Esther's Birthday Party

Once the flag football (Evan and Esther) and volleyball (Meghan) seasons completed, we celebrated Esther's 7th birthday with a party.

I'll likely share over at This Simple Home, but I thought I should include some pictures here.

It was a kitty-cat themed party. Here the girls were eating like cats--under the kitchen table!

 We also played Pin the Tail on the Cat.

 They had some giggles!

 We played some other games, too. Esther's dessert was another giant cookie cake shaped like a cat.

Esther loved having six friends over for her birthday celebration.

Esther's 7

Last month Esther turned 7.

 She requested a giant cookie cake with M&Ms for her birthday dessert.

 She might love stuffed animals!

Meghan's 12

Meghan celebrated her 12th birthday last month!

She requested chocolate fudge for her birthday dessert.

 Two friends joined us for dinner and dessert.

 I think she likes being 12!

Derek's Birthday

Happy 38th birthday to Derek!

                                      

Happy 9th Birthday, Evan

Evan turned 9 today! It's hard to believe it's been nine whole years since he was born.

His giant cookie wasn't fancy, but he was pleased with it.

Happy 6th Birthday, Esther!

Esther needs two hands to show us her age now!

She's full of hugs and kisses.

She had two friends over tonight to celebrate her birthday. 

Happy birthday, Esther! We love you!

Happy 11th Birthday, Meghan!

We had a lovely evening celebrating Meghan's eleventh birthday. Following her favorite pizza, we had apple pie.

She cares for her earrings by herself every morning and night.

 In addition to her pierced ears, she has a new journal, Calico Critter hedgehogs, blouse, and spider webbing.

Meghan has been asking for more Halloween decorations, so I decided she could decorate the bushes herself with the fake spider webbing. She loved it!

Meghan actually had a birthday sleepover with several friends earlier this month. I didn't take pictures that day but wish I had!

We're so proud of the lovely girl Meghan is.

Annette's 40th

Back in May Derek told me we should start thinking about celebrating my 40th birthday. It took me a month to agree to having a party. I don't exactly love being in the spotlight. 

We are too frugal to have something catered (even our wedding was DIY), so we spent a lot of time and energy preparing for the party. I'm so glad we did. My birthday party was exactly a month after my 40th birthday, but it was truly a blessing to be surrounded by family and friends.

It was a really hot day. I believe it was about 105° with the heat index. Thankfully there was a slight breeze. We had the party at a local park.

This is the cake Derek's mom made for me. I love that it's a book...and it has my newly released book on it! (I should probably write about that in a different post, but if you are interested, it's called Insects as Producers. It can be found on Amazon. No, it is not self-published.)

How about these lollipops to celebrate a book about insect products? Those are ants IN the lollipops!

I was really pleased at how many family members traveled a good distance.

Pinebrook 2016

This was our eight year vacationing with Pinebrook Bible Conference (which is just as long as I've been blogging). See more of our Pinebrook posts by clicking the link under "labels."

We began our vacation with a bang. On Friday night, Derek took the children to a Wilmington Blue Rocks baseball game. I suspect too much funnel cake led Meghan to being sick five or six times between 5 and 6:30 a.m. She then returned to sleep for a couple of hours. When she woke up she was almost herself and wasn't sick again.

At one point, she missed her bowl a bit in bed. While I was changing her sheets, she went to the bathroom. She must have been tired because she climbed into the tub and fell asleep. Later when I asked her about it, she had no recollection of it.

Every afternoon at Pinebrook was spent in the pool in some form or another. Below are some of the kids' friends and swimming buddies.

 And a year can't go by without some nighttime rain for bike riding.

Birthdays 2015

The children all celebrated their birthdays during October.

Meghan's was first. She turned nine! She had a friend visit the afternoon of her birthday.

Then came Esther's fourth birthday. Esther was especially excited to have her fingernails painted for the first time.

Evan is SIX!

Birthday Week concludes with Evan's birthday. A neighbor friend came over to celebrate with the family. Evan asked to have pizza for dinner followed by apple pie for dessert.

Evan was in a state of awe as he opened gifts. 

 Derek set Meghan straight that these are not dolls. Action figures. Totally different, right? Definitely fun for a boy like Evan!

Looking forward to seeing my boy grow!

Three Years of Esther

Esther was born THREE years ago. 

That pretty much means it's been that long since we had a week of good sleep. Still.

 On her birthday she was eager for presents since she watched Meghan open gifts on her birthday just days before. While everyone was at work or school, I decided to bring up two wooden games/puzzles that had been waiting for Esther to turn three. She was content "opening" the gift bag with them in it, and then we had a blast playing for a bit before nap time.

Don't let her lower lip fool you. She was joking with me since I had the camera.

 Esther isn't fond of homemade baked goods. She usually skips those desserts. When we realized that, we decided to give Esther her favorite food on her birthday. Lollipops.

 Each of the children had a giant lollipop.

 Esther enjoyed showing off her blue tongue.

 She also had fun with her new puzzles, coloring books, and new Bible. (The new Bible replaced the one she vomited on a while back. She's thrilled.)

Early in the morning of her birthday she pretty much denied that she was three and didn't want to talk about it. By mid-day, she was proud to say she was three.