A Weekend of Birthday Wishes

We spent the weekend wishing our children's friends and now our children's friends a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

My dearest friend Robin's baby Ruby made it to one. So she had a garden party that was fantastic. Asher had a t-ball game, so Lucy got all dolled up and we went to the party. It was so fun, cause Robin is fun. Take a look.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

And then came Bennett's 3rd Birthday party.
The theme for this party? Sugar. Sugar. And more Sugar.
So Asher actually said this sentence,
"This is the best birthday party that I have ever been to."

Riding bikes was followed by a sports ball "easter egg hunt" filled with candy.
Onto a Pinata filled with candy (and other healthy items-YUCK)
Then cake and juice boxes.
Onto cotton candy fresh from cotton candy machine from Windy Gap.

Best Birthday Party indeed.
Wanna see what that does to SOME children?

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

Hello Pinata. Bennett is very VERY intense about it.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

The whole crowd is excited about the cake.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

He got a ton of pirate gear, which then led to a pirate war.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

Here is the girls vs. the boys in the pirate war. It starts early doesn't it kids?

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

And I can only imagine EXACTLY what he is saying to her here. But I had to stifle the laughter to get the shot.

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

From ruby/bennett birthdays 09

Mmmmm. Cotton Candy.

Yes, the sugar wore off about 30 minutes after we left Windy Gap. I had to put on a movie at home, snuggle up on the couch with the kids and we all fell asleep for two hours.

It was fantastic.

If you click on any of the pictures, it ought to take you to the Picasa photo album that I created for both parties. They were both really fun. Now all Lucy can talk about is her own birthday. Which apparently has to involve a pretty dress, a crown and slippers.
Amazing already.

Topography is Fun

Last September, our dear friend and old area director, Buddy Odom sent a letter to 17 couples that all had something to do with each other and Asheville Young Life at some point in the past eight years.

The letter was inviting the 17 couples to get out of town (where that might be now) and come together to just reunite and be together as married people. Little did we all know that all 17 couples replied "YES!" Well a few things; i.e. babies happened, but 15 couples did show up this past weekend for a weekend away in Tennessee.

It was wonderful and messy all at the same time. Not messy like your family can get at Christmas messy. But messy like, "I am married to this person and it is really hard and now we are together on this weekend in front of our dearest friends" kind of messy. So that was fantastic.

And it really was. Hard and fantastic.

Buddy used a single question to get at the hearts of every couple there. He used the analogy of a mall map that has a "You are here" red dot on it. Then he asked; "Where are you? Where is your marriage?"

Well, that pretty much opened up the can of worms for the room Friday night and then all of the sudden it was Sunday morning and we spent the whole weekend crying, laughing and praising God.

How can I sum it up any better? Pictures.





And of course, we had to stop in Pigeon Forge and seal the weekend with an airbrushed t-shirt AND sweatshirt. Lovely. I know.

A Haunting Thought

I have been reading a lot lately and I ran across a synopsis of Dante's Inferno. It says that Dante's version of Hell is "proximity without intimacy."

And it has made me wonder how much of my life has been spent working towards proximity without intimacy as a goal in my relationships? I have lived in a lot of places, left a lot of people behind and now I am trying to rebuild my brain because I want to avoid what Dante's Hell in my life.

I always wanted to be around people and be liked; but without being known and risking little.

Now, I am trying to reverse course and dive in the deep end with people rather than visit in the shallows.

I have realized that this is what I loved about my freshman girls at summer camp. They haven't been hurt too much yet. They just lived without covering their backs. But their sophomore year is waiting and friends will burn each other. By the time you are a senior, you try to say little and survive.

You go to college and want to be known, but be anonymous all at the same time. And then spend the next ten years trying to reverse what you have built because you recognize that you need friends; girlfriends, in this life.

I sure hope that I don't struggle with this for the rest of my life.

Tuesday

Camp has been going really smoothly this week. We are already on Day 4! That means that camp is over on Thursday :( and we will head back to the east coast on Friday. We will spend a few days resting and getting our legs underneath us before heading back to Asheville early next week. It is hard to believe that our month here is almost over! A ton has happened here and we feel so priviledged to have been here. We have really made good friends with all of the people that are here with us, but one family has really loved on us well. Brett and Kim Allen have three boys and a girl and all of their kids have fallen in love with Asher and he would proabably go home with them if we let him! Here are some pictures from this week:

Play Date

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the twins to share just yet. So I thought that I would post some pictures from the play date that we had this morning.

Last year; Natalie Knauer, Ellen Troyer and I, all found out that we were pregnant at the same time. We all talked about how fun it would be to have play dates together. I thought that it was a good idea, but we probably would never make it happen. Well, we have stepped up the ante.

Instead of just a play date, we have a "play share". Two moms have ALL SIX kids, tag teaming the little kids and the big kids and one mom gets the morning off. We typically get all of the kids together by 9:30am and the "off" mom picks her kids up by 1pm. So two of us get to hang out and play, while all of the kids play. It is definitely chaotic and LOUD with a nearly five year old, a nearly three year old, nearly two year old and three six-eight months olds. But with two moms, it is definitely doable and the off mom comes back having gone shopping, cleaning their house or with a fresh pedicure!

So here are some pictures as we had the play share group at our house this morning while Ellen went birthday shopping for Hadley (who is turning five next week).