Lucky Seven

Adah had a birthday on Thursday. She is seven now! (I can hardly believe she's that old.) She had a busy, fun-filled birthday that started with opening presents before she even ate breakfast.

Mom & Dad gave her Snap Circuits Jr., an electronic circuit board kit with a workbook for creating all kinds of projects. Adah had asked for "something science-y" for her birthday. (Whose child is she, anyway? Oh, right. Her dad's.) The first project she put together played music and the preset song was, appropriately, "Happy Birthday!"

Adah enjoyed lots of attention at school. At the end of the day, Maggie, Gunnar, and I showed up with treats for her to hand out to her classmates. The lollipop cookies were a hit.

Immediately after school, I took Adah to a local beauty salon for her to get her EARS PIERCED! Several months ago she began asking to have them pierced and we decided her birthday would be a good time. Here she is, pre-piercing, with the earrings she chose (and her new birthday sweatshirt from Nana & Gumpin). She was excited, but also a little nervous and kept asking the ear piercer to pinch her and show her how much it would hurt.

1-2-3, go!

As soon as they were pierced, Adah opened her eyes and said, "That wasn't so bad." Then the shock of her stinging ears set in and she covered both ears with her hands. Still, she didn't cry!

Ta-da!

After a full afternoon at play rehearsal (see future post), Adah came home for a birthday dinner and piano cake with the family. And there were more presents to open from Grandma & Grandpa (after my trip to the post office after school).

Adah completed her birthday festivities on Friday afternoon by going ice skating in Portland. We brought along one of her friends and had a great time. Her favorite part: "playing with my new toy and getting my ears pierced and going ice skating!"

More about Gunnar

Just thought I'd show off some of Gunnar's latest activities...and antics.

He helped Dad mow the lawn:

Since Gunnar has learned to climb out of his crib, he doesn't sleep in quite as late. Our biggest worry when we hear him get up in the morning is that he'll go into his sisters' room, turn on the light, and climb up to top bunk to see Adah. (She hates that--the bright light waking her up, not her brother.) One morning Damon found him on the kitchen counter with a picture of Adah and Maggie in his hands:

The next photo is also related to Gunnar climbing out of his crib. At bedtime, he used to stay in his bed and quietly go to sleep. Now he climbs out, turns on the light, plays, and then frequently falls asleep on the floor. One night when we went to check on him before we went to bed, we couldn't get the door open. Gunnar had fallen asleep right by the door, with his head next to it, of course. When Damon finally nudged and squeezed his way inside, he found Gunnar sleeping facedown on the floor, but with this bee hat on backwards--so it smiled up at us! Too funny.

The Birthday Boy

Much to the bewilderment of our many friends and neighbors who swear he was just born yesterday, Gunnar is two! His birthday was on Saturday. He enjoyed the day, even though I don't think he really knew what all the fuss was about.

Gunnar opened his presents first thing, with the solicitious help of his two sisters. He got a plane (identical, except in color, to a plane Adah received on her 2nd birthday), a front-end loader, and a small stuffed dog from Mom & Dad.

Nana & Gumpin (my parents) gave him the new Disney Earth DVD--very cool nature movie. Grandma & Grandpa (Damon's parents) gave him a very cool The Very Hungry Caterpillar pop-up book and a train bank.

Much of the day was spent indoors watching the semi-annual General Conference of our church or outdoors helping Damon re-seed our patchy, recovering lawn. Lucky for us, Gunnar is young enough that he doesn't know about parties, balloons, or other exciting birthday things.

For this year's cake, we opted for a farm theme since Gunnar is very much into animals lately. (And I couldn't make a cake shaped like a ball, book, airplane, or any of his other interests.) The animals were a hit and the cake, with my mom's killer chocolate frosting, was delicious!

Happy Birthday to you, Gunnar!!