Henry's Happy Birthday Week

Birthdays in our home are celebrated by the week, with one small gift per day and many Happy Birthdays and candles and singing throughout the week.

Henry's actual birthday this year fell on a Saturday that I had scheduled a dinner party, and the dear friends who filled our house saw a not-quite-ready-for-birthday Henry, so their kids were more than happy to blow out the candles. Lots of love in the house!

We had three additional celebrations over the next six days; I took the lazy mom's approach to partying and let Henry's natural settings be the parties. There was preschool on Monday:

The 'O' around his eye is a mystery to me. He walked around much of the week with his hands around his eyes like goggles, and then abruptly stopped. The cake is recycled from Saturday's dinner party; it didn't make a bit of difference.

Two other mini-parties happened spontaneously when we had a spontaneous playdate with two friends, whose parents just received approval to adopt their third child, and had to go identify the child at a distant orphanage. We were honored to help them, and the kids were wonderfully funny as they used every cushion in our living room to make forts, crash mats, slides and jumping castles. It's days like these I am sure we'll never own a video game console. Although I reserve the right to buy several on the days that aren't so smooth.

Auntie Sarah, my dear friend and Henry's headmistress at his school, joined us one afternoon when Ruby had a friend over, and we enjoyed a lot of time reading on the sofa and playing games. Ah, simplicity!

Happy four years to my sweet boy! This is the first year we have given them separate celebrations, since Ruby's anniversary is less than a month before Henry's, and we were pleased with the outcome. Len and I thank God daily for letting us parent these two amazing children!