Camp Listenbee 2018

This weekend we are celebrating 54 days of Camp Listenbee. It has been a full summer, filled with all types of good things. The kids had fun and we learned a lot as we hosted family. The summer is not over but we have learned so many lessons we will forever treasure. Here are a few.

swimming is the best

The highlight reel - this is what we show you on social media. No one knows the extent of what it takes to make life work during the summer unless you are present right there. Please don’t let the internet fool you: we never show you all it takes. It took a lot of prayer, love and patience. We do give God the credit for keeping us and for leading us during this journey.

vacation Bible school

Organic discipleship - I learned that organic discipleship might be the way to go with me. I had intentions to have a very organized time of discipleship with the kids but we went the organic route. If they had a question, we answered. Instead of following a program, we basically focused on topics they were interested in such as the Bible and science and the prophet Ezekiel. I know, I wouldn’t pick these topics myself. It’s worth listening to what they are interested in and building disciples from there.

Rest is best - I’m a stickler when it comes to rest. We all need rest. I believe that practicing rest helps all human beings as they grow old. Establishing a rhythm of rest is a gift.

We are "famoos"

Memory bank - The last time we had the kids over for the summer, I read that today’s activities will be tomorrow’s memories. You can’t decide what people will remember but I believe that if we live in love, good memories will follow. I was very aware that everybody’s memory bank was getting filled.

Goodness from friends - a few of our friends displayed a huge amount of goodness toward us. I’m thankful for their kind gestures. Human beings do puzzle me. I’ve learned just to observe them and to be thankful to those who decide they are going to reach out and love us, no matter what we have going on.

As we move to the final phase of our summer, I’m thankful for all the support we’ve had from our family. It took a village and I am grateful to those who chose to help make Camp Listenbee successful. I am also thankful to the kids themselves. They are an immense source of joy and blessing daily. I am thankful to God for keeping us and leading us. His love never fails.

More in this series:

• Camp Listenbee 2017
• Camp Listenbee 2016
• Camp Listenbee 2013
• Summer Organization Tips for Mothers of Preschoolers
• Preschool Summer Camp Coop

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Feliz 1,826 dias!

Hoje é o seu aniversário! Que essa data se renove em muitos anos. Estamos agradecidos demais a Deus pela sua vida e pelos anos que Ele tem te dado. Como você está crescendo em estatura e graça na presença de Deus. 

 Hoje corri 5 milhas pra comemorar o seu aniversário. Daqui a pouco mudo isso pra kilômetros. Rs! 

Você pediu por café da manhã na cama com o seu cereal predileto e com donuts. Cantamos parabéns e o seu pai orou por você. 

Ontem uns amigos vieram comemorar o seu aniversário conosco. Desejamos que você continue crescendo com sabedoria e graça na presença de Deus. Fico feliz pelo coração grato que você tem. Também dou glórias a Deus pelo jeito único que Ele te criou. Feliz aniversário querida filha. Nós te amamos e bendizemos a Deus por mais um ano de vida abundante! 

Previously:
• Year 1
• Year 2
• Year 3
• Year 4 

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My Weekend in Instagram Photos

Zeke's Special Pumpkin Cake is the best!

• Zeke won second place at our church's Baking Competition (among Pastors and Deacons) for his Special Pumpkin Cake this weekend. Here's the recipe. He modified it a bit which made it even better!

He did it! He ran his first 5K 

Saturday Zeke ran his first 5K! I am proud of him and I am looking forward to celebrating this victory with him tomorrow.

The kids and I are in love with our local running store. Why? When they treat you AND your kids like royalty but they're really genuine about it, your local running store has customers for life. We had a great experience and my legs are saying THANKS A BUNCH for the compression sleeves we got. I'll do a review on those later.

BEFORE!

These kids are the best. Here's a photo before church.

AFTER!

Here's a photo after. They always enjoy going to church. Sunday's are big working days for us and we stay at church for 6 hours. After all the services are over we usually head home for lunch and nap. Yesterday someone didn't want to nap so he got the privilege of doing homework in preparation for this week in pre-school.

He actually enjoyed it. Mostly cause he knew he was going to play when he got finished. Have an amazing week my friend!

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Aniversário Birthday

Ela planejou o aniversário todinho: me deu todos os detalhes do que queria fazer nessa data querida. Minha filha está fazendo 3 anos abençoados hoje. 

She planned every detailed about this happy day. My daughter is celebrating 3 blessed years today. 

 Corremos 3 milhas (5K) pra comemorar os 3 anos dela. We ran 3 miles to celebrate her 3 years.

 Ela mostrou a alegria imensa na hora do parabéns. Ela sabe que é amada e nos ama muito também. She rejoiced as we sang happy birthday. She knows she is loved and she loves us so much.
Somos muito gratos a Deus pela honra e o privilégio de sermos pais dessa criança tão feliz e abençoada. Sabemos que Deus tem o melhor pra ela e essa é a nossa oração. We are thankful for the honor and privilege of being parents to a blessed and happy child. We know that God has the best prepared for her and this is our prayer.
We are a better family because of you. We love you more than words can say so we'll sing about it, dance about and use other creative ways to show you just that! Mamãe te ama querida filha.

