More Birthday Festivities

Since school was canceled on Christian's birthday, his class celebrated it today with a one-of-a-kind book and a time for a special treat-cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  We were also able to share a book with his classmates, one of our favorites, which happens to coincide with the country they are studying-how cool is that?

The one-of-a-kind book is made up of letters from his classmates, each wishing him a happy birthday and other cute things ("Do you like blue?" or "You make me laugh" for example).  

What a wonderful memory made, and a gift to cherish.

Christian also got to share some special things that he brought from home in the "Birthday Bag."  Here, he is showing his friends his new robe (?! He wanted to bring it...). 

He also had some Zoobs (a toy), his iPod, a little car, and a Lego Star Wars creation.  And don't you love his crown?

And the moment they were all waiting for...

The room was very quiet for a couple of minutes.  But only a couple.

Mike took this time to read our special story (it might be my very favorite children's story/fable)-The Empty Pot. 

It is a wonderful story about a little boy who is greatly rewarded for his honesty and integrity, for doing his best.  I love it, love it, love it, and am so glad we were able to share it with the class.  I'm also glad Mike read it because I can't read it without crying.  Christian was excited to take this book too, which I thought was neat.  He walked around showing everyone a picture of the little boy and was very into the whole scenario.  Can you imagine?

It was sweet to be part of such a happy time in his classroom, and see the interaction between him and his classmates.  When the teacher read from his little book he tried to guess which person had written the page.  He would scan the kids in the floor and point to whomever he thought had written that particular note.  They would clap if he guessed correctly (which he did most of the time!).  They were very excited and proud. 

Watching your child in an environment in which he thrives is so satisfying, whether it's playing in the backyard or with friends at school.  I'm so glad we were able to participate in this birthday activity with his class.  He is surrounded by children who enjoy his company and teachers who bring out his best-what a blessing!

"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...

Looking Back With Love

I can't believe six years ago today I held him for the first time.  And loved him so immediately.  He totally melted my heart the instant I laid eyes on him. 

Michaela was pretty taken with him too. 

So much changes in that first year.  Babies are so completely dependent at first, so tiny and helpless.  And then twelve months go by zoom by and all of a sudden there is no baby, but a toddler!

Christian has always had a killer smile...

Such a sweet boy...

He is blessed to have a big sister who  loves him...

And a little sister who loves him...

Even in the last two years, so much has changed-a move to Texas, a new baby in the family, starting school outside of home.

One thing will always remain constant though, amidst all the changes and challenges that come our way - our love for Christian!  It gets stronger every day.

We celebrate his birthday with great joy, and pray that his coming year is full of growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, knowing His love, and ours as well. 

Grab Your Lassoes and Your Spurs, Partner

Over at Christian's school tonight there was a celebration of the students' dads.  They have been working on special projects, gathering ingredients for soup and cornbread, and decorating the hallways and classrooms for this evening of cowboy fun.  Unfortunately, Mike had a meeting scheduled out of town at the same time, so Christian and I moseyed on over to his classroom and I digitally corralled all the different things we did so that we could share them with Dad, as well as anyone else who might be interested.

There were lots of things for little, and big, cowpokes to see and do in the classroom. 

  

Christian thought it was great fun to wear his bandana, and pull it up over his mouth to keep all the dust out of his lungs.

He made a name tag for each one of us, and then we went around the classroom checking out the different activities.

The first thing we did was make outlines of our hands; his teacher said that this would be used for a project later.

Next, we grabbed some Trix cereal for a graphing activity.  This was fun to watch.  The kids had such individual methods for doing this.  They were supposed to count how many of each fruity color there were and then graph that number and write it at the bottom.  Christian dumped out all of his cereal and then picked which color he would do first (green).  He popped one in his mouth and colored one box.  He came up with this method on his own, and I was really surprised at how quickly he went through each "bite" and box. 

Counting the boxes...

Moving on to the next color...

Other kids separated all their colors out and then filled in the graph.  And one little girl put each color group back in her bag after she was done with that particular one. 

There was also a jar filled with walnuts (I think those are walnuts.  I'm no nut connoisseur).  We guessed how many walnuts were in the jar and put our estimates in a box.  They will count them tomorrow and see who was closest.  I'm really curious to know how many walnuts are in that jar! 

We moved on to another station, at which we were to grab a handful of candy corn and count them.  There was a place on our paper for the number of corn in the "Little dude's" handful, and a place for the "Big dude's" handful.  I thought that this was lots of fun, because I love, love, love the word dude.  I got carried away and called my mother-in-law dude once.  It was an accident, and she was amused.  I think.  At any rate, something very funny happened. 

Christian counted out his handful and wrote the number 36 in the proper space.  I grabbed my handful and started counting the pieces out, and when I got to the last one it was also 36!  We looked at each other and giggled.  It was a moment that I won't forget. 

Hungry cowboys need hearty grub, and the kids had visited the Farmer's Market earlier this week to pick out fresh ingredients for the stew they served tonight.  They also had homemade corn muffins.  And it was all very satisfyin'.  And I ain't lyin'. 

This guy loves some cornbread!

Christian went visiting mid-meal, and showed our amazing candy corn results to a few folks.

The teachers and some of the moms worked very hard to make this such a special evening.  Here is Christian with one of his teachers.

And here he is with his other teacher.

Christian is in a wonderful classroom.  He loves his teachers and tells them frequently how much he loves going to school.

He had one thing to say about the soup...

My funny little cowboy.

I've wrangled up a few photos of the special projects that Christian and his classmates have been putting together.  I love seeing the work he does at school.  His creativity amazes me, and delights me.  And the tribute to his father...precious.

Thursday, Part II

Last Thursday, we captured most of our moments digitally.  Due to some issues that we had to sort out, I was not able to include this last week, but now we are a go...

Christian's class helped to lead chapel worship for his school Thursday.  I was able to go and be a part of that experience, which was precious.  They are learning to worship the Lord with praise, by studying and learning His word, and by praying with thanksgiving.  What an offering!  I wanted to share this worship with others; it is a few minutes long if you're interested.  It is a blessing to me to see my children lifting up their voices, and their talents, to their Savior.