Ten-year-old Nate!

The celebration started the weekend before Nate’s birthday with a visit from Grampy and Grammy. Why, oh why, can’t I seem to get a picture of them when they visit?! They gave Nate the baseball backpack he’s been wanting, and got to see one of his games on a beautiful spring day.

 

 

March 19: Good morning birthday boy!

Hobbit Legos!

A field trip (concert) with some favorite pals.

Early family birthday dinner and cake, then off to the ball field for a night game, with Pappy and Mema cheering in the stands.

 

Due to a full spring calendar, we had to schedule the big friend bash the following weekend while Erik was traveling. Thankfully Mema stayed to help with the party: a sports-pizza-movie-sleepover extravaganza with lots of friends. (I think she spent five hours straight following the boys around cleaning…supper…cake…wrapping paper…popcorn…)

No real theme this year, just a hex-bug cake and a “nano” as a favor for each friend.

After the Hobbit, “The Best Pillow Fight Ever!”

And eventually, a little sleep for everyone.

 

Happy birthday My Buddy! It is fun to celebrate you—one of God’s good gifts to our family!

Grammy Dear

In March, Erik’s grandmother passed away. I think one of the last energetic trips she took, before her health and mobility began to decline, was to our wedding in 2001. Our family visited her a number of times over the years, but the kids and I got to know her in only a limited sense. It was wonderful to hear everyone remember and honor her at the memorial service with stories of her many wonderful qualities, gifts, skills, and interests, and her faith in Christ. The photo above shows her husband and most of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. (Not pictured: a son who passed away several years ago, an adopted daughter, two granddaughters who live overseas, and two great-grandbabies—daughters of those expats.)

Last “100s Day”

…with this cute kindergartener:

Caleb is 6!

I usually shy away from “licensed character” party themes. We’ve had a train birthday, but not Thomas; a fairy birthday, but not Tinkerbell; a fish birthday, but not Nemo; and so on. However, this year I decided it would be too fun to do Angry Birds for this little ipad enthusiast.  Yes, I even bought the Angry Birds graham crackers.

My original idea was to use cardboard boxes and other paraphernalia to build structures and then catapult water balloons or something to knock them down. You know, angles, force, weight distribution—we could count the party as a whole extra school day. But then I decided that activity would be better for Nate’s age group. And I waited too long to start collecting boxes. So, I settled on an interactive block-and-ping-pong-ball centerpiece.

 

Egg toss (not pictured: Katie Rolston, an active observer!)

 

Good morning sleepy birthday boy. I see you’ve already put those party favor tattoos to good use. (So easy when they ask for junk cereal instead of homemade sweet rolls and bacon!)

 

Looking at the birthday book with Daddy.

 

Family birthday supper (oops, forgot to take a picture of the family).

 

Happy Birthday Bub. We are glad God gave you to us!

Amy Turns 40

Does it look like I have posted the wrong photo?

Well, here the kids are enjoying a field trip to the Tellus Science Museum, which they visited with Erik, who took the day off work so that I could goof around all day with Karissa and Mandy, who he had secretly flown in for my 40th birthday! Several other dear friends helped orchestrate the surprise and blessed me by sharing in a lovely dinner celebration. Wish I had a photo of all the girls at the restaurant, but this prehistoric fish skeleton will have to suffice.



Snow Days

We had two good snowfalls two weeks apart this winter. (I'm so sad Nate isn't in the first photo with us, but he was having his own fun over in Birmingham.) And yes, this was Atlanta Snow Jam 2014.