Monday, November 5, 2012

Happy Halloweeeeen!!!

So many things happened at the end of October that Ill just keep on putting pictures on here!  Here's us celebrating Halloween African style.  They dont celebrate Halloween here so we just make up our own things and improvise where we are lacking.  Like pumpkins.  We use zucchini.  Still a squash, so still qualifies, right?!  And we dont have elaborate costumes, so we just dress the boys up in all black, give them some sunglasses and call them Men in Black.  And they cant go door to door trick-or-treating so we just load them up on carmel apples and cookies just so they dont feel left out in the sugar rush.  :)  So, here we are!  Happy Halloween!!!



Craig starting the digging

He found a jackpot of worms inside his!  Lucky guy... sick.

Looking deep down to make sure he's doing a good job

concentration

You have to mash it with your hands, right?!

Slimy!

Copying our carved faces

Craig's Cardinal turned out really well!!

Here's the back with the St Louis logo
Our chandelier of ghosts
The table
Lady Fingers with carmel for dipping our apples.  Elliot though it was hilarious to pretend he was really biting off people's fingers.  Craig and Olivier were super animated about it which lead to even more uncontrollable giggles

All lit up!

Keenan's
Elliot's


Mine
Craig's front


Craig's back

Men in Black

Do not mess with these guys!!
I just realized as I put these up there are none of Lucy!!!  She was napping when we were carving, but to be honest she probably would have wanted to eat the worms!!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Birthday Pictures

Remember when I said that I have a secret dream of being a professional photographer?!  I did a little silly photo shoot for Keenan's 5th birthday and while everything was up, it ended up being one for all the kiddos.  So, here they are.  My unprofessional professional randomness!  Birthday boy and his siblings!!
Goofing off with the decorations
ALWAYS making silly faces!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this ridiculously precious smile of his.  Melts my heart.
The kid just oozes joy and delight!!!

And then there's Mr. Charmer
Sweet face
Giggles
His "Im gonna pout" face

Scrunchy nose smile

Awww

Probably the best one of them all looking and smiling

Little pom-pom center of attention

Still learning how to get things in focus with my camera

Lucy Mae giving kisses, but tickling at the same time

Elliot looks so offended!!

I was wanting them to get closer together so I said, "OK, touch heads!!"  And Elliot did. :)




Tried timer mode to get in there with them



Good enough! :)  Love these kiddos!

Happy Birthday, Keenan!!!


Our big guy is 5!!!!!  We had a wonderful time celebrating this incredible boy and watch him proudly tell people that he is 5 now.  The day of his birthday he asked for bagels for breakfast, chocolate cookies to take to his school to share with his friends, spaghetti for dinner and dirt and smurfs (no gummy worms here, just smurfs) for dessert.  He’s a simple guy and I am so thankful that it does not take much to light up that tender face of his.  A few weeks before his big day Craig began asking him what he wanted for his birthday and the only thing he wanted was a Sabretooth action figure.  Sarertooth is one of the bad guys on the X-Men comics and he wanted to battle Wolverine with him.  What is amazing is that months and months and months ago Craig randomly found one in the States and bought it just to have some fun things on hand come Christmas and birthdays.  It has been sitting in the closet forever, but there would have been no way of finding a Sabretooth here.  So it really was the Lord who gave our little man his very special birthday present.  It’s amazing to reflect how the Lord cares about even the smallest details of life.  So sweet. 



Enjoying his cinnamon sugar breakfast bagel

Elliot happily celebrating Keenan :)

When we picked him up from school that day I asked him if everyone sang happy birthday to him and if all of his friends liked the cookies.  He beamed and said that they sang in French AND English and all of his friends loved the cookies.  Then he said, “Mom, my teacher even gave me FIVE cookies!!”  “Five?!  Are you serious?”  “Yup!  And I ate them ALL.  They were so good!!!”

First glimpse of his little pile of presents

Opening his special treasure.  Pure delight!

Blow out your candles #1

We began a new tradition where the birthday person gets to pick out a special drink and each person with us at the birthday dinner toasts the birthday guy.  It was fun to reflect on some of favorite things about Keenan and yell "Here here!!!"  And clink glasses together!  

Cheers!!
 Then a few days later we had his birthday party with his buddies.  And surprise... it was super hero themed.  I actually tried to talk him out of it since his Grandma threw him an awesome super hero birthday last year, but he would not be swayed.  Nor would Craig.  I dont know who was more excited to have super heroes again...  But it was a great time!  We played some soccer in the backyard, colored super hero masks, made a super hero fighting video, had a super hero water balloon battle, had lunch and some super hero cake.  There were lots of giggles and the boys had a blast!

I made these super hero masks and they turned out super fun.  Found the patterns on a blog and stitched them up out of felt for the party.  We have Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, and Spiderman.  Just dont tell Keenan that Wolverine's colors are backwards.  Oops!! 
Our dear friends who came to celebrate our boy!

Coloring

Everyone got pretty into the coloring and did multiple masks

All of us getting ready for the water balloon super hero battle

Trusty Thor ready for action

Smash!!

Love this giant smile!!

It was hard to splash people without throwing the balloon on the ground, so they just started smashing them on themselves to get wet

Gotcha!!

Elliot didnt quite know what to think of it all


Keenan's buddy Kevin didnt want to get super wet so Keenan gave him a friendly hug after the battle was over.  Isnt that nice?!

Happy Birthday to you..... #2



It's hard to believe that 5 years ago we welcomed this precious blessing into our lives.  He has been such a joy and a constant reminder of God's abundant grace on us.  Happy happy birthday, Keenan James!!!  Im crazy about you!!!