Scenes from a Lively Weekend

Two weekends ago we had a really busy weekend planned, when it suddenly got a lot busier as Emma invited four of her friends and teammates to sleepover the night before Rebekah's birthday party. I almost thought I was losing my mind when I agreed to it, but the girls had important things planned that I didn't want to stand in the way of. Emma's sleepover turned out to be a great time of team bonding. They made and decorated super girl capes out of an old bed sheet that Alyssa had already cut apart for a classroom project, and they woke up bright and early to run a 5K race hosted by our church that would benefit Speed The Light. Speed the Light is an awesome youth driven organization that helps support the needs of missionaries worldwide. One of their goals for this race was to raise funds towards the purchase of a vehicle for a missionary in Laos. So like I said, all very important, very fun stuff!

This was taken before the race as they filled out their registration forms. I enjoy watching these girls work together. On a daily basis I see them working hard together, encouraging one another, helping each other out and definitely making each other better.

A funny note about the race, and when I say funny, I am realistic that you may have needed to be there to find this as funny as I did...Just before the half way point of the race a group of 4 men who I knew to be running together just ahead of me came running back in my direction. Apparently we had missed a turn a block or so back. One of the guys, who has played Jesus multiple times in our church's musicals was running back to make the course correction enthusiastically shouting, "God allows U-Turns!!" The next morning during Sunday service our pastor {who did not see or hear this happen} said something very similar as he gave the message and Alyssa and I looked over to the man who said this the previous day and saw him smiling ear to ear with a hand raised heavenward in victory. It was great.

Alyssa and her singing teacher, Miss Alissa after the race. Alyssa planned to walk the race, but her competitive drive kicked in a bit when she saw others running. She did great, finishing at a way faster pace than I think even she expected. Emma was the first female finisher of the race, one of her teammates was the third and I was spurred on to a fourth place finish by the thought that Emma may have gotten lost back at our U-Turn. I saw Emma's teammate after that point and knew Anastasia was still on track, but all I knew was Emma was ahead of me and I never saw her during the second half of the race. She was following a teenage boy who had a map, resourceful girl :-)

After the race we headed to the gym for a three hour practice. The girls couldn't believe they had already run three miles before it was time for their practice to begin.

And then came Rebekah's long awaited for birthday party...

It was a little wild and crazy at moments, and we almost forgot to play "Pin the Trunk on the Elephant," but I am pretty sure she loved every minute of running around and playing with her friends.

Rebekah was very particular about the details of the party. None of her plans were anything super fancy or over the top difficult to pull off, but I loved how she knew exactly what she wanted from the piñata to making homemade ice cream and the games she wanted to play. We are always out of town on her actual birthday in August, so getting friends together for a party is often challenging. I hope {and I think it was} everything she wanted.

The kids loved the silly string, which I probably could have guessed beforehand that they would. Just a note to double our silly string purchase next time.

The paint that was meant for painting pumpkins was used to make a trail of handprints on the driveway. Two weeks and some rain later, they are as bright and colorful as ever. They did in fact get around to painting the pumpkins too, but I think these handprints will likely last longer.

Rebekah with many of her sweet friends.

By the time everyone went home, it had been well over 36 hours of non-stop activities and friends. It was fun, an exhausting kind of fun, but wonderful fun nonetheless.