “I like flying, it’s just about the best thing I know about, besides myself.”We flew for hours, far from the orchard many of us were frightened. We were flying on and on and on. My wings ached because of the hours of flight. It was almost light, we had been flying all night! We stopped to sleep in a large leafy tree. I hoped we were unnoticed. The next night I glided off with tired wings. With my aching wings, we press on. I thought of all the wonders of flying. Then, “Squeak!” my dad said. “Squeak! Squeak!” an echo-y voice answered we all dove towards the thing it bounced off of. It was a peach tree! As we all dove I separated and grabbed a peach. “Mmmmm!” I said. I flew all around and found and ate some delicious food. We all ate apples, pears, peaches, and even something called a mango. As we flew back I thought “Flying is fun, even if it’s playing, but when it gets serious it is still fun.” As we flew into the horizon, I said “I love flying, and I think the sunrise is beautiful.” I flew towards the sunrise thinking “Flying is good to know how to do, most animals can’t. I love flying!”