from tiny seeds...

new buds on Rebe's apple tree 

 On Friday Rebe's class had their Conformation. The children go to a Catholic school and so most of the children in her class had the day off to attend church and to celebrate with their families. As we do not celebrate this we decided to have our own special day for Rebe.
Several years ago when her class made their first holy communion we had a lovely Apple Seed Ceremony for her, you can read about it here. We wanted to do a follow on of this and we also wanted to incorporate Rebe's newly asked 'Guide Parents'.
We have been talking about Brock's up coming Christening and the older children asked why they do not have Godparents. This is because they are not Christened, but we said that they were welcome to choose 'guide parents' of their own. So Rebe chose a special friend of the families and one of her uncles. (Benny has also chosen guide parents who will be part of his own Cherry Stone Ceremony in May).
Unfortunately her uncle was busy working but her new Guide Mother hosted a lovely coffee morning just for Rebe on Friday morning.
Rebe got all dressed up in a new, smart outfit and we arrived at Antje's house early on Friday morning to a table set fit for a queen.

 

We drank coffee and ate eggs on toast and lots of delicious treats.

 

Antje gave Rebe a really beautiful bracelet with a tiny silver oyster shell on it, that had a tiny, real pearl inside.

 

We chatted and ate for hours. Talking about life and growing up and just about everything.

 Once we had feasted and the plates were empty we played a super board game together until it was time to leave.

 Rebe spent the rest of the afternoon at her dad's house and I came home to prepare a special meal for her that we could share with Garry and all the other children when everyone was home again.

As part of Rebe's Apple Seed Ceremony we gave her a little apple tree, which has done very well outisde in the garden. Last autumn it gave her several apples which we decided to prep and freeze to have to make into a special cake or pie on this day.
With a little recipe help from my friend I made her apple pieces into a pie which we ate after a hearty meal of roast chicken.

 Garry and I gave her a little watch as a gift to mark to occassion. It was a lovely day and again I was so pleased to find our own way to celebrate this awesome girl.
While we were thinking of ideas for something to do as an alternative conformation, I looked back over the blog post I had done about her Apple Seed Ceremony and it struck me just how much she has grown in those years.
She is an amazing child; creative, warm and so very kind. She is clever and has so many interests of her own. She is very much her own person, she is comfortable in her skin and knows her own awesome-ness.
I am so proud to be her mother, to watch her walk her chosen paths in life, to bask in the sunshine that she gives out.
She is my right hand woman, I don't know how I would manage without her sometimes and she is a dear and sweet friend.