Leighton’s Birthday Party

So many pictures to go through before I could post this!  Took me a while. 

I had a lot of fun getting ready for Leighton’s “Sweet at One” party.  We had a wonderful time with our guests and missed some, of course.  It was definitely different having a summer party! 

Here is some of the decorations and table of SWEETS!

About to start!

I meant to make some special Berry Pink Lemonade and didn’t think about how many lemons I would need.  So, I only had enough to make half of a pitcher (in the middle)!  Oh, well.  Good intentions, right?

The placemats on the table have pictures of her from her hospital picture through each month.  I have done that at each of the girls’ parties.

Here are shots of the sweets!  Chocolate chip cookie stuffed cupcakes, pink lemonade cupcakes, and Strawberry and Lemon Cream Cheese sandwiches.  Then my sweet mom made a nice light version of red velvet for us.  That goes well with some candy, suckers, colored marshmallows and lollipops!  Oh, and my favorite – pink oreo bon bons!  Thank you again to my assistant, Amber for being such a fine icing artist!  :-) 

Here are some shots of the super SWEET Birthday Girl (sporting her “1” onesie from Shannon and her polka dot Tritzi) while enjoying her party and wonderful guests!

Every one year old girl needs a Tritzi to wear for their party!

Lunch!  Thanks to my in laws for helping us with some yummy lunch and to my mom for the fruit fluff! 

Fun with Great Grandma Foster

Why is everyone singing???

Did they just sing my name??

Adley blowing out the candle for her.  Leighton busy watching the balloon.

     Not too bad. 

She was a bit dainty.

Hooray for balloons again.

Cake! 

Peek-a-boo mommy!

She had two suckers on her cake.  They were much better than the cake.

One in the mouth and one in the hand.

Then came the presents!

She kept giving Uncle Dennis the eye the whole time.  So cute!  Maybe he was looking too closely at her new stuff!  Look out!

She really enjoyed each gift.  

And at this age, they really get into the cards too!

Even the clothes!

And the books!

And the toys. . .

Okay, she loved it ALL!

Leighton’s Birthday

Here are just some photos of the day of her birthday a MONTH ago!  We just had a simple, fun day.  TJ had to leave for a business trip, so we went to Toys’R Us and an early lunch.  The girls decided that Leighton would want to eat at Steak’N Shake.  :-)  Leighton got a balloon and crown at Toys ‘R Us, which she loved.  Then she even picked out part of her present.  She was very excited!

Child/Baby Dedication & Father’s Day

Our church does a child/baby dedication each year.  They now have it each Father’s Day, so we just barely missed it last year.  We were coming home from the hospital on Father’s Day, so no way that was happening then!  So, this year, we got a whole weekend of dedication, Father’s Day, and her first birthday party.  Oh, what fun!  :-)

The dedication day is very special to us because we do believe that God has given parents a special calling to train their children in the ways of the Lord. 

^“4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”  Deut. 6:4-9

^“6 Train ^[a] a child in the way he should go,
       and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6

So, that is basically what the dedication is. . . parents dedicating their children to the Lord and committing to teach them about God and what it means to have a personal relationship with Him.  It also involves the church. . . committing to pray and encourage the parents in this endeavor. 

When we dedicated Adley and Leighton, the church had changed the way they did their service a bit.  They allow you to provide a special scripture or prayer for them to share at the dedication.  We love that personal touch.  We were going to try to make Leighton’s a little different, but when we looked back over what we had written, we knew that we really liked that prayer and it is what we pray for each of them. 

“We pray that God will begin drawing her now and that one day she will come to the knowledge of His redemptive grace. That she will serve Him passionately wherever He leads, and as it says in Colossians 1:10-12, that she will ‘live in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father. . .’”

Afterward, we usually have lunch or cake or something to celebrate with whoever is around.  (of course!) 

So, just like with the first two girls, we look forward to watching Leighton grow to see the wonderful mercies of our Father in heaven.

Up front – Leighton just kept “talking” through a lot of it.  Actually, I think it sounded like she was singing for part of it too.

Receiving our packet from Pastor Jonathan.  They usually include a copy of the bulletin and our prayer and a certificate, etc.  It is very nice!

A look at the others dedicating that day.  I’m not sure how many were in the other service.  But, there is usually a good group each year.  Another exciting thing to note is how many adopted children were being dedicated that day.  Three out of the six were adopted children.  Praise the Lord!

Lunch at Breadeux

Yummy! 

Fun with Uncle Brett 

Jaylyn 

Some of the special Fathers who were able to join us for lunch. Back: My Dad, TJ’s Uncle Larry, TJ’s Uncle Ray, TJ’s Dad and TJ with Leighton. Front: TJ’s Grandpa Geist, Adley, TJ’s Grandpa Evans and Jaylyn

 TJ and Leighton

Leighton and Papa Geist - “I’m getting your glasses!!!” 

Check it out!

End of the year Carnival

We joined the Saint Clair County Christian Home Educators group this year.  They provide some extra support, resources and encouragement for us homeschoolers.  The Master’s Lyceum (Friday school classes) is also a part of this.   It has been great to be a part of this group.  They are a pretty large group and it is nice to see that you are not the only one homeschooling.  :-)  Actually, it was obvious this year that there is a growing number of homeschoolers in the area.  I don’t remember the numbers, but their membership grew by a good bit this year.  Anyway, their last meeting of the year is a carnival and it was a blast!  The girls loved it.  Their was a pulled pork dinner, sno cones, carnival games, horse carriage rides, a great clown that did unicycle riding, juggling and balloon animals, and more.  We didn’t even get to it all!  

 Mini Golf was our first stop

Adley getting ready!

Wet sponge toss

Orange sno cone

Grape!  Some how, they chose flavors that coordinated with their outfits.  :-)

Our horse carriage

Here we go!  We found out that the horse carriage owner/driver actually lives in our town and are a part of the homeschool group too.  There are only a few families that I know of from our little town that homeschool, so it was nice to meet one of them.   

This is fun!

Bounce!

Jaylyn was bouncing pretty high!

Some more summer days

Here are a few more random pictures from a few weeks back. . .

 The girls enjoying some of daddy’s BBQ’d hamburgers.  It was definitely a hot day.  (Notice the umbrella to protect them from the sun.  Princess???) 

Adley helping me cut and mash some yummy strawberries.  

Sisters are good for some fun ideas when it is too hot outside to play!  They kept taking turns pulling each other around the house on the parachute.

Sometimes Leighton would chase them and sometimes she would ride. 

Adley would even give Jaylyn a ride too, but I didn’t get a picture of that.