Garratt's Birthday Celebration!

Yikes....he's 11! It's hard to believe, but wow, it sure is fun having an 11 year old around! Garratt is such a joy!

We are trying a new way to celebrate birthdays in our family and it is going much more smoothly. About 2 weeks ago, Garratt began to formulate the things that he wanted to do and places that he wanted to go and we worked on the details. The emphasis then becomes spending time building memories instead of gettting a bunch of stuff that will break and be disappointing in the long run anyway. It was a great celebration and we have some great memories of our time! Granny was able to pick up a free cake through a place that donates baked goods, so that was a HUGE blessing! Garratt said, "Monster Truck cake" and this is what we came up with. These past few weeks have been unusually harried, so the easy way out on the cake became a blessing in itself.

My favorite part of the day was when Linnaea gave Garratt the present that she had for him (the bright green bag in picture #4). She made him a card and put items in the bag that she had used her own "money" to buy. We have a ticket system (called Accountable Kids) as a payment of sorts for doing chores. The children earn tickets and get tickets taken away as a sort of currency. At the end of the week (or weeks depending on the performance of the time period), the tickets earned can become "Dohse Dough". The children get Dohse Dollars and get to spend them in the "Mommy Store". The store is a collection of items that I pick up at thrift stores, garage sales, and regular store clearance racks, etc... that I think that the children will enjoy. I wish we had a dollar store here, because those kind of items would be great for "Dohse-Mart". Well, Nay-Nay spent some of her dollars on gifts for Garratt and the look on her face as Garratt enjoyed each item was heart warming! It was fantastic to watch her watch him and see the love that oozed out of that beautiful moment.

It makes me think: How much does our Heavenly Father delight in watching our reaction when we praise Him for the wonderful gifts He so lovingly lavishes on us??

So, needless to say, my favorite picture from the entire celebration is the hugging picture because it is a moment of sincere gratitude and love! How precious!!

It was a truly sweet family time and
-the fun lunch at McDonalds
- stories of Daddy, Garratt, Garratt's best friend A, and A's Dad bowling and mini-golfing
- the time spent today trying to finish off the fun list since yesterday was so packed full with church and AWANA and celebrating in town in the afternoon.....

are all icing on the huge, tasty, and FREE cake!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GARRATT!