Author Archive for Julie Paquette

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10
Feb
12

Valentines parties!

By Julie P. 1 Comment
Categories: Ella, Rilyn, School and Valentine

Today my girls had their Valentine parties at school (school policy:  parties are only to be held on Fridays).  I had to drag Asher around the school “party hopping.”  You would think he would love all the goodies and juice boxes he gets (not to mention the attention!), but no, this boy does NOT like to go to his sisters’ events!  This picture is very telling of how Asher felt about being at school for 2 hours this afternoon…

Rilyn’s party:

Rilyn’s starting to get embarrassed of all the pictures I take…

At Ella’s party, the teacher wouldn’t let them “read” their Valentines until they got home (think of 22 kindergartners opening 22 pieces of paper each…ugh). This is Ella opening her cards at home and relishing each one…

Yes, I will be your Valentine!
05
Feb
12

in moments of despair-a love story

By Julie P. 2 Comments
Categories: Christianity and Julie

There are two reasons why I’m writing this post today:

#1 February is about celebrating love!

#2 I heard a sermon today that reminded me about my “love story” with James in college.

I have been very blessed to not have had any earth shattering traumatic events happen in my life thus far.  When someone asks me to think about your last moment of true and utter despair, I think back to April of 1999-when James and I broke up.  We had been dating for a year and a month up until that point, (every month counts when you’re dating!)  Christmas of 1998, James gave me a watch (that I still wear everyday!) that was inscribed on the back “Till the End of Time” (yes, my English loving friends, he used the wrong spelling of “till” and I tease him to this day.)  Every naive college girl knows that when you give a girl a gift like that, you are FOR SURE getting married, right?  I mean, he wants me to till with him til the end of time!  😉  So, imagine my despair, when in April of 1999, James was convicted by the Holy Spirit to end our relationship.  He said to me that we were putting each other up as idols in our lives and our relationship became more important than our relationship with God.  (He was super holy like that.)  I was pretty devastated because he did give me that watch, so now what?

This is where the sermon comes in that I heard today.  It was about Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and that He modeled for us how to act in moments of despair.

1.  Matthew 26:37 “He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he began to be filled with anguish and deep distress.”  We are to invite people into the depths of our struggles.  When James broke up with me, I was very fortunate to have the best roommate who knew the situation and how deeply I was hurt.  (And that roommate still lives by me today, around the corner in fact, and we live life together almost everyday.  It is not uncommon to find us going grocery shopping together in the same car!)  Love her!

2.  Matthew 26:38a  “He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.”  We are to share our weaknesses with them.  Jen, my roommate, got an earful almost every night.  She probably couldn’t understand most of it because I was sniffling back tears.

3.  Matthew 26:38b  (Jesus said to them) “Stay here and watch with me.”  We are to ask them to fight with us.  Jen helped me for sure during the 7 months James and I were broken up.  One of the best things she ever did during that time was when I opened our apartment door one day in May and she and another one of my friends had written encouraging Bible verses on index cards and taped them all over our apartment!  It felt like there were hundreds of verses and it meant so much to me!

4.  Matthew 26:39  “He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground, praying, “My Father!  If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.”  We are to pour our heart out to the Father.  Some nights this felt impossible, because all I could do was cry.  But during the 7 months of despair, I found great comfort in journaling and the Psalms.  I also find creating things is therapeutic for me.  So in the summer of ’99, I created this 30 in. x 40 in. board:

I used all the Psalms that spoke to my heart during that difficult period and typed them up on different colors of paper with different fonts, and glued them together in a stain glass look of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane.  I felt like this image of Jesus praying spoke to me most because he was in a moment of despair like me, (of course His despair was infinitely greater than mine!)

