Spirit Week and Packages

 This week is Spirit week at school!  It is almost like having halloween every single day--so many costumes to think of!  Even though Elijah is our only boy in school, Malachi and Luke wanted to walk in the parade too!  Elijah was having fun on the first day--sports day!

 I love to see the little guys following their older brother, and Elijah looking up to the older boys at school.

 Meanwhile, back at the home front, Malachi got his birthday package from Grandma Bruce!  So fun!  What's inside?!

 I found the bottom of this kitchen set for sale at a cheap price at a used surplus store.  What a blessing!  Then I had Kuya Arman fix it for me and add the top shelves.  It was fun to put little things in it for Malachi, but so perfect was the fact that Mom found some pans that fit just right on the top.  Thanks Grandma!

 Malachi loves to cook, and I love to watch him pretend!

 Malachi is sitting down to enjoy the meal he just made.  Love the cupcakes, Mom!

 Day two Elijah was a King.  He looks so funny!

 And Sojo was his princess!  Oh, he got 2 princesses--Mika too!

 Day three Elijah was a tree, Malachi was the sun, Luke a leaf, and Papa was a rain cloud.

 I don't think Eljiah liked day 3 as much.  His arms were tired from holding up his branches.  Note to self: Do not make a costume that requires holding arms up for ten minutes, and do not make paper costumes.

 Malachi is one serious-looking sun!  Hahaha!  Oh, I think Moms have more laughs on spirit week than the kids do.  Who would like to make a caption for this photo?

Soccer season has started!  I am now officially a "soccer mom".  I always knew I would be one day--and that day has come!  So fun to have snacks with friends after a great rainy practice.

Malachi's 4th Birthday

 My Malachi turned 4 last week!  He requested a green taxi cake.  We have a lot of colored taxis around our city now--they used to all be white.  Now we find pink, orange, yellow, mint, and Malachi's fave--green!  This is my attempt.  (Cheri and Beckie, I always praise God for you when I decorate cakes)!

 I had so much fun watching Malachi at 6:30 A.M. discovering all the birthday surprises I left for him.  He put his presents in a nice tidy pile and then stood on the table to look at his balloons.  "Mom, you should put balloons in the kitchen too," he chided me!

 I took Malachi on a MacDo breakfast date for pancakes.  On our way through the school we saw Papa!  What a happy boy, sitting with both parents and no siblings.  He felt special.

 Yay!  I'm 4!  Big boy!

 His party was after school, so that Elijah and friends could come.  We has a Bible story from Leviticus 7--who knew!  God gave a recipe for cakes in the Bible!  To give thanks to God you can make a cake. We were off to make our own too!

 The kids got their aprons on and partnered up.  Time to crack some eggs!  Thanks to my wonderful helpers, especially Ate Mary Jane, who baked 10 little cakes for party favors (later we decorated).

 Malachi loves to watch Dora, so I made him his own treasure map.  He carried it all the way through to the treasure--his presents!

 I love how he studied the map I made for him.  We still play with it during the day at home--the map IS the treasure!

 4 candles!  I love the glow in his eyes when it was finally his turn to be the one with the candles to blow.  Both brothers birthdays were in May, so he wondered when it would finally be HIS turn!  Thank you, Lord, for friends!

 Time to eat our cake!  We also enjoyed homemade ice cream--thanks to Kaci for giving us that maker!

 The cakes finally cooled and it was time to decorate.  Luke, how many sprinkles did you put on there!?  Wow, that is a lot of umbrellas.  So fun--our party favors.  I think Luke was licking the purple frosting.

Right after the party Nate and I had to jet off on a plane to Manila for our embassy visit with Emily.  So to make it up to the boys, we went swimming on Saturday for a family day.  Emily is in on the sand fun with her darling little suit!

See Facebook for an album of 62 photos!

Wolves in Wolves' Clothing

Since it is Halloween, a day of costumes, I thought it would be fitting to share this journal entry I wrote on 04.22.12.

We were in line at MacDonald's, and a big purple character [Grimace] came past in costume.  I pointed it out saying "Oh!  Look!  There's a purple guy!", thinking it would be fun.  But Malachi's eyes grew wide in horror.  When the character walked silently by and touched Malachi's arm, he screamed in torture.

Oh my tender boy!  His framework has no room for scary blob characters in costume.  It was his first time to encounter anything like the Grimace.  As adults we just register that there is a nice guy inside the costume and he's dressing up for fun, but for him it was a wolf in wolves' clothing.

"Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."  Matthew 7.15

To make me feel even worse, as I was comforting him and holding his hands as he sat in the stroller, the robber character then appeared from the back and walked right past us.  The look on Malachi's face was terror as if looking at a real lion or seeing a demon.  He shrieked a scream of pure fear and asked me to hold him.  I feel so bad!

What kind of character is the robber anyway!?  A huge scary-looking guy is supposed to make little kids giggle?  Malachi could see it for what it really was to innocent eyes--something that doesn't belong in our world as usual.

"Therefore Jesus said again, 'I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them."  John 10. 7-8

Other people have reprogrammed their minds to include foreign creatures like that, but 2 year olds know they don't belong.

"When [the shepherd] has brought out all of his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."  John 10.4-5

We were talking about the soul in book club Thursday [Renovation of the Heart by Willard], and how our world now as we know it is not "normal" but we've come to accept it as though it is.  Homosexuals on TV or walking around, sex displayed on public TV, violence, killings, shootings on the normal nightly "news".

It's "usual" but not "normal".  It's our world distorted by sin and twisted to where we are supposed to think it's all fun and parties when really it is a scary character in costume that doesn't belong.

Lord, what scary things do I see that are evil to you, too sinful to let innocent eyes see, that I have reprogrammed my mind to think it acceptable and fun?  What do I try to laugh and smile at because I'm "supposed to" (for the "birthday party', or to "fit in"), when really I should scream in horror at it and be shocked at it?

What things to you are wolves in wolves' clothing when we think it is a cute cuddly sheep?

"Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.  It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness."  2 Corinthians 11.14-15