Weekend

This past week, my parents came to visit, and they came bearing gifts.  This fruit basket was one of them, and if you know anything about me, fruit is my absolute favorite gift ever.  

We spent the weekend celebrating Ellee's birthday.  Apparently, our family enjoys celebrating one's actual birthday, but also on the days surrounding the birthday too.  On Thursday, we spent the afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese.  After paying a good sum for bad pizza and tons of tokens to play games, we left with cheap plastic toys and an incredibly happy birthday girl.  Well worth it considering the joy it brought Ellee.  That night, we enjoyed birthday cake with the kids in our Senior High Youth Group.

This amazing girl next to our amazing girl made Ellee's birthday cake.  We are so, so blessed to know people like her.

On Friday, we enjoyed a special day outdoors with Grandpa.

We drove out to Calverton, where Christian had the privilege of having Grandpa teach him how to shoot his first 22 rifle.  My Dad actually bought it for Christian when he was a baby, and it was really special to have him come and teach Christian how to use it properly.  

Then, on Saturday, which was Ellee's actually birthday, we enjoyed another fun day.  Our newly five year old sweetheart started out her special day by helping to rake leaves for people in our community.

Every year, we get our students together for a little leaf raking party.  

They do an amazing job serving others and have some fun too.

Later that day, we spent some special time with Grandma...

and Grandpa.

This is the first year that they have been able to be there to celebrate Ellee's birthday.  They live in Michigan, and most years it was phone calls that would connect them to their New York grandkids.  I'm so very thankful that they were able to take the time to come out for this special day.

Ellee got plenty of sweet gifts, from friends and family.  

And altogether it was a very special weekend to celebrate.