Monday, June 27, 2011

Hannah's 17th Birthday

"And Hannah prayed and said:“My heart rejoices in the LORD; My horn is exalted in the LORD. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.'"
1 Samuel 2:1
The oldest child in the Wassenberg clan turned 17 last Tuesday!

We normally have the birthday person sleep in on their birthday, but since Hannah gets up earlier than all of us (every morning), we just told her to stay in our room.  After breakfast was ready we went upstairs singing Happy Birthday.  Never doing the same thing twice, Daddy brought his djembe along and beat it all the way into our room.  This was Hannah's reaction at Daddy's bonging:


A birthday hug from Lydia! :)

After the birthday song, we all went back downstairs (with Hannah! :) and had family devotions before breakfast.  My cousins, Kaitlyn and Sarah, had spent the night so they were here for Hannah's birthday! :)

Hannah and K.K. in our enormous beanbag! :)


We ate fresh blueberries from Westmoreland Berry Farm as we did devotions.

Judah ate his food, too! ;)

When devotions were over we headed to the table.  This was Hannah's plate:

Sweet Tart duckies swimming in a sea of M&M's!  (We always give the birthday person a bunch of candy for their birthday. :)

Hannah's breakfast pick was Farmers' Crepes.  They are a lot of work to make, but they taste so yummy!! 


 

Hannah eating her delicious breakfast!
For her breakfast "sweet food", Hannah had pop tarts! :)
And they were so yummy!!!

After breakfast, Mama left with K.K. and Sarah, but before they left we grabbed a quick picture:

Sarah, Hannah, and K.K. :)

Later that night we ate Hannah's chosen dinner:  lasagna and pizza bread!

Lexi set the table beautifully...she's quite the designer! ;)


She put Hannah's napkin in her glass after learning how to make it look like a fan.
(Thanks to one of G.G.'s books.)

After dinner, Hannah opened her gifts!

She received a certificate to Sweet Frog...


 

...some mint candy (she loves mint!)...

...and two shirts! :)

 
As Hannah was opening her presents, Judah was greatly enjoying himself as he ripped the tissue paper to shreds. :)

Hannah received a present from Grandpa and Grandma in the mail a few days before her birthday.  She opened it after all of ours were finished!

Inside was a beautiful, white outfit! :)

Loveliness! :)


Judah was still enthralled with the tissue paper! :)

We then settled down and watched The Chosen starring Robby Benson.  When it was over, we gathered around Hannah and her cake and sung "Happy Birthday" one more time! :)


Blowing out the candles!
(I love how Eden's hand is over Lydia's mouth to keep her from blowing out the candles! :)


Hannah's ice cream cake was very minty!  On the bottom was a layer of Andes mints, then mint chocolate chip ice cream, then oreos with hot fudge drizzled on top, and finally a layer of vanilla ice cream topped with home made whipped cream.  Phew...that was quite the list! :)

As we ate Daddy read a few chapters out of our new, favorite book series by Chuck Black:  The Kingdom Series They are excellent books and are an allegory of the Bible.  We bought them at the Homeschool Convention a few weeks ago and we've almost finished two books already!  We always end each chapter with "just one more, please!!"  They're that great. :)

Because it was Hannah's birthday, Daddy read more than usual and we actually finished the first book, ending Hannah's 17th birthday party! :)

---
Because I'm here, I'll give you a recap of what we've been doing recently! :)

When G.G. passed away around 2 weeks ago, we held her Memorial Service on June 18th.  The next few days afterward was spent with family as we went to G.G.'s apartment and went through everything.  Her apartment has to be vacated by this coming Thursday, so everyone got together last Saturday and found what they wanted and took it home.  The Lord answered many of our family's unspoken prayers through some things G.G. had.  
The fact that G.G.'s gone hasn't hit us quite yet.  G.G.'s always been there, so it's weird to have her not be there.  Every time we drive by Covenant Woods I know I won't walk in there again, because my G.G. isn't there.  Mama thinks we'll miss her most when we go to the beach in August.  The beach was G.G.'s favorite spot and the little memories of having her with us, will probably make this vacation a little bittersweet.  

But, we're doing well and we're grateful for all the cards and kind words people have shared.   We appreciate it! :)

Through all this wonderful craziness, we're still trying to continue school through the summer (Monday thru Thursday).  Gardening will be on the weekends or in the afternoons.  [Our gardens are doing pretty well, praise the Lord!  Our corn is coming up and our greenbeans, cucumbers, and melons are just starting to produce.  Sometime next week we'll probably be harvesting our potatoes...so far we don't think the voles have gotten to them!!  Thank you, Lord!]

