Happy April Fools Day! No Fools Here!

 Did anyone play any April Fool's Day jokes on you today?  Thankfully no one did here, except for our A/C in our car went out on the way home from a long ride today, and we hoped it was just a joke and it would soon fix itself, but it didn't. So Monday morning we will have to find someone to check it out and pray that it isn't a major repair! Other than that it was a perfect day.

Today we traveled, with our kids Benton and Rose, about an hour and a half away to my old hometown of Tavares, FL., where we met up with my sister and her hubby, their daughter, and also our sister in law and hubby's brother. What's the occasion, you may ask? Well, next week will be my sister's and her hubby's birthdays on the same day, just two years apart.  So we needed to celebrate, of course!

Here's the birthday couple now:  

And the rest of the gang:

And here is my sweet "little big sister" sitting next to me, the "big little sister". That's what I call us, because she is my "big" sister, but she's always been littler than me. And I am the "little sister", but I've always been bigger than her, (well, since about age12 when I started growing taller and passed her right up and couldn't wear her hand me down clothes anymore! LOL)

Here's the card I gave her.  I remember us making hair wreaths out of wildflowers when we were little girls on the farm...

My sister's favorite birthday cake is an angel food cake. My mother used to always bake one for her birthday and would put a little vase of daffodils in the hole in the center of the cake. But that was when we lived up north where daffodils were blooming in April.  They don't grow here in Florida, and so we have to look for them in the grocery stores in the spring. Sometimes they have them, but lately they've been getting them too early, like in early March, and so they aren't blooming by April anymore. 

Anyway, since we were meeting at a restaurant for lunch I didn't really want to make a traditional angel food cake and have to deal with cutting it, etc., so my sweet DIL Rose offered to make angel food cupcakes, and she also made a delicious whipped cream frosting for them.

She also brought some fresh strawberries to serve with the cupcakes:

We also had some delicious Publix vanilla and/or chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting for those who aren't fond of angel food cake.  It was all very very good!

Thank you, Rose, for taking care of the cupcakes! That was a gift of love. Today Benton and Rose were also celebrating the fact that six years ago today is the day they met. It was no April Fool's Joke when God brought them together.  And then also on April 1st two years ago they purchased the Dixie Cottage store over in St. Augustine. And today, April 1st, two years later, they are celebrating the first day of "freedom" from owning the store, which they just sold to one of the vendors. They will still be serving there as vendors themselves, and working one day a week in the store, but they will have much more freedom to pursue other projects by not having to be the proprietors of the store. So it is a win-win situation for them. We are very thankful.

But of course it was only fitting that my sister should receive a gift from me purchased at Dixie Cottage. This is one of those sweet little teacup bird feeders like I have in my garden. My sister is the one with the green thumb in the family, and she has an amazing garden full of flowers and also many bird feeders and lovely garden art, so this will fit right in.

And since I couldn't find any daffodils for her birthday cake, I did find this gift bag (at Dollar Tree) with some daffodils on it!

We enjoyed a great time together with our family at this restaurant called "Puddle Jumpers".

It sits right on the shore of a lake where seaplanes land and take off all day long while we were dining.

So here is a plane getting ready for takeoff:

As he moved into position in the water, he had to wait for all the boaters to get out of the way...

And finally he started making his way out into the water:

Up, up...

and away!!

It was a fitting ending to a wonderful party!

No fooling!!

Psalm 36:5-9

"5 Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens;

Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

6 Your righteousness is like the great mountains;

Your judgments are a great deep;

O Lord, You preserve man and beast.

7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!

Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.

8 They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,

And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.

9 For with You is the fountain of life;

In Your light we see light."

Have a wonderful evening,

and Happy Palm Sunday tomorrow!! 

The beginning of Holy Week, 

a very special time to pause and remember all that Christ has done for us.

Also, please continue to pray for the storm victims throughout our country as well as the families in Nashville, Tennessee, who have all suffered so much loss.

Amen.