Mystery birthday guests from far, far away

True fact about me: I'm very resistant to change.

For example - let's say (hypothetically, of course) that I live in a certain city. Let's call it City J. I'm living there happily with my family and my great friend who (hypothetically speaking, of course) is named Rachel. Life is great.

Then one day, a new family moves into the city and onto our team. My anti-change radars are sounding, my resistors are put on high alert, I'm in full denial mode. I want things to stay the same!

Thankfully, God is bigger than my anti-change resistors. Over time, I start to realize that sometimes change can be good. Sometimes, changes you didn't want turn out to be the sweetest blessings of your life.

Am I still speaking hypothetically? Hmmm...I can't remember. I guess I'll just fess up and say it. I've got this friend named Amy. I love her. Like, I really really love her. But when her family moved into our city four years ago, I wasn't quite ready to add new relationships into my life.

I'm so glad I did. She makes me laugh. She laughs at me. She makes me love Jesus more. I taught her everything she knows about how to steam broccoli. She makes great chocolate cake. I eat her chocolate cake. We share resources, ideas, books, and every so often we actually email each other.

And she came to visit me.

Well, really...her kids came to visit my kids. The fact that all the adults got to hang out was just icing on the cake.

Her twin boys, Peter and Alex, celebrated their birthday the day before a 9-hour road trip to see us. I rewarded them with Baseball birthday cakes.

We took all the kids to Jump Zone to burn off some energy. I loved watching them play together!
I'm sure when I was an adolescent, the idea of arranged marriages made me sick. Now, the idea of arranged marriages makes me sing. If only my girls would marry those boys... [Of course, if you ask them now, they would! Let's check back in 15 years and hope for the same answer!]
All the kids together:
The super great news for Samantha was that her special friends would be able to come to her birthday party at The Little Gym! She was nearly beside herself with excitement when she found out they'd be able to come!

We chose The Little Gym (again) because we liked it so much the first time and because we wanted all the kids to play together. TLG did a great job of including everyone, and we really liked that.

For Samantha's birthday, I paid off The Cookie Company to help me out with the cake business. I don't think Samantha minded one bit! In fact, she liked the cake so much she didn't want to cut into it!

Emma and Alex hanging around:

After an hour of running, jumping and playing, there was pizza and cake.
This picture is like my two worlds colliding. Oklahoma meets Asia.
Again...worlds colliding. It was so fun for all my friends to meet Amy and her family!
Even this felt a little like worlds colliding! Abby was 18 months old when we left these friends behind in Asia. When they came to visit us, they met a rambunctious two-and-a-half year old!
Samantha also invited some sweet friends from her Friday school:
That little rambunctious two-and-a-half year old I just mentioned thought it was her birthday. I was so irritated with her for trying to blow out Samantha's candles! I was taking pictures and Josh was on the video camera...and it appears that Abby was running loose!
My big birthday girl got a chance a few days later to blow out candles all by herself at Pappy and Gigi's house.

M family, thanks again for making the long drive to come see us! Thanks for sharing Samantha's birthday with us and for all the many, many memories with you that will be tucked in our hearts forever. We love you!

a gift of thanks

Dear Mom,

Can you believe I actually remembered your birthday on time this year? It's amazing, I know.

I thought this year for your birthday, I'd just say thanks.

Thanks for always having a coke in the fridge for me at your house.

Thanks for being available at a moment's notice - like when you stayed with my kids until midnight on halloween so Josh and I could go to the OU game.

Thanks for being willing to help in any way you can...like rushing to WalMart for me to pick up black tights for Emma the night of her Christmas play when I was parenting solo.

Thanks for playing with my kids and loving them so well. They love Meemster.
Thanks for all the thoughtful little gifts you give - aprons, sticker books, piggy banks...there's always something that reminds you of us.
Thanks for just being around. I'm so glad you've been able to hug and read and play and laugh.
Happy Birthday, Dondon. We all love you so much!

And Samantha joins the Five-Year-Olds

I'm up late at the computer tonight because Josh is out. In fact, he's at our new apartment waiting for the moving truck to arrive from up north with our furniture. I have a bad habit of staying up late when Josh is gone!

I'm going through my pictures and realizing there are lots of memories that got bypassed in our rush to celebrate birthdays and leave the country! So here are some moments from Samantha's birthday, Part 1:

Samantha requested donuts for breakfast, so Josh took her out early that morning to pick up donuts for the rest of the group. I wasn't thinking clearly enough at that early hour to have the camera ready for a picture.

We try to give each child time with both Josh and I on their birthdays, away from the other siblings for just a while. On Samantha's birthday, she ran some errands with me - post office, dropping off stuff at Goodwill, returning a pair of shoes - then we had lunch together, just the two of us.

If you give Samantha her choice of restaurant, she'll choose Souper!Salad! All you can eat fruit and veggies? My girl Samantha is all over that!

Her birthday lunch:
After lunch - which included several trips to the ice cream station - we stopped at 7-11 to pick up FIVE cans of soda for our big five year old girl. She had been waiting for this birthday for almost two years, after watching Emma drink coke and chew gum. Here were the five cans of soda that we came home with:
Josh manned the video camera so that her reactions would be recorded for posterity, and I positioned myself in between Silas and her soda selections. One by one, we went down the line...

Silas decided that in the middle of the taste-test, he'd pull up to his feet for the first time. Good thing I already had the camera out, or I might have missed it!
Back to taste-testing:
In the end, each can caused a reaction that was pretty much the same (and note the Priority Mail sticker on her shirt that she picked up during our morning errands!):

While in America, our girls discovered that they love eating at IHOP, and that was where Samantha chose to have her birthday dinner. [Everyone else except Samantha had eaten at IHOP the previous day with some friends - Hi Tom & Rikki! - so I told Samantha she needed to choose another place to eat. But Daddy swooped in to save the birthday and granted her request, sending us back to IHOP for the second day in a row.]

Our dinner there actually turned out wonderfully! Our waitress was super sweet and surprised all of us with the entire waitstaff singing to Samantha and bringing her a huge dish of ice cream. I'm convinced that nothing can make a five-year-old happier than a huge dish of ice cream.

We had no trouble sharing our reasons why we love Samantha at lunch that day. She is quick to share. She is tender hearted. She loves to help. She's hardworking and finishes her jobs well. She often has a song in her heart. She jokes around. She gives great hugs. She's a great bible memory master! She's quick to admit her wrongs and make them right.

And now she's five years old! Samantha had a special birthday surprise this year - she had some surprise guests attend her party! More on that to come...

more thoughts from Samantha

Just a few weeks ago, Samantha's insightful comment encouraged my heart and caused me to look at the more important things in life.

Last week, while eating this -

she said, "It kinda tastes like a Ding Dong!"

And then I wondered how she can be so very perceptive one day, and completely clueless the next day.

For the record: Orion Pies are nowhere similar to Ding Dongs.