Alegra's Bat Shema Preparation and Decoration

We had a most lovely weekend with family and friends.  We spent most of the time preparing for Alegra's Bat Shema and then having a grand celebration with a lot of our friends and family.  We've had some questions of "what is a Bat Shema", so I'll try to explain it here.  If you look up a Bat Mitzvah, which is a jewish celebration, you'll see some similarities.  We wanted to put more focus on the blessings and Alegra speaking forth where she is at in her walk of faith.  A Bat Mitzvah is done at a certain age, but we wanted to wait until our children decide they are ready and take that step of choosing to believe in the God that we, their parents, believe in for themselves.  

We allowed Alegra to plan out most of her party, and we put together a ceremony that would best fit what we wanted to accomplish.  It turned out so beautiful!  This post is simply showing the decorations and prep time.  We'll get to guests and ceremony at a later time.  This mama only has time for so much.  :)

We hosted the celebration at The J Weaver Barn in Goshen, IN.  It proved to be a perfect location for what we needed.  

 My mom did the cake and it turned out so lovely.

 We had a fun game of photography for the guests to do.  It's been fun seeing the few pictures that others have taken of the day, though I hope we get more.

 Party favors of chocolate cameras that we made.

 Kitchen help taking care of food.  I sure couldn't have done it without you ladies!

 The cake turned out to be just what Alegra had wanted.  That girl was a little picky with cake. :)

 These two pictures were taken by a friend, Maxine.  Thank you for your contribution!

 

The prep work seemed to go quickly with all the extra hands that helped.  We appreciate each of you who allowed yourselves to serve our family in this way!

Bixler Lake Park & Water Balloon Fight

We've had such wonderful weather for getting outside.  The pollen has been plentiful this year, but I'm managing to ignore it between sneezes and still enjoy the outdoors and get in some exercise out in the woods.   We invited my mom for our walk to help her keep moving to gear up for our hiking weekend coming up.  Bixler Lake Park in Kendallville, IN has a great loop with so many things to see and it's actually a full 3 miles.  We didnt' know that when we started.  By the end, we were all tired and hungry.  :)  Alegra took the pictures as usual and captured some great things in creation.  Oh, and we saw way too many snakes that even had me jumping around on the trail.  It might have been a little comical as I was telling everyone "Stay on the path people!  There's snakes everywhere!"

 Alegra spotted this moth grouping.  Beautiful, beautiful moths!

 And then the first snake sighting of the walk right underneath the moths in the water.  Yeah, as it slithered it's way over the bank where I was standing, that was my first time of jumping and running back to the path.  

 My littlest, beautiful butterfly!

 We took a break in the campground section of the trail to go potty and play on the playground.  It's about the halfway mark, so it makes it something for the children to look forward to doing.  

 He pretty much adds fun to whatever he does.  :)

 We had an I Spy Game of who could find the frog.  Then we realized there was more than one, so that added a little fun to the walk and helped us stop to see the green along the way.  

 Another snake at the distance they should stay at.....far away!

 One right by the trail.  No thank you!

After our hike, we went home and the children were wanting to have some water fun, but I just couldn't bring myself to getting the slip n slide out, so they had a water balloon fight.

 She loves being outside...and eating grass.  She has this srunchy nose face that she's been doing a lot.  I think it's a Murphy thing.   :)

Let the war begin!!

 And this describes this baby's life.  :)  She is loved dearly.  Or maybe it should say that she is loved a little roughly.  And this is classic of Benaiah with his shorts on backwards.  Some day he'll dress correctly. 

 These two are going to be such good friends.  I love seeing them interact with each other.  My how time changes so much.  

We sure have been loving the weather.  I'll be so very thankful when the pollen is less, but for now, I'm getting through the season and looking forward to less snot in the future.  :)  We've had some big things going on around here that I'll blog about soon.  And a fun camping weekend coming up as well.  This is going to be the best summer ever!  If we enter into it with a positive attitude and delight for even the small joys, it truly will be wonderful despite anything that doesn't work out like we'd like.  Let the summer fun begin!.....and continue since they already are enjoying it!

A Walk in Dallas Lake Park

We had a morning filled with dentist appointments for all the children except the baby.  They all did great!  With a morning appointment, then off to a park for a picnic lunch, then back to the dentist to finish out the afternoon, I thought they all might enjoy a nice walk before we headed home.  We've never taken the new trail at Dallas Lake Park.  What a delightful trail with much to see.  While we walked I commented how LaGrange County has such nice parks for us to enjoy.  It truly is a blessing for those of us who love to get outdoors and enjoy creation.

 LOVE MY CHILDREN!!

 I thought for sure Benaiah was going to fall in!

 One of the challenges during our walks is who can find the first Jack-in-the-pulpit.  I found the one today!  Not all woods have them, but it is fun to find them.  It's like finding a treasure!

 She had a wrinkly face most of the walk from the wonderful sunshine!  When I turned around and talked to her, she gave me this face though.  Love her!

 This boy does gymnastics wherever he goes.

We spotted this bird as it flew away.  It flew too far away for us to identify it.

After asking around, I believe it is a green heron.  We had never seen one before.

If  you've never visited this park, check it out.  Lovely trails and creatures to see.