There just was not TIME for my birthday. But all four girls got to go to the AHG Christmas party.
I was not there to take photos…
We will celebrate another time. I love being so busy with fun activities!
Woo hoo!!
birthdays
Stewart is 21
First birthday in the new house fell on a Thursday.
Stewart has had birthdays camping and on cruise ships. Now he is the first to have a South Carolina birthday.
We had a simple dinner and an amazing Oreo cheesecake on his actual birthday.
Then on Friday night we had the Hoyts join us for dinner.
Marie was at work.
Marie’s birthday…. in the midst of a VERY BUSY WEEK.
Nothing says, “Happy birthday,” like a giant truck backing into the driveway.
We met Mike, Anthony, and . These three men would spent the next 3-4 days with us packing up all of our belongings.
It got a little weird, to be honest.
Marie asked for a yummy treat of pineapple cherry upside down cake and lemon bars for her birthday.
As the men started working in the house we quickly realized that the kitchen would not be a reasonable place for me to be doing much work. We also realized we had NO IDEA just what we were in for.
Thankfully, we have the kind of friends who love Jesus. I was supposed to take Johanna to Alli’s, but Alli’s mom graciously offered to come for Johanna. She also offered to make the lemon bars.
Christine picked up Katriel.
Before dinner time, our house looked like this:
Once they left, we had birthday dinner and a quiet celebration.
We gave Marie some gift monies for Box Lunch to pick up some Loki gear.
And they were the best tasting lemon squares I have ever had.
Happy birthday, Marie.
Nigel is Nineteen
My requisite former-preemie-is-now-X-years old post.
He’s come a long way.
Doing birthday without Dad is sort of weird, but at least we had chocolate cake.
I’m so proud of this guy.
ELEVEN years of Johanna!
We did things out of order… that’s how Saturday birthdays roll.
She had a few gifts in the morning, so she’d have things to do as the day went on. Big kids coming and going, because — Saturday.
As sisters got prepared for the prom, mom got some enchiladas underway.
While sisters did prom-y things, we did dinner, gifts and cake.
Both Nene and Mama got her dresses with jean jackets.
She asked for lemon cake and we were happy to provide it.
It’s been a weird week.
Glad it ended on such a joy-filled note.
Slumber party tie dye
Since her slumber party got bumped last year (grrrr) we had a wonderful make up party this year!
The girls made tie-dye hoodies.
I think they did an amazing job!
Daddy’s birthday
While Nigel was at work, at Stewart was stuck at Houghton, we had a yummy steak and cake party for Daddy.
Tabitha is 15!
Tab’s birthday fell on a Friday. It was quiet around here most of the day and then we had a dinner of tilapia and green bean casserole, per her request.
Katriel worked very hard to make gifts for Tabitha. While the mug she made her (with Scar on it) is blurry, I very much love Tab’s smile in this photo. I also love how Katriel worked to make special presents. She bought the mug with her own money at Walmart, too.
My friend helped me gift Tab by making a Scar t-shirt.
Marie dressed to match the birthday girl.
Love that smile.
Birthday + Zoo = FUN
For extra birthday fun we loaded into the big van and headed to the zoo.
(Missed Melody and Daddy in the shot.)
We had a 2PM entry time and the zoo was PACKED.
We explored the zoo for about 100 minutes, enjoying the particularly active animals. It was about 45F and SUNNY! PTL.
We had to wait in line once for about 20 minutes as they limited entry into the building. The kids kept themselves joyful playing Simon Says.
We stayed a little later than we meant to as we HAD to get in to see Katriel’s favorite animal: Poison Dart Frogs. (That doesn’t require capitalization, but they are Poison Dart Frogs and that’s important!)
We got home for cupcakes and presents.
It was just SO cool. I am so grateful for friends who are on the same page as we are.
FYI – the last normal thing our family got to do last year was go to Chuck E. Cheese for Katriel’s birthday.
Dayspring Disciples 