FIVE

Five is a mile marker.  I remember feeling this way when Sister turned five, and now I feel the same as I reflect over your childhood.  Not that you aren't a kid anymore, but you are a bigger, school-aged kid now.  Maybe because all of your siblings' birthdays happen at the end of the school-year, 5 seems like a more significant marker to me.  Either way, I can see it in the way your body has grown taller and your face less boyish.  I can see it in your independence and confidence.  I can see it when you interact with other people outside our family.

So much has changed in this last year.  You have grown just as eager as Songbird to do "school."  You love to listen to good stories, to paint and create beautiful pictures.  You are learning to read short sentences and small books.  You love understanding how things work.  This morning you looked up at the ceiling and asked if the upstairs was above our heads.  I said, "Yes, of course!"  Then you walked all around the downstairs trying to figure out where each room above us was.  You weren't satisfied until you had the whole floor plan completely mapped out.  That's how you are - you love figuring things out and knowing them well.

When I decided to send you to Masters Academy with sister this past Fall, I wasn't sure you were ready.  Every time I dropped you off we had this ritual of you clinging to me, me gently pushing you away, you running back after me (with a big smile on your face).  Then one day I was really sick and could barely get out of the car to walk you in.  I said you were going to have to be brave, and you looked at me and gave me a kiss and a hug, and walked to your class.  And that was it.  Now you run down the hall ahead of me and go to your class on your own, and your teachers marvel at how much you can remember, and how "ready" you are for school (you smile at this, too).

You love learning, you adore both of your sisters, you love swords and bows and arrows, knights and Indians, and you want to have things exactly right when you play dress-up and pretend.  This can be hurtful to others around you sometimes, and we are working on accepting gifts and love from others when they are not just the way you want them to be.

I feel like recently I've seen a sweet softening of your heart, and I was even blessed to overhear you tell Aida you wanted to be baptized on Easter Sunday.  You haven't talked to us about this yet (and Easter is already past), but I'm praying that the Lord would give you eyes to see His love for you and his people.  

For your birthday you wanted a cake that really looked like a castle.  I found these awesome grey pebble chocolates that we used for the walls.  Aside from finding the oven turned up to 500 degrees and burning 1/4 of the cake, the part we salvaged actually turned out tasting alright.  I'm considering a second career in cake decorating :)  It was such a mess I just gave it to you and let you do what you wanted with it (and you were very enthusiastic about the decorating).

For your party you wanted the Maphets, and bows and arrows, so Papa did some research and came up with a good plan.  After making bows and arrows, you had a tournament of sorts - seeing who could shoot the furthest, who could shoot on target, and who could balance over the fire pit.  It was a lot of fun, and we were surprised how engaging it was.

Christ is Risen!

I was encouraged by these verses this Easter morn...
Philippians 2: 4-11
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Happy Easter!

While we were decorating the table

she was decorating her face and feet with orange marker (which she later wore to church)

and he was reveling in his last days as a 4 year-old. 

When it was time for church they gathered all the essentials: two extra pairs of shoes,

one dressed-up bunny and hedgehog

and another dressed-up bunny.

And then we gathered for a family photo

because that's what you do on your way to church on Easter morning :)

Cousins!

Marit and Graham came to visit for a few days, and the kids had soooo much fun together!  They played and played and played outside.  They swung in trees, had pretend battles, climbed a mountain, and generally enjoyed being together so much.

Bunnies!

Mask Girl

Quotes and Such

The other day I had to make a quick trip to Hobby Lobby while the older two were at Masters, and Raindrop was in desperate need of a nap (just one more stop).  As we were walking around the store she started telling stories, and in her sleepiness the stories lessened in length until she was repeating only one phrase over and over again, "And the Lord God said... And the Lord God said... And the Lord God said..."

The next day we were at Kilometer kids and she asked if she could dance.  Flash back to last weekend when we went to Athens, GA and spent much of Saturday at the International Street festival.  There were around 20 different countries / regions represented, and the kids were supposed to get a stamp on their passports from as many countries as they could.  Many of the booths had activities - one of which was decorating masks.  Raindrop loved decorating and wearing her mask, and to our surprise she did a dance solo in front of the entire crowd during the Indian music.  She looked very bird-like with her mask on, and it somehow empowered her.  I really wish I had a video of it.  So when she asked to dance at Kilometer Kids, we knew what was coming.  It was a similar bird-like dance (without the mask), and this time in the middle of the dance she started doing a "narration" in which she repeated The Phrase over and over again in a loud presentation voice: "And the Lord God said... And the Lord God said..."  Tom and I glanced at each other - our daughter,  the street preacher.

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We are preparing for bunnies.  I have been working on the cage (pictures to come), learning a lot in the process, and yesterday we went out to the feed store for the final touches - a water bottle and a bag of rabbit food.  On the trip home I overheard this conversation between Songbird and Bro...
Bro: When we get home will it be rest-time?
Me: Yes
Bro (to Songbird): I don't like rest-time!
Songbird: You don't like rest-time???  I love rest-time.  It's one of my favorite times of the day.  It's a time to be quiet, pray to God, and repent of all the bad things I've done. I like to sing songs of praise, and listen to stories.  I just love rest-time! (I had no idea she was so repentant during rest-time) :)
Bro: Hmmm.  I still don't like it!

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Bro's birthday is coming up, and he has a very specific list of present requests.   He would like a real horse, some real chain mail, and real armor.  Real is the key word here, and it is the word of Bro's life right now.  He wants to know if this story is really, real, if such and such really happened...  Well, he won't be getting any of those things for his birthday, but His Papa is going to help him and some friends make some bows and arrows that will really shoot, and they will have a Scottish games of sorts in the backyard.  We are thinking of a shooting competition, a bamboo throw, a fire jump (OK, maybe we'll just roast marshmallows and hotdogs on the fire), and I will be attempting to make a cake that at least resembles a castle.