We have sooooo many birthdays and holidays in this family that we need to do a bit of combining!
Our big kids have their own lives and are not able to come over
Friday,
Saturday
and
Sunday
every
weekend...
On Friday the older kids came over to see Katie, Andrew and Emily (they had been over once before during the week).
On Saturday we had Emily's baptism and a wedding shower to go to!
And now it's SUNDAY!
Emily and her Mom and Dad are off to Colorado at 5:27am.
And it's time for us to celebrate Dad and Ava!
(At this point the hubby and I are pretty exhausted!)
But, the party goes on!
Hubby is always so generous and he wanted the day to be mostly about Ava.
Ava is so kind hearted she wanted to make sure it was about Daddy, too!
Daddy opened his gifts first and then we were off to late afternoon church!
Celebrating a wonderful Daddy and husband, along with our sweet daughter, Ava!
She joined our family when she was 5.5 yrs old.
Where has the time gone… she's 9 today!
We went to our favorite Japanese restaurant!
Everyone that works there is Chinese or Mexican!
The staff spoke Chinese to the children and wrote their name in Chinese for them.
The children loved it!
Some of the kids were able to tell them if they were writing it correctly!
They put on a great show!
The egg is in his hat!
Ben, Mia, Melissa, Sarah and a little bit Ava can still speak some Chinese!
Joey can too but he is in need of English immersion right now, not Chinese.
The rest of us were on the other side of the table and we had our own cook doing a similar routine!
Mia is so easy and fun to tease!
This is how much rice they gave her (at first)!
While everyone else got as much as Sarah!
Mia had to show us right away- no fair!
The littler kids were with Jim, Mark and myself.
The Happy Birthday Head!
And her complimentary dessert!
She took one bite and smiled through it- it wasn't her favorite…
The rest of the little kids devoured it!
So thankful she is home!
We can't imagine our lives without her...
We started out with appropriate spacing ;-)
And little by little
THEY GET CLOSER AND CLOSER
until they are pretty much on top of the one opening their gifts!
In fact I have even seen them attempting to
"help"
the birthday person open their gifts!
Then the doorbell rang!
Yes, this seems to be the "year of the bicycles" at our house!
She wanted a bigger bike.
That was purple.
That had gears.
That had a basket and tassels on it.
And somehow…
we found exactly that!
And we only looked at one store!
Lovin the steps for the family photos!
Ava loves animals of every kind!
She is especially fond of horses!
Both Sarah and Ava have been riding for the last year!
Mia and Melissa will be going to horse camp this summer to see how they like it!
The parents are exhausted but the kids are still going strong!
Teasing daddy!
Sarah got to light the candles!
And we all sang Happy Birthday to Ava!
(and Happy Fathers Day to Daddy!)
And then she blew out the candles…
and it wasn't until then
that we found out she has 5 boyfriends!
Our big kids have their own lives and are not able to come over
Friday,
Saturday
and
Sunday
every
weekend...
On Friday the older kids came over to see Katie, Andrew and Emily (they had been over once before during the week).
On Saturday we had Emily's baptism and a wedding shower to go to!
And now it's SUNDAY!
Emily and her Mom and Dad are off to Colorado at 5:27am.
And it's time for us to celebrate Dad and Ava!
(At this point the hubby and I are pretty exhausted!)
But, the party goes on!
Hubby is always so generous and he wanted the day to be mostly about Ava.
Ava is so kind hearted she wanted to make sure it was about Daddy, too!
Daddy opened his gifts first and then we were off to late afternoon church!
Celebrating a wonderful Daddy and husband, along with our sweet daughter, Ava!
She joined our family when she was 5.5 yrs old.
Where has the time gone… she's 9 today!
We went to our favorite Japanese restaurant!
Everyone that works there is Chinese or Mexican!
The staff spoke Chinese to the children and wrote their name in Chinese for them.
The children loved it!
Some of the kids were able to tell them if they were writing it correctly!
They put on a great show!
The egg is in his hat!
Ben, Mia, Melissa, Sarah and a little bit Ava can still speak some Chinese!
Joey can too but he is in need of English immersion right now, not Chinese.
The rest of us were on the other side of the table and we had our own cook doing a similar routine!
Mia is so easy and fun to tease!
This is how much rice they gave her (at first)!
While everyone else got as much as Sarah!
Mia had to show us right away- no fair!
The littler kids were with Jim, Mark and myself.
The Happy Birthday Head!
And her complimentary dessert!
She took one bite and smiled through it- it wasn't her favorite…
The rest of the little kids devoured it!
So thankful she is home!
We can't imagine our lives without her...
We started out with appropriate spacing ;-)
And little by little
THEY GET CLOSER AND CLOSER
until they are pretty much on top of the one opening their gifts!
In fact I have even seen them attempting to
"help"
the birthday person open their gifts!
Then the doorbell rang!
Yes, this seems to be the "year of the bicycles" at our house!
She wanted a bigger bike.
That was purple.
That had gears.
That had a basket and tassels on it.
And somehow…
we found exactly that!
And we only looked at one store!
Lovin the steps for the family photos!
She is especially fond of horses!
Both Sarah and Ava have been riding for the last year!
Mia and Melissa will be going to horse camp this summer to see how they like it!
How do we decide who gets to do it?
We base our decision on their desire and interest, their physical size, responsibility, maturity and safety.
If others want to ride horses and we feel that they are ready and responsible enough we will let them.
Of course, we can't have everyone riding at the same time or I'll need to get a second job!
The parents are exhausted but the kids are still going strong!
Teasing daddy!
Sarah got to light the candles!
And we all sang Happy Birthday to Ava!
(and Happy Fathers Day to Daddy!)
And then she blew out the candles…
and it wasn't until then
that we found out she has 5 boyfriends!
