July 8

We started celebrating Caleb's 5th birthday a day early, eating cake and ice cream with the family.

In the morning, the kids made birthday crowns. Caleb wanted to make his own crown, so Daisy made crowns for Lily and Chris, whose birthday is at the end of the month.

Lily was desperate to do what the big kids were doing, so I gave her a scrap of paper and some crayons, and she actually colored!

Meanwhile, Caleb colored little index-card notes for everyone, and instructed me to write, "Thank you for celebrating with me!" on every single one. He wanted to put each note in a box and wrap it for the people coming over, but I nixed that idea.

We also made a trip out to the Dollar Store, where we picked up paper plates, napkins, balloons, and party hats (at Caleb's request).

At lunchtime today, Caleb and Daisy were talking while they ate. Caleb told Daisy, "When the tornado sirens went off yesterday, I was a little afraid at first." (It was the monthly test of the sirens.)

Daisy replied, "Don't worry, brother. I will protect you. Remember, the Lord says, "Do not be afraid, for I am with you."

And then I died from the joy and delight of hearing my children encourage each other with the Word.

When celebration time finally came around after dinner, the kids were so excited! 

Daisy was excited about our matching party hats, so we took this selfie.

Caleb was being a bird. I love Chris' dad wearing a party hat in the background.

Even Lily wore a party hat!

Caleb was pumped about his cake; he requested a round, chocolate cake, with white icing and Superman on top. What the boy wants, the boy gets! I think he really wanted a bakery-style cake with Superman drawn in the icing, but ain't nobody got time for that. Also, ain't nobody interested in eating all of that red and blue food coloring. When I told him that we could top the cake with a real Superman that he could play with later, he was sold.

The cake itself was a chocolate quinoa cake, with buttercream frosting. I thought it was pretty good!

We had a hard time lighting the candles outside, but eventually we got most of them lit long enough to sing "Happy Birthday".

This girl was happy to be eating cake!

So was this girl!

I love how prim and proper Daisy looks as she uses a fork and a spoon to eat her cake.

Grandmother and Grandad brought presents for the girls, too, and Lily really liked the maracas.

Can you see Caleb's face peeking through the card from my mom?

And there it is - Caleb's last picture as a four-year-old.

He's pretty excited to be five! He asked me today if his voice would change when he turned five, but I assured him that he had about ten more years before he would deal with that. Funny boy. We are blessed to have him!