Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Embracing Childhood

Continuing on my journey in embracing childhood - here is another beautiful glimpse into what happens when we follow serendipity and see life through their eyes!

I had been making applesauce that day and my little ladies wanted to go out and cut some zinnias from the garden. It all started from there and ended up becoming a grand special evening.

Emily has had an imaginary daughter named Anselina for quite some time now (she always has lots of children usually somewhere between 10-20 at a time!) and she and Rachel decided that this particular day was Anselina's birthday.

They cut all sorts of flowers and berries for the table, drew pictures, got out gift bags and "wrapped" up some of their toys, wanted candle light only, put pillows on the chairs to make them extra special and wanted to sing Happy Birthday!

It was so precious to me to see all the effort that they put into this. All of the ideas were theirs and they made them happen ~ what a sweet evening ...

I'd love to hear your stories of embracing childhood as well!

15 comments:

Bonnie said...

How cute!
Honey has 12 imaginary children, and whenever we are working together, or driving somewhere, she always asks me if I want her to tell me about her children. Her daughter Marissa, and son "Chen" (she made up that name) get most talked about. Yesterday, they were out of rooms and beds at her "house" so Marissa was sleeping in a tent in the backyard.
I love their vivd little imaginations!

Wendi said...

Megan has a huge imagination. She and her friends (stuffed animals) have all kinds of adventures. She will say we are going on a venture and the fun begins. They go to the store, zoo and sometimes the doctor because her friends are very, very sick. It is fun to see the couch become her car. When I really listen I hear her speaking phrases I use to her friends. That always warms my heart but also makes me aware of how important my actions are. I am loving this creative stage!

Cheryl said...

How adoreable.
my daughter used to have an imaginary friend named Joe. I know, it sounds silly. We figured out that when Joe was doing something that our didn't like it was really her way of saying she didn't like what her Daddy was doing. For example, she would say Joe has to work today. i don't know why he can't stay home with me and mommy. Or we would ask, "Where is Joe?" and she would say "he's watching the football game."

Mom said...

Your little ladies are following your example in making special celebrations! :) Sounds fun -- love you, Mom

Bevy @ Treasured Up and Pondered said...

This is really sweet and obvious that have had a " real hero" to emualte. They only see you doing this sort of thing on a regular basis. I think it's wonderful.

Over the weekend my cousin and I were reminiscing of times (over 25 yrs ago) when we would occasionally get to spend summer's together a week or two at a time. Oh, how we had the best of imaginations. We came up with the the most amazing stuff. We agreed that kids today have no idea what real imaginations are these days.

flyonthewall said...

How wonderful that your girls know how special their Mommy thinks they are! The fact that they put so much effort into planning a special event for their "daughter" shows that your loving touches and efforts to make everyday events special have not gone unnoticed! Praise the Lord for these special blessings He allows us to see in our lives!

Debra said...

Don't you just love their imaginations? My daughter has a great one. She loves to plan a party - anytime for any reason, complete with party hats, goody bags, place cards, games,pinatas, etc. She fashioned a pinata out of paper for my husbands birthday the other night.

She also has sextuplets (6 baby dolls) that she takes good care of - of course I watch them during the day while she's at school. :) It's so fun to watch.

Elise said...

That is so sweet!! My kids play Jackson and Emily. Lilly is "Emily", I think that is Jackson's wife and they have children, too.
Jackson also talks about his stuffed animals as his brothers. They also have names,etc.
They are so cute and funny!!
Elise

Sarah said...

That is so sweet of them. I think you should also take it as encouragement of what a good job you're doing as a mother. Children play what they know, and yours are learning from you how to make things special for others, even for an imaginary friend!

Blissful & Domestic said...

I love the simple moments you get to share with them while they play. Libby is really big on pretending to be a mommy to all her baby dolls. She gives them baths feeds them, etc. It is such a sweet reminder of the little things that just lighten up our children's days and it always reminds me of when I pretended to do that when I was little like her. so sweet

I have a new blog now too www.blissanddomestic.blogspot.com

Debbie Fisher (debbiedee) said...

how sweet! I love reading your stories.

Sarah said...

Today we had a tea party! My 3 year old was able to use her little china set, and I gave my 1 year old the plastic set because he's 1!! It was so cute to see him trying to sip out of the cup. He knew exactly what we were doing, and he wanted his lips to do the same thing!

Linda said...

My daughter supposedly has a son or brother (whatever her mood is in on any particular day) called..... ZORRO!

I'm sure she never saw Zorro on TV, so she probably has no associations with that name, but it's sure funny to us! ;)

Greetings from the netherlands!

Wife of Rob said...

That is SO special! And they are as cute as ever! It's so funny reading this in light of yesterday's events. I'm visiting my brother and sister in law and my 2 nieces and nephews. Before taking the children to one of the local churches yesterday for a "Funny Fall Party", my soon to be 3 year old niece Maggie proceeded to line up the plastic pumpkin buckets that they were going to put candy in and covered them up with a baby blanket. When I asked Maggie what she was doing, she most emphatically said, "Well Sissy, da 'punkins' has to take their naps before da funnyfallparty!" (She says funny fall party all in one word)

It reminded me of when I used to line up all my babies in the crib in my room and cover them up for naps....I even shut the lights out and closed the door and would make everyone tip toe around to keep from waking them up!

Tim and Susan said...

I love your picture of the jars...homemade applesauce sounds so good!