Happy Birthday - a bit late but fun anyways!

Saturday the 19th of November we had a couple friends over and celebrated Arielle's birthday (a bit late). She had been promised a "make-up" since we spent her "real" birthday preparing to and picking up her new little brother and sleeping in a train in a foreign country. No presents, no cake. We still sang to her and let her have ice cream but it was not a "fun day" for her and it's been a big adjustment ever since. We didn't want her to think we'd forgotten so we finally set the date and theme: a dress-up tea party. Cheap, easy, and she LOVED it! I threw a bunch of mine and my mom's old stuff in a trunk, some scarves, hats, gloves, old dresses, etc... and "poof!" instant party! We never got around to the "tea" part - he, he! Just apple juice and some very YUMMY cake - home-made by mommy (me) the night before - pumpkin spice for our little October pumpkin girl! (I got to use the last of my pumpkin puree, - Note: make more! - and I used simple fresh ingredients like for the frosting I used creme cheese, maple syrup and vanilla - that's it! It was just plain ol' GOOD!!) Here's a picture of our sweetie blowing out her candles:

(above: Nathanael and Arielle lick the frosting the morning of the party)

Wondering what's all over her face? Pizza sauce. We've been eating way too many frozen foods since coming home. I knew it would be like this at first. I had stuffed our freezer before we left - good thing - that's what got us through the first few weeks! It was seriously even harder to get a meal on the table than when you have a newborn baby - think about it - newborns don't crawl. They don't pinch, bite, get into things, bang their heads, hurt themselves, etc.... Thankfully I didn't feel like I gave birth - but "instant 2 year old" is certainly something that takes getting used to so meal-making from scratch went out the window for a bit. I'm just now starting to be able to make more foods myself but occasionally I still run to the freezer for "back-up". Tuesday will likely be one of those nights. Zeph has an orthopedic appointment on Tuesday late afternoon. They are casting his leg for the prosthetic! We are so excited (um, yet a bit scared - he ZOOM's like super crawler now - we can only imagine him running around here - he will love it...and love getting into everything!)!



We haven't decided yet what/when to have a celebration for Zeph - after all he did also have a birthday in October and we also just had "gotcha day" and home-coming. There is so much to celebrate!! I think we are just waiting 'til he's been home and settled just a bit longer to invite more than a few people over for him, you know? Even this gathering was a bit much for him at first - but he did great and had fun with the other children here. My parents and grandparents and aunt and uncle sent a gift for Arielle and for Zephaniah as well for his birthday. So sweet. Our friends who came were so sweet and brought all 4 children a gift!
See that envelope below? Ya - that's my MOTHER'S calligraphy! She's always done that to my birthday cards growing up, our wedding invitations (gorgeous!) and now she writes this beauty casually (I know her - she was probably rushing through this one - gotta go play with grand-babies!) on her grand-children's cards. So sweet. There's no throwing away envelopes in this house!

I will leave you with this picture below. I noticed our littlest 15 month old Evie has taken a liking to "Ken". She carries him around. She dances in circles with him. I felt sorry for him then. But the other day I was walking down the hall and saw this. I laughed. I smiled. I giggled. Arielle had dressed him up. Evie had danced with him. They moved on. But poor Ken lay in the hallway with a look on his face that says it all. It sort of made my day. Thanks, God. Mamas NEED the humor in our day, don't we??