Kids' Club

When I was little, we were constantly creating secret clubs and forts.  My siblings and I were always looking for loose floor boards, false walls, and secret passageways (I still do!) so when my brother discovered the attic crawlspace above his room, we were all suddenly thrust into kid-club heaven.  My brother called a meeting in his room, showed us the hidden space, and told us we had to have a secret club name.  We might have called it the Black Widows Club, but there's a chance my memory is a little rusty.  Oh man--we were so excited to have this huge space with so much potential.  We started scheming and planning and that dirty, rickety, old crawl space seemed like heaven above was shining into it.  That was... until Dad came home and couldn't find any of us anywhere except for our baby brother who was sleeping in his crib. It must have been a great secret club, because my dad was ready to call the cops to help find us and we all got in big trouble for hiding up there.  Needless to say, our club suffered an early demise.  We never went into that attic again.


Caiden and Elliott have similar club aspirations.  We host a Friday night church gathering at our house and Elliott and Caiden have created "Kids' Club" to compliment the adult discussion time.  They are always planning, scheming, purchasing for, and touting Kids' Club.  They have name tags, schedules, rules, folders for everybody, and possibly prizes.  They even made a Kids' Club flag...  Our upstairs neighbors, who are teachers, recently moved out and during the packing stages they put a tupperware tub outside which the kids promptly raided for "Kids' Club" supplies.  The kids assured me that the supplies were "up for grabs," but when Dad came home we discovered that those supplies were not, in fact, up for grabs--oops.  It felt like the "Black Widows' Club" fiasco all over again!  Despite the minor setback, Kids' Club is still alive and kicking, unlike my own Black Widows' Club of yore.

Though, the sad thing is: kids rarely come to Friday night church.  Its tragic.  But kind of funny, too.  Elliott and Caiden are "the leaders" in this perpetual anticipation of a club that can only begin when they get members.  It never happens, but its always a dream.

In the meantime, we take our 2-kid-club on little adventures of their own and encourage them to bring the flag along...  Kids' Club for life!

Luckily, Dad knows how to make a swing on the top of a mountain with a bike chain, cinching strap and a piece of wood, so we're all good!

Caiden Turns Six

The littlest lady in the family turned six this month!  We really enjoyed celebrating her little life with her.  She didn't want a big party this year, so she decided to do something special get frozen yogurt with one of her friend's on Saturday instead.

For her birthday dinner she wanted curry. Specifically, she wanted a restaurant called House of Curries here in Berkeley--mostly because she wanted naan and free chai. 

Since we were having a family birthday dinner, we decided to call the whole family which happens to be our church family, and many of them showed up at House of Curries to eat dinner with us and celebrate Caiden's life.  We are so blessed to know Caiden and so thankful that we can enjoy her with each other.

She had a fun day!  One of her classmates really wanted to pick her flowers for her birthday, but he ran out of time, so he made his mother promise him to go get flowers and bring them to Caiden by the end of the day.  Another friend gifted Caiden a little dixie cup filled with collected rocks, a bead, and drizzled with water.  Caiden loved it!  Still another friend's mom sewed the cutest little stuffed elephant for Caiden to cuddle with.  They were all perfect gifts.  Lots of church family and blood family gave her gifts, too.  She was totally blessed with gifts.

My favorite part of Caiden's birthday, however, was seeing her pass out cake to each of her classmates... every single one of them--on her own--before serving herself.  And then again at dinner, she served each party guest a slice a cake.  I loved seeing Jesus' servant heart in my little six year old.  That's the best kind of aging: maturing in Christ.  I still can't believe she's six years old!!!