Psalm 22:3-5

5.  Matthew 26:39  “Yet I want your will, not mine.”  We are to rest in the sovereign will of the Father.  The top sentence on the above board is this verse.  In my heart I truly wanted God’s will.  And if that meant James and I weren’t supposed to be together, then I knew God had a better plan for me.  In my journal I wrote, “Father, thank you for loving James and I so much that you chose to separate us so that we may be closer to you.  Thank you that according to our strengths and weaknesses you have us each in perfect places this summer.  I pray Father, if it is your will, that you protect James’ love for me.  Lord, I want you to consume me, not my situation, not anyone else, but You.”

And that is just what He did.  I was alone all summer, no friends in town, James was out of state and then out of the country with no way to correspond…I was consumed by Him, and it felt so good.  I fell in love with my Savior again and then my Savior brought back my earthly love in due time.  It was a true love story.

01
Feb
12

family dinners

By Julie P. 1 Comment
Categories: Family

Family dinners…prepping can cause me some stress, but when we are all finally seated and our plates are all full of yummy food-it’s so worth it!  I wanted to share a couple of things that we do at dinner that have really helped make dinner last longer than 5 minutes (is it too much to ask after I’ve just cooked a healthy meal for 30+ minutes, to deserve 15 good minutes at the table!?!)

Prayer-we take out our basket full of 2011 Christmas cards that we just received in December and pick one family to pray for.

Decor–the manners candle.  I saw this on Pinterest and knew I needed it for Asher.  He needs a physical reminder to sit still and eat.  James has to sit by him and practically feed him so he will continually eat, otherwise, he is under the table or hanging off the chair.  The candle stays lit if he is chewing and sitting still.  We just started this in January, so we obviously haven’t had our candle melt down to the bottom yet.  But when it does, we will all go out to ice cream that night!  The candle has been blown out  a few times at the beginning of dinner, so we have a ways to work on this, but I think once Asher succeeds at getting the candle completely melted, he will get it!

Conversation-We start with our Rose and our Thorn (or Touchdown and Turn over for James and Asher).  It’s our high and low of the day.  We also ask what’s their Secret of the day-what is one thing they don’t think they should tell us, but we would want to know.  It’s always pretty interesting what they come up with- “This boy hugged me on the playground” or “so and so told me she won’t be my friend anymore if I don’t give her my bracelet.”  And one important rule about their secret:  they won’t get in trouble for telling us!  (When you send your kids to public school, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep open lines of communication!)  😉

James and I also use dinnertime to look over their work from school and talk about it.  They get the biggest smiles on their faces when we give them credit for what they are working hard on at school.  And it’s fun to read things like (from Rilyn), “If I found a magic wand I would turn everybody into an Aggie.  I would be in paradise.  Really.  My dad would be so proud of me.”  🙂  Or Ella’s paper, When I grow up I want to be a “piss” (princess).  🙂

Another part of our conversation is from these cards I found free online and printed!  We pick one to read each night and each take a turn to answer.  There is like 300 cards so make sure you have ink in your printer!

And last, we try to read the Word during dinner.  We have used these great books, Big Book Of Questions and Answers and the simpler version for younger children, My 1st Book Of Questions and Answers
as resources to discuss short topics from the Bible.  Because this is February 1st though, we are starting our Valentine Countdown verses to discuss at dinner!  🙂

27
Jan
12

sample work

By Julie P. Leave a Comment
Categories: Asher, Ella, Rilyn and School

Asher:  He drew his first family portrait today.  Of course I had to bribe him with a piece of candy, but he did it!  🙂  You can see he did draw five faces. I’m not sure when he will decide that bodies are important. 🙂 This boy loves letters and numbers!  He knows all of them, upper and lower case, and about half of his sounds, but writing/drawing?!?  No way, not for him!!!

Asher’s first family portrait-3.9 years old

Ella: Her teacher’s aide came up to me yesterday when I was at school volunteering and told me that Ella made her day when she told her, “I don’t believe in luck, only blessings.” 🙂

Here is Ella’s first “book report” in kindergarten. At least she’s honest! 🙂

“Because it was short and it was boring.”

