I am not perfect: I am a hypocrite holy. I’m vainchosen, jealousaccepted, materialisticblessed, impatientblameless, judgmentaladopted,angryloved, discontentredeemed, selfishforgiven. I’m a liarpriest, I’m a thiefchild of God. I’m not perfect, but He is.

“Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Heb 10:14

I wrote a while ago about some of my favorite cosmetics and personal care products and I have to update it for the summer. Now that the weather is getting warmer and much more humid, I have switched to a mineral makeup. I had a bad experience about 8 years ago and haven’t touched one since. I have been missing out! I received a sample of Afterglow and absolutely love it.

It helps to use a microdermabrasion kit once a week or so to give myself a smooth palette to apply the makeup (I like Olay’s although there are others I haven’t tried).

Avery had her 5th birthday this week so we threw her a big party on Saturday. She wanted to do a princess party. Unfortunately, none of her girlfriends could be there! So, we threw in some knights, my husband and I dressed up as king and queen, and Avery played THE princess (wearing a Cinderella dress in perfect condition from a garage sale and a cone hat we made together). It was really a lot of fun and one of the best parties we’ve thrown, in my humble opinion (it helps we catered the food). Avery helped me quite a bit and was involved in making decisions about the party, too, which added to the fun.

Colors
Silver, Cinderella blue, royal blue and purple, with pink thrown in for fun

Decor/supplies
Medieval banners featuring two family crests and her birthday wishes (hand-drawn, computer was out of commission during the planning of this party)
A few flag banners I made from construction paper
Silver plates and cups with craft jewels hot glued on them
Pink napkins (Avery insisted on something pink)
The rest of the decorations were the giveaways and costumes for the guests: shields made from cereal boxes and tin foil (so cute, here’s shield how-to), foam swords from Wal-Mart, and tunics made from a silver tablecloth (instead of a felt coat of arms, I cut a shield shape from silver tissue paper and wrote the kids’ names on it, and, by the way, they held together fine).
I also made a cardboard castle facade (of all the boxes from our kitchen remodel we only had one leftover and it was too tiny for even one kid to play inside. They seemed pretty happy with what we had though.)

Food
Ale (dark red/grape Kool-aid mixed as well as dark colored sodas)
Princess fruit snacks
Snaps square pretzels
Peanuts in the shell (though I had to put these away when I realized not one but two kids were allergic, oops!)
Pineapple/strawberry/grape kabobs
Fried chicken (catered from Wal-Mart, which I highly recommend, just be sure you have all the food, we never did get our rolls)
Potato salad/macaroni salad
Rolls
Princess/carriage/castle shaped melted candy molds on a stick
Silver dollar peppermint patties and Rolos for the “gold chest”

Cake
The cake … sigh. We had a talented neighbor volunteer to make a princess cake, one where the dress is the cake. I even made a miniature version of Avery’s princess cone hat for the doll. But, with the threat of rain, I thought we’d have to post-pone the party so I told her not to make it. Well, the party went on, so we ran to Costco just a few hours before the party to let Avery select one of the pre-made ones. So, it wasn’t the theme and didn’t match, but it was YUMMY! :) (Of course, the one year it’s not blooming HOT so the frosting is melting …)

Activities
Since we invited our friends’ families, we mostly made it a social. We had the trampoline we acquired last year as well as a new swingset to entertain the kids (not to mention the swords to chase adults with).
I also bought two bubble wands that were designed like swords, which were a big hit with kids and parents.

I was so blessed today with some kind words spoken about my daughter by her teacher. Today was the last day of PDO, the one-day preschool I had Avery enrolled in for the year. There was a program this morning, featuring each of the three classes where they sang a few songs and parents were got an overview of what the kids learned this year. The best, I think, was the 3-4 year old class reciting the pledge of allegiance. They were so cute! At the end of each class’ songs, the teachers said a few words about each student. I wasn’t impressed with most of what they had to say (but, of course, they aren’t my kids!) although a few shared interesting anecdotes or conversations with the student. But Avery’s teacher, Ms Thea, got choked up when it came to her turn. I was touched to hear her say: “Avery is a good listener and a helper … Now, Avery is a little on the shy side (and I hope I don’t get choked up but I already am) but when it comes to talking with God, she speaks! Avery is not shy to talk to God her Father. When it’s snack time or lunch time, she will pray. She may not say a word the rest of the day, but she will pray. She has such a heart for God. And that is so encouraging to us.” It was God’s timing because I was already fuming and rolling my eyes at Avery’s “performance” during the song and q&a. She didn’t say one word or even do a single hand motion (except at one point when the kids held hands and swayed them back and forth, the boys next to her were holding her hand and she couldn’t get out of it, lol). I was hoping she had grown since her AWANA stage fright from last year. (The good news is I took some more entertaining photos of her for future embarrassment.) But Ms Thea gave me a gentle reminder that while performing on stage might not be her thing, Avery has a tender heart. Knowing the answers in her heart will trump shouting them out on stage any day.