A Glorious Spring Celebration

Mark May 2023 as the first family celebration we've been able to go OUTSIDE since September 2022.  We were sad when rain was predicted. It didn't rain. It was a gorgeous day. Today's celebration fell on Gideon's birthday. He is 6 years old today. He came a month early when Mike and I were in Alaska looking for a home to buy so we could all move up here. We moved up in June and everyone followed in July. We also celebrated Arielle turning 26, Izaak's milestone birthday,  JaRissa's  7th anniversary, and Stacia's GRADUATION. 

What? Graduation? This seems to have hit several older Gherkins quite suddenly. Our baby has graduated. An era is done. We've homeschooled for 35 years. Stacia slid into college without taking a break as she rounded home to grab a high school diploma. She didn't want a big ceremony. She wanted to do "whatever" during May's family celebration. So - we did. We've joined homeschool co-ops and had the full-fledged ceremonies for 3. We created our own ceremony at a base community center for one. One walked across a bridge in Japan, one chose DQ with friends in TX (while on a move from Japan to CA). One chose the movie theater, one was a covid graduate, one chose horseback riding and a BBQ here at the house...I love watching how the kids choose to celebrate. Stacia would also like a party with her youth friends...so we're working to get a date picked for that. 

Our baby

📷by Carrie

Everyone brought their own meat to burn, we provided sides and desserts. Several arrived early and helped pull out the picnic tables and set up the trampoline for the season. Y'all - WINTER IS OVER!

Dad agreed to come out for the afternoon. 

GG and Josiah

Nolan, Jared, Noah and Larissa catching up 

Liv, Allie, unseen grands, Danny, Benny, Stacia

Bre, Nolan and Alex in the background

It was fun to have Nolan and Alex arrive from their home across town. Alex brought RIBS.  They were good. I got the recipe. 

Noah is 4 months old! 📷by Carrie

Such sweet giggles! 📷by Larissa

Son, these are chickens. Your Bachan and Papa
are chicken people. 📷by Larissa

The chickens and baby chicks (who are now about 5 weeks old) are a big hit with the younger crowd. 

Monday night at t-ball we ordered a t-ball stand for Wibbly Wobbly Acres Preserve. We were SHOCKED when it arrived on THURSDAY. Josiah and Carrie picked up some bases. Cory and Arielle brought ball and bat, and several brought their gloves. It was great fun. This reminded me of the kick ball games we used to play as a family in CA. 

Go, Livie! 

We had told Shannon and Lindsey, our friends who are....well...going on a road trip...we would be interested in buying the little house they had in the parsonage yard if they needed to move it. They decided they were giving it to us. When we picked it up it also came with a car, a wagon, a couple of bikes, a small thing of nail polish, assorted little plastic toys in the carrier area... What a huge surprise...and let me tell you each toy was widely appreciated. It gave me secret smiles as I remembered conversations with Lindsey...and watched the grands play on the girls' toys. 

Powered by 100% girl power! 📷by Allie

Benny and Bella 📷by Allie

Michael power-washed the house. We have plans to stain and paint it to match our house, but it didn't get done by today. The kids didn't care. 

Benny, Little Buddy, Bella📷by Allie

Gideon loved being a chauffeur. 📷by Allie

These two! Pure energy and activity. Pure joy. You can see Danny's face. Little Buddy's was just as excited. They took turns driving each other around. 

📷by Allie

Josiah - our 3rd 2 yo. (Jo jo)

Danny seems to be the grand which loves the horse the best. He sits on it and patiently waits. When one of us hits it's rump and it makes galloping noises he begins to madly ride it. LOL  Actually, the horse was gifted to us by Shannon and Lindsey last year when the girls had grown out of it. It's still well-loved. 

A boy and his horse. 

Uncle Jamin arrived. Being self-employed, work often hounds him - but he does a good job of being present with us when he can break away. He's a favorite with the grands. 

Jamin, Annie, Benny and Jojo📷by Allie

Danny plays hard.

 Hello, Boys! 📷by Allie

Little Budy - we love you! 📷by Allie

SMACK! Gideon's got it. 📷by Allie

BreZaak's children - minus Trudy📷by Carrie

The wind picked up and it got chilly. The timing was perfect to move inside for cakes and gifts. First, Stacia had to don a graduation robe and walk the aisle...while Pomp and Circumstance played. We cheered. She didn't give a speech. 

