First Day of Spring Celebration

We celebrated the First Day of Spring this past Monday. It's an annual event at our house. We love having our friends over to celebrate God's goodness and His beautiful creation. This year we had a total of 13 children and 7 adults. It was crazy, but FUN!
Since we were going to be planting flowers, I decided to share with the children the Parable of the Sower. We read the Scripture and I had a tray with the different kinds of soil, etc., that were mentioned. Then we talked about how that applies to our hearts and how we want to have hearts that are 'good soil' for God's Word to be planted in our hearts so we can grow in Him.
After that, the older children painted their little flower pots while the moms made a little flower photo craft for the littlest ones. It was a lovely day and hard to keep the children sitting, so we let them run and play while the pots dried. We had our lunch on the back deck in the beautiful sunshine and watched the children enjoy themselves. I had planned a game for the children but it didn't go over as well as I'd hoped. It was called "On Target" and utilized makeshift lawn darts (filled with sand) and hula hoops as the targets. It was fun for a few minutes anyway. :-) Once the pots were dry, we planted a pansy in each one. The children loved having their very own flower to take home and keep. Rachel and I bought bubbles for each child. Just a little treat for fun. They really enjoyed those. We are so thankful for all of our dear friends who came and made our day so special and fun. A huge 'thank you' to my sisters, Rachel and Katie, without whom I probably wouldn't have been able to pull it off and I certainly wouldn't have had so many wonderful pictures to share. Enjoy!

Photo Credit for all photos in this post goes to Katie Marine.

Abigail is our 'Strawberry Shortcake'. She was sneaking strawberries most of the day.

Parable of the Sower

He has shoes! I promise, we put shoes on him, but as soon as he goes outside, off they come!

Sam was helping to make his craft.

Snacks. I asked everyone to bring a lunch and I provided some fruits and veggies for sharing.
The Stuffed Cucumber Cups were a big hit!

This craft was Rachel's idea. So adorable! Thanks, Rachel!

Carrot Patch. Too cute, don't ya think?

Froggy Cupcakes for dessert. Emily did a great job! They were easy and delicious.

Flower pots drying in the warm sun.

Planting the flowers.

Learning a new game.

Thank you, Lord, for our beautiful day!