a New Year's birthday

I really love John Paul's birthday on New Year's Day.  It's just such a gift to me [and I hope one day, to him] that we all live under the hope of a new thing coming, of a God who is making all things new.

And this son of mine, this John Paul.... oh he is a gift! and a reminder!  that our God is making all things new!  God gave him a NEW MOUTH!  As John Paul's speech continues to develop I'm just amazed by him, this child who has worked hard to achieve what comes naturally to the rest of us... the ability to communicate with spoken words!

And John Paul knows how to celebrate!  He had such a great day!  Lucky boy, his Daddy is home on New Year's Day, which definitely ups the fun quotient!

He woke up ready to get going on the fun..... choose a seat for himself right in the center of the action and got started on some gifts, all before breakfast!

My gift-giver extraordinaire (Julianna) hit jackpot with this one!  His own Sprite!  Definitely one of his favorite gifts!  He loved running into the kitchen and taking a quick sip of his Sprite :)

Matt designed and built treasure shelves to go on the boys' new bunks.  The treasure shelf is a building block of harmony around here - a place to put "your own things", off limits to everybody else!  They were installed on John Paul's birthday :)

John Paul's definition of a treasure?  A legit tool and a reason to use it!  He was in the process of dismantling the bunk ladder when I gave Matt the heads up "ummm, honey, John Paul really does know how to use this thing....  These ladder rungs are loose."  [At the end of the day we tightened all the bolts before confiscating the tools!]

Matt worked together with our neighbor Graham (also building shelves for his boys' bunks) and, of course, a small pack of little laborers :)

And as soon as the last bolt tightened it was off to a lunch date with Daddy.

Hot Dogs and Ice Cream.

The afternoon flew by (we did a little science camp with the big kids) and then it was dinner.  We are saving the cupcakes to enjoy with friends (Sunday afternoon) and celebrated with chocolate chip blondies (a family favorite).

John Paul got a double stack - and four candles, of course!

Happy day for my happy boy!

I can't believe you are FOUR, John Paul!