Weekly Review {Jan. 29-Feb.5}

What a big week.  It's currently Super Bowl Sunday, and our family is so wiped out we have turned down the multitude of party plans in favor of hole-ing up in our home. ;)

This is a picture Naomi drew for me at the beginning of the week.

I am continually stunned by her attention to details.

The picture is me taking a dog to an ice cream shop.

Would you notice the hand?!  The proportions of the hand are almost identical to my hands!

I also noticed that her facial features in her drawings are becoming more symmetrical.

We encourage her artistic ability every chance we get.

(You can also see where she's signed her name.  Plus she likes to play with the letters in her name to "write" other things too.)

Tuesday evening we had a couple over who has just moved onto campus over for dinner.  We had a great time getting to know Clint and Gerilyn Burnett. 

For Naomi's 4th birthday, JR's dad, Keith, made and mailed a foot-locker/toy chest.  It is amazing!  

 Naomi had no clue what was in the huge box that Bob Turner carried over to our apartment from the library.

We began the task of unpacking it.

The pink packing peanuts were a big hit with Naomi.

She kept exclaiming, "I got peanuts! They are so fun!"

 Once we got the box out and unwrapped, she loved it!  She also loved the LaLaLoopsy paperdoll card Grandpa sent with the gift.

This footlocker/toy box/hope chest is a real treasure.  The details in the special name plates just make it even more special.  This will be something that we do take anywhere in the world, and I'm sure Naomi will treasure this her whole life.

For Naomi's 4th birthday JR and I got her a bike, and Gideon was very excited about the gift he got her.  After she went to bed for the last time as a 3 year old, JR and I put her bike together and set up her gifts to greet her when she walked downstairs on her birthday morning.

Well... apparently she heard us putting together the bike.  So in the middle of the night she sneaked downstairs while everyone else was sleeping and took a peak at her new gifts.

When I went in to wake her up Thursday morning, I cuddled up to her, sang "Happy Birthday" and she said to me, "I liked the bike you hid for me." :)

Here are some shots of when she did come down.  I didn't capture her surprised face, though. :(

She said that "Blanket" did. (the cheek on that girl!)

Gideon was finally able to give her the gift he picked out for her.

"Friends" Legos.

She LOVES them!

 Then they sat and ate their waffles as we got ready for school.

After they got dressed (in a hurry I might add) they opened up the Legos and wasted no time in getting a few moments of play-time before we left for school.

 

This is the first year that Naomi has really had a group of kids her age that she knew.  She was super-excited to take cupcakes to school on her birthday!

The cake I have made every year for her birthday has been strawberry cake with lemon icing.  But this year she wanted pink and purple, so I just put some dye into the lemon icing.  She also wanted Littlest Pet Shop.  I thought cupcake liners would be easy to find.  Ha!  So, I made "flags" with LPS stickers on them.

I love this cake/icing combo!  And there's even fresh strawberries in the cake!  YUMMM!

I headed back to Naomi's school to take photos of her with her class.

 Here are her classmates.  It was so fun watching her enjoy her new friends!

After I picked the kids up from school, we spent some time out and about on our campus.  She's got many friends here too.

 (an impromptu snack/picnic and LPS play time)

 

 The big girl on her new bike.  She learned to turn and take the corners like a champ.  And she's even learning to keep up with Gideon. ;)

 (some movie-time over at the Hallett's)

Daddy's girl... all the way!

We got ready for dinner.  Naomi chose to go to Pei Wei for dinner.  But when we got there, we discovered it was closed. :(  She was devastated.  But, we ended up going to Chick-fil-A, and she was happy.

 She has been asking (about every other day) when we get to go back to the Amazone (the indoor play-place in Peterhead).  Well... the Chick-fil-A is the closest thing we have.

We headed back home for cuddle time.

And then Naomi's newest obsession:  auditioning for American Idol. :)

That's a pretty full day for a 4 year old.  (I think she loved every minute of it... except when we found out about PeiWei.)

In her birthday card from MY grandparents (the kid's "GB's"), Naomi got a hand-drawn paper doll of herself.  Great Grandma Betty (Stockstill) is where we get our artistic genes.

Friday morning we tried to web-cam with Claudia, Ryan, and Kaden.  Our side didn't get the video (internet problems all over campus), but they got to see N open her gift from them.  It's the coolest back-pack that turns into a portable play castle for all of Naomi's little toys.  She LOVES it. (for some reason, I haven't snapped a photo of her playing with it)

Then we tried to web-cam with Kelli, Simon, and Rachel.  (again, the video didn't work on our end) But it was great being sung to in 2 languages.  For the rest of the day, G kept singing Happy Birthday in Polish.

When I asked Naomi what kind of cake she wanted for her Littlest Pet Shop party, she said, "I want Ms. Jessi to help us make a cake."  (This means fondant and tiers people!)  So I told her that if it was important to her, she needed to be the one to talk to Jessi about it.  And she did.  Luckily, Jessi has a soft-spot for Naomi, and readily agreed to help out.

Naomi designed her cake and I baked the 3 8 in. cakes and 3 10 in. cakes Thursday night so they'd be ready for fondant-making on Friday. :)

Jessi came over at 12:45 Friday.

Naomi got ready in a borrowed apron. :)  We made our own fondant from marshmallows.  I made up 6 batches of blueberry butter cream.

Jessi got her arm work-outs with stirring.  

And by 5 o'clock... we had a cake! (I've never doing fondant again!) :)

JR and John ran together and then we decided to do dinner together.  

After dinner, Jessi helped me put the final touches on the decorating for the party while the men-folk played chess.

Jessi did so much to help me with this party.  She is a blessing to me. :)

Saturday:  The day of the party...

My parents came up early for the party and took us out to lunch.

Can you tell what a great time they have together? :)

We had a good visit.  And I'm glad they came up early, because once the party started... I didn't really see them through the crowd of people at the house. ;)

After we ate we returned to the house.  Naomi opened the present from my parents.

This is my parent's dog, Tassie.  She "sings" Happy Birthday.

 

Here's the set-up for the party:

 The Cake

The Game and the fruit.  The purple stuff is the left-over Lemon icing from the school cupcakes.  It makes a fantastic fruit dip.

Eventually the party started:

We had about 30 people at the party.  (and we only ate the top layer of the cake!)

After Naomi's party, we headed to one of the small group get-togehers associated with HST.  We were there for several hours of fellowship and then we came home and crashed.  This week has been a long, but great week!

Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to raise funding for returning to Peterhead, Scotland long-term.  For more information about this, head to Mission Scotland.

~Daisha