Last Saturday we held a baby shower for my Aunt Amanda at my Aunt Steph's house.  Little Cameron Collins is due in September and we can't wait to see Uncle Sean and Aunt Amanda's little one! :)

This weekend we have two families coming over!  We always enjoying having people over for dinner and dessert!

Next week is the 4th of July so we'll be spending more time with family! :)  K.K. and Sarah (our cousins) will be spending a few days with us and then Daddy, Mama, Hannah, Alexis, K.K., Sarah, and I (along with many people from church) will be going to Kings Fest on July 8th!  We're all excited! :)

So that's what we've been doing! :)  Through all of this business, we're grateful for every day
Have a great day! :)
Kimber :)

Look out!.....






There is a new driver on the road!  Yup, Kimber got her learners permit on Monday, June 6th, 2011!  She drove home from the DMV stopping once to get gas! She did well (considering we didn't hit anybody/thing ;) and is now a much better and experienced driver! :) Practice makes perfect!



This is the number they called out and also put up on a screen when it was time for Kimber to go up and take the test!
Filling out her form
Getting her last bit of study time in before she takes her test!
And then...WAH-LA! Kimber's number was called and showed up on this screen-T109- that's HER!
Doing some more information-filling.  After that she got her picture taken in front of the white board mommy is standing before.  The picture that is taken is used on your permit card if you pass!
Taking the test.
Focus, Kimber, Focus!!
In the mean time Lydia found Kimber's study book and highlighter.  She decided to draw a beautiful picture on the book- hence the "look" - "you didn't see that did you?". ;)
I think she was telling me something or else I just caught her in mid-preparation for another look....
Yup. That's the "Hee, Hee, Hee! Snort! Giggle, Giggle! Snort! " look.  She really has this laugh down pat that sounds like a high-pitched evil laugh/giggle- "He, he, he, he, he!!!"
OOOOH...PEENNNN! :P
Focusing  hard..finishing up...looking bewildered as she walked toward us.  "Hey Kimber! Did you pass!!?" I loudly whispered and mouthed across the room as she passed our "waiting" row. "What?" She asked.  I then repeated and she replied again (still looking confused) "I don't know."  Yea, sure- you don't know. Whatever. :P ;) She walked over to another area -following the instructions at the end of the test- and stayed there for awhile before returning. Mommy asked (with a slight squeak ;)- "How did you do?!"  She replied, looking up nonchalantly, "I passed." 
"You did! YEA!!!" we exclaimed.   This face is her reply of "Yeah."

So then I asked her this- "You didn't know you passed when you finished the test!? They didn't tell you!?"  "Well," she answered, "It said that I passed, but I wasn't sure what to do or if it was for sure."   "You could have told me!" :) I said.  She replied with excuses... :)
Oh joy! She passed on her very first try- whew! I hope I'm that good! :)

 Her humble look
Before leaving she had her picture taken outside the DMV office.




 
 
Sharing the news with the family back home! Not counting daddy- he was at work.
 
 

"Yeah, I passed."

"Uh-ha, yup."
~I'm just playing with you Kimber- it's SO fun- love ya to pieces! But I'm not done with my fone yet! (goodness gracious Lexi!!! You spelled fun like an alien! "Fone"- Ohhhh golly! )

Lydia "reading" Eden's book - I don't know how she was so peaceful with Kimber's driving! ;P
EEEEKKK! Her first move driving! Slllppttt!
Motherly guidance and instruction- Important key to us getting home safely! ;D
A portrait before starting off (you know, just in case it's her last ;)- JUST KIDDING! :D 

She drove around the DMV parking lot 1 or 2 times before hitting the road! Not literally of course.  ;)
Nutt'n but us an' da' big trees!
Well, plus traffic. :)

Drive'n along
Nice. Purrty. Day.
Ok. So this is out of place. Who cares! Right? It's a nice ending to the post of words and pictures from a highly devolved brain. Mine. 
:) 

All right, we made it home (hence the fact I'm here to right this), though she scared me a few..well..just about the whole time. She liked the acceleration peddle. ;)  But you don't have to be scared any more- she's a competent driver now!  She drove dad's truck and trailer (for the first time) for 2+ hours, on the highway (for the first time too- it was a big day of firsts'...I won't even start to tell you about how we almost wrecked from a humongous tractor-trailer thing-a-ma-bob...)  I think I'm done making fun of her now.  Back to me-self...Um, did I uh, spell "write" wrong at the top of this paragraph...? I sir-us-ly didn't mean to.  You be my spell check.  :)

Hope you all have a WUNDERFUL!!! WONDERFULL!! WANDERFUL!! Week!


Joyfully His,
Alexis Noel Wassenberg ♥♥♥ 
PS- ;)