Monday, October 28, 2013

Family Traditions #21: Happy 4th Birthday Jonah and Silas

Hype for the boys' 4th birthday started 3 months ahead of time. I drew some calendars on our chalkboard wall and we started crossing off days and counting down when there were still over a hundred days left till their birthday. I thought it might be a good way for them to understand days, weeks, and months, but with a week left before their birthday they were still telling each other "In 5 minutes it's going to be our birthday!" Oh well, maybe we'll conquer that concept next year. 
Both sets of Grandparents, their Great Grandparents and even Becca all got gifts down here in plenty of time. We are so blessed to have some many people who love and care about our children! I wrapped all the gifts and had them on the table a week ahead of time... because I love watching their anticipation! 
They decided months ahead of time that they wanted an Avenger themed birthday party. They picked out a Captain America piñata. 

I really thought I had them sold on Captain America Shields for their individual cakes, but a couple weeks before they landed on the Hulk and Iron Man... unfortunately. Then I made the mistake of showing them pictures of cakes on Pinterest!
{Taste testing the cake crumbs!}
Silas really wanted a 3D looking face of the Hulk and he was VERY specific about him having "mean teeth". 
I'm a lot more comfortable with fondant than I am with carving the cake... let alone building facial features. 
I made his cheek bones too sharp. If Silas had asked me for a green alien I would have nailed it! In the words of Becca, "If it taste good, who cares what it looks like... oh yeah, Pinterest does!" (That makes me laugh every time I think about it.) Thankfully I only had one critic, and that little boy loved it!
I finished his first and he and Jonah both kept asking me to pull it out of the fridge to show them over and over again. That made me very happy! Silas liked his mean teeth!

Well Jonah saw a picture of an Iron Man cake with eyes that lit up... what?! He told his Daddy about it and Jimmy made it happen!
I found gold dust at the bakery supply store, to make the mask look shiny. I still struggled with the carving part. All the angles confused my directionally challenged self, but it still looks like Iron Man and Jonah was stinking thrilled!
On their birthday morning Daddy measured them on our ruler. (Eden loves wearing the boys' PJ's... cracks me up.)
They have shot up since we measured them 4 months ago. They keep going back in forth as far as who's taller. I'm glad. Right now it is Silas, but Jonah eats about 3 times the amount Silas does, so probably not for long. 
Then it was time to open up a present before breakfast! (We usually try to space their presents out all day so that they have time to really play with them.)
I love how they always include Eden. They are really good big brothers!
Jimmy's Grandparents attached a photo to their presents so the boys would know who it was from. I think that is a wonderful idea!

Here is our birthday wreath and banner! You can see our half finished front porch. 
The boys had picked out talking Iron Man helmets that light up and shoot bullets that we brought back with us from furlough. I think they had kind of forgotten about them though. 
They quickly remembered!
Then we skyped with MaG and G and they opened those presents. 
They had gotten them Kindles. Jimmy loaded them with books and educational apps (which means no Angry Birds) and put timers on them. Hopefully we will be able to get most of their textbooks on them when we start homeschool. Silas did figure out how to bypass the timer problem though. He always wakes up before Jonah, so he just plays with Jonah's Kindle first... naughty. 

