Zeeki's 1st Birthday!

 A couple of weeks ago, our youngest, Zeeki, turned 1! It was a lovely time of celebrating the life that Yah has given to him and his addition into our lives!

Here are some snaps to share from his day (and bbq the following weekend).

{Our family tradition is to open birthday pressies/cards in the morning before brekky. The kids all come in with present bag in hand singing to the birthday child. Zeeki loved this. I'd been singing 'happy birthday' to him for a few weeks so he wouldn't freak out by the noise/attention. It seemed to do the trick because every time it was sung, he would smile or do a happy squeal! Yay!}

{Opening his gift from us; a pull-along frog. Simple and well loved already!}

{Zeeki loved the box of course a little more than the gift itself ;) }

{Our happy birthday boy!}

 

{Later that afternoon, mum and dad and my sis Dee arrived. Dee travelled interstate while mum and dad had driven up (they are 7 hours away) to help celebrate with us. We hadn't seen them since returning from Fiji. It was great to catch up again.}

{Dannii, Nanny and Poppy arrived later. Here's me, Dannii and Dee together.}

{Dannii has bought one of the Max Lucado books for each of our kids on a birthday. She bought this one for Zeeki's first birthday. Dannii always sticks a photo in the front and writes a beautiful letter to the child. It is a treasured keepsake and such a sweet idea.}

{Birthday dinner; bbq!}

{Our two families come together to celebrate - missing from photo Meng (who couldn't make it - we understood Meng!) and Dannii who popped down to see J (her best friend) whose birthday was also the same day!}

 

{Zeeki and his Naui share a cuddle}

{With my mum and dad}

{With Brett's mum and dad}

{With Aunty Dee}

{Opening a gift!}

{Zeeki was blessed with some gorgeous things; an interactive toy, lots of clothes, some shoes and sheet + doona set for his junior bed when it's time to transition into that.

Thank you everyone!}

{From Aunty Dee...a little ride on bike!}

{I made gluten free cupcakes for Zeeki's birthday topped with strawberries.

As soon as we started singing the birthday song, he smiled knowingly!}

{What's that you say? There's something on my mouth?!}

{My cheeky boys!!!}

 

{The night ended with Stass asking Pupu for a waltz - I LOVE this shot! I used to LOVE dancing in the backroom with my dad when I was a little girl. Stass had picked out this dress in an op-shop not long before for only $7.50 and when she danced in it, she really looked like a gorgeous young lady! They grow up so quickly, don't they?! One minute they are turning 1, the next minute, they know how to waltz!}

{Zeeki and Naui finish off the night with a quick little dance (and smile) too!}

 

The following weekend, we had a little Sunday arvo casual bbq here to celebrate.

 

{Some laminated labels Liji and I made for the water jugs}

 

{Brett cooking up a storm for his baby boy's birthday!}

 

{My gorgeous and incredibly faithful friend of almost 15 years, Kaz}

{Our gorgeous mates Pete and Tiff who travelled 3 hours to visit Zeeki! We love you guys!}

{The beautiful Leonard's who are very dear to our hearts}

 

{My gorgeous girlfriends: Donna, Elisa and Sumi who all came with their families!}

 

{Ezekiel enjoying some nomnoms!}

{Elisa's girls playing with Liji in the 'teepee' he made}

{Our family tradition is that for every child, they have all had an icecream birthday cake for their first birthday.}

 

{Blowing out his candle with some help from mama!}

 

{Smoochies}

{First taste of icecream cake!}

 

{Opening some pressies on the back lawn}

{He loved this puppet!}

{And while Zeeki was doing that, Brett and some of the big boys (and little ones too!) shot some hoops}

 

Was a really fun and relaxing afternoon together.
Thank you everyone for coming.

 

I might do a separate post reflecting on Zeeki's first year.

More to come soon,

Lus x

 

 

Yom Teruah - Feast of Trumpets 2012

Wow. What a beautiful time we had celebrating the Feast of Trumpets this year!

The lead up to it this year was great with the kids actively wanting to participate and make trumpets and read about it too.

