Happy 6th Birthday Sam!

Sam turned 6 today! He has been counting down the days and was so excited this morning to open his presents. And better yet, we had friends staying the night to join in the festivities with us. Madelyn and Brian are friends of ours from when we lived in Chicago. They now live in North Carolina and stopped by for a night on their way to Texas. They have two children - Elliott (4 tomorrow!) and Lilly (18mths). It was so great to see them again after 4 years and to meet their children. Our kids all had a great time together and we really hope to see them again soon. Sam is already asking for Elliott to come again.


As you can see, Owen did not want to be in this picture!

Sam blowing out the candles on his birthday pavlova. Our friend Elliott got a turn because he is turning 4 tomorrow and then Owen also got a turn because he loves birthday candles so much and is turning 3 next week!

10 things we love about Sam:
- He is a happy kid
- He wants to do what's right
- Often looks for ways to help without being asked
- Watches out for his younger siblings
- His love of water and swimming
- How he loves to ride our friends golf cart and will willing go anywhere for a ride
- How he wants to be first all the time (he was born first, so why not!)
- His memory
- How great he is at putting things back together and fixing things
- HOw much he loves friends and family

How does your garden grow?

We have planted a garden again this year and have been enjoying some of the fruits of our garden for a few weeks now. We've had about 40-50 cucumbers already (anybody want one?!) and a few grape tomatoes and strawberries. I was quite impressed last week when I was able to make a Greek cucumber, tomato, bean and olive salad with the first two ingredients right from our garden. And we even had fresh oregano for the dressing. Right now we're excited about watching two small watermelon grow, almost daily you can see them change in size. At the moment they are about the size of a large grapefruit. We love our garden, for complete novices we've been fortunate to start off well.

Happy Birthday Elliott

I'm so far behind on my blogging that I hardly know where to begin! On April 24th Elliott turned one and I can't believe that the year has gone by so quickly. Here are some things that we love about our little Elliott
-How he now wants to be doing everything his siblings are doing and lets us know about it!
-His wobbly attempts at walking. He can now take about 10 steps.
-His laugh. Just like his siblings, he inherited his Dad's infectious laugh.
-How he loves to try new food. Far more adventurous than our other two boys
-His smile
-His hair, he is the first of our babies to need a hair cut before his first birthday!
-His cheeky nature. If I tell him "no" he will laugh and continue on with what he was doing!
-How he loves to splash in the toilet - why do little boys love that so much!!??
-How cuddly he is.
- How he can't go to bed without his giraffe and yellow blanket from his Aunt Laurel-Lee.


Elliott received a swing for his birthday
Elliott had pizza and cup cakes for his birthday dinner. A family favorite for everyone!
Baby Elliott a year ago on the day he was born.