ice cream social birthday

Today a certain vivacious little girl turned three. We chose an ice cream social theme because she loves ice cream cones and anything of that category. There were toppings to choose from, different flavors of pre scooped ice cream, cupcake cones, and waffle cones. I downloaded free printables from eatdrinkchic.com, here from her ice cream parlour templates. It was so much fun to create and fun to watch the excitement on her face to be with her friends! I love celebrating life, what a precious gift she is.

outside ideas continued...

Another idea for outside was a simple water station, but then I thought it would be neat to show her how to make colors. I had red, blue, yellow and green and we mixed them to make other colors of the rainbow.   She played with this for an hour I think, and she was so absorbed in her discovery. It was nice to be able to get dirty and stained and not worry about it. It's nice to have a designated place for messes!

creation gives Him glory

This beautiful tulip that I had been admiring for days, was plucked by Eden and I'm glad, really that she did because now, I can enjoy it and study it even closer. It seemed to fit right in my orange bowl. Little things like this make me so happy. They make me gaze at the detailed design of God and how it speaks of  how He cares of the little things. He does things with excellence. It's flawless. Fragile. Beautiful. Just how  the beauty draws me into it, it draws the worship right out of me and onto Him.

outdoor hunt

If anyone else has a busy 2 almost 3 year old who constantly needs activities and things to do this was a success for us. Eden has a thing for exploring (should I thank Dora? probably not.) and binoculars, magnifying glasses and maps are her thing. I thought it might be interesting to surprise her this morning with a map (not very pretty, I could have taken the time to use a brown paper bag but used the first thing I saw) and drew a course through our backyard. Once she followed the main clues, ex. past the flower garden, by the small tree, around the big tree etc. she was led to her "treasure". I hid her lunchbox full of cookies I made the night before. I asked her at the end if she had fun and loved her response. I told her that life is a treasure hunt for Jesus and He is the hidden treasure. You have to search for Him with all your heart and not give up no matter how long or hard it is. Sometimes you'll find Him easier than other times, but sometimes He hides Himself. When that happens, dont give up! He loves it when we want Him!