34 years

Monday we celebrated Matt's birthday.  It worked out perfectly that it was also his day off, and we haven't had much down time as a family... so enjoyable that by the end of the day I think everyone felt a little like it had been their birthday! 

The kids each worked hard on 'birthday posters' for Matt.  I suggested Julianna "draw things that Daddy likes" on the one she prepared and she chose strawberries, chocolate chip cookies and bicycles. 

Isaac has also started saying his first unprompted prayers - I mean choosing his own words and deciding what to pray for - and he often prays about "daddy's bicycle" and "riding in my seat on our dian dong che [electric bike]".  Monday afternoon Matt got the child seat re-installed on the back of his around-town bike (some of the parts went missing during the move so it took a while to get replacements) and Isaac was th-rilled to join Matt on the bike.  It made the evening's prayer :) 

However you chose to look at it, our kids know that their daddy loves bikes! 

For his birthday Matt wanted to go out exploring - with the family.  We loaded up and hit the highway, with just an inkling of a destination in mind.  About halfway in to these types of adventures I usually start to get really skeptical (and I did it again on Monday), but I will tell you this.... my man can find a good adventure :)  We ended up at a lake front resort-ish type place (think 10 bucks a night kind of 'resort') and went hiking, found a cave (Julianna still believes it belongs to a bear) and devoured a huge lunch. 

We were way under-dressed (it gets cold up there!) and opted out of the boat ride because I didn't think any of us could possibly stay warm out on the water.  But everyone's already talking about going back this summer to ride the boats. 

Monday evening we had some neighbor friends over for cake and more cake :)  And then again this evening we hosted a big dinner with a different set of neighbor friends.  It was the first really big meal I've cooked and served in our new apartment - lots of fun and only minimal amounts of stress :) 

Monday night was a group of 18 (9 adults and 9 kids) and tonight's crowd was 15 (11 adults and four children) and it's fun to have lots of people in our home again! 

Such a fun birthday!  I must admit I am mostly grateful that February is over.  It is definitely not a candidate for "best month of 2011" :)  Matt's birthday on the last day of the month was a great way to finish off a challenging group of weeks with a lot of fun. 

And I'm hopeful that March will be much smoother territory for our little family.