Father's Day Celebration!!!

Father's day was wonderful here...the sun was shining, we came home after church and grilled a nice, relaxed lunch...the boys all bought their dad something special from Target, but that was not even the highlight...

all 5 kids were baptized!!! It was something that a couple of them had asked repeatedly to do, and we knew the church was in the process of planning one in June. I requested that it happen the weekend Ben's parents would be here, and the pastors were very accomodating. SO, as a surprise to Grandma and Grandpa, all of the kids decided they would like to on the same day! To top it off, the pastor over that facet of the church offered to let Ben and his dad perform the baptism, and it was more emotional that I expected! The pastor shared about family legacy, and what a blessing it was that ben was #5 in a line of generations that served God, with no divorces, and raised Godly children, and the whole church was teary...We began with the oldest, and went down the line. i knew ahead of time that the kids would all be asked if they had something to say. I also knew that the girls would be too shy to just ad-lib, so I had them write out their thoughts on small cards beforehand. One by one, each child climbed in, said their piece, got dunked, and climbed back out. when it got to Victoria, she was a little fearful, and decided she did not want to read her card. That was okay, and things proceeded as normal. Then Emme got into the tub... she scanned the crowd, and ducked down so no one could see her, frozen with self-consciousness! When asked if she would like to read, she became teary and said "I don't want to do it". After a little useless pleading, I pulled her out, and we waited until the lights dimmed & the crowd dissipated. Then she said she would really like to do it after all, and it was so sweet...Grandparents watching, our good friend Ana right on the scene with a camera, and Emme with her whole heart saying she loves Jesus and always will. The excitement at church was followed by a party at our hosue late in the afternoon, where Ben made yummy pizza, and Ana brought a delectable chocolate cake. We had 24 people over, and some of them played a rousing game of scrabble (?). The boys headed upstairs to the "library" for a video game fiasco, and we had a wonderful visit with friends and family. It was a good day!

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