A birthday

A little guy at our house turned 4 today. And what a day it was. Early risers excited to tear open the pile of gifts and get started with the celebration... Once the Superman suit was on it was time to break out the fun. Rocket ships and flying saucers replete with aliens zoomed through the rooms..helicopters and superheroes followed at a fast clip and in the midst of it all Will gave chase back and forth around and around, not really playing with anything but excited to be in the midst of the birthday madness as it were.

As usual Adam ran laps back and forth from front door to back, only this time he was wearing a red cape and according to him, "Mom did you see how I ran even faster than when I was fwee because now I'm four!"

Then it was off to church where Nat and Adam gave an interesting interchange in front of the congregation during what was supposed to be the children's choir presentation. Hitting upon uncharacteristic moments of shyness they withered before the congregation with Adam taking a seat yet still carrying on a conversation with Natalie who remained frozen on the edge of the singing group. Then halfway through the next song Natalie loudly took her leave of the group and both children, by now arguing loudly, had to be ushered out of the sanctuary.

While they were in class and Tim preaching I realized I had lost my car key(or so I thought). At which point Will and I decided to hoof it home to pick up another key and a stroller and make it back before church ended. I planned for a long walk, however I didn't take into account the heat, my flimsy ballet flats, my long billowing dress, or the fact that my already healthy awake child would soon be a dead weight soundly asleep in my arms. With screaming muscles I made it down the last hill and around the corner to our street, meeting with the one person I was hoping not to see in my present state, carried on a cursory polite conversation and trudged wearily the last few steps to our lawn where I stood transfixed, staring up at our house. It was as though I walked into a Walt Disney film. There were I kid you not at least 5-7 birds; robins, cardinals, sparrows swooping in and out of our front porch, alighting on our hanging stars, chirping and warbling. Home never looked so sweet. A mile and a half never felt so long...

And soon the rest of the family rolled in with the birthday boy ready for smiley face fries (a special concession) and chattering about space and rockets and heaven. We had a lovely lunch, a delicious bite of cake and rounded out the day with a little foraging in the garden, a few footraces and homemade pizza. A sweet, comfortable end to an oftimes exhausting day. And Nat and Adam were overjoyed to start their long awaited sleepover and the upstairs has been ringing with laughter ever since....