After breakfast we started setting things up for the party!
Here is Jonah checking out the spread!
The day before the boys helped me make Iron Man laser hand cookies!
Jimmy made some Green Hulk's Punch!
{Love the little boy holding his helmet in the corner!}
Here is our Captain America Fruit Platter! Jimmy was the biggest sweetheart and cut everything on this tray and even made the dip for me. 
 We made popcorn ball Thor Hammers 
and served Iron Man salsa (only because it is red!)
 Here is our Superhero Recharging Station! And after all of our guests went home, a couple of vegetables were the only leftovers, haha!
I didn't get a good shot of these last two things, but we also had Hulk Pudding and Hawk's Arrows which were BBQ chicken shish kabobs that Jimmy grilled. (Now the boys think Hawkeye only shoots at chickens!)
We got everything set up just in time before our first guests arrived! 
We are so blessed to have so many Christian friends around us now. We really did not have much fellowship until recently. Before we would go 6 months at a time maybe without seeing anyone outside our work, now we have fellowship on a weekly basis. I didn't feel lonely before, but I do regularly thank God for the great friends that He has brought into our lives now. I am so thankful for all who came this day and made our boys feel so special! All of their friendships are a blessing to our family. 
Hugo (sitting on the couch in front of Jimmy) is the boys' closest friend right now. Silas introduced him to our last team as "This is Hugo, my other brother". He's so funny! Jimmy tries to talk to the boys sometime in Spanish to get them to respond in Spanish. They just laugh and say, "That's how Hugo talks!" They have started telling me things people say to them in Spanish, in English, but they don't speak much Spanish yet... at least not to their parents. 

Cake Time!
 Here are Silas and Jonah sticking their "4" candles in!
I didn't even realize that my friend Holly captured this video until I was posting these picture. Yay!
 They opened up a present or two after cake time, but then they were all ready for the piñata!
I thought these wooden spears that Jimmy's friend Stephen made for them were so cool! The boys are always going on some imaginary adventure with these spears in hand now.
 Notice Jonah very wisely getting out of the way!
Eden liked putting her candy in the little baggies! 
We all relaxed on the patio and in the backyard for a little while. 
 I was very thankful that God held back the rain that day and in it's place put this beautiful rainbow in the sky!
We opened one more present...
 and then went back outside to do the little party poppers that MaG sent. That was a tradition from Jimmy's childhood!
 I think the adults had as much fun as the kids or at least I did! 

After everyone went home we skyped with Papa and Kiki. They had sent them some Superman PJ's and muscles with capes and a basketball goal that we hung on our back porch! The boys love playing basketball now that Daddy has taught them how!
Notice the Superman shirt Papa has on. My dad never owned a single t-shirt until he had grandsons. Now he has 3 - a Superman one, an "Uncle Silas with a beard"one, and an Iron Man one that he wears every Wednesday night when he skypes with his grandkids!

Their Great Grandparents sent them books and a Veggietale movie, so we popped popcorn and watched it before bedtime... well it was a little past bedtime by that point!

We thought that we were ahead of the game this year by getting their footprints in the the pavers before their birthday, but do you notice anything wrong with them?! 
Here is their end of the day birthday interview. They were very sleepy!
I am so thankful for these 2 "Big" boys! So thankful that God chose to bless our lives with them. I thank Him every single day. 

Thursday, October 24, 2013

A Sweet Time of Study

These past 3 days Jimmy and a wonderful friend and blessing to our ministry, Pastor Bob Petzel, have been teaching 2 class modules in Sayaxche. Pastor Bob has been teaching I and II Samuel and Jimmy has been teaching the Life of Christ. These classes are for current pastors who wouldn't be able to leave their works and come study at the institute. 
Pastor Bob is a gifted teacher. Jimmy always appreciates his style. We believe it to be very practical for these men and their churches. Everything is presented in Spanish and in Kekchi.

Jimmy also got to meet with some of the men who are enrolled in the pastors institute (KBI) which will be starting January 7th. 3 of the guys in the photo below will be students there. 
You can see the books on the desk in the photo above that the pastors receive when they attend the modules. All the information is bound so that they can take it back with them. 

Jimmy and Pastor Bob come back each day talking about the great questions the guys have and the feedback they have been getting from them. There were some things that I think the Devil was intending to use to destroy, (Anytime we do any type of project with the Kekchi people their is obvious spiritual warfare going on.) but God used it for good! I am so thankful to be on His side! Please pray that God will continue to bless this time and that He will use it to bless these pastors' churches. They traveled a great distance to become better equipped for the job God has given them. Their hearts are always an encouragement to us. 
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