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A Bride's Super Power

I had a chance to celebrate the beginning of a brand new marriage this weekend during a sweet bridal shower. I left the event being assured that every woman walks into a Christian marriage empowered simply because:

• You are a Treasure - He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord  (Proverbs 18:22). Your husband married up girl! You are a treasure and your husband obtains favor from the Lord just for marrying you. Go ahead and smile.
• You are filled with Virtue - your worth is far above rubies. You are incredibly productive, kind and savvy. By your good fruit you shall be known. Hello Mrs. Virtuous Woman! Proverbs 31 is talking about you.

I didn't wish Miss Bride from last weekend "good luck" on her marriage. I told her she is a treasure, she's virtuous and her marriage will succeed. I also told her our family was available to help her any time she needed.

QUESTION: As you look in Scripture, what empowers you to succeed in marriage?

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The Weekend in Instagram Pictures

This weekend, father and son enjoyed their first Houston Symphony concert. They went to the Family Series concert Aladdin and the Arabian Nights. They both loved it!

I went back to my event planning ways and planned a Natural Hair Conference at the church. There was a great number of participants and great information was given by the speakers and panelists. I am so happy the event was a success! No, we will not discuss my hair during this post. I think it deserves a post of its on - BIG smile.

We finally got the baby to eat something other than cereal and milk. She does not like baby food and she's VERY particular about her dislikes. Thank God for the food feeder!

The big kids found a creative way to watch TV. 

This is my last batch of lemons. My superhero husband got them out of the tree for me. I am now in the process of juicing and freezing so we have juice for a long time. 

This is how we celebrated MLK Day thus far, we joined a couple of MOPS moms and their kids and we went to the park. It wasn't an official celebration but it kind of was. I hardly ever take the kids to the park because my fog lifted last month, so from now on this will become very common. 

I hope your weekend was fantastic my friend!

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Feliz Meversário Happy Half Birthday

Nós comemoramos o meversário de 6 meses da minha filhinha ontem. Foi um momento de gratidão a Deus e muita diversão. 

We celebrated our daughter's "half birthday" yesterday. It was a great time of thankfulness to God and fun.

Ela até que gostou da festa. Muita criança correndo pra lá e pra cá, e os adultos também tiveram um tempinho pra bater papo antes que a correria do natal comece. 

She enjoyed the party. There were a lot of kids running around and the adults also had time to catch up before the final stretch for Christmas starts. 

 

Todo mundo queria assoprar a vela.
Everyone wanted to blow the candle.
Agradecemos a Deus pela vida da Zélia e oramos pra que Ele continue a abençoando e prosperando em tudo. Te amamos filha!
We thank God for Zelia's life and we pray that He will continue to bless and prosper her. We love you baby girl!

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Weekend Wrap Up

Another week is starting! Today I'm reflecting a little bit on the weekend. Last week I started writing down everything I eat, only to get frustrated at the end of the week. I used my diary a lot as well as the food journal. Thank God for new beginnings, right?

This is my husband wearing red shoes at church. It was college & career/singles choir Sunday so the look was less traditional. My second Sunday back at church was fun. My sister and my mom were with me so I got a lot of help with the kids. I even stayed for the last service solo and got to enjoy fellowship by myself for a little bit. I also noticed I'm less freaked out about the baby being among people, probably cause this is our third time around. We have been really looking forward to getting to our new normal and church is a big part of our lifestyle.

This is me on Sunday afternoon. We arrived home a bit late so the kiddos were awake. I stayed up hanging out with them. I employed the help of a cup of coffee as well as a Barney video. We later had a family birthday party for my daughter and my sister whose birthdays are this week. I noticed I'm wearing the same dress I wore for my daughter's first birthday party. Note to self: be sure to change for the actual birthday (smile).

I hope everyone has a great week. I know I'm still recovering from the weekend. A good nap will be wise today. Let's see what happens.

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Baby Shower with Baby

After co-hosting a baby shower and swimming at my first baby shower, we were honored to have a second one with the baby as a special guest. Our amazing church choir hosted a baby shower for us last weekend. The festivity was scheduled two weeks ago but we canceled it because I had just given birth the day before (my birth story will be published this week, don't miss!).

I had been to only one baby shower where the baby was present around 6 years ago. I think these types of showers are awesome because you get to see the baby. I wore my new (to me) baby carrier, where the beauty queen slept the whole-entire time. 

Our family had an amazing time with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Lunch was amazingly delicious, and the games were so much fun! 

We appreciate everyone who has shown us love since our new child has been born. We pray that God will give you a quick harvest of blessings for all the seeds you have been planting in our lives. Thank you readers for being part of this journey digitally with me.

• Don't miss my birth story this week here at SimplyCintia.com!

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Weekend Wrap-Up: Baby Shower

Last weekend I was blessed to co-host a baby shower at my church. The couple of honor will be first time parents this summer. My duties were to get people there and get the hor d'ourvres. In order to get people there, I used online invitations. I've been using online invitations for parties I plan for a few years. It saves me a lot in paper, stamps and the time of delivery. 

