Sneak Peak at Halloween

This weekend our gracious neighbors invited us upstairs for drinks and pumpkin carving (after Eva's bedtime.) These fun people had compete pumpkin-carving sets, patterns, tools, and one pumpkin even ended up with jewels, shoes, eyeliner and a hat!

Peter and I tackled a funny faced pumpkin shape, which yes, took me/us a while to do. But it was amazing what the finished product looked like!

Then we brought home a kid-friendly pattern of a kitty-cat to carve on another pumpkin with Eva. She LOVED it - well, the idea of it at least; and the finished product. The in-between actually carving part, she didn't care for much.

After carving her cat pumpkin, I wanted to try on her outfit for Halloween since I am heading out of town and will miss her dressing up for our church party on Saturday. Again, she LOVED the idea of it - but did not cooperate too long for a good picture. I did, however, get one side picture of her get-up, and then a funny video her practicing her hee-haws with her dad. :) We have a pretty cute cow-girl at our house!   

A Day in the Woods at Camp (with Jesus)

Our family had a short trip up to WI for a pastor/spouse retreat, and P and I decided to bring Eva with us. We enjoyed the bright fall leaves, the cool winds creating crunchy forest noises, seeing the lake during the day and learning about paths at night, and the full moon and sparkling stars that were out. Eva loved playing with a little girl almost exactly her age (Ela), along with some other kids at the retreat, Ela's grandparents and our friend Hannah (who all graciously helped out from time to time with child care.)

After our whirlwind visit to this new place, complete with the kindness of new friends, exploring new buildings and toys, and walking around with mom and dad amidst north-woods beauty, I told Eva that people come to this camp because we all are part of the same big church, we all love Jesus, and at camp we all learn more about God and make friends. She looked at me, seemed to think about it, and asked again, "All from the same church? All the people know Jesus?"  I answered yes, and we kept on walking. 

That night, and then last night, Eva wanted me to sing her "Jesus Loves Me" at night - which I didn't think much of, even though it is a new song for the bedtime rotation. And now since getting back home, her mealtime prayer has changed from the regular, "Dear God, thank you for food, A-Men!" It has now been replaced with, "Dear God, Jesus loves me, Amen."   I think maybe camp has already started to have its affect of helping my girl meet people who know God and love Jesus - and feel that love in return.  :) And I am feeling grateful.  

Happy 40th!

Peter's parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this last week - woo-hoo!  All 4 kids, 3 spouses, and a bunch of friends and family celebrated together at an open house party a their church Sunday afternoon.

One of my contributions was decorating and arranging photos for the big day. It was pretty fun to look through old snapshots of Tom and Karen from 20, 30, 40+ years ago and arrange them for others to look at. Whenever I look at old family photos, I am always struck by how similar people look at various ages. Like one shot we displayed of Karen and Tom when they were in their twenties - she was laughing, holding a can of soda, with Tom being mischievous behind her - that could be them today! And it looked just like any young couple today would, on a camping trip, being goofy  and having fun. Looking at them on their wedding day also reminded e of how fast time does move, and how we never know what the future's specific will look like til we get there. They are so young, so ready for anything in their old photos! Then marriage happens in the midst of real life, and you work at things, learn things, get better and worse at things - and, poof! 40 years have gone by. It reminds me of a quote - "No one is made overnight; our real lives are a lifetime of choices in the making."   

It is also always fun to see the extended family and friends in Michigan - Eva even made some new friends (including Jackson, who was such a great sport/older playmate!)

Congrats again to Tom and Karen on 40 years of family, faith, struggles and joys; what a fun day we had celebrating you! (This is one of my favorite shots - it is after feeding each other cake. Hee hee.) 

PS - VerHage family, my photos from the weekend are now on smugmug, fyi. If you have other pics I would love to see them sometime!       