 

{booklets I made up for each of the adults}

 

{Brett printed off some colouring in pages from THIS ONLINE COLOURING IN BOOK. We've used it before and are selective about the pages we choose because some of them are a little out there but the ones Brett printed were perfect because they were based on the instructions in Numbers 10 which was where our theme this year came from!}

{The booklets and colouring in books for the kids together}

 

{The room with cardboard shofars hanging from 3M tabs from the ceiling over our dining table.}

 

{I printed off some shofars from HERE and the kiddos each coloured one in.}

{On the back of the shofar I asked them to write something that came to mind when we talked about Yom Teruah. They then wrote that word/phrase on the back of the shofar. Zippi wanted to be a part of this one too. For the FIRST TIME ever, she tried to copy letters that I had written - although the p and i look like they are from 'Zippi'. Her word was 'singing'. Bless her- just gorgeous!}

{The two silver trumpets that we made earlier in the week from plastic funnels and hose, serve as our centrepiece.}

{The other thing we made was a shofar for each of the families coming to celebrate with us. These were made out of the inner cardboard tubes from a bolt of material (I visited Spotlight and asked them if I could have them for a craft project and they said it was fine! yay!). These were nice and strong and of course we taped them up too! lol They had a party blower in the end to make a happy sound with!}

{Stass making some name-place cards for our dinner.}

{Ethi had asked her if he could join in and he wanted to make all the 'boy' cards. They both did a lovely job!}

{And while they were doing that, what was Liji doing I hear you ask? That's right...he was rocking it out hard to some Casting Crowns worship music with a carrot in his hand playing air guitar. What else? lol!}

{I had an 'Inspiration Station' set up which is basically my own devised fancy smanshy term for saying an easel, some paints and pencils....But it sounds lovely doesn't it?!?! lol ;) }

 

{Paints, pencils and paintbrushes all set up near the easel. People adults (because I am realistic and know my limits - having people over, hosting and then dealing with small hands loaded with paint....was not going to happen - and that's why the kiddos had colouring in sheets! lol!) were encouraged to come and paint throughout the course of the arvo/evening.}

{Our guests arrive! Heiko tries out his shofar that the kids had made and given to him and Loz.}

{Not to be out-done, Lori tries it too...and it works! Sqqeeeeeaaaaak! Yay!}

{The gorgeous girls Jas and Sophie.}

{Go Naomi!!!}

{The Shofar sitting on the table.}

 

{Inspired by the account of the reading of the Law on the 1st day of the 7th month (the feast of trumpets!!!!) we make sweet drinks each year (see Nehemiah 8). This was a fruit punch; 2 litres pineapple juice, 1 ltr ginger beer (although i think the original recipe was actually ginger ale), a punnet of strawberries and some good chunks of fresh mint.}

{Little Sophie and Zeeki playing on the mat - I think this is before Zeeki took a swipe at poor little Sophie :( Ah the ebb and flow of life happens all around us - even on feast days!}

 

{Sophie girl.}

{Enjoying some snacks as people arrived.}

{Having a casual catch up inside. The guys were chatting outside at this point before we all joined inside for some worship and prayer to kick off our time together.}

 

{Look at Sophie's little hand peeking out giving a wave - too cute!}

{Brett prays for our time together asking Yah to lead, teach and bless us in our time of celebration in honour of Him!}

{I had printed the song lyrics and chords up in the booklets and Heiko and Lori played mandolin and violins to the songs (along with singing beautiful harmonies!). It felt so lovely to sing together again!}

{ I played guitar.}

{Thanks Jas for these photos! Was lovely to have one of everyone around the big table!}

{Even Zippi and Ethi join in with lots of loud blowing on the shofars}

{I loved that in the middle of a song someone would sound the trumpet. Beautiful!}

{Zeeki playing along on the drum!}

{Stassi colouring in while singing to her Maker.}

 

{Beautiful Naomi praying.}

{Jas starts off the painting - painting a beautiful shofar!}

{Gathering together...our little sacred assembly!}

{The kiddos colouring during worship.}

{Love you Loz and Heik!}

{After a lovely, open time of spontaneous sharing and reflecting, it was time to eat.}

 

{I served up dinner....spanish steak and rice. Lori kindly made a vegetarian version along with a huge and yummy garden salad.} 

