Live Out Loud - Adventures of a mom

I know it's April, but in going through my pictures I realized I never blogged about my son's last birthday party.  His birthday is in November so last year we decided to pair that with Operation Christmas Child.   We have been doing this for a while now but with every year I feel God continues to show us new ways to share the call to be missional.  So this year, after discussing it with my son, we agreed to pair 2 things into 1 Everyone was invited to bring things that could fit in a shoebox...we had so much I have saved extras for this year's gathering We tried to categorized items for easier assembly Easier to prefold the boxes for these 4-7 year olds.  This year, though, they might be ready to fold themselves too Samuel requested this cake - looks more like Christmas to me but the kids loved it The Banner in the back is just Paint Chips from Home Depot and Printed Large Letters Showing the kids a video on Samaritan's Purse Min

I actually don't quite know how it all happened but this year we had a fully packed Easter Long Weekend.  Not only did I find myself with a crazy load of cakes to make, but we decided to host many parties as well. Crazy?  Perhaps.  But we thought hard and felt strongly that it would be a great time to host brunch on Good Friday.  We invited friends and families from the neighbourhood (and beyond) who we thought would not be going to church, and instead invited them to have some chill time with good brunch food and chit chat. Brunch can't be brunch without fluffy homemade pancakes! My only contribution when it came to the food - Cinnamon Buns Kids from the hood screaming "Happy Easter!" Story Time This year their 'take home' was not candy - I shared with them a book called "The Parable of the Lily" where a girl learns about the meaning of Easter through a lily bulb.  They all got 2 lily bulbs to take ho