Perfect gift! Arielle is 26. Letting that sink in.  

Josiah had been eagerly waiting for Arielle to open her gift. It's a T-rex toilet paper holder...and it fits the theme of the bathroom in their new home. The master suite has a bathroom so the hallway bathroom has been dubbed "the boys bathroom" and they chose all things dinosaur. 

It's been fun to watch Jared slide into his new Daddy role. 

📷by Carrie

Yes, we continue to put candles for each celebrant on a cake round. Gideon was excited. He loved his spiderman cake. He matched the cake. 

Izaak had quite a few more candles than Gideon. 

I laughed when one of the kids said, "Aunt Arielle, You're old." The comment soon followed that Izaak was "very old." Kids are fun! 

Gideon was the designated pig hat wearer. 

Izaak worked long hours on homework all week so he could join us. We are so happy he did. It was fun to celebrate him in person. Izaak is just about to finish a masters in human services...and then he will finish his masters from seminary in formational leadership or something leadership. He's been working diligently, steadily....and when the masters are done? He will be able to get into the Phd program he wants to get into for counseling from Liberty University. I may well edit the exact titles of these degrees at a later date. LOL  I LOVE all the online options for young families these days. I wish we could have spent a few more years in Eugene with family before moving away for seminary...but in the day...one went "in residence." 

Allie has been missing JaRissa's visits as they conflict with her work schedule. She soaked up lots of vibes from all the grands today...but especially Noah bear. 

📷by Larissa

📷by Larissa

📷by Larissa

Sweet moments with Trudy. She is six months old already! 

📷by Larissa

I leave you with this very telling photo. Benny is dying to get his chance to hold the chicks. Papa told him to wait a bit, then someone gave Papa Noah bear. Both Papa and Benny have priceless expressions. 

📷by Larissa

Yes, all who wanted to hold a chick were able to do so. 

We missed Krista and Luke. Krista was in Hawaii last week and is Guam this week. 

Now, it feels like spring is really here. A month ago, we were shoveling and snow blowing to get to the play set...today...things are starting to green up nicely. Two Saturdays ago we still had 4 feet of snow on the ground, and it was snowing. One week ago, the snow was mostly gone - and everything was brown. Today all our snow is gone, the ground is drying out nicely and green leaves have appeared everywhere. The neighbors are disappearing and that always signals summer. 

Puzzle Mania

 Benny did some extra chores to earn some money, went to the thrift store and bought Stacia this puzzle with his own money. She brought it out in April and enlisted Dad's help. Dad's never been a puzzle enthusiast, but he did spend lots of time with this puzzle over the month. 

April 18th 

If the truth were known, Michael and Stacia put together the bulk of this puzzle. We quickly discovered it was much bigger than we thought it was....the big table took up quite a bit of space upstairs...

April 19th 

April 23rd

A funny thing about the process is that Dad often sat down and decided that "he'd put things in the wrong place," and undid the work Michael did late at night. 

May 1st

With snow still on the ground, this project kept us engaged inside the house. LOL 

May 8th 

May 19th 

And finally, a month after it was started it was finished. We are still not sure where it is going. Stacia planned to put it on her wall, but didn't envision it being this big. We may pass it on...

TGIF

Stacia and I hopped over to the cafe for a breakfast study.  We had JUST enough time to pick up our click it order before she had to be home for Japanese. The plan had me starting potatoes for potato salad and making coleslaw and an ice cream cake.  Stacia would finish school and we would jump out for a bit of the Friday fling before Allie had to go to work. 

The first snafu happened when I went to get my order. I had my confirmation. They had NO recollection of me having placed an order. I came home and placed the order again.  

There are times when you meet someone, and you simply know you are going to be friends. I have recently met a few ladies like this. It worked out that one had a couple of hours "free" today...Michael told me to race over to spend a couple of hours of getting to know each other and connecting, and he stayed with GG to make it possible. 

I stopped to pick up the click it order on my way back through our town. They told me they didn't have it. I waited until the text said to show up and they magically had it. HOWEVER, when we got home, we discovered a couple of main items I needed were not in the order. 