Rilyn: She wrote us a chore list recently because she wants to save money to help buy an iPad for her birthday in June. (I guess 8 year olds have iPads these days!) Anyway, so she wants a regular weekly allowance, (currently we pay her by the chore.) We decided that we would pay her $7 a week because she is 7 and we told her to write down some chores that would be good for her to do each week. This is what she gave us:  (of course my favorite is #8!)  😉
23
Jan
12

someone’s getting a dollar tonight!

By Julie P. Leave a Comment
Categories: Ella

Ella lost her third tooth today!  She stayed home from school not feeling great, and that gave us, (it was a team effort), ample time to twist, yank, and pull her top tooth out!  She is our child with the highest pain tolerance, and enjoys the process of losing a tooth!  It had been pretty loose for a few weeks, but I kept telling her to give it time.  Today, though, she wanted it out!

so proud
putting her tongue through the new gap!
21
Jan
12

this is how girls fight!

By Julie P. Leave a Comment
Categories: Ella, Rilyn and Silliness

playing Barbie and the Three Musketeers!

Ella in the purple, Anna in the blue, a friend from school in the white, and Rilyn in the light blue!
love Rilyn’s sword jig
fighting with ribbon!  Take that!
19
Jan
12

musings from a 7 year old

By Julie P. 1 Comment
Categories: Rilyn and School

Rilyn has a writing prompt each morning at school and every Tuesday afternoon she brings home all her writings from the week.  I always enjoy reading her musings, and thought I would compile some of my favorites into one post and keep record!  It brings much joy to my heart to read that she tries to include her faith whenever possible!  I know her teacher knows that this girl loves Jesus!  🙂

Writing prompt:  What rules do you have to follow at your house?  “I have to do the laundry and the dishes.  Boring!  I also have to do my homework right away.  We can not murder.  I can not be guilty of adultery.  I can not steal.”  (This one cracks me up!  She knows her Ten Commandments, doesn’t she?  I wonder what her teacher was thinking when he read this?!)

Writing prompt:  What do you like about your style?  “I like my style because I think I look cool.  I have a lot of make-up at home.  But there’s something else more important, my belief in God.  Now that’s important.”

Writing prompt:  What do you like best about your appearance?  “I like my appearance.  I think I look good.  But God cares about the inside of your heart.”

A Christmas Poem by Rilyn

“Under this tree are presents you know

But the real Christmas is real without a doubt

It’s about a little boy you see that came down from heaven

He’s the King of Kings

See the star up top?

That represents Jesus.

There’s a clue.”

Love this girl’s heart for Jesus!

And just because it’s cute to remember:

I was checking her spelling homework and one of her words was “recall”. The sentence she wrote was “We called him and he didn’t answer, so we recalled him.”  🙂

She had to write a sentence for “focus”, her sentence was, “I focus on my testes.” That extra “e” can really change things, dear…
10
Jan
12

it’s all about the splash!

By Julie P. Leave a Comment
Categories: Asher
Tags: , ,

I bought Asher his first pair of rainboots the other week in anticipation of the rainy winter season.  He loves jumping in puddles, and unfortunately, he hasn’t had too many opportunities lately because Austin has been so dry!  Well, today was the perfect day to bust out the boots!  It rained for hours and hours, and then as soon as it stopped, I took my camera, and told Asher to go at it!  I’m pretty sure he thought I was crazy because the puddles were almost 6 inches deep, muddy, and mommy was giving him permission to jump in them!?!  (All in the name of good pictures is the name of my game!  🙂  I will let lots slip by when I want a certain picture!)

contemplating what mommy is telling him to do

And he’s off!

air Asher!
splash down!
up
DOWN!!
so happy!

