Happy Birthday, Shannon!

Hard to believe our little girl is now 11 years old!  Her special day began with the traditional birthday pancake bear.  She was pleased I remembered to put the arms on it this year, but I did forget the chocolate chip eyes.  Maybe next year I'll get it right.

Shannon and I decorated the lemon cupcakes so she could share her birthday with the students in her clay class.  

The kids finished glazing their clay projects today.  It was the last day in their six-week clay class.  They are eager for the advanced class which starts at the end of the month.

The group sang "Happy Birthday" to Shannon before enjoying the cupcakes.

Alaina joined us for the afternoon and a special birthday dinner at Mimi's Cafe.  Then the girls cuddled into the recliner for the American Girl movie, "Kit Kittredge."  Here is Alaina holding Shannon's American Girl Elizabeth doll while Shannon holds her new horse pillow.  It has the softest "fur" imaginable!

After church on Sunday we joined Grandma Nancy at Chevy's to continue the celebrations.  

Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

Coming Back Down to Earth

Last week 14 of the Endorsed SWR Trainers and Wanda Sanseri joined me in the San Francisco Bay Area for a Trainers' Meeting.  Everyone flew in on Tuesday evening or Wednesday, and believers from my home church, Fairhaven Bible Chapel, or our homeschool support group, Home Schoolers Loving God, hosted the ladies in their homes.  We met at Fairhaven on Thursday through Saturday for further training, for times of prayer and fellowship, and for building up our team of trainers.  On Friday afternoon the group headed into San Francisco via the ferry for a gorgeous day down by the San Francisco Wharf.  The last of the ladies headed out of the Bay Area today.  

It's already Thursday, and I'm still surprised an entire week has passed since the group was here!  Wasn't it just yesterday we were giving our 3-minute presentations on how we discovered SWR for ourselves or riding a horse-drawn carriage up to Ghirardelli Square?   God has truly built an amazing team of women whose hearts are on fire to enable homeschool and classroom teachers to help spread literacy in our world today.  Praise the Lord for His blessing our time together many times over!