July 26- Happy Birthday Eve!

Talk about some lucky little babies. We attended another birthday this afternoon.
Today was our little friend Eve’s first birthday party. Ella and Sterling attended a birthday at her house along with new friends, Emma and Mason. It wasn’t as elaborate an affair as the birthday party we attended last month, but it was certainly just as fun. Eve’s mommy Sarah spared no details, and the kids even received their very first goody bags filled with bubbles, sidewalk chalk and candy! Happy first birthday baby Evie!
I would think Sterling would be my shy child, but as it turns out that may not be the case. He’s a party animal! He had so much fun at Eve’s birthday party running after balloons and being chased by big girl Emma. And he’s very vocal about his excitement! He squealed for 2 hours straight; I’m not sure he’ll have a voice tomorrow.
Ella, Eve, and Emma (try saying that three times fast) enjoy birthday cake and ice cream.
Ella was happy to “help” Eve open her presents. Just as Ella and Sterling were a bit young for opening gifts at their first birthday, Eve certainly didn’t mind the extra help. Of course, next year, all these babies may have a different opinion about anyone else opening their gifts.
Ella tries to explain how exciting her birthday gift to Eve is. It’s been very hard keeping the kids from Eve’s gift, which arrived in the mail earlier this week. It’s been even harder keeping Daddy from opening and assembling this toy. He was absolutely insisting upon giving the little sit and spin zebra to our kids and finding something else to give to Eve. Lucky for the birthday girl, this Mommy held her ground.
Big girl Emma, who will be 3 in September, was in charge of showing the babies how every toy worked.
After a long week of wanting to play with Eve’s birthday gift, Sterling finally gets to give this zebra a spin, literally. This little zebra bounces, spins, and plays music. What fun!
Eve’s parents gave her this great little chair for her birthday (reminds me of Goldilocks and her 3 bears). Well, Ella and Sterling just fell in love with it. Isn’t it adorable? It even has her name embroidered on it. It’s just the right size for sitting and reading a book, or watching an Einstein video. I think I know what Santa may be adding to Ella and Sterling’s Christmas lists this year!
Daddycoaster. As always, Daddy ends up being the best ride in the park. It never fails to amuse me how small children just migrate towards Michael. Talk about a lap full!
I love this picture, because of Sterling’s unspoken words. Look at his little hand on Michael’s arm, and that smile on his face. You can almost hear him saying, “this is my Daddy, isn’t he the greatest?”
After an exciting time at Eve’s birthday party (and lots of cake and ice cream), we stopped by one of our Korean neighbor’s home. They have a house in our neighborhood, but only use it as a summer retreat from Seoul. Their house it just beautiful, but sadly it remains vacant much of the year. I need to take a picture of their landscaping…it makes Michael drool! Their youngest son is attending college in Kentucky, but is home for the summer, so he was very excited to find some Americans to converse with. When we stopped by their house today, the older son’s family was in town, with their little girl Youn Ji, who is only 2 weeks younger than Ella and Sterling. They all had a snack of cookies together before we headed home for naps. Can I tell you how much napping my kids did after spending the afternoon eating cake, ice cream and cookies?
Youn Ji joins Ella and Sterling in their wagon for an evening ride.
After arriving at Youn Ji's family home, she and Sterling enjoyed snacking on some cherry tomatoes offered to them by another neighbor along the way. Isn't this little girl just precious? And look at that beautiful hair!
This was Sterling first encounter with a cherry tomato. He and Ella love snacking on regular tomatoes, but he's never had one he can just pop into his mouth. He was shocked when he bit down and it's juicy insides exploded in his mouth. He immediately spit it out and threw down the tomato in his other hand, and glared at them. He did eventually give the offending tomato a second chance, but his first impression was priceless!