{Over dinner, Brett read aloud all the passages that I had printed up in the booklets.}

{Everyone read along. The passages were from Leviticus 23, Numbers 29, Numbers 10, Matthew 24, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Hebrews 2:14-17, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Revelation 11:15 and 19:7-8. See previous post on the booklets for all the scriptures if you are keen.}

 

{A HUGE part of the night for me (as mama) was that Liji asked if he could also join in and read a passage out loud. Each year the kids have joined in but each year Liji has not wanted to. Part of having severe dyslexia is the frustration that accompanies not being able to do things that he wants to do like read like other people. We hadn't asked any of them if they wanted to read but Liji excitedly asked if he could! With Heiko's help, he made his way through the passage and I must say I fought back tears because I knew what a HUGE thing he had just achieved. Very happy mama moment I must say.}

{Ethi also asked if he could read a passage, which was did with Lori's help.}

{And Stass didn't want to be left out either! ;) }

{As it was getting on a bit, I put a Bug Time Adventure's Bible Story movie on for Zip. Zeeki on the other hand didn't want to be anywhere else other than in that highchair devouring his dinner!!!}

{Ben reads some verses too...}

{...while Jas lovingly watches her hubby as he does so. I really love this photo Jas!}

 

{Peek a boo! It's Sophie!!!}

{After dinner, we enjoyed these scrumptious gluten + dairy free treats Jas made! The cupcakes were so good!}

{And the brownies were delish!!!}

{My turn to do a little painting too!}

{Over dessert, we played a little Scripture game I'd prepared. I had printed out some of Matthew 24 which speaks of the coming of the end of the age and what happens before the sounding of the trumpet. I typed it out in word and printed it off for Brett with lines for where he needed to pause as he read. Before he began reading, I pulled out of a bag some props which I said would help tell the story. As Brett paused, people had to guess which prop went in which part of the story. So for example, the first part talked about the Mount of __________ (and there was an olive jar I'd shown to everyone and they guessed it was Mount of Olives). I think the kids enjoyed this one.}

{Yes Lori, I see that hand...lol!}

 

{Some of the 'clues' for our passage reading}

{Night night beautiful Mostyn family! Thank you for joining us!}

{We headed off in our bus to go to the lake.}

 

{The illustration of Yah 'hurling our iniquities into the depths of the sea' by us casting rocks into the lake is a strong image in the kids' minds. They later tell me this was THE BEST part of the feast! This is the 3rd year we've done this and it is lovely to see it have meaning to them.}

{We stand together on the bank and sing the new song Yah gave me for this feast this year; WHICH YOU CAN HEAR HERE - MERCY UNTO ME (MICAH 7). Heik and Loz had worked out beautiful harmonies to this and it was moving to sing these words and think about how gracious, how patient and kind God is to us.}

{The kiddos collecting rocks}

{Two of the most encouraging people I've ever had the blessing to meet in my life!}

{Brett's favourite part of the evening; hearing Heiko and Lori sounding the shofars together before we hopped back in the bus}.

{Back at home, we enjoyed a cuppa and chatted, prayed and shared our hearts late into the night (almost morning!!!!). It was the most beautiful way to end an incredibly beautiful day.}

 

To me, the feasts are a wonderful time to stop and remember what Yah has done and what He promises to do in the future.
There are 7 feasts built into God's calendar year.

These appointed set-apart times have been a HUGE HUGE blessing in our lives!
We see how they point to Yeshua.

We see how they are centred around the Word and around our faith in God as we walk with Him.

They are special times to us.

It's not about putting on a big 'show'...it's about opening our hearts and being in union with Him in the best way we can.

It's not about getting it all 'right' (if you read last year's post on Trumpets you'll know that it was a very different day to this one complete with meltdowns, vomitting bugs and disobedience.)

It is life.

In our home! 

It happens.

Nothing needs to be 'perfect' but since He said these were His appointed times (not Israel's) and that they are to be a lasting ordinance for all his people (numbers 15:15) then we want to do that as He leads us.

And Yah wants us to draw closer to Him REGARDLESS of our circumstances.

They don't need to define us.

He can.

 

More to come another time.

Love and blessings to you,

Lus x