Being Born and Growing Up

While in the car on our drive to MI this past weekend (more photos and stories from that adventure coming soon), Eva told us quite a long story about being born and growing up. It was fairly random - she started the story while we were on 90/94 downtown and she was looking at the skyscrapers, and it was fairly long - what follows is the general recap of what I remember, wit direct quotes where I remember them. It was a very sweet little story that had Peter and I both grinning though, and I wanted to remember it. Snippets of her story relate to us having a friend over last week that was 9 months pregnant and talking about that, and she and I visiting the pharmacy together in the hospital where she was born and me pointing out the floor where my doctor was. Eva's little story went something like this:

"Momma, did you know I was born? And I was just a little baby, a teeny tiny baby, but not right now. Long time ago, I was born. And I was born at the hospital, and I was in Mommy's tummy, and I was sleeping. And then, I WAS BORN! Now I am not baby. Now I older, I am big girl. I am getting bigger and bigger!"

(me) "That's right babe, you were born just a tiny little baby. And how old are you right now?"

"I am two and half, I am big, not like when I was born. But then I keep getting older and older, and older and older, and then I can go to school and play outside and see my friends! When I get older though, I not older now."

(me) "That's right hon; did you know that everyone starts as a tiny baby and then gets older? Daddy was a baby - and then he got older - and now he's grown up. Mommy was a baby - and then I got older - and -"

(Eva cutting me off) "..And now you're MOMMY! Awww, mommy is all grown up. Are you two and half?"

"No, I am older then that. I am thirty-three!  Really old!"

"Wow, thirty-three?? That is WONDERFUL!" (said emphatically!) 

Super Grammy!

Last week was one of those whirlwind weeks, followed by a full weekend, and then followed by crazy full start to another week. It was just one of those sequences where fun, and work, and church, and household-ey things, and two flat tires, and deadlines all piled together to make a very full week and a half. In the middle of this full calendar, and contributing to the fullness, Peter left town for a conference for 3 days. I was planning on just using extra sitter help and winging the Sunday-Wednesday stint on my own, but then my mom got off of work and fabulously volunteered to come to town and help out while he was gone. Tonight, now that she's gone, I am realizing just how much she did while she was here!

Grammy Lou did all the dishes and almost all the meals for me while she was here. She left us homemade apple crisp, pumpkin pie, and shelves full of groceries and Target items. Grammy cleaned up the playroom and kitchen each day, and tidied up other rooms, clothes, and stuff on tables strewn around hourly by our two year old. She re-sewed two pairs of curtains for our bedroom, hemmed my dress pants, and took us girls out for Chinese and shopping at night. She helped me pick up our car from the mechanic's lot, provided a second car for a few days in general, and watched Pirates of the Caribbean with me in the evening. All this was on top of, and not an expected/required part of, me asking her to come and help out with Eva while I was pretending at single parenthood. She got up with Eva in the mornings, watched her while I was teaching or at work, and made up games, songs, crafts, and homemade cocoa with marshmallows for her grand-daughter. It was SUCH a relief to have her help and I kind of can't believe all that she got done. BIG THANKS to you mom. :)

I told her when she was leaving today that I should get her a cape - since she's Super Grammy!      

         

I love that...

... every night at bedtime, after Eva and I read two stories together, she wants me to sing her a specific sequence of songs. First, it's (a short version of), "Chim - Chiminey;" second, it's "Feed the Birds;" and then the grand finale is her favorite, staple, always and seems ever will be the last song she wants - "Baby Mine." She visibly relaxes when we get to the last song, closes her eyes, sighs out loud dramatically, clutches her lambie and looks up at me so gratefully from her little bed. Then she gives me a big sloppy kiss, then a cute little nose kiss, and then she turns over under her covers and says, "Good night Mommy, I play with you in the morning."

I love this little girl. I love that she knows the words to each of these songs. I love that she sings "Baby Mine" to her babies when she's playing. I love how tender and sweet and creative she is, and how all those things flavor our bedtime rituals. I love how she scrunches up her nose for a nose kiss and then giggles. And I just love that I get to be her mom. :)