Abundantly Blessed: July Birthdays

Saturday, August 29, 2015

July Birthdays

Jason and I both celebrated birthdays in the month of July. It was a treat to have family members living nearby to celebrate with us! For my birthday, Kim and her boys met Jaden, Cody and me at a splash pad. What a perfect way to spend a hot July morning! The four older boys ran and giggled and splashed and threw water on each other. We stayed much longer than we anticipated just because they were having such a good time.

Even Nathan was good-natured about the water.

After our outing, Kim treated us to a delicious homemade lunch of minestrone, warm bread, fruit salad, and one of my all-time favorites-- apple cake for dessert. Yum! Everyone sang a wonderful rendition of "Happy Birthday," and then Cody, Jaden, and Ian happily helped me blow out the candles. Ryan plugged his nose (to avoid the smoke smell) on the sidelines. :)

While the 3-year-olds were napping, I gave Ian his first-ever piano lesson. Kim and I thought the summer would be a perfect time to try out lessons for him, and I was excited about getting back into some teaching! I always start lessons by showing kids the inside of a piano. My students to be fascinated as they watch the hammers move inside. Ian loved it, too.

I enjoyed having a little one-on-one time with my oldest nephew! Here, we were learning basic finger numbers as we tapped out rhythms.

Later, when Jason came home from work, he and the boys treated me to a special birthday dinner. Talk about being spoiled that day! :) They made a meal of spaghetti and meatballs with Holy Cow cake for dessert. The cake was a new recipe for us, one that included caramel sauce and Heath bars, that Jason had found and bravely tried out. It was so moist and just delicious! What a wonderful husband! Jaden and Cody eagerly helped with the cake portion of the meal. Watching the blender is one of their favorite kitchen highlights.

I don't think I've ever had two birthday cakes on the same day! The boys didn't mind singing happy birthday to me one more time. :)

Jason captured the boys' song on video. Aren't they adorable? I feel pretty blessed! :)

For Jason's birthday in late July, we invited a bunch of family members over for dinner. My parents had just arrived in Houston the day before for a visit, so we loved having them join our Texas crew. We enjoyed some visiting and hang-out time with the kids.