Turning six

Elijah turned six on Tuesday. It was a bit low key; not only because our regional conference was in full swing, which meant LOOOOONG days, but also because Caleb and Brant had nasty colds and had been up most of the night before.

Our conference days ran 8 am - 8:30 pm, so trying to figure out some way to celebrate Elijah's b-day without baking cake for 100+ people was a bit of a challenge. I ended up going with a coffee cake; which we ate for breakfast, complete with 6 candles. This was the first year we didn't get him a "number candle" and he was a bit upset at first, but then he realized 6 little fires on his cake were more fun to blow out. :)

We let him open one present in the morning - drawing books from my mom which he LOVED.

When we came back to the house after lunch so the little boys could nap, we let him open another present or two.... hence he's not wearing pajamas. :)

Then, because Caleb and Brant were feeling crummy, we ended up leaving right after dinner and skipped the evening meetings. Everyone got another piece of coffee cake and then opened the rest of the presents.... including an erector set from Grandma, which he also loved!


Elijah really wanted to have a birthday party, but with conference being this week, I knew we wouldn't have the energy or time to do anything big. So we decided to have a "boys only" party (isn't that a great theme?!? couldn't come up with anything else, but he loves it) and invite just a couple of his friends.... they are going to have smoothies and popcorn and watch a movie. :):) Stay tuned for pics!

How a mom celebrates

Last week I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my being able to legally buy alcohol in the United States. It was not quite the same celebration it was 10 years ago... marriage, 3 kids and a move across the world changes lots of things. (Though to be fair, for my 21st, I was in a cave camping out in Israel!)

We had originally lined up a baby-sitter, and Brant, despite his crazy busyness, was going to take the day off. But our baby-sitter got malaria and so EVERYONE took Mommy on a date. :):) It was a really fun day.

Flowers Brant got me... I was QUITE impressed... no florist shops here. He went on a tip from a friend and went to this lady's house and she cut these out of her yard and arranged them for him. :)

The highlight of the day.... we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. I LOVE pizza and Pizza Hut is the latest and greatest thing to hit our island... got here about 6 months ago in the big city about 45 minutes from us. It's very fancy.... quite easily the nicest place to eat on the island. :) The highlight of the boys' day was us letting them get an ice cream that you get to put all the toppings on... yes, in my old age, I have gotten soft on them eating sugar! (Not really... we regretted it all day as they were on definite sugar buzz!)

After a day of "shopping" (meaning we went to the import grocery store where I got a very fancy box of green mint tea that is SO good) and pizza, we came home and had "birthday dinner" - popcorn and smoothies. The trouble with living in a 3rd world country is take out options are few and a bit sketchy... so if I wanted a nice dinner I was going to have to cook it myself. Hence, we had popcorn and smoothies. :)

Ezra reached the popcorn bowl himself and was quite proud of himself.

No bakeries or box cake mixes: I made my own cake. It was a deal though, as Brant did all the dishes. (Note to self: pack lots of cake mixes next furlough!)

And of course, the boys had to have their candles too! :)

And while I'm posting...

Elijah decided he was going to write a book the other day. This was the title...
Anyone want to take a guess as to his phonetics?

"The Book About Tornadoes"

Today's beach trip

The highlights of the day....

- Seeing Caleb play in the waves and totally get pummeled but laugh and get right back up. It was the first time he was brave enough to really enjoy the water and not just stay on the sand.

- Eating watermelon and tortillas and homemade hummus for lunch. So yum!

- Watching Brant and Ezra take a nap in the hammock... they both REALLY needed the rest.

- Taking Elijah snorkeling for the first time.... was a BLAST! We went with two other little kids his age (and their moms) and it was all their first time.... they had little masks and floaties to keep them up... It was particularly cool for Elijah as we had just read (100 times!) The Magic School Bus Visits the Coral Reef this week. The kids were so excited to see "Dory" and "Nemo" and Elijah could identify different types of fish and coral... gotta love those Magic School Bus books. Elijah is already asking when we can go back to beach to go snorkeling again.

SO thankful for a really relaxing day with our friends. Brant has been running all week - easily pulling 12 hour days trying to get all his orders filled this month... the boys and I have barely seen him all week, so we needed a good day away as a family to rest and play.