When I was tired of the people in cars driving by staring at me for being the crazy woman who was taking pictures of her son soaking wet in the freezing cold, we moved to the backyard! 🙂

it was a tad bit more muddy
which meant even more fun!
KA-BOOM
I’m pretty sure this one soaked Asher’s face and we were done.
09
Jan
12

Tangled decorations

By Julie P. 2 Comments
Categories: Birthday and Ella
Tags: , , ,

 

Welcome to my party!

The decoration above actually came about because as I was opening Ella’s Barbie Rapunzel tower from the box, I noticed that the packing material they used looked like Rapunzel’s hair. But I thought, it’s brown so I can’t use it. Then I remembered the 90 foot gold ribbon I bought last year for Ella’s golden birthday and thought I could wrap it around and make it look more yellow and like it was in a braid!  🙂  I thought it turned out pretty cute!

My mother in law and sister in law made this beautiful 17 foot Rapunzel tower for the backyard!  I was completely surprised at how elaborate it came out!!  They are so talented!  If you are interested in something so elaborate or crafty for your next special event, please visit my sister in law’s etsy store and message her and I promise she can make it happen!

And this is Ella when we let her see the tower for the first time!

wow!!!!

My sister in law also made this beautiful table centerpiece!

My best friend, Jen, discovered she has a cupcake decorating passion and did these beautiful Rapunzel tower cupcakes for me that we found on Pinterest! All the directions are here.

For the “pin the frying pan on Flynn” game, I printed these pans and just drew Flynn myself on poster board using Google images of the wanted poster from the movie.  (Growing up, I used to draw all my siblings “pin the tail” game posters, so I really enjoy it!)

To see all the party games, etc. from this party, click here.

08
Jan
12

A very Tangled Birthday!

By Julie P. 9 Comments
Categories: Birthday and Ella
Tags: , , ,

We had Ella’s 6th birthday party yesterday, and I must say that it was the best birthday party we have ever thrown!  It took a lot of help though from friends and family, but with all of us working together, we made it over the top special!  I will put a post up tomorrow on all the decorations used, because they were so extravagant, and I have many people to thank for that!

James put his video talents to use and made a 2 minute montage video of Ella’s party!  It’s really cute!

the cupcakes were Rapunzel towers!

The first activity we did (while the princesses were arriving) was “decorate your own Rapunzel braid with fun foam flowers”! I made all these braids with yellow yarn. Super easy, but if you want to do it, I would suggest starting several weeks in advance as it is time consuming. I started in November, so I could make one a night in my free time!

decorating their braids!

Ella’s braid was the longest because she was the birthday girl! We attached the braids with bobby pins and a rubber band, but you could use anything.

fancy!

After all the princesses arrived, we made them close their eyes and walk to the backyard to unveil the tower!

wow!

And who was in the tower, but the birthday girl Ella!

Next, we had each girl paint a small paper lantern with their own set of watercolors (given as party favors)!

During that time, we let each girl “climb the tower” (or walk upstairs!) and get a picture in the tower window with the long hair (which were 5 plastic yellow tablecloths taped together that I bought at the dollar store.)
After they painted their lanterns, we played a Tangled game where each girl got a partner and they had to tangle their partner in yellow crepe paper in the allotted time! The judges decided which girl was the most Tangled and then they switched and let the other partner get Tangled!
I think Rilyn was letting out some sister frustration here!  🙂
all Tangled up!

The next game we played was “Pin the Pan on Flynn’s nose”!

Then it was time for cupcakes! I bought a sparkler instead of candles for the first time and I think Ella was surprised, don’t you?

what is this?

She tried to blow it out, but sparklers don’t “blow” out! 🙂

“Just hold it and watch the sparks” we told her…she looked a little nervous though!

am I going to get burned?!?

Enjoying the treats!

Then it was present time! I think Ella liked getting a Flynn doll!

And the last game we played was “throw Pascal into the frying pan”. I bought a 10 pack of sticky lizards and made the girls stand behind a line to see how many each girl could throw into the pan.

I guess it was a pretty exciting game from Cinderella’s face!  Do you see the blue Pascal flying through the air?
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