Flashing Back: A Lesson on Weather

This week our church is doing Vacation Bible School "VBS". Therefore, we will be "flashing back" to some recent days in May of this year (2013), that I was unable to post about but that are totally post worthy -because our family will be taking full advantage of VBS!

Today we had a weather themed day. It has been raining for a few days in a row and I thought that this would be quite appropriate!

We started out by using plastic tweezers to pick up colored pom pom's and then transfer them into the yellow bowl. I called the pom poms "our clouds" for today's activity (we pretended).

This is a great fine motor skill building activity.

Next I got out our copy of "Colorful Umbrella's", a color identification book that I downloaded from This Reading Mama. 

I also got out the blank copies of this book so that we could color each page and make a book specifically for Vada's collection.

After we spent a good deal of time coloring (Vada will stay focused coloring if I or someone else is coloring with her.) I brought out the Jesus Storybook Bible and read a version of one of my favorite biblical stories, Noah's Ark and how God promised to never flood the earth again. Every time I see a rainbow, I think of this promise and it brings me peace and it reminds me that there will always be a calm after a storm.

(On a side note, when I was driving to the hospital to identify my mother after her accident I was so nervous! About a twenty minutes from the hospital where she was being held I noticed that a small rainbow was in the sky. It remained there until I got to the hospital. While I was driving I thanked God out loud for that small gift. Later, after going through my mom's house and belongings and finding out that she found God, I felt even more comforted by that rainbow because I felt that maybe it was a gift not only from God but maybe from my mother as well. You never know.)

After reading about God's promise we did some counting practice and color recognition with this rainbow that I also downloaded from This Reading Mama. (I colored it myself before laminating it, I couldn't have a plain rainbow.)

I wanted to make something clear. I show a lot of things that look pretty neatly done, like above. However, Vada is still being told step by step how to do this. She is getting much better at color recognition but has a ways to go and I don't want anyone to look at my posts and begin to think that that she is doing this so perfect, when she is not. The reason I feel it necessary to make this a point is that I do a ton of research and while I don't find myself in the habit of comparing Vada's abilities to other children her age (with and without Down syndrome) I do feel like it is something that I may do on occasions, even if I don't intend to do so. Therefore, I am assuming that others may do so as well and I don't want to mislead anyone with what I am sharing. I want to share my ideas and help educate so that you feel more confident in educating your children. So, the below picture shows how I tell Vada what I would like her to do with the pom pom. Eventually, she will be able to listen to the directions when they are given to her and do this on her own and then even further down the road, she will just know what to do when this activity is given to her. 

After our rainbow activity we read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. 

Finally, we did a really fun craft of making a storm painting.

Vada used rain stamps as well as clouds, lighting, and even the sun.

Somehow she got a huge glob of blue in her hair and I have no idea how it happened but oh well.

This was her finished work. I think it belongs in a gallery but then I am biased.

Celebrating With Rainbows

Before the guests had arrived I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror finishing my make-up when Justin's mom peeked in and asked if I was doing ok. I guess that I was being pretty quiet that morning and looking back I'm sure that I was. I had been internally processing the last two and a half years. I had been thinking of everything that we as a family had gone through (good and bad), I had been saying silent prayers of gratitude to God for allowing this day to come. No, nothing was wrong, for once everything felt right. Everything.

When I originally choose rainbows for Vada's "theme" I couldn't explain why, it just felt like the perfect idea,  but the night before her party, when I was doing some last minute preparations, I realized that It wasn't just because of the vibrant beautiful colors (although those were an added bonus). Ultimately, I feel that I chose rainbows because rainbows reminds me of Gods promise to Noah. Rainbows seemed fitting for this particular celebration. In my heart we were not only celebrating Vada's second birthday but we were also celebrating her life and a life that has been fought to live, a life that has taught others how to live and we were also celebrating our hopes that all of our tomorrows will be just as beautiful as these last two and a half years have been.