To be very honest with you, I had a vague idea of what I wanted to buy when it came to food, so here's what I came up with:

• Brie cheese with mixed berry fruit spread and crackers

• Salsa & whole wheat chips

• Fresh & dry fruit

• Roasted pepper Hummus & crackers

• Pimento cheese spread with rye & pumpernickel bread 

The other hosts were responsible for the desserts as well as the decor. 

One thing we tried to do was to be sure that the Baby Shower reflected exactly what the parents to be were all about. We included a moment of prayer for the couple and the baby to be born. This is usually my favorite part of a Baby Shower: the act of asking for and declaring God's blessings over the new family. 

It wasn't until I was editing these photos that I noticed that the couple of honor was matching. Too cute!  Notice my cupcake tree in the background. I'm getting a lot of use out of it! What a great investment!

I was really overjoyed for having the opportunity to be part of such a great celebration. Are you a party planner? What are some of your favorite shortcuts to a great event?

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My First DIY Birthday Party

I seriously thought about switching the title of this post to "how come I'm always pregnant during my kids' birthdays?" but we'll leave that subject for my next Pregnancy post. This party was a great party although my husband got a lot of drama from me. Mostly because I'm a reluctant crafter (see my Balloon wreath here) so creating a party around a theme was something I was NOT looking forward to do but for Love. I love my kids so much I'm willing to do things unimaginable (such as the wreath). Here's how it went down:

• I was determined to make this party as simple as possible, so the plan was to make a few things and go semi-homemade the rest of the way.
• My friend Nicole made the birthday banner last year, so we kept it and will probably use it again and again.
• I used some of my son's toys for decorating the table. I made a baloon wreath to celebrate the occasion for our front door (I'm very proud of it!).

• I bought the cupcakes and the cake at Sam's. I also bought the Thomas decor on the cupcakes from a party store. The cake was girly but I fixed it and put a Thomas the Train candle on top of it, which made it perfect for the party.

• A great friend let me borrow the container for lemonade. It was way cheaper than buying several juice boxes. 

• I made my version of Brazilian Salpicão with rice and that's what we eat before eating cake. Everyone seemed pleased with the food.

• The weather was great, so the kids had a lot of fun playing outside. I had a few wooden puzzles inside for the kids to play as well.

My son and daughter had a lot of fun! I thank God, my husband and our friends for helping me celebrate life. I realize my son is a gift from God and his very existence has changed my life for the better. My first 1,096 days of motherhood were sweeter because of this boy. I look forward to a lifetime of celebrating who he is. Feliz Aniversário filho! Mamãe te ama! (Happy birthday son! Mamãe loves you!)

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How to Make a Balloon Wreath in 2 Steps

I have been so proud of my wreath! I decided I had enough Pinterest hours so I decided to make one for my kids' birthdays. The reason why I am so proud of my accomplishments is because I am not a crafter. At all. My mother certainly tried: crochet & tricot classes as well as watching her and my grandmother sow for hours. I was more interested in writing in my journals and reading old books. Today, thanks to motherhood hormones and Pinterest, I decided to make a wreath of my own. I also promised I wasn't going to make another one, so this thing better last for years!

Here's how I did it in 2 simple steps:

• I bought the wire at a party store as well as the ballons;
• I tied the balloons in the wire with two knots and this is what I got:

The friends who attended my son's birthday party thought it was pretty and I made sure to let them know that I was very proud of this wreath. Hope I have inspired you to try something easy for your next party. Tomorrow I'll tell you more about the birthday party itself and how much drama I caused my husband in the process. See you then!

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Sightseeing Passeando

Our last Bele Chere in Asheville! We had a great time at the festival. It was very hot but we managed to stay cool. Nosso último Festival Bele Chere em Asheville! Foi muito bom apesar do calor.

This was some kind of smoke tent. I thought the warning outside was interesting (click to enlarge). Isso foi uma tenda pra fumantes. O aviso na frente diz que fumar pode dar cancer. Achei interessante. Olha a fila pra entrar.

 This was fun to see. O pessoal se divertindo.

 Ice cream break! We tried to stay cool any way we could! Uma pausa pra tomar sorvete. Tentamos nos refrescar bastante.

 These things were refreshing. We walked under them whenever we saw one. Esses chuveirinhos estavam bons. Toda vez que víamos um passamos embaixo.

We visited the Lake Lure Inn for the first time. This place was one of the locations where they filmed Dirty Dancing. Visitamos esse hotel pela primeira vez, ele se chama Lake Lure Inn. Esse é um dos lugares onde o filme Dirty Dancing foi filmado.

 I can say that all of of us enjoyed the Sunday brunch. The staff was very friendly! Todos gostamos do almoço. As pessoas que nos atenderam foram muito simpáticas!

 I had a chocolate fountain on my wedding party, so it was nice to see one there. Lembrei do meu casamento quando vi esse negócio de chocolate.

 The buffet was really delectable. O buffet estava delicioso.

 A free petting zoo in Canton, NC, during the 'Mater Fest. My son enjoyed the animals. Meu filho gostou de fazer carinho nos animais. Isso foi um festival de tomate aqui na cidade.

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