5 Years!

I’m pretty sure you already knew this but yes, Logan did have a birthday back in June.  He’d been talking about his birthday this year since December (not exaggerating) so that, coupled with the fact that five is something of a milestone birthday, meant that we went a little bigger this year than we typically do for birthday parties.

              
Since his party wasn’t until more than a week after his actual birthday though, he got a mini-celebration on the official day.  He requested another train cake, so Mommy went cheap and easy but I still think it turned out looking alright.

                            
Logan seemed happy about it anyway.


Logan’s birthday party was a joint party with a neighbor-friend whose birthday was later in the month.  She turned four, Logan turned five and we decided on a knights and princesses theme to accommodate everybody.  So here you have
Sir Logan, the Birthday King.

                         
Lady Naomi, second in command and belle of the ball.

Both the birthday kids: Logan and Gioia.  Gioia’s mom and I got such a laugh out of this picture—doesn’t it look like it ought to be in their wedding slide show someday?

                             
Planning a party with Tina (Gioia’s mom) turned out to be fabulous.  We really had the same vision for the whole thing and neither one of us had to go too crazy to pull it all together.  For example, we both were excited about collecting canned goods in lieu of gifts—that’s Naomi peeking her head in the donation box—and the cake was all Tina’s doing!  After the party I took Logan and Gioia on a special outing to drop the food they collected off at a local ministry!

                          
We had a dress-up area with every manner of sword, cape, dress and jewel, and a craft area for decorating your own crown/tiara.

A great big castle, of course!

           
            
Everybody got into it and I don’t think there was a single item we brought out that didn’t get used to its fullest potential.

Phew!  I need to take a quick break before the next round.

                    
Here it comes!  Logan was SOOOO excited about the dragon pinata; we even had a sword (a wooden one Jake made years ago just for fun) for the full slaying-the-dragon effect.  It could not have been more perfect; it even popped open on cue for the last kid in line!

           
Singing “Happy Birthday” to my great big five year old boy!

I think it’s going to be a good year for him.

A Long, Long Time Ago

Well, Jake’s gone for another couple weeks so now I’ve got some time to get caught up.  Because, you know, I’ve got nothing else going on, right?  ;)

         
So, sometime after Henry and Janet left, and sometime before Jonathan and Mom arrived, we decided to take the kids and go for a little hike in the area.  The kids were excited to step off, the day was clear and the views were good.

Then the shenanigans began.

               
There were an abundance of winged creatures including, on the left, a swallow, and on the right, a vulture.  Nice, huh?

                                   
I always find it a little surprising how quickly the terrain shifts from coastal tropic to desert hills.  

                                       
But the kids enjoy being out with Mom and Dad, seeing new things and exploring the geography.
                                             Stopping for snacks.  The kids also enjoy that!

                  
We seem to be fascinated by everything from snail shells to Daddy’s sunglasses.

Just enjoying the sunshine.

Sometime later, back at home, the kids found an exciting new canvas for their artwork.

 
This was more artwork?

Yep, work of art, definitely!

                      
Peek-a-boo!

And with that, we’re into June.  Chugging right along . . .

We’re Back!

And we’re still in May—yikes!  Alright, so I didn’t really jump on this like I should have.  At all.  I’m not going to make excuses; life itself took priority over documenting it for a while and, frankly, that’s okay.  There’s not going to be a flurry of posts in the immediate future either, because Jake will be home tomorrow night.  I’ll get caught up eventually.  Although we may be reminiscing about July visitors into December . . .

May.  Three birthdays in a row: Adalyn (that’s my brand-new niece!), Mom (Clara) and Janet.  Giant cards for everyone!

    
Last stop on Henry and Janet’s grand tour: the Safari Park.  We are greeted by a couple of animal ambassadors . . .

and encounter a rather unusual bat.

                            
The birds are playing nice today.

And so are Henry and Janet.

        
As we head out for the actual “safari” part, it seems most of the animals are cooperating today.

                              
Naomi looks rather mournful; honestly, I don’t remember why.  But Logan’s face says, “I’m intently observing and I’m going to ask you a million questions about it afterwards.”

                     
Ugly bird, good picture.  The antelope are rather more majestic.

I like seeing the giraffe up next to other animals for a better size perspective on how tall they really are.

         
We had a great view of a couple of sleepy lions.
 Time to move along before other, smaller (human) creatures start getting sleepy as well.

                  
Which one is more photogenic?

     
Lots of parent-child pairs in the park right now.

You can’t pet the elephants but you can rub the statue for luck.

Lastly, it was feeding time for the gorillas so the whole family was out.

Voila!  That finishes up our time with that set of visitors.  Only 2+ months to go!