Brielle's Swim Party

When Brielle asked for a swim party for her birthday, she imagined it  taking place in our own backyard ....so you can imagine how she reacted when she looked out one day and realized that the pool had been taken down. What?!!?? I assured her that we never intended on having her swim party at home...and that her guests wouldn't have wanted to swim in our pool in November (when it was hardly warm enough for most of the summer). I told her we'd find an indoor pool somewhere to rent out. And we did. We rented out the Tigard Swim Center and it was a super idea--totally worth it!

The party started out in the pool center's classroom where we had light refreshments and cake.

I made this banner and silhouette of the girl in honor of her b-day.
The ideas came from a book I received on my birthday from Ashley Carlson.

I made the fondant from scratch for the first time It wasn't easy but rewarding!

Girly decorations for a a girly-girl!!



Guests of honor: Josie, Laura, Lydia, Jillian, Cambria, Macy, Kaiah, Izabell, Raquelle.

It was important to eat healthy snacks a bit before the big dessert!

Lydia sat on the lucky chair and got a prize: colored bubbles!!

Time to blow out the candle and dig in!

Brielle HAS to lick the candle!

All that work is about to be destroyed..but that's the point. Cake is for eating!!

The girl got spoiled with such awesome presents!!

The party then got moved to the swimming pool. My friend Jenn and I cleaned up the classroom in less than 10 minutes and I felt like I was off the hook for the rest of the party! Although there was plenty of preparation done beforehand, it was another super easy kid party with very little clean up and very little time feeling 'on party duty'!!



As I close, I want to express my thanks to God for His amazing provision...that we would be able to do this, that it ended up being less expensive than expected due to the classroom being mildly cluttered upon our arrival and the classroom fee being waived, that my friend Diane would happen to be at the pool and would offer to help me set up before the guests arrive, that Judy Kile--one of the honored guests' grandma--was the only ONE person from the Tigard Swim Center who could book this event for me (which helped make it go as smooth as it did), and that so many guests were able to make it. I know it's just a birthday...but for Brielle, it's a really, REALLY big deal! We're talking about the girl who asked me a little before 7 a.m. on her actual birthday how come she hadn't received calls or presents from anybody yet, how come it was 'business as usual' as we drove to her break-of-the-dawn speech therapy session...basically, how come the world hadn't stopped turning on account of her birthday! Of course, she already HAD opened our present the moment she'd woken up, but she must have been half-asleep still when she did. :)  To quickly dissipate any doubt in her mind that she is special to us, she received three Godsent phone calls from Daddy, Gran, and her faraway Aunt Dee within the hour. The rest of the day and weekend felt like one big birthday celebration!

...He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist... 

 Acts 17:25b-28a

I'm so thankful that He's intimately acquainted with our ways and that He's not far from each one of us. I am amazed that He would have thoughts about us that are too vast in number to count (Psalm 139:17). And in light of those Scriptures, who am I to say that He couldn't possibly care about a little girl's 7th birthday party (-ies)? I honestly think that He's meeting her at her level and I've decided to do all that I can to have her see His hand in her life so that she would love Him....because He first loved her.