This Moment ~ Pile Up!

This is definitely Daddy-style fun! :o)

Gotta love four!

Our birthday season has begun in earnest. We celebrate all five birthdays as well as our anniversary and Mothers' Day within the space of 33 days. Yes. We will be thoroughly partied out by the middle of May. However, since we try to make everyone's day special, be prepared for a multitude of birthday partyish pictures in upcoming weeks ...

:::

Peter's smile when he first saw his doggy cake was worth every moment of late night icing escapades. :o) He woke up from his birthday nap, and after taking care of necessary things, I picked him up and asked him to close his eyes. I carried him into the kitchen where his cake was on display and told him he could look. His eyes got real big, and then his grin started growing to match. It was great! :o) "It's a doggy. A doggy for me!" (And the smile grew bigger yet!)

(For the record, I am very excited about my new found "skill" of making cupcake cakes. They're super easy, and I'll share details another day.)

It was definitely a special blessing to have Uncle Pat and Aunt Judy here visiting, and we were all very glad that our friends the G-bs were able to join us as well, specially invited by Peter!
Can't beat the genuine enthusiasm and excitement of a four-year-old for presents. :o) Our builder-in-training was well equipped this year with ....

child-sized safety goggles

his great-grandpa's tool box (filled with a wonderful assortment of tools to be used with Daddy's supervision)
and a dump truck building kit.
Cards, books, clothing, puzzles, and other sundries were also appreciated and the smile was pretty well constant. :o)

Special family and friends make for very special celebrations!
Happy Birthday, Peter!
We love you, Buddy!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my two most faithful blog readers ...

We love you both so very much and pray that you have an extra special day together!

:::

(And new pictures of the kiddos will hopefully be arriving in the next few days ... I'm thinking Thursday evening looks somewhat promising ... not that we haven't had anything else going on around here recently ...) ;o)

"Almost Four" No More!

Happy Birthday, Peter!!

The day has finally arrived, Buddy!

(Peter has been responding "almost four" to anyone who asked him how old he was since Christmas!)

We are so thankful for you with your enthusiastic, creative, industrious, "all-boy" spirit. :o)

:::

How you have grown ...

Born 4.22.2007 1 year old 2 years old

3 years old

almost 4 years old

Some things right now are a part of your life, that I somehow expect I'll miss when they pass ...

• You're incredibly funny, frequently cracking us up with very "almost four" year old expressions. Just this week you said to me, "Mommy, can we cut my birthday in half so that I can celebrate half at school and half at home?" ;o)


• Not a day passes but that I receive a gift of love in the form of multiple dandelion heads.


• Shovels, hammers, saws ... these are your favorite means of occupying time.


• You and Toby are best buds.


• You are always. on. the. move.


• Your knees, elbows, hands, etc. generally look like you've been through World War III as testimony to the previous point.


• You are loving and sweet and give super duper hugs. :o)

We love you, Buddy! We are so thankful for you and pray that the Lord will draw you to Himself and work in your life mightily.

Happy Birthday!

It's a Party!

As a general rule, first birthdays are fun ... :o) And Matthew's obsession with balloons made it very easy to choose a theme ... Add some family and friends and you have a party! :o) (When you're already cooking for 10, adding 5-6 more really isn't a big deal.) ;o)

We enjoyed spaghetti and meatballs, caesar salad, and garlic bread. Mmmm. (A very easy dinner which was good, since Mommy and Aunt Janie spent 95%+ of the afternoon decorating desserts and cleaning!)

Peter lent his assistance in extinguishing Matthew's candle ...

And Matthew thoroughly enjoyed his cupcake, surrounded by encouraging onlookers!

Following dinner, folks dispersed for basement tours, a good game of corn toss,Fun on the swings, ...

And opening gifts. Hannah was very excited to give Matthew her own gift ...

And while Matthew pretty much just looks overwhelmed in most of his gift-opening pictures, the bat was a definite favorite. :o)

We all had a wonderful time and are so thankful for everyone who could be here with us!

And on a personal note, many, many, many thanks to Aunt Janie who worked hard to help me get everything ready to go! :o)

Blissfully Edible

The little guy who had gotten by on the occasional stolen cookie crumb or drip of icecream didn't take too very long to figure out that an entire cupcake left unsupervised on his tray was well worth investigating. ;o)

Hmmm. What is this?

Ah yes. That first taste. Hmmm. That warrants another taste ...

Can't stuff my face fast enough!

Ooops. Did I get caught?

But no shame in going back for more ...

This is great, Mommy!

Can I have some more?

Somehow I just can't help but smiling when I look at these! :o)

This Moment ~ I Like Cupcakes

Matthew's 1st Cupcake

:::

Mommy's 1st Attempt at "Real" Cake Decorating