First Birthday

On Saturday we celebrated Christian's first birthday! We took the boys to the ocean in the morning and let them play around in the muddy water--they loved it!

And what's a trip to the beach without tasting the sand?

After naps the boys taste-tested fluffy blue frosting as I iced the cake.

We invited our neighbors over to celebrate with us and the kids had fun making forts out of the sofa cushions and playing with baloons.

Christian "lasted" until about 7 pm at which point we cerimoniously produced a cupcake with a candle, took a picture, and promptly put him to bed. The rest of us partied on.

This first birthday is not just a celebration of a year in a child's life, or even a celebration of the having survived all sickness and made it to the first year (a real cause for celebration in so many developing countries) It is, afterall, also a celebration of the PARENTS having survived baby's first year--ever a reason for a party if there was one! We are so thankful at God's sovereign placement of this incredible child in our home.

Daddy's Hat

Christian loves to play with his daddy's hat.

We're still not sure where the blue eyes came from. But they're always sparking and and sparkling and mostly they're just darling.

Snowing

Just kidding. It isn't really snowing here.

But the boys devised a plan to play in the "snow" never-the-less. I walked into their room to a "winter wonderland" the other day. By their expressions you may be able to imagine our dialogue...

("Cohen!")
("What did you do?!")

("Just look at this big mess you've made!")

("Yes, and you too, Christian!")

("Seriously?")

Cohen seemed to pick up on the fact that I wasn't really excited about their grand idea. Christian, however, played on in oblivion.

Chameleon

I found a chameleon hiding in my flowers on the back porch the other day. Actually, I'm not exactly sure it was a chameleon, but that was my best guess.

He was a little shy of the camera and kept trying to hide. (Just ignore the three cocaroaches that snuck into the picture on the left hand side--they're always trying to steal the show.)

No, seriously, we don't have THAT many cocaroaches ALWAYS hanging around our back porch...we had just sprayed bug killer the day before so they all came out for one last hurah.

It is an amazing thing to watch your kids wonder at creation.

I hope my children are always this curious, this enthralled, at the beauty of our world.