the end of the birthday and headed towards the next-big-thing

So we did finish up our birthday celebrating with a dinner out, and then the following day with another fun meal and birthday cake dessert too.

Six candles... hint hint.  My mom is now a multiple of 6 :)

And here she is with five of her SIX (soon to be seven) grandchildren.

In a very Asian style turn of events, my mom gave gifts on her birthday.  The boys are now the proud owners of European football jerseys.

I can't remember the team names, and even if I did it wouldn't count for much.  I have zero interest in soccer league stuff.

But I'm in the minority on this one, as I think it's the largest spectator sport in the world! who knew?

Two of my three boys now advertise for plush middle eastern airlines.  I'm okay with that.

We've had a full few days here, and I'm not spending much time online.  Today was a public holiday and the kids had no school.  We decided to ditch the home schooling too and spent hours outdoors.  It was a gorgeous sunny day (low pollution thanks to a huge rainstorm last night!) with a light breeze.

In the few days since Julianna's big rollerblade purchase both Isaac and Lydia managed to scoop up used pairs.  Lydia's just got here tonight (Matt picked them up on his way home) so she has a bit of catch up work to do until she can roll around like her siblings.

It's fun to have a new outdoor toy and such a great season for it.  It's warm, but not broiling.  Mosquitos, but not too many.

I was a hoping to find a friend who would want to do a lunch out with me and the kids (Mom and Dad were away at a fancy hotel) and God provided!  It was a great afternoon with lots of kiddos and fellowship for me.

So our next big thing?  We're going on a trip.  A train trip!  A little-bit-of-crazy travel plan that involves an overnight train ride, transfer to a different train station, bullet train ride, and then bus ride to our final destination.  Once we get there we'll take a week or so to enjoy the sights (and recover!) and Matt has some work stuff to attend to.  And then we'll reverse the trip and do it all over again!

I'm really excited about the trip.  I'm excited about the places and people we will see.  I'm excited to travel with Mom and Dad.  I'm excited to flex our train-trip-muscles as we have some big dreams of places we'd love to go in the next few years!

We don't leave til Monday afternoon, so I'll hopefully be back in between times with some weekend news.