Birthday Week

I am grateful that the kids are young enough not to object sharing a birthday party! We celebrated Zach's 1st and Abi's 3rd birthdays with a joint party last Sunday. It was wonderful! Many good friends were out of town so it was a very cozy group that still filled the house and make the kids feel incredibly loved. We are so blessed with love in our life!

 Abi had chosen a wonderfully gender neutral theme of Mickey Mouse (one of her new favorite morning cartoons before day school!) and had advised Daddy and I, "We need balloons and whistles and hats and napkins..." I'm not sure where she concocted this idea of all the things that are required for a birthday party!  The kids each enjoyed their strawberry cake with chocolate chip frosting (just like Grandma Cindy's), the gifts, and mostly all the love and attention from friends and family. The kids were so tuckered out by the time everybody started to leave... Abi even fell asleep reading books on the couch with Karen.

Zach started walking just a few weeks before his 1st birthday on September 21. He's now started signing more, all done and milk. His vocabulary consists of mama, dada, and no which you hear at one volume level: loud. We joked the other morning while making breakfast that he's very similar to a ball in the pinball machine; just keeps looking for an exit! If the slider, garage door or front door are not closed, he's out!

Abi turned 3 this Friday and wow has she really grown up. She said good bye to any night time pulls up, has a chore chart and her own clock which changes colors indicating when its time to wake, sleep, and yes, be done with a time out! The child has an amazing memory: today she told us details about what she saw at the rodeo in August, who we went to the rodeo with in July and where everybody sat in the car, etc.