backyard birthday bash

We celebrated Jake's birthday out in our backyard last Saturday with some good friends. But before we get to the party pics, I have to share with you how God was incredibly faithful and good to us. I'd planned to have Jake's party in our backyard from the beginning for a few reasons: 1) our house is too small to fit all our guests and 2) I wanted the party to be really low-key, just barbecuing and spending time with friends (with a smash cake at the end to give the birthday boy the spotlight for a few minutes).  A week before the party, I started stalking the weather forecast and praying for blue skies on Saturday, but the forecast was rain all weekend. So for a week straight, every time I thought about the party I prayed hard for good weather. As the weekend got closer, the chance of rain increased and so I prayed harder, specifically that the weather would clear up from 2-6 on Saturday (party was 4-6, plus some time for setting up). It rained on Friday and I kept praying that all the rain would be done by Saturday. But on Saturday morning, it was still really overcast and a bit cool out. And then at noon, it downpoured and I thought we'd have to hold the party next door at church instead. But I kept praying and I'm not kidding, at 2:00 the sun started to appear! By 3:00 it was nice enough to start setting up tables and chairs, and from 4:00 on it was brilliantly sunny, the ground was dry, and the temperature was perfect.

I baked a smash cake for Jake but of course, he was only interested in poking it and throwing pieces of cake. ;) So I grabbed an ice cream cone for him and he couldn't get enough (and bonus, he could hold it himself).

By 5:45, storm clouds were starting to appear so we quickly cleaned up the backyard, said goodbye + thanks to our friends, and five minutes after 6pm it was downpouring outside. Can you even believe it? I couldn't. My prayer was answered exactly and all I can do is say thank you to God. Asking for sunny skies for a birthday party is such a small detail that's really pretty inconsequential, but that's why it blows me away even more that God would answer even the smallest prayers when we ask him and put our hope in Him. Several of our friends remarked about how the weather was perfectly timed and I eagerly told them how God answered my prayers. All in all, Jake's party went just as I'd hoped: good friends, good food and great weather, plus one happy, tired one year old!