CLS Field Trip to Love Creek

 Schaeffer Jo looking at the preying mantis

a stick bug

'Birthday Leader' day at school

 my sweet birthday girl matches

 the horrible beautiful front door

 her class even made her a birthday tiara!

 "just for her!"

princess & the pea in her pile of pillows

Back to school!

 Ta-Dah! 

 mom! no more pictures!

 it's official: look at the backpack. 

 obviously heartbroken.

 putting her bag and headband into her locker

 can't quite reach

 ok, she's goin' in.

 SJ handing in her "I am special" packet

 Yes, Schaeffer is one in the middle with dark brown hair

school: the best nap-prep around. 

How many first days of school do you have before they loose their novelty? I love the first days of school. I love the anticipation, I love how they're all chock full of opportunity and I love nervousness in pit of the stomach. I love the closet full of tag-on clothes. I love the new friends and old friends revisited. 

I love it all. It almost makes me wish I was back in school. Especially if I got that closet. 

Welcome to Stevensville!

 almost up the walk

 unlocking the door

 Schaeffer Jo helping Griffin turn the key

 walking into our new chapter of life

 Griffin & SJ's first picture in the new house

 our first family photo

 SJ camping out in her princess tent 

my sweet goodnight kiss

After many many weeks of uncertainty with the closing process, we were overjoyed when we received the call that the keys were available for our new home. 

With that said, in the week before we received the long-awaited call, I feel victim to a nasty stomach virus. It was rough, and really took me many days to recover. Then, when I was finally well, SJ fell prey to the same horrible, no-good-very-bad bug. 

We rejoiced, that God's timing was so good, that when the blessed call came, everyone was healthy--and we could go into our new home vomit-free. 

hahaharderrharhar. Not more than an hour after we closed the front door were Griffin and I scampering for something (ANYTHING!) that could catch and retain vomit. 

So, needless to say, the sweet pictures above in the princess tent--all for show. 

mani/pedi day

 picking out her "Rapunzel" purple

 pedicure

 happy 4th birthday, my sweet

 painting her toes

 now the fingers

 now the flowers

 so pretty

 all dry!

to Caffe' Tosi for lunch

I had BSF workshop the evening of Schaeffer's 'actual' birthday, and wanted to spend some special one-on-one time with her earlier in the day. 

We spent the day doing girlie things, getting a mani-pedi, strolling downtown Saint Joe, reading in the bookstore and eating lunch outside at Caffe. We enjoyed being together, laughing and just being. What a delight she is to my soul. 

Thank you Jesus, for the greatest gift I've ever been given. 

she's a biker chick!

 Schaeffer Jo & dolly Betsy taking a ride

 ready to hit the road with her helmet

 inaugural ride on the 'road'

Griffin keeping SJ safe

free coasting down the hill

brake testing

I'm not sure when SJ began asking for a big-girl bike, but her big birthday morning surprise was many months in the making. We'd see kids riding their bikes--or families out on a bike ride, and she would remind us just how badly she too would like to have a bike like them--a bike that was not a tricycle. 

Griffin and I were not sure how to fit a bicycle to her mini-size stature without physically taking her to the bike shop, so one afternoon she and I just went to 'look'. It was so much fun watching her ride around the bike shop, select a helmet and fluff the streamers. She made plans about what she would carry in her basket, and how loudly she would ring her bell. 

Then we left without purchasing it. Crisis. So, on her birthday morning, when she received both her bike and her long-lost baby doll Betsy was in the basket--wow. That's a birthday. 

Happy Bouncy Birthday, Schaeffer Jo!

 the birthday girl taking the first bounce

 a princess castle bouncy-house for our birthday princess

 Me, Griffin & SJ having a family bounce before the party got started

 "come on, mom & dad!"

 cheese!

 I'm not sure who was more excited for the bounce house--SJ or Tobi

 the kids starting to arrive 

 happy party go-ers

 rock it, Eli!

 sweet cousins

happy birthday, sweet girl!

 a birthday bo-boo, a not so sweet ending to the day

 is that Schaeffer or Rapunzel?

 Muu-wah!

 getting our 'last jumps' in

 all tuckered out

the war wounds. with birthday pajamas. 

Even now, a month later, my heart swells thinking about Schaeffer's birthday. I feel so blessed to have the privledge of raising my beloved daughter in a community of people that love her as I do. It has been our prayer that she would be quick to establish life-long friends that love God and love her--friends that will walk with her in the great times of life and in the difficult times of life. 

We had a glimpse of these friendships at her party when after much fun was had, she fell head-first off the slide of death a steeply pitched metal slide. Her tender-hearted friends were quick to come to her aid, offering words of comfort and compassion, even offering up prized princess band-aids. 

Her ouchies have been long healed, but the memories are long-imprinted in my memory and heart.