If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness...Come what may, and love it! -Joseph B. Wirthlin
Eli turned 4 last week. He is the sweetest little boy. I am very blessed that he is my son. Eli is kind and caring, smart, thoughtful, fun, silly. If I could bottle up all of his cuteness and sweetness and sell it, I could buy a tropical island in the Caribbean and retire.
He was very excited to get a couple Skylander's guys.
On his birthday we gave him a little present, but waited to celebrate until tonight.
We had a mini-birthday party for him after Family Home Evening. We invited our friends from church to celebrate with us. It is great because Danny and Haley's family consists of 3 boys and one girl and they are all about the same age range. Their son Ira is in the same class with Eli. We ate dinner, did a little lesson, and then sang to Eli and opened a few presents.
Julia and Raef
My boyfriend Harry
Gus and Oscar
Ira
Aggie
We gave Eli a Leapster for his birthday. He was very happy about it. Our friends gave him some cars and a few little boy things as well and he loved it.
I threw together a very last minute party for Eli. He turned three almost a month ago. The only thing I had done for him was tell him happy birthday. I thought I would remedy that. Yesterday, I told a few of my friends who have kids his age that I was throwing a party in the morning. It was so last minute. I baked a cake last night, printed up some coloring pages, pulled out some old Halloween crafty foam stickers, and got some sugar cookies at the store for them to decorate.
7 kids came over and it actually turned out really well. They had a lot of fun for 90 minutes and then it was time to go home.
Don't you love the sprinkles? He did a great job on his, with an avalanche of sprinkles.
Jocelyn, Ben, and Shyann
Carolyn and Jocelyn. Jocelyn's hair is amazing.
Charlie M. with his half-eaten cookie.
This cake was supposed to be red. I really did add a lot of food coloring. I guess I need to add a lot more. I did not intentionally make him a pink cake. And what's wrong with pink anyways? It's still a color.
Harry loved all of the sugar. Bullseye!
Eli LOVES to color. He will do it for hours. He colored three Diego pictures on his own and did a great job.
Julia really liked the frosting on her cookie.
We sang to Eli before everyone left. This is a pretty funny video. Eli's friend Ben was really into this whole birthday thing and blew out the candles first. Then I re-lit them and we sang a refrain and he tried to blow them out again but his mom stopped him. He wasn't too happy about it.
My little guy is now 2 years old. Wow, how time flies. We had a fun little birthday "party" for him. I invited Justin and Lindsay and their crew and also a new family in our ward...Cyntha and Sean (or is it Shawn...hmmmm...) and their two little boys.
I made a super-healthy Mexican feast with turkey burger and whole wheat tortilla shells. There were no leftovers, so it must have been pretty good.
Then Eli got his cookie cake. You knew it would have to be a cookie cake, right? He blew out one candle and then got all shy on everyone and didn't want to blow out the second one. He finally did. He is quite a little character these days but truly the joy of my life.
From Sunday, Eli really enjoyed the cake I made for him. I went more for taste than looks. I guess when you are one, you are not too picky. It took him a while to get into it, but then he was gung-ho. I think he was shocked that we put the entire cake in front of him.
"Are you kidding, Mom?"
Then, when he was done, he started chucking it on the ground. This is what he does whenever he is done with eating. He adamantly throws it on the floor.
It was fun. The Steere's and Marriotti's came over for dinner and we ate meatloaf, roasted potatoes, and broccoli. It turned out really well. Of course, we finished it up with cake and ice cream! Lindsay and Breken came over for dessert. It was a fun birthday celebration.
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We have been studying ancient Greece and reading the Odyssey for school. Today we made Greek helmets from plastic milk jugs and aluminum foil. It was fun and don't my kids look menacing? Raef decided he was Achilles, because he has long hair and Zach settled on Odysseus.
You made it! You are now 1. Oh, how I love you. You are a joyful little boy. You are happy, cuddly, smooshy, cute, mischievous, curious. You know which remote is the "good" one, and the telephone is so cool. Opening and closing doors is the best and it is even better when you can clear out whatever is inside that cabinet door. Nothing escapes the Eli taste-test. How else are you supposed to learn? Marbles, rocks, garbage, and sometimes you get lucky and it is an M&M.
I call you punkin, punky, punkin pie, marshmallow, scrubbers, squishers. You are perfection and we love you so much. Our family would not be complete without you.
