We Miss You Already...

Yellow Dresses and Red Shoes

Photos by Sarah's Daddy

Flannelgraph

Come to Life

Photo by Bgrace

Emily and I have been slowly working our way through I Samuel. I'm teaching her to teach it.
When I was a girl in Brazil my mother had the entire Bible in beautiful flannelgraph paintings. I remember how much I enjoyed putting together the scenery and characters even as an older child and seeing the story come to life. My job at the church plant usually involved teaching Sunday School and Children's Church.  (I was usually more than willing to have an excuse not to sit through hour long sermons, especially when my Dad wasn't preaching--he at least had good stories.)
As I was thinking about Em, and wondering how to teach her the Scriptures, I began to pray about using flannelgraph.  I realized that with her flair for the dramatic and her enjoyment of art, she might enjoy telling Bible stories this way more than just hearing them. And what better way is there to learn than to teach? So I bit the bullet and bought the entire Betty Lukens Bible in flannelgraph set. It's worth every penny.
I decided that since David's life is so full of drama, we'd start with I Samuel.  Emily has an amazing ability to remember the details of the story even after hearing it only once.  And it is SO great to hear her tell Sarah the stories.  Sarah's eyes get as round as saucers when Emily really gets into it.
I guess it's my first attempt at answering this question...
How does one raise a prophetess?

The Ballet

We had a splendid time. Our first event of the day was a pre-performance talk with Christopher Wheeldon. Grace met him afterwards and asked him to sign her program. He was very gracious and attentive with her even though there were lots of "important" people waiting to speak with him. He said he loved her name and told her about one of the first pieces he choreographed about Grace Kelly.
Then it was off to the matinee performance. It was the first Grace had seen professional dancers, and it had been a long time for me. What I loved about all the dances we saw is that they were all very different. We ended up seeing 3 in the afternoon and 3 in the evening. Grace liked Red Angels the best in afternoon and I liked the Barber Violin Concerto. Estancia, Christopher Wheeldon's new ballet, premiered this week at SPAC, and it was interesting to watch it after we heard him describe the process of choreographing it. After the performance, we had a couple of hours to kill before the evening events so we got an early dinner and then decided to hang out on the lawn. Grace started to dance in the grass and I got my camera out. I think she was inspired, and I was so grateful that all was going as I had hoped.
The evening pre-performance talk was a NYCB principal dancer named Tyler Angle. He is known to be one of the best dancers in the world, and is especially known for exceptional partnering. He's a Central PA native. He also was very gracious and we learned a lot from him.
The evening performance was beyond words. We had excellent seats. I have no idea how we got such great seats. There must have been a last minute cancellation or something. But it made all the difference in the world in terms of feeling the dance rather than simply watching. Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain was life-changing for me. That's all I could think of when it was over--that I would never be the same after watching it. Grace loved the last piece, Stravinsky Violin Concerto which was a Balanchine piece that involved the whole cast.
We made our way back to the car and Grace said, "Mom, I loved spending time with you today."
Melt my heart. I loved spending time with you too, Grace.
The thoughts of the day kept me awake until we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's...some time past 2AM. It was worth every mile.

Cherry Picking

 

 

 

Daddy Love

For Grandpa

Childhood Sweethearts

We're not sure exactly when this happened or how it came about.  But one afternoon Sarah mentioned that she had a friend named Drew at school, and he was SO nice. 

Then we were told by their teachers that they were exchanging phone numbers for a playdate.  And after that, whenever Sarah was less than anxious to go to school, all I had to do was mention Drew and she changed her tune.  "Drew will miss me if I don't come," she would say with the utmost seriousness. 
The teachers had to contrive ways to get them to play with other children because they were only interested in each other.  I watched a little girl run sobbing into her mother's arms one day because she was so sad that Sarah wouldn't play with her because she was playing with Drew.  Drew made Sarah a beautiful necklace and then gave her a little bag full of "diamonds."  She wanted to make him one, but we decided a mask might be better.

At first I was a little uneasy about the whole thing, but Sarah and Drew were so absolutely sweet with each other.  So generous, so kind, so at ease, that along with everyone else, we sort of sat back and watched in awe and wonder at these two four year old childhood sweethearts.  We never prodded them to hug or hold hands or anything like that.  They just sort of did it naturally, and didn't seem to be aware that it might be a little unusual.  It was sort of like they just knew they belonged together.  At the end of their picnic, it was time to go and Drew laid his head down in his mother's lap and wailed at the top of his lungs.  His mother tried to do everything to consoul him, but he was devasted he had to say good-bye to Sarah.  Sarah wasn't so upset, she knew they would be having a playdate soon.  Hadn't her Daddy told her so?  I guess girls just understand these things a little better sometimes.  I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story, and close with this one wistful question.  Why can't love always be this beautiful and sweet, innocent, trusting and pure? 

Recital

 

Photos by Bgrace

Mom Day

All photos by Matt

She's Four Today

We had a wonderful time celebrating Sarah's Birthday yesterday.  Above are some pictures for you to enjoy.  Click on them and you can see the slide show.  Sarah picked out a rainbow cake, and chose her rainbow headband for her outfit. 
Rainbows are important when it comes to Sarah.  God gave me a very precious promise about her.
And just to make sure I remembered, He put one in the sky yesterday too.

Shining Star

It was Sarah's turn to be the Shining Star at Preschool this week.  We made a poster-Sarah put her spots on it and Mom put pictures of all her favorite things to do and favorite people...except we were missing a picture of her Sammy. 
This morning, when I was helping her pick out two of her favorite things to share with her class she was adamant that the only thing she wanted to bring to show and tell was Sam. 
What's a Mom to do? 
She had her favorite color on--blue--plus spots.  I let her pick a crystal out of Daddy's cabinet to show her friends, she had her favorite book, but she still wanted Sam. 
When we got to class Ms. Barb noticed right away Sarah was a bit glum.  I explained the situation and Ms. Barb told me to bring him right before dismissal.  Sarah brightened up immediately. 

Circle time was first.

Then Sarah told Ms. Barb all about her favorite things.

All the kids got to pick what they liked best about her poster.

Then it was time for a little hokey pokey.

'Cause that's what it's all about.

 Mommy read Sarah's favorite book.

Sarah was gonna put her spots on anybody who wasn't listening.

Then she showed of her rocks to her buddies. 

I brought Sam in at the end of the class. He was so good and gentle and let all the kids love on him. 
When we got home, I said, "Sarah, you were such a good Shining Star today." 
Sarah said, "Mom, Sam was a shining star today too."

New Album

Check out our family Christmas pictures at the link to the right!
(Double click on the photo album to see it larger.)