Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday

We have celebrated Chloe's 5th Birthday so many times there is now confusion about when her "real" birthday is.

1st celebration: Williams family celebration in WA State
2nd celebration: Aforementioned blueberry muffins with her classmates.
3rd celebration: Cousins Birthday party at Granna and Zeke's
4th celebration: Family party at Chuck E. Cheese
5th celebration: Cheerleading/Littlest Pet Shop Party

The last two celebrations were needed to complete the party that she has been planning for the past 9 months. Seriously. She has had it all planned out...I think we succeeded...future birthday celebrations will have to be a little smaller in scale. However, she has proclaimed that she will not be getting any older...she wants to be 5 FOREVER.

5 balloons from Ms. Stephanie

Her class eating (or not eating) the blueberry muffins

Chloe and Chuck (so. excited.)

All 4 of us with Chuck

(had a hard time coordinating the 5 of us...he kept closing his eyes or turning his head)

REAL cheer leaders came to our party!!

All the little cheerleaders and ball players

Popcorn Races

The Happy Birthday Girl

Making her megaphone

The final products

Still happy

Me and the birthday girl

Front porch

This is happening a lot these days...

We are still trying to eliminate E Man's morning nap.

Every few days I will hear him playing one minute and then the next I find this:

First Day of PreK

Playing a little bit of catch up here...

Chloe's First Day of PreK

THE Picture

Her very own hook :)

Chloe with her teacher, Ms. Stephanie

My Handy-Dandy Notebook

I thought I might give you a window into my world...via a few pages from my notebook that goes where ever I go...

Sequential pages...I promise.

Page 1

Cheer leading Party

- pom poms

- megaphone cake (CHLOE 5)

- grilled hot dogs

- homemade signs (pep rally)...

Page 2

"I am only one, but still I am one. I can not do everything, but still I can do something; and because I can not do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do."

- Helen Keller

Proverbs 24:12

"...once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act."

Page 3

sweet pepper

butternut squash

red pepper

sloppy joe

grilled cheese sandwich

No. Lie. I move freely between party details, deep thoughts and grocery lists.

I am cool like that.
This is my life.

A couple cute things...

Eli has started singing...it is SOOO cute. We have sung the same song to him most every night for the 2 years of his life. It is a song that Kevin learned on a trip to Ghana, West Africa. We sing it in Ga and then in English. (possibly the reason it has taken him 2 years to start singing along...2 languages and all...) He does not quite get all the words right...well, okay, he does not get MOST of the words right...but he contributes some strong syllables!!

Last night Kevin was putting him to bed and was touched to hear, for the first time, his son singing praises to the Lord! Precious memory!

Chloe was talking with Kevin the other day and he was beginning to recap the Gospel with Chloe...she interrupted him with this,

"Daddy. I know this story. God sent Jesus to die on the cross to say sorry for our bad decisions."

Pretty close. We are a little uncertain, who, in this rendition, is saying sorry...but she is well on her way to 'getting it.' :)

Hilarious

Last night, Kevin read my last post and was a little shocked and disturbed that I would post about his underwear for the whole world to see...

So, I offered to remove that portion of my post...

His dry response:
"No, that's okay. Only 13 people are reading it."

I laughed out loud!!!

TOUCHE'!!!!

(17. Thankyouverymuch.) Hey, Marianna!!

Still Here...

Hey. I am still here. I am sure all 16 (16!!! I have a new follower...HEY, DANIELLE!!!) of my followers were concerned...and waiting with baited breath... what does that mean anyway??

So Kevin is back safe and sound from Africa. Great trip. He came back healthy! Woohoo!

He is, however, EXTREMELY jet lagged! Poor guy. (I do feel a little sorry for him...but mostly I just keep reminding him that he got to go to AFRICA for 2 weeks...and then he smiles and goes back to sleep.) We have conversations of this sort pretty frequently around here...you know...like when he wants to reminisce (ahem, brag) about being in the Indian ocean like we were there together...and then I look at him with the 'no, Dear, YOU were in the Indian Ocean...I get Lake Lanier' look... Or when I comment on how cool his visa(S) are in his passport...and he replies..."It's just a sticker." Yeah, he gets some heat for that too. JUST A STICKER?!?!?!?!?

Oops. This post is sounding complain-ie...not my intention.

YAY!!! Kevin is HOME!!!

A few cool facts from his trip:

1. Over 900 Masai people committed their lives to Christ in the 2 weeks that his team was there!! ( I. Know. Seems hard to believe, huh?? Incredible.)

Okay, really, that is the only truly important fact...but here are a few memories for him...

- Seeing a 'Tree Zebra". Seriously saw a ZEBRA hanging in a tree! A leopard killed it and then carried it up into a tree to eat/hide? it. Leopards now on the list for most feared animal by Sarah.

- Sleeping on the ground in a tent hearing Hyenas most of the night. (funny how nylon doesn't feel like much of a barrier)

- He actually can live with only 1 pair of underwear and 1 outfit for a week if necessary. (his luggage did not get to him until half way through the trip.) Don't worry, I told him to throw those $30 REI 'pricey panties' away...so. gross.

- The bush in Kenya opened his eyes to a whole new meaning to the phrase, "poor cell phone signal." Picture him and his stinky self standing on top of a hill, right next to a tree, squatting, standing, whatever-ing in attempt to get a signal. (After walking one hour to get to the best cell signal location.) As a disclaimer...we had not anticipated ANY contact for the 2 weeks...this was a special blessing that there was any signal,anywhere!

I know that he has a ton more spiritual memories...those may be for a more serious post...and maybe after we have some more conversations that are uninterrupted by small children.