Stacia threw together an ice cream cake - without hardshell - while I tried to figure out what to do next. Allie had to go to work.  We didn't make it to the Friday fling. Michael got home from his lunch study with Alex. I had an hour before he needed to leave to meet Danny, a friend whose college tests he is proctoring. Stacia and I ran back into town to Freddies and picked up the missing items. 

She started decorating one of the cakes for tomorrow's shindig. It begins with frosting on parchment paper on the counter. 

Yesterday she only used white frosting. He looks much better with color. LOL 

The tricky part is transferring the paper to the top of a frosted cake....and then lifting it off. 

At this point I was helpfully suggesting we scrape off as much frosting as we could and try again. 

Her plan was better. She fixed all the spots that needed fixing. I think this cake will make Gideon happy. He is turning 6. 

We put pizza in the oven when we thought it was about time for Michael to come home. 

We watched an episode on Prime while we waited for Michael and the dinner to be ready. After dinner I made coleslaw, we doctored up the potato salad we BOUGHT this afternoon when we noted how time was racing away from us, we packed away all my snowmen, took down the outside nativity and the winter signs from GG's ramp. 

We are hoping for nice weather tomorrow. We so want to sit outside and enjoy the yard, the toys, the sun after a long winter. 

And so, in the end, very little went "smoothly" today but the day turned out to be a day of refreshing in the midst of the activity. 

Study, Tires and T-ball

Allie and I headed to a local cafe for today's Bible study. We were a bit "off" and spent most of our time talking about things other than the study. That's o.k. It happens. 

Michael and I gave one of Allie's co-workers a ride to work today. It was fun to meet him and to help him out a bit. 

Michael has been busy fixing a leaky faucet...Stacia crumb coated a cake...Allie is at work. I can't remember what I did with the day...I got five meals in the freezer for Dad and I'm not sure what else I did. I kept busy.  

As we were eating the front door opened. Alex was here to stay with GG while we went out for life group....this isn't life group week. LOL He stayed and visited. It was fun to catch up with all the new happenings in his life. He and Nolan moved out a couple of weeks ago. 

Michael offered to help Alex switch over his tires while he was here. 

We ordered a T-ball stand on Monday night. We were sad it wouldn't be here for Saturday's family celebration. LOOK what came today! We are praying the rain doesn't interfere with our plans to spend time in the yard. 

Dad is ready for bed. Michael is working on a puzzle. Stacia and I may stream something....tomorrow I'd love to get the outside Christmas and winter decorations down now that the snow is gone. We'll see. 

Avoiding Goodbyes, Cake Decorating and Such

Michael and I snuck out to have lunch with some dear friends at their house. At some point, I'm sure I'll say more...but Shannon and Lindsey have been our pastors for the past 6 years. They are in the process of moving. It was a pleasure to be able to sit around their table and talk...we had thought this may be the last time we see them, but we've come up with a way to ensure at least one more visit. We have taken evading goodbye to pro level. Here is a photo of us on April 30th, their last Sunday at church. 

Front - Pen, Allie, Me, Lindsey, Harper, Sydney
Back Stacia, Michael, Shannon 

 

Michael dropped me at home and went out to Lowe's. We have a faucet which is suddenly leaking a steady stream of water. He came home with wood - so something else must be in the works as well.  Editor's note: Michael bought wood to make shelves for under the stairs. 

When I got home Stacia was trying out a new technique for cake decorating. It involves frosting on parchment paper (using a template) and transferring it to a cake top...she practiced with white frosting, so it doesn't show up well...but I think she's comfortable in trying it on the real cake for Saturday. 

While she played with frosting, I got moose stroganoff in the instant pot. I even made the pasta and left it warming.  Editor's note: I've been asked where the moose came from. Could it be our garden pest? Nah. Our son in law keeps us in moose and we keep him in farm fresh eggs. 

The pastoral search team has been meeting on Wed nights from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. We have been meeting with others at the church at that time to pray for the church, the team, the decision, and the families who are waiting to see if God leads them here. Michael brings GG home after prayer time. The girls stay for youth, and I head to women's Bible study. It is a good night when I have dinner in the crock pots for the men. 

It's 9:41 p.m. and it's time to wind down but it is BRIGHT as day outside. Tis' the season.