Once Upon a Teddy Bear's Pinic . . .

We will have to wait till Sunday for Gianna's real birthday, but I threw her a Teddy Bear's Picnic yesterday at the park. There were 45 kids there, 45! We were so excited! We feel incredibly blessed to even know 45 kids, let alone have them come celebrate with us. I asked mom for ideas on what to do because she throws a Teddy Bear's Picnic every year with her kindergarteners. She told me what she does and then we improvised. My goal was to keep it cheap, somewhat healthy, and fun!

We sang a few songs, read a few books and played a relay game with all the teddies. We then went fishing with a cardboard fishing hole that I made. I enlisted the help of Gianna's cousins, Mark, Thomas and Paul. They were SO good with the kids and Gianna looooved having them there. To make it simple I had all the moms bring a trail mix item for the trail mix bar. That way everyone could make their own trail mix, whether they wanted sugar or not, or were allergic to peanuts, etc. It met everyone's needs! Then I had the children decorate their own cupcakes. I made the cupcake recipe from my blog, and a cream cheese frosting. SO GOOD!  Definitely the way to go. The kids had fun decorating and it meant less work for me! The whole day before Gianna and I baked and baked, but we didn't have to do much else!

We made the cardboard fishing hole from a hug box that I had and cut out felt fish. We made poles from sticks, string and clothes pins to catch the fish. For fun we attached honey sticks to the fish for a party favor. The kids loved the fishing part!

It ended up being warm enough to swim so we stayed a while so the kids could splash in the water. At the end of the day I had two very tired toddlers and one pooped mama, but it was a blast! We will see how long I have energy to throw birthday parties, but while I still only have two we're in full swing!

Like I mentioned earlier, we feel incredibly blessed to be a part of our community. We have wonderful friends and wouldn't know what to do without them! I feel like it's similar to the community at San Clemente growing up. The children are all very good kids from God fearing families. You don't run across people like that every day! It was very hard for us to "break" into our church community or simply even have friends when we first moved out here - so this is huge for us. The difference that having friends and not having friends is incredible. Without family around (and even with family) we need our friends. We encourage each other in our faith, confide our sorrows, bring meals in times of need and babysit for date nights! I thank Our Lord every day for our wonderful community of friends!

....We must carry Jesus in our hearts to wherever He wants to go, and there are many places to which He may never go unless we take Him to them. None of us knows when the loveliest hour of our life is striking. It may be when we take Christ for the first time to that grey office in the city where we work, to the wretched lodging of that poor man who is an outcast, to the nursery of that pampered child, to that battleship, airfield, or camp...
                             - Caryll Houselander