"Celebrate Good Times, Come On..."

I really wanted to do this post last night, but this is what I was up against...

and I was definitely at a disadvantage-outnumbered, operating on an energy deficit, and running out of time before my midnight appointment with a certain bad sleeper that I know. 

Enough about me and my troubles.  I truly want to highlight some of the sweet moments from yesterday, a.k.a. the day my favorite son was born. 

 The very first thing Christian wanted to do when he woke up was open up "just one present" (out of the two) from Grandma and Mr. Bob that had arrived in the mail a couple of days earlier.  He chose which one to open and was...

stupefied?  Confounded?  Flabbergasted?   (This is what I look like when I realize that I already ate the last piece of chocolate cake...oh, but enough about me and my troubles, right?)

He finished opening the present...

and was thrilled to discover some new K'nex, a very cool construction toy.

Around that time we found out that school was canceled for the day because of bad weather, so we let him open the other gift from Grandma and Mr. Bob.

He was so happy about this present; roller blades, just like Michaela's!  (But not purple...) 

Can you tell he was excited about them?

Since Michaela is now a pro she helped him get them on, so that they could practice in the living room.  It is 8:15 in the morning, people, and my children want to roller blade.  I want to sleep, they want to roller blade.  I'm not sure where they came from.  Maybe Mike has something to do with it...

He tried walking in them a little, just on the runner we have in our living room...

He kind of looked like he was doing "the robot"-tricky boy.

Then there was more practice...

 Eliana was not about to be left out of this action.

At this point, Christian was tiring of his "lessons" and so we set the skates aside and finished up breakfast and other morning activities.  Since there was no school for Christian, we took a break at home too.  The kids played nicely together, and whenever they didn't, well, there was a serious consequence...

I have to let them know that I will be taken seriously, and that they must behave at all times, or else.  Or else what?  Um, or else I'll stick them in a tiny tubular casing-like they're little sausages-and take lots of pictures of them.  That's what.  I'm hard-core, man.

We actually went outside for a little bit after lunch to check out our icy wonderland.

Eliana, and Michaela and Christian, thought the ice that had formed was fascinating.  They were finding it in the cracks of the sidewalk and in the blades of grass.  Eliana just loved to be outside.  She was like,"Bye, and see ya' later."

I didn't stay out very long with her because she needed a nap.

The big kids stayed out for several hours-by this time it wasn't very cold, and the icicles were melting, and the sky was blue, and the back yard was muddy.  Where else would they want to be?  Duh.

I got Eliana to sleep, and I also took some fun pictures.  I am seriously not a photo-whiz.  But I did have a good time trying to look at things in a different way, with the combination of the ice and the sun. 

The kids found some neato things out there too, like this ice-mold of leaves...

They thought it was hilarious that there were icicles hanging on the front of our car and that the water bottle that they had left outside the other day with a little water in it had big chunks of ice in it now.  They were very busy out there discovering what happens when freezing weather comes along.  And if you ask Michaela she will be able to tell you water's freezing point and boiling point, Fahrenheit.  So...we were really doing math, right?  Right. 

Later that afternoon, Christian received a couple more packages in the mail.  These were from Grandpa and Ms. Susie.  They sent Michaela and Eliana gifts as well, so everyone had a blast opening more presents, and then getting into the activities.

Christian's gift was an EzyRoller, a sitting-down, wiggle-it-to-make-it-go kind of thing.  He is going to LOVE this.  We couldn't put it together right away, so they ended up working on the project pack that Michaela opened.  It has little magnet squares that come in many different colors, and sheets of paper with designs that you put the colored squares on, in order to make a picture-sort of like color-by-number, but with magnets.  Pretty cool, and they loved watching the design emerge as they added the colors to the sheet. 

While they were busy with this activity, I tried to get a cake made for Christian's family birthday celebration, as well as dinner itself. 

Can you tell what this is?  This is my first ever attempt to make a "themed" birthday cake.  My normal thing to do is make chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  Period.  I did make an outline of a boot on his cake last year, but that was not a big deal.  This, I wanted to be special, because he specifically asked for it.

A little odd, maybe, but Christian was happy.  His contribution?  Yoda's light saber.  And by the way, faces on cakes (or anywhere for that matter) ARE REALLY HARD.  I have a new respect for cake decorators. 

We sang "Happy Birthday" and he blew out his candles...

One was a little tricky, but he kept at it...

We had a great day, celebrating Christian's birthday, and it's still amazing to me how quickly time passes...