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...