Abraham's caterpillar birthday party

I love birthdays.

I don't so much love the scenario of small birthday boys and girls ripping through

dozens of presents and then asking for more, or running around being so sugared

up and obnoxious that the whole thing is incredibly stressful and unpleasant.

But I do think it's possible to have a sweet, happy birthday party with family and friends

without it leading to the above scenario. We love an excuse to invite a lot of people over

and have a good time together. This year, we invited more people than ever to Abraham's

birthday party, and more people than ever showed up, and I think it was quite wonderful.

I finger-painted these invitations to Abraham's birthday party (as stressed about in this post).

I now know that finger-painting birthday invitations for a two-year-old is a ridiculous idea 

unless it's the two-year-old doing the finger-painting. But oh well. Aren't they cute?

The party theme was Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Here is the birthday boy with his Grandpa Steve.

Abraham had woken up waaay too early that morning, unfortunately,

and so he was already rather tired and exhausted before people started showing up.

See? Food fit for a very hungry caterpillar to eat!

The very hungry caterpillar theme made the decision of what foods

to serve quite easy. It was pretty fun to see eight small children

delightedly munching away on healthy food all afternoon, too.

It couldn't all be healthy, of course. Besides, didn't the very hungry caterpillar

have some chocolate cake? This is the third time out of the last four birthdays that

I haven't managed to finish making the cake ahead of time. But all the kids love to help,

of course, so maybe I should plan to always make the cakes during the parties.

I really didn't intend for Abraham to sail into the batter with a spoon, though.

The party day was one of those beautiful, blissfully perfect days

in mid-May that is absolutely perfect for spending outside, lounging

under a canopy or cooking hamburgers or playing baseball.

It was so nice to be outside that Ezekiel even enjoyed being in someone else's arms for

more than thirty seconds. I think his grandma appreciated that almost as much as I did.

Abraham, having rapidly escalated to the exhausted, overstimulated two-year-old phase of his birthday party, missed out on most of the outside playtime because he had to take a nap.

But everyone else had a good time while he was sleeping,

and I appreciated the opportunity to finish the cake by myself.

See? It's a very hungry caterpillar cake! I used strawberries and pears

to make the face part, but ran out of time to decorate the body.

Still, I was pretty happy with the finished product.

Abraham was quite happy about his birthday cake.

I think it took him a lot of the day to actually grasp that this was a

party just for him. I mean, he knew it was for him, but he was still just

kind of happily amazed to have everyone around and singing to him.

Priscilla and Abraham are gaining a name for themselves of being the slowest

cake-eaters ever. We don't often have treats like this at home, but I do let them

have a little bit of cake now when we are with friends. I don't know if it's because

it's such a rare treat or not, but they savor every.last.crumb and it takes forever.

Anyway, I know this is kind of a lot of pictures and details from just one birthday party,

but it was a sweet, special day and I just enjoyed it so much. I have been noticing that

I seem to overthink our childrens' birthdays... often in the name of trying to keep things simple... and then when the party day comes and I'm all kinds of scattered,

the Lord steps in and pulls it all together and makes it work. I love that.

This boy is so incredibly precious to me. He is my sweet little cuddlebug.

He loves to help me with anything I am doing, but particularly sweeping, sorting laundry,

and cooking or baking. His imagination is expanding every day. He bakes me food in his

play kitchen, builds creative lego cars and towers, and stuns me now and then with his ability

to speak and think in such mature thought patterns. He has been more of a challenge in the

last few months, but I've realized that it wasn't so much the arrival of Ezekiel as it was

the progressive need for me to explain things to him before we do them. As long as I

make expectations and directions clear, he is completely jovial and happy.

He adores his sister and plays happily with her all day long. They carry on complicated 

conversations that just make me stand with my mouth open for a few moments and then close

it in a big smile. I love how much he loves Rilla. He loves his daddy too, especially when they

do active boy things together like "up and downs" (tossing Abraham up and catching him,

over and over) and mowing the lawn. And his affection for his little brother increases every day...

 he loves to sit near him, sing to him, rock him, and touch him gently. Lately he has been

showing him trucks, bringing him toys, and talking softly to him. He is just so sweet.

Abraham tends to wear his emotions openly. He is completely transparent in an honest,

earnest kind of way. It's never hard to tell how he's feeling, and he tells me clearly his desires.

 Even if he doesn't want to obey me, he just tells me (such as, "Mommy, I don't want to

come inside"), but still does it. He is such a WONDERFUL BLESSING of a little boy.

And I am THOROUGHLY enjoying him.

One last picture, because the balloons were such a big hit at the party, as always!