Happy Birthday Elijah!! 2 Years

Two years ago, on May 8, 2008, our firstborn son was born in Omaha, Nebraska! Now, here we are waking him up on his 2nd birthday, in the Philippines! He was a little stunned to get woken up and to see the balloons, but he got excited quickly. (Thanks to my mom, I am now the 2nd generation birthday fairy...how did she get those streamers over our bed while we were still sleeping?!). We've been anticipating this day for three weeks...he has had a count-down all week. (Mom and Sarah, notice the new shade of paint, a light sage green--we had to re-do because of the termites in the wood).

He got to wear a new outfit that I saved from when Aunt Nancy mailed them for our boys! He loves the balloons and is finally waking up here with a smile. We dressed the boys and then went to a park for a family photo shoot at 7 a.m. Those pictures are with our photographer, so we'll post those later this week, stay tuned...

Then we put Malachi to his nap and left him home with Amor. We took Elijah to the swimming pool with a waterslide and met our friends there. Here is my very special friend, Emi, and her family. I was happy to get a family photo for them since they don't have one of all 7 of them! It will be special for her to have framed in her house. Emi was also Elijah's first babysitter, so it is special that she was there for his 2nd birthday. She is like Elijah's aunt.

You can pray for this family with me. I just love them to bits! (The youngest was named after my mom! Eunice Marilyn!).

At last, Elijah's dream birthday is taking place. He talked daily about these slides and would say dreamily: "Sojo be there...Silas [will] be there..." What a fun planner (with the help of his mom, the planner). What an action shot of the fun!

This is my all-time favorite picture of the day!!! This one makes me a proud photographer and a proud mother. Frame-a-ble!

Friends are a blessing! Thanks for helping us celebrate!

What a cool place, eh? Malachi finally arrived with Amor, so I had to get some M-time in with him!! I missed him like crazy. He just couldn't wait to get in the water and loves to lean over his little boat to touch it. What a cute little sailor boy!

Malachi and his Ate Emi...I just love these captured moments.

Yep, it was great to have special one-on-one time with Elijah at the pool, but once Malachi got there I realized how much I missed him too! I got a little camera-crazy for a few minutes. (Some people are thinking, "A few minutes? How about a whole day?" Yes, I took over 200 pictures that day (not including the photo shoot we did with James at 7 a.m.!).

It was a fun family day with our friends. Some will be leaving for a year, some for the summer...and some will stay, but it was nice to get together before the good-byes.

Sharing a meal with our friends was a blessing!

At last, the candles were lit! Now Elijah can hardly wait to blow them out.

Nope, he couldn't wait, so he blew them out BEFORE we sang. That's okay. We can start a new tradition.

While I sliced and served it up, Elijah stood by me and ate WHO KNOWS how many brownies!!!

...really, he was after the frosting. Finally, I had to say enough, but this guy even got his mom to let him eat a brownie for dinner.

The other kids liked them too...what a cute little friend, Sojo. Thanks for coming!

A doll, Lydia...Elijah tried to poke her little curly pig-tails.

And here's the guy Elijah looks up to, Ewan, his little Irish buddy, is 4 years old. Elijah tries to copy him at the playground and loves to talk about how Ewan did this or that. I can visualize Elijah like this in two years. It's nice to have older "brothers" around in the community.

A very cool home-made present! Little roads for cars that drive into "garages" with pictures of Elijah's friends on them. Thanks, Louise! The party was over and it was time for naps. I'll post the other pictures separately since this is long already! Thanks for sticking with us. It is fun to have a boy to celebrate.