Happy Birthday Kate!

My dear sweet Katerina. I thank God for the gift you are to me and our family! You brighten every day with your beautiful smile, your many hugs and encouraging words. I so enjoy watching you grow. You have such a heart for praising God which bursts forth in song. I love the many conversations we have during the day about how awesome God is. I love how you offer to help me. I love how you sing so often. I love how you care and have such compassion for others. I love how you rejoice over going to school and learning. I love how you want to show kindness to others so often by giving gifts to them. I love how inviting you are to any who come to our home. I love that I have the privilege of being your mom. I will treasure up these nights when we go through our litany of goodnight kisses after prayers 'cause I know one day soon you will be too old for them. Are you sure you wont stay little for me just a little but longer?

What was I thinking?

Today is picture day at school. So what did I decided yesterday? Well, that the kids needed haircuts before their mops became a part of a permanent record! That's not too much of a gamble the night before pictures is it? Well maybe not, unless you consider where they go to get haircuts-namely my kitchen. And the hairdresser? None other than me! A risky proposition for sure! So with clippers in hand I went to work on Danny. I couldn't remember which size I used on him before so I guessed. It came out quite a bit shorter than I thought! OOPs! Oh well, he liked it, especially when I put gel in it and made it spikey! So then came Kate. I WAS just going to cut her bangs. Well once I got started I thought perhaps I would just trim the back. I trimmed. I looked. Crooked! So I trimmed again. Big chunks and still not straight! I was sweating at that point! So anyway, long story a little less long, her hair is much shorter than I had anticipated and it is still crooked, but I was afraid that if I continued she would end up with the same hair style as Dan! All in all though, I guess they turned out OK! Kate's is actually curling under beautifully! Isn't it wonderful how God can bring beauty from our botched efforts?

So today is Kate's 6th birthday(More on that later). We met Rick at McDonalds for lunch before I dropped her off at school. Another pre-picture blunder! I was wiping dried ketchup from her little cheeks as we were walking into the school! When I was a kid, in every single 1 of my school pictures I had some kind of bump or bruise on my face. My kids will just have ketchup! Today, for a fee, they can "remove facial blemishes". Maybe I should have checked that box on the order form and written "Please remove ketchup stains from cheecks." :D