Maybe I am naive.

Maybe I read into things too much.

Maybe, but from where I am standing I am only seeing God's rainbow. When I thought that He was flooding our lives I now see that He was only building us up and I am grateful for every moment of these these last two and a half years because God has been molding me and my family. We are better people for what we have come together to go through with and for Vada. I wouldnt change a thing.

So rainbows it was...


I can not claim credit for the ideas used for decorating Vada's party, most of them I actually found on  Pinterest. So there's no need to give me credit for "thinking outside of the box." I copied and where we had new ideas, well, those came from my husband, Justin. :) He is a pretty amazing man, which I am sure that I have mentioned on several other occasions and yes, I admit that I am "uber" biased but he is my husband! When I told him originally what I wanted to do for V's party I know that I must have overwhelmed him because he knew that this would also mean a lot of work for him but he agreed to help and together with the help of his parents we did it and I think that the day was as close to perfect as perfect gets!

Vada's six layer Rainbow cake. We didn't flavor the different colors different flavors because we thought that it may be an overwhelming explosion of flavors when combined, so we stuck with whatever flavor white cake tastes like. I was told that it tasted like "YUM!".

Almond bark covered Oreo cookies.

Strawberry soda, Orange soda, Lemonade, Ginger-ale, blue Mt. Dew and Grape soda. We took their original labels off and replaced them with our own.

My husband Justin and his father Jim did the balloons. I showed Justin a picture, said this is what I want done and ordered the balloons. Im not for sure how they did this. I know that there is a string and the balloons are tied to it. :) 

Somewhere I saw a similar set up with the age spelled out. Justin used the strips that he had made on photoshop and used not only for Vada's invitations but practically everything else that went into the party, for out spelled out age photos. These were made on photoshop and printed on my large photoprinter. We used foam board on the back to hold them up and thats it, their just pictures that look like they have been framed.

The "candy bar" was another idea that I found on Pinterest. From Left to right we had Rainbow Gold Fish Crackers, Mike and Ike, Skittles, Rainbow Twizlers, Rainbow Suckers, Gum Balls, M&M's, and Gummy Bears. I should have also handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste but I didnt.

Justin made the bases the day of the party. He hand painted them and drilled holes into them so that the ka-bob's would fit perfectly. In our minds we kind of look at the stands like a grassy hill. 

Jello filled orange slices. I am not a jello fan, in fact jello will never touch these lips but when I saw this idea I thought it was perfect for the party. How did I do it? I cut three oranges in halves. I then took a knife and cut about a half of an inch into the white part of the orange, making a cut all of the way around. Then I took a ice cream scooper and scooped the orange  out in one full scoop. Super simple! I then made my jello as directed on the box only adding about 1/4 cup less of water and poured it into the orange peel bowls. After all of the bowls were filled with their different colors I sat them in a muffin pan for extra stabliness and then placed them into the refrigerator. After the jello sets you slice and serve. Again, super simple and super pretty!

Noah looked up. The storm clouds were drifting away, the bright sun was shining against Noah's back. And against the dark grey sky, God made a brilliant rainbow appear. God said to Noah,

“You see, I have set my rainbow in the sky. This will be the sign of the covenant I have made with you and all creatures, never again to destroy the earth by a flood. It will always remind us of the promise between you and me.”

So, the next time you see a rainbow, think of Noah and the flood. Remember that God loves you, and that no matter how bad the storm, there will always come a bright new day.

It makes me a little nervous to openly admit this but I feel like our personal storm may be over. While I don't know what our futures hold or what Gods plans are for our family Id like to believe that maybe He had His hand in our party planning and that this celebration wasnt just about Vada turning two but also about a fresh start and a new year. Call it what you want but I call it Faith and God couldn't have given us a more beautiful day to celebrate it all than this one.

A special Thank you to Mom and Dad Wilson, for all of your help and support, not just on Vada's birthday this year but everyday. We are also better people and parents because we have you!