On Sunday, I went to one of the most poorly executed worship services I've ever attended. While I am always a champion of using new ways of expressing prayer, music and the Word in worship, I am also a fan of preparation and practice. Things can always go wrong in a worship service and you just have to roll with it, but this service had clearly not been properly thought out. Something as simply as a pre-worship sound check would have made a huge difference. I don't like being critical about worship because I think everyone has a different idea about what worship should and could be, but I think that a poorly planned service communicates to the congregation that this hour on Sunday morning is just not all that important. Okay, I'm done now.

So Cousin Olie stayed an extra night, since a problem on the Tube caused him to miss his flight. He and Skip also had a problem with a boat ride earlier in the day. London on the weekends is never without its glitches. Thanks to my mom, I know how to make dinner with whatever is on hand, so by the time they made it back to the house after a long day of site seeing, a frantic run to the airport and a frustrating re-booking experience, I was able to put out pesto pasta and shrimp. It might not have actually been that good, but as tired and hungry as they were, it was perfect.






Skip and Olie in our back garden

In the a.m., Skip worked from home so he could put Maddie on the bus and I could drive Olie to the airport. No taking any more tube chances. Skip left for Amsterdam yesterday afternoon and will be back late Wednesday. He told his office that he had to be back in London for his daughter's birthday and I made sure his daughter knew that.

Now all the focus can shift to Maddie and her birthday party. It may not be until Friday, but there are treat bags to make, food to buy, cupcakes (for the class) to bake and an I-pod cake (for the party) to assemble. Maddie has got birthday blinders on. I took her after school yesterday to get her hair trimmed. When I told her that I had an appointment to get my hair cut on Wednesday, her response was, "I hope it doesn't take too long because you have a lot of cupcakes to bake." Ahhh, the rewards of motherhood!



So these are the "treat bags" for Maddie's party. She picked out the fabrics for each girl based on each friend's likes and interests. Then I sewed them. This is a good picture since you can't see the actual "craftsmanship".