Easter Baptism

It was a very busy weekend.  Not only was it the standard Easter chaos, but it was also my daughter's baptism. 

The menu for the baptism party at church was extensive.  I went a little over board, as usual.  But I wanted to make this day as special as possible.

Wacky cake with butter cream frosting
Shortbread Cookies with butter cream frosting
Chocolate covered strawberries
Cream Puffs
Deviled eggs
salami and cream cheese wrapped green onions
salami with cream cheese
meat tray
cheese tray
crackers
crab dip
tempinade
(this two were made by my mother in law, thankfully)

And I am positive I am missing something.

I spent all day in the kitchen on Saturday, but it was worth it!  Anything for my little girls big day! I do not have a picture of my table, someone at church took a picture and will be sending it to me.  So I will post it as soon as I get it.  Basically, we catered and decorated for over a hundred people.  If I were smarter, I would have starter earlier than Saturday.  But I was not, and it worked out fine!

What I wanted to show you today are the pictures from the baptism.  So bear with me as I am going to be the proud mama.

 We will first start with Middle Bit.  He was an acolyte for the service.  He absolutely loves this job.  I think it is cute because when he lights the candles, you can barely see his head.

 Our priest called all children to the front to explain baptism an why it is important on Easter.  Little Bit stood bravely at the front.  Please notice the dress!  My mother made this beautiful white dress for Little Bit.  It was absolutely the most beautiful dress, and Little Bit was gorgeous.

 We are standing next to Little Bit, with the Godparents and all the kids in the service.

The Baptism and the oil.  I love the last picture!

Finally, the priest gave all the children rosemary sprigs, and had them dip them in holy water.  Then, the kids baptized the congregation by flinging water on everyone!  Needless to say, we were all pretty drenched!

Little Bit was so excited about this day.  When asked what made her most excited she exclaimed, "I got to wear my new dress!"

I hope you all had a very Happy Easter!

Love,

Suzy

Service

My son decided he was going to collect clothes for the orphanage where his little sister came from.  We did not plant this idea in his head, I promise you.  He honestly came up to us last September and stated, "Mom, Dad.  I want to collect clothes for the orphans.  Can I make a flier and hand it out to people?"

Really, what else can you do, but respond with a, "Yes, of course you can!"  We ended up posting it on my other blog as well, and the clothes started coming in.  We even had clothes come from Washington D.C.!

This past weekend, we finally had the opportunity to go to Denver and deliver these clothes to the agency we adopted Little Bit from.

Chinese Children Adoption International has adopted thousands of children to their forever families.

The pictures in the hallways tell the story.  They are lined with pictures of all the children who were once without a smile and a home, now happy and loved.

These pictures are everywhere.
Not only does CCAI adopt beautiful children, but they also hold classes.

Chinese language, Chinese cooking and dance.
This is truly an amazing and inspiring agency who has made it their life mission to help the orphan.

We were privileged to take a tour through this agency and deliver the clothes that my son collected.

We are proud of Samuel.  He stepped outside of himself to do something for others.  Now, it did not have to be a huge project like he chose, but we are grateful for his heart and his willingness to think big.  He was excited to deliver these clothes, to meet the owner and to see whom the clothes were going to.  He walked away with a heart for the world.  This is what is gained from teaching the importance of service to our kids.

Have a wonderful day everyone!
Love,
Suzy

Cleaning, a Trip, and a Gift

I have been in the throws of spring cleaning.  How is it, one can keep their house pretty clean, yet get grossed out when spring cleaning. 

I am almost done, then next week, I will be starting outside.  I m so excited about going outside and getting my hands dirty again.  Although, I must say, I am getting them pretty dirty in my house.

I have been able to find a complete supply of Nerf gun bullets for my kids while cleaning.  As a family we have the perfect house for Nerf gun wars.  We hide behind furniture, plan out attacks, our battles are legendary.  Relatives do not come over without their guns.  I have found bullets everywhere!  And the kids are happy and ready to reload.  But they are going to have to wait.

We are going on a vacation to Denver tomorrow.  It is a vacation mixed with activities provided by the military.  This vacation is for families who have experience deployment in the past year.  So there will be team building activities mixed with our fun family time.  We are excited, and leaving a day early so we can have extra family time.

Photo Credit

My husband has many friends from college living in Denver, so we get to visit with their families, and listen to fun college stories.  We are going to home school along the way, and teach a little history, geography etc.  Great hands on way of teaching.  I love these ultimate vacation/field trips.

Finally, we get to deliver a gift to our adoption agency while we are there.

At the beginning of the school year, Oldest Bit decided he was going to make fliers and hand them out to everyone he knew.  These fliers were to collect clothing items for the orphans in China.  When I say decided to make fliers, I want to be clear.  We did not plant this idea in his head.  He went on the kids computer, went to power point and created a flier.  Then gave the flier to everyone we knew and did not know.  He did it completely on his own.  We ended up getting clothes from all over, including Washington D.C..  I contacted our adoption agency about his project, and they were so excited!  This week, Samuel finally gets to deliver what was collected.

This is a little taste of what he collected!  Really, there is a great deal more!  I have been going through all of the clothes, sorting and washing.  I am very, very proud of him!

The next time I post will be from Denver!

Have a great day everyone!
Suzy