Grace's Cake

Here is the cake we found that gave us the starting point for our ideas. Grace's cake of course had to be purple instead of pink. But, we used some of the general ideas. My mom took the pictures of her blowing out her candles so I will have to add those later. I used the laminator I got for Christmas to laminate a picture of Ruthie I printed. (much easier than icing or an edible transfer). This was my first try using Kristina's chocolate fondant and I LOVED it. I will definitely be using it for future birthdays.

An actual glimpse...

The official name of my blog is "Glimpses of God from the Humiston Home." (I know its a mouthful) However, lately it has been more of a "Baby book/Scrapbook of the Humiston Family Year O' Fun," than a chance for me to share what is in my heart.

Why, you ask?

Well, things have been a bit crazy for say oh, about the last year or so at my house. Since I have transitioned to 3 kids I rarely sit down at nap time anymore unless it is to fold laundry. And I also gave birth to a chid who has no interest in playing with toys. He'd much rather fish in the toilet, unload my kitchen cabinets, empty the dishwasher, & get into his sister's art supplies. Thus, its hard to get much done that requires thinking while he is awake. (Don't worry too much I can declutter, do dishes, and oversee laundry without thinking these days.)

Actually that precious little boy I speak of is sleeping in my lap as I peck out this post because due to two consecutive awful viruses his mama (opps, I mean sleep schedule) is currently on life support.

When we first transitioned to three children our family had zeroed out our calendar. Due to the vocational changes in our life we had VERY FEW church or social commitments. And I naively remember thinking, "This isn't too bad. I think the transition to 2 was much harder." And then we found this amazing church and made some awesome friends and I've felt overwhelmed ever since. I'm sure it also has something to do with the fact that I joined the children's ministry team, we joined a small group, Grace started Kids Choir, we started attending Family Quest, I started selling jewelry for Inspiranza, we began mentoring a few students, and we've been trying to figure out how to get started with an adoption. Oh, and I declared it the "year of fun" before we send Grace to kindergarten. There's actually more but it makes me tired to list it all.

Well, I digress... all this to say my blog has become less about me trying to put together an intelligent thought and more about just keeping up with everything we've been up to. And for the most part I'm okay with that because I fully intend to enjoy the 5 months of fun we have left! However I do want to record what God is teaching me because it has been some good and sometimes challenging stuff. Mama stuff, forgiveness stuff, adoption stuff, submission stuff, with a whole lot of searching mixed in. So, I am setting a goal to sit down every other Wednesday or so (my goals are a bit more flexible these days) to try and just write something that doesn't have anything to do with something we've done. It will still probably be something to do with my kids, just more thought life and a little less play by play of our real life.

The funny thing is when I sat down to write this post I simply wanted to tell you about how God taught me something through our morning Bible time and a little pink princess devotional book. But...my family just woke up so I guess that will have to be a later post. :)

Grace's Big Birthday Trip

For Grace's fifth birthday we decided to do a trip to Chicago for her to get an American Doll. This was her one and only birthday gift. All of her grandparents, great grandparents, aunts & uncles, etc. gave her money to spend on her trip. We talked a lot about this idea before deciding to go ahead with it. Even though she had received a catalog in the mail and really liked it I wanted to make sure she wouldn't be disappointed when her birthday rolled around. It was so funny to here her tell people about our plan, "I don't get any presents to open (thats the sad part), but its okay because we are going on the train and I get to pick out my own doll and buy her stuff with money!" Here is the picture play by play of our special day.

Watching for the Train- Cold & Excited

Faith bundled up & ready to go.
Our tickets- I wanted to let Grace sign her own ticket, but the grouchy ticket taker insisted it be signed by an adult.

Grandma fulfilled a Humiston birthday tradition by taking Grace to purchase doughnuts from the cafe. She was very generous and shared with everyone.

Finally there- good thing is was SO hot on the train we nearly melted!
We took a cab from the train station to Water Tower. Grace could hardly wait to see Ruthie (the doll she had chosen from looking online). She kept saying, "Let's find Ruthie!" Here is her first glimpse.
Grace chose Ruthie, Kit's best friend, because of her curly hair and purple dress.

Grace getting Ruthie out of the box.

Love at first sight!
Our family had also generously given Faith some money to spend on the trip. Since Ruthie is from the Kit line you could buy both dolls, their accessories, and their books for a discounted price. By the time you figured the savings Faith basically had enough money to purchase Kit (and Gramy thought this was totally necessary). SO.....Faith got Kit. Here she is waiting for her doll.

They were having a special event and you could make a lei necklace for your doll.

Here Grace is showing Ruthie the different pets to see if she would like to purchase a pet...
We had some complications with making reservations at the restaurant. So, we ended up being on the waiting list for the 12:30 time slot. I was VERY close to giving up as the kids were basically starting to melt at this point. (They had been up since 5:30) But, I remembered Kara's pictures of her girls right before lunch and figured if we could make it to eat we'd get a second wind. I finally said we were only waiting 10 more minutes and then they finally called our name. I'm so glad as this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I would definitely recommend making it part of your experience.

Its funny looking around a restaurant and seeing all little girls. It was really geared towards kids. As soon as we sat down they brought us a "warm welcome" mini cinnamon rolls. Then they brought an appetizer tray with veggies & pretzel bites. Grace ordered a tic tac toe personal pizza and Faith ordered a mini hamburger/hot dog with a tiny dish of macaroni and cheese. All of the ladies had salad. The food was very good and speedy.
The best part was all the little touches. The dolls had special seats and their own tea set. Our napkins were wrapped with hair ties for us to keep.

I think we heard them sing Happy Birthday 10 times while we ate! There were a lot of little girl birthday parties. Even though we didn't get the special cake our server did bring Grace a candle to blow out with her dessert. Our dessert included a tiny cake, cookie, and flower pot with chocolate mousse.
During lunch Grace and I talked about how she would spend the rest of her money when she went shopping for Ruthie after lunch. While she shopped Faith (who was feeling awful & coming down with a horrible virus) slept.
Grace ended up choosing a pair of purple pjs, a purple dress/hat, and a pink skirt/shirt & pink shoes from the "shoe store." She did a great job of narrowing down her choices and making sure to get things that matched. I was so proud of her that she didn't ask for more, but was content with her choices. Even though we were finished at the American Girl Store we still had some extra time before catching the train home.
Josie & Joy (her roommate) Joy collected American Girl dolls when she was little and even gave Grace & Faith some extra clothes to enjoy.
We spotted the Ghirardelli Chocolate shop and stopped in to get a treat.
I ordered a peanut butter sundae to share with the girls. Neither of them would eat a bite! Grace fell asleep in my lap & Faith was crying because she didn't feel good and didn't want to share me with her sister. This was one of the more challenging moments of our trip. But, how many mamas get to snuggle with their five year old on their birthday, right?
I was glad when we finally got on the train to head home. Grace had fun drawing pictures of her day. She did some really great ones that I'm going to include in the book I'm making her.
Welcome home Ruthie! Grace requested to take her along to church. When we got there she said, "Welcome to our church Ruthie, this is where we worship God." (love it!)
Her first outfit change- to her comfy purple pjs.
She wore each of her outfits the first day. Here is Grace with their "matching" purple hats.
Grace,

I am so glad we made this special memory together. Seeing the joy you have gotten from choosing Ruthie made my mama heart SO happy. You really are enjoying changing her clothes and bringing her along everywhere we go! You are such a sweet girl and I love you so much. I can't believe I'm a mama to a (gasp) 5 year old. You are getting so grown up. Happy birthday my favorite five year old, I love you the purplest!

Mama