You’ve had a birthday shout hooray! (Hooray!)
We want to sing to you today!
One year older and wiser, too!
Happy Birthday, to you!

Kohl, we hope this is a great year for you.  We have a feeling that you will have a lot of new adventures as a 17-year old!    We love you!

Seth started Junior High this year – 7th grade.  It’s a lot to adjust to and he finds it a bit stressful, but he’s doing great.  We love that he is conscientious about his responsibilities, but can still manage to eek out a bit of fun from it all.

Grant is loving third grade. Too bad he doesn’t love his chores as much as he loves his teacher . . .

Kate really is happy about seeing all her friends. Few kids are more organized than Kate. She is pretty sure third grade is going to be awesome.

I can’t get Zane’s picture to load, so you’ll have to enjoy his mugshot from this little combo shot. This week Zane likes school.

Claire technically doesn’t start school until this upcoming Monday. But she did get to go to an open house this week and meet her teacher and find her spot at the table and check out her cubby.  Oh, and make a school bus out of a twinkie, but she ate that before we could manage a picture.

**Keaton, if you are reading this, those are french braids in Claire’s hair, not dutch braids. I still need lots of practice, but I’m getting better! Thanks for the hair-styling tips.

In celebration, last night we took the kids out for Hibachi grill at a Japanese steak house.  They have been asking for quite some time, and so we finally obliged, it being a special occasion and all.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed watching our chef flick an eggshell into his hat while he grilled up yummy goodness for our consumption.   Then we ate far too much ice cream at a local shake shop.  We laughed and laughed, and left Claire a little confused about why we were fussing over her — she’s still a little shaky on the “one whole year” concept – but we’ll let it slide since she has basically mastered a second language this year

But see, we HAD to celebrate last night, because today was, well, ordinary.  Kate and Zane had to be at school early for chorus, so no fun breakfast could be had.  Tom came home from work not feeling well, then bundled himself up in a hoodie and warm socks and went downstairs in the basement to work from home.  Zane came home from school with a stomach ache, and then was carted back to school when his stomach ache managed to right itself.  Having Zane home delayed errand-running, so I made good use of the time baking three loaves of bread while Claire helped Zane heal.  And ultimately Claire and I had to go to Costco, because we had like two sips of milk left.  Oh, and we had to stop by and grab some white shirts for the 2nd grade program which we should have already turned in — that actually took stopping at two different stores to find the right thing.  And I went for a jog (did I mention all the eating last night?) while Claire watched Leapfrog Letter Factory on Netflix.  And Seth and Tom had soccer practice almost right after school got out, and then a 30 minute window between the end of soccer practice and the beginning of meetings for both Tom and Seth.

See, what I mean?  It was the most ordinary of days.

But at the end of the day, I was able to quickly capture this:

A year ago today, God showered what are certainly some of his choicest blessings upon us when he brought Claire into our family.  Now THAT was a monumental day.  But today, we simply hugged each other, and Claire, a little tighter.  And stayed up a little bit later than usual to enjoy each other’s company just a little bit longer.  And enjoyed telling each other – and all our friends – “Happy Anniversary” all day.  And smiled a little more.  And basked in the knowledge that our family is different than it was a year ago.  Which made us all feel a little more grateful than usual.  Because, after a whole year, well, even the ordinary days are better because Claire is part of them.

Grant was the first second grader ever to complete a project on the Moray Eel!  Because he wants to be like Seth in pretty much every way, he chose clay for his medium, since Seth’s second grade report included a clay tiger (or leopard, or some other large cat). 

Kate created her project from cotton balls, cotton makeup pads, a toilet paper roll, paper towels, an old white t-shirt, fuzz-oodles, pipe cleaner, glue, markers and a little bit of construction paper.  And I didn’t have to go to the store to buy one thing (well, I had to replenish the cotton balls)!  Kate is queen of all things crafts!

We’re pretty sure Zane is the only kid to ever make an animal entirely out of cardboard and duct tape (and a little spray paint).  I confess I had reservations when he announced his plan, but I bit my tongue (which really is rare for me to do).  After about 4 hours and as many rolls of duct tape, his masterpiece was complete.  I am so glad I shut my trap - isn’t it awesome?

This, is in and of itself, funny and cute, eh? I do love watching Claire bond with her friends, especially when smashed in a grocery cart - no one wanted to be left out! 

But for Claire, in particular, my mind instantly flashed to this image:

This ain’t her first rodeo – in a grocery cart, anyway.  When she was 3 Claire was part of a fund raiser for her orphanage.  I don’t know the particulars of the event (maybe someone out there who knows more can fill me in on the details!) we just have a few snapshots.  I do know that it is funny that life repeats itself now and again.  I mean, what are the odds that I would have a picture of my daughter, before she was my daughter, crowded in a grocery cart in a Chinese supermarket, only to unintentionally find her in a parallel circumstance two years later?  I realize it’s not a big deal.  But to me, somehow, for some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on, it’s kinda cool.

Also, Keaton, here is your virtual birthday card.  I wish I could say we were organized enough to mail our birthday greetings in a timely fashion, but, um . . .well. . . so anyway, look forward to these little beauties showing up in the mail on some day that is not your birthday.  Oh, and sorry that we accidentally did one of them on the back of scratch paper (Grant’s homework, I think it was).

We love you!