Wordless Wednesday

Our little Bielke

Lots of Treats. No Tricks at all.

Today was a wild and crazy day, but it was absolutely WONDERFUL! Sophie has been participating in a camp at our local theatre for the past three months. Two days a week for two hours after school, she headed up to the theatre to be with other community children who like to act and want to learn more about being on the stage. This is the same theatre where John is acting in "Fiddler on the Roof", so the kids in the camp were working on "Fiddler on the Roof, Jr". Sophie was cast as Tevye's youngest daughter, Bielke. She has been loving every minute of this camp.

Today was their first of two performances. It was PHENOMENAL! Aside from Sophie, all of the other cast members were between the ages of 7 and 13. These are some talented children, and we loved the show. Sophie was precious up there. She held her own with those big kids and you could tell she was just soaking in the moment. She delivered her lines right on cue, and John and I were really very impressed with her poise up there.

We got home from that show (after John took Sophie for some celebratory ice cream) at about 4. John had to be back at the theatre at 6:30 for the evening performance of "Fiddler". We let the girls rest for a while because sweet little Ella was sleepy and a little puny - most likely from all of this stinking rain we have been having! Then we got the girls ready for trick-or-treating early so Daddy could go with us.

Luckily, it was light enough outside that I was able to get some pictures of the girls with my good camera. I have yet to get the flash repaired, but it still works great in natural light! :-)

Sophie was a cowgirl and Ella was Minnie Mouse. They were so precious this year. We only went to about six houses before John had to leave for his show, but the girls had such fun.

We are just so blessed. Our girls are healthy and happy. God provides us with these awesome opportunities for wonderful life experiences for our girls. His mercies are new each morning, and we are so thankful for that! Seeing my girls dressed up always makes me yearn for my sister. I know she would just eat them up. I am thankful for the time we had with her. I am also so thankful for the time she had with Sophie. And I know that she wouldn't want to come back from the Paradise she is in now - not even for my little princesses. But I see so much of her in them, and that is such a treat.

PITIFUL!

Pitiful. I am a pitiful blogger! My camera is broken. I feel lost without it. Completely lost. They told me the average repair time on the camera is 6 weeks. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!? I feel so naked without it. I am having to make do with cell phone pictures, but it is just not the same.

John opened in "Fiddler on the Roof" last night. He is so great up there. Totally cracks me up! We are getting ready to start rehearsals for "Annie" on Tuesday. I still cannot believe that I am going to be on stage with John, Sophie, and Ella. We are so excited; we are hoping that Ryan will be able to work backstage for the show since she is not going to be in it.

I am still working on pictures from our trip to Jackson Hole. John and I had a wonderful time up there. It was gorgeous! After a hectic summer and beginning to the school year, it was wonderful to be able to just escape for a few days and focus on each other.

I am hoping to get the girls to the pumpkin patch soon. Not sure what I will do without my camera, though. :-(

Wordless Wednesday

Change

Please be praying for our sweet Sophie. Tomorrow will start the 4th week of the school year. She is doing so well in school but really seems to be having a hard time adjusting to being a "big girl" now. It is so hard as a mommy to watch her struggle and not be able to help her fix it. She loved school last year and was so excited to head back this year. But the tears came the minute we walked into her classroom. She told me that it made her sad that there were no toys in there (go figure!). I tell you what - it made ME sad that there were no toys in there, too. It just looked like such a grown up room!

In the past couple of weeks, it just seems like she has started really growing and maturing right before my eyes. I mean, I realize that she has been growing since the day she was born, but there is something different about her now. I cannot put my finger on exactly what it is, but I just feel like I do not even want to blink because I will miss something with her. She is growing and maturing into a very sweet and loving little girl. She loves to please. She will write out all of her spelling words for practice and then ask me to draw a smiley face on her paper if I like the way she wrote them.

My very favorite time of the day is when we are walking to school. She holds my hand, helps me push Ella in the stroller, and we pray together. She always asks me to pray for a certain little boy in her class who always has to move his clip. Apparently he has trouble keeping his little mouth closed. Most days she also wants to pray that she makes wise choices. And that SHE does not have to move her clip. She prays a lot about other kids in her class that she is worried about. It makes me so proud of her. She just is such a neat kid. I love it that the Lord puts others on her heart as much as He does. And that she is already willing to listen and act on that. Such a cool thing to witness as a parent!

So, for as well as she seems to be adjusting, we still have lots of fears and tears. Fears over things that are just becoming real to her ("What happens to us if you and Daddy die at the same time?" - yes, she asked me that out of the blue one night during bedtime prayers!). Tears over leaving friends and teachers behind. Everyone warned me that this was a big year of changes and adjusting, but I guess I just assumed Sophie would not struggle with it. Needless to say, I spend a lot of my day thinking about her and praying for her - that the Lord would give her peace and remind her that He is in control. That He would help her to make wise choices and that He would help me as a parent who is struggling to ease her fears.

I now know what people were talking about when they said that becoming a mommy meant you would learn what it was like to have your heart walking around outside of your body. Thank you for loving my little lamb and praying for her. We know that this too shall pass!

Last Hoorah of Summer

It will take a lifetime for me to get all of our Disney World pictures uploaded and organized, but I hope to get some on here soon.

Our last little "trip" of the summer was the big news at our house. Craig and I planned a huge surprise for our sweet Missy. Last Friday, the girls and I drove down to Oxford and showed up on their front porch. Missy had no idea we were coming and it was SO MUCH FUN being able to pull it off. My girls, of course, had known about the trip for a couple of weeks and were just counting down the days to "Missy's buhprise" (as Ella would say). They were all proud of themselves for making it happen without Missy finding out.

We had a wonderful day in Oxford. We ate lunch at an awesome little restaurant, had ice cream, played at a really neat park, and then hung out at Craig and Missy's house for a while. We came home around dinnertime and my girls were WORN OUT. It was such a sweet time with our Missy. The girls have really missed her since she moved, and I have a feeling she might have been missing them a little bit as well. :-)