1. My salvation
2. A Savior who cares about the minute details of my life
3. A 12-yr. old's patience
We celebrated her birthday on the actual day, but due to a month of weekends already filled with various activities, she had to wait a month for her REAL party.....
....and because I believe every picture has a story behind it and find pictures so much more fun when I know that story, I'll share this one with you. : )
I was feeling much pressure to get the party taken care of......so I just opened my calendar, looked at the Saturdays in September and picked the first one. It wasn't until the Thursday before that I realized I had failed to consider something. A friend innocently asked me what we were doing for Labor Day.
Labor Day?!
Oh My Goodness. Our party was scheduled at one of the most popular beach parks in the area, one with great covered pavilions, grills, showers and restrooms. We've had quite a few parties there and have never needed to reserve one of the pavilions.....but we've also never done it on Labor Day Weekend!!!
What kind of mother schedules a birthday party and doesn't consider the holiday weekend that has come the first weekend of September every year of her life without fail?! Sigh. I'm never going to earn my Super Mom cape.....and I even had a pink one picked out. : (
4. The gift of prayer....
5. .....and that He hears each and every one.....
It was too late to reserve a pavilion at this point, so the day of the party, we packed everything up and headed out. All the way there I prayed, "Lord, please give us a picnic area. I just need one grill! I can make a couple of tables work. Please, please, please!"....in between saying things like, "I can't believe I did this! What are we going to do?", and "We've got a lot of people coming....I've ruined my daughter's 12th birthday party! For the rest of her life, she'll always remember this birthday as the one I ruined!". What can I say.....I was stressing a little bit.
We arrived at the park, and not only were all the beach parking lots and pavilions full....they were completely blocked off! Directly across from the main beach entrance is the lake entrance, so my chauffeur (husband) turned in there. All the pavilions there were taken as well......but as we were coming back out of the lake entrance, we spotted a couple of tables and a grill slightly set off from another group. I waited there while hubby did one more drive-through to make sure there was nothing else. I looked around with thankfulness at the two picnic tables and one grill that I was saving......exactly what I had asked for. It wasn't my ideal location, it would be crowded......but we could make this work. I was so thankful to have something after failing to plan correctly! As I was in the middle of telling my children how good God is and how He answered our prayers, I looked to my left.
6. .....and often give much more than we ask for.
There was a beautiful, LARGE picnic area completely set off from everyone else's parties.....not two, but three picnic tables and a grill, and plenty of parking space for the number of families we were expecting ~ surrounded by a shelter and canopy of palms and other local foliage. It even had a nature trail leading directly from the picnic site to a little bridge....then on to a longer trail ~ which my kids found quite charming and entertaining. It also had enough room for several of the kids to throw a ball around while they waiting on the hot dogs (Ashlyn's favorite) from the Grill Master.
Click on the pics to enlarge into a new window, then click again if you want to enlarge one more time.
7. Family ♥
8. Friends ♥
9. Food : )
10. A 12 Yr.-old's Gratitude
This is the most elementary cake I have made since I was a teenager.....fatigue plus carpal tunnel results in mediocre work. I almost didn't take a picture of it, but she was happy & insisted.......and it tasted really good! : )
13. Visits from unexpected guests
After grilling, eating, playing, talking, laughing, and opening gifts, the beach was only a short walk right across the street. The sea life came out in abundance for the occasion....we had dolphin visits, crab visits and shell seeking at it's finest!
Thank you, Lord.....for caring about the little details of life among all the bigger ones, and for answering my prayers in a manner that was far more than I deserve!
14. He is so good to me.
1 comment:
This sounds like a cute idea. I will have to go and check it out.
Glad your daughter ended up having a great birthday! Looks like it was a lot of fun!!
I also wanted to let you know that the Crafty Tuesday link is up!
Post a Comment