Sophie's Date Night With Daddy

One of the many great things about the two-day-a-week preschool Sophie attends is the way they include family members in special ways. Tonight Sophie and Judd went on a special date together at the preschool. Sophie adores her daddy and daily asks him to marry her (which means they dress up as a prince and princess and dance together). She carefully picked out her outfit tonight, made sure her teeth were sparkling clean (princesses want fresh breath and clean teeth), put on her lip gloss (ChapStick) and brushed her hair a million times. She even wore Mommy's best perfume too.

At school tonight they ate football shaped cookies, gave tours of the classroom, and completed some fun activities. Sophie's teacher sat down with her to have her answers questions like:

How tall is your daddy?  - 3 feet

How old is your daddy? - 12

... and so forth. All her answers were written on a little keepsake certificate for her scrapbook.

Daddy and daughter both had a wonderful evening. I know Judd continues to set the dating bar very high for any future boys who want to date Sophie (years and years from now). And that's one more reason I love him!



Sophie's New Clean Heart

I love my family. Judd, Sophie, Piper, and Riley are my world, and I thank God for giving me such a wonderful family.

Because I have a relationship with Jesus, it is only natural that I would want my children to also.

We attend one of the largest and most incredible churches in the U.S. - Church On The Move. Several weeks ago each child received a CD as they left their church classrooms. As the disc plays, a story is told of good vs. evil - a loving King who fights a dragon. The story is dramatic and hold kids' attention. After the story ends, one of the pastors explains, in such a simple way, how the story parallels God's love for us. God loves us so much he sent Jesus to die on the cross so He could exchange our sinful heart with a new clean heart; then, we're part of His family and belong to His kingdom. The pastor leads the listener in a prayer to receive Jesus and His gift of a new clean heart. Finally, a fantastic upbeat song plays about Jesus being alive and being our King.

Sophie loves this CD. She's listens to it several times a day, asking questions here and there, and singing the song repeatedly. Yesterday, on our way back home from our road trip up to Nebraska and South Dakota, Sophie danced around our hotel room. She made up praise songs to Jesus. If she caught Judd or I looking at her she said, "I'm just praying to God and singing to Him." When we got in the car Sophie asked us to play her "Jesus" CD again. She wanted to listen to it four times in a row. She asked Judd and I questions about being born with a sinful heart. When Judd told her that we asked Jesus for a new clean heart when we were children, she was ready to pray. She prayed aloud following the prayer on the CD and shouted, "Hooray! I'm so proud of myself for asking Jesus for a new clean heart!" Hooray! I'm so excited! Jesus will never leave me!"

I was so thankful God allowed Judd and me to experience this salvation prayer with Sophie. It was a real and eternal decision. Sophie's decision means everything to us. Maybe you understand this, maybe you don't - but it is as (or more) important than the day I gave birth to her. What a gift - knowing Sophie belongs to Jesus - forever!

Sophia Coco Turns Four

We celebrated Sophia Coco's fourth birthday this past weekend with a garden theme. I baked two kinds of cupcakes - yellow and strawberry. The buttercream frosting was piped onto the cupcakes using my new Wilton #1M decorator tip. I placed donut holes and pink marshmallows on skewers because they reminded me of fairy wands or bouquets of flowers.

Each cupcake had a sucker (flower), green sugar glitter (grass), and green sugared candy (leaf). The swizzle stick rock candy reminded me of hollyhocks and snapdragons.



Sophie wanted her own cake instead of a cupcake. She has very specific ideas for decor, style, flavors, and presentation (I wonder where in the world she gets that - ha!). She asked for a pink, two-layered cake with white icing, pink sugar glitter, and a butterfly. I bought two 6" round cake pans at Michael's along with the non edible butterfly.

I gathered paper lanterns and handmade tissue paper flower pom-poms of various sizes and colors. I tied them onto a 5/8" dowel rod which Judd suspended from the air vents in our ceiling using fishing line and paper clips. (eat your heart out, Macgyver) Small flower garlands draped below.

I took my inspiration from this amazing paper lantern/pompom collection here.

I displayed pictures of Sophie and included little information tidbits about her which allowed people to get to know her even better. One card displayed Sophie's favorite foods, another card listed her favorite places, another her favorite colors, and the fourth shared her favorite activities.

Sophie had a wonderful time jumping with her friends on the trampoline which was her birthday present from us.

Her sweet friends looked on as she opened her gifts.

Of course we sang happy birthday as she blew out her candles.

It was a fantastic party. Sophie felt celebrated and special as she turned four years old.