~Celebrating our Elijah...part 1~

This week we are celebrating our little Elijah.
We are SO GLAD that Jesus saw fit to"drop into our home" our very ACTIVE, Very sensitive, very "snuggy" [That would be "huggy and snuggly" mixed together =) ], Fun-loving Elijah!
Trust me there is NEVER a dull moment in our home with him around! =)
He loves activity, but also loves to COLOR and can stay there for hours.  He loves Jesus and has a very tender conscious.  I said he's snuggy....but that normally is at nights or when he's sick only!  During the day he doesn't like to give out too many hugs...for he LOVES a challenge and LOVES for us to chase him in order to GET a hug.  =)

A few weeks ago when Phillip and I came home from the ultrasound of our baby and we announced to the kids that it appears we are going to have a baby girl....Elijah just shrugged his shoulders and said,
"Oh, Well, THE NEXT BABY can be a baby boy!!!!"  =D
I tried to tell him that since Mommy will turn 41 her next birthday, I didn't know IF there would be "A NEXT BABY!"  =)

~Since we were going to have 2 tables at his little birthday party, we made 2 birthday cakes.  This is the chocolate cake that I made for the adult's table.
It's just a simple 2 layer chocolate cake with a thin layer of plain Peanut butter spread between the 2 layers, then a thin layer of P.Butter spread on top, then white chocolate drizzled in circles, and choc. chips sprinkled.  We love the taste of the P. Butter and chocolate together.  We served both cakes with vanilla ice cream.~

 ~In our boxes of things from 2011/2012 there were Lightning McQueen cars things that we used for Noah's 8th birthday, so we decided to save money and use that theme again for Elijah's birthday!~

 ~Kimberly decided to make him a Tow Mater (the Tow truck) birthday cake.
She had no cake mold, just looked at the picture and made it all up in her head.~

 ~Our family and our guests thought that he turned out SO CUTE!!!~

 ~Here's the table where the kids were to sit.~

 ~And here's the adult table.~

 ~We had these little cars to stick down in my cake...which delighted Elijah.~

 ~Our Elijah wearing his new tennis shoes which were part of his gifts from Daddy and Mommy.  He REALLY needed tennis shoes.~

 ~Elijah loves his big brother Noah and wanted a picture with him.  The colors that they were wearing made this picture look like Christmas.  =) ~

 ~WHAT A SPECIAL DAY we had celebrating Elijah's birthday!!!
Our Dear Friends Leo and Caro and their Jonathan and Valentina took our family to the zoo for Elijah's birthday!~

 ~And on top of that they got Elijah a Nice gift.~

 ~Here's Elijah opening his FUN "Cars" back pack from them.~

 ~Standing in line to pay.  Notice Elijah wearing his new back pack to the right.
Thankfully it was Tuesday and so it was half price per ticket and because it was ELIJAH'S birthday he and Mary both GOT IN FOR FREE!!!! =) ~

 ~Our family~

 ~Leo and Caro and family~

 ~We decided to take a picture of "All our children" when some other father WHOM WE HAVE NO CLUE WHO it was...ran up and stuck his child in our picture, and snapped a picture of his boy (to the left of Kimberly) and our kids.
It was interesting and sort of funny.  =) ~

 ~We passed these Cacti and thought it was funny that one had a heart-shaped ear that reminded us of Minnie Mouse...~

 ~And another looked sort of like Mickey Mouse.~

 ~Elijah got a little name tag which let the people know through-out the zoo that he was celebrating his birthday there.
He got to go by the first snack shop we came to and they gave him a BIG cup with a straw that has the name of the zoo and fun animal pics on it and it was filled with....~

 ~Candy...which Elijah shared with everyone.~

 ~Here is where we ate our little picnic lunch of crackers, cheese, ham slices, salami, sliced green apples, mixed nuts, chips and drinks.  We had packed it to be a snack, but it pretty much filled us up (along with some cookies and other munchies we ate later on), so that we didn't have to buy any food in the zoo.  =)~

 ~Our God is so amazing!!! I surely wouldn't have wanted the job of THINKING UP every different kind of NEAT animal, fish, insects, and birds to say nothing of us humans.  =) ~

 ~This zoo was really pretty and well-kept.~

 ~ A fun little fountain in the middle of the zoo.~

 ~The girls in front of the fountain.~

 ~In the Aquarium~

  ~Sarah and Valentina took pics of "Nemo" the fish.~

 ~A fun boat the kids could climb on.
Part 2 of Elijah's birthday pics coming up.~