Fantastic Fourteen!!! (with pictures!!!)

Here follow a bunch of photos from Caleb's birthday. Pictures being worth 1000s of words, I won't bother with many actual words...




Caleb was, as per tradition, wet most of the day! Fortunately, it's still really hot, so being wet feels pretty good!

Sarah knows how to make Caleb smile really big -- give him money!

Evie knows that Caleb really likes to use his pocket knife and she really likes jokes, so her card was a practical joke...Caleb got to spend almost 5 minutes opening layer after layer of paper "windows" in Evie's card -- each layer wishing him a happy birthday and encouraging him to open the next layer. What a hoot! After all that, they took a break to play with her present for a bit.

Doug and I got him a new study Bible. We thought it was time to retire the one with the cartoon illustrations! ;^) In the book of Revelation, we inserted a "bookmark" of sorts which said, "I'm coming for you...be prepared!" Pretty ominous, actually, but when he opened the card, it explained that the thing "coming" is a book he's been wanting since he read the second book in the series...except that the book didn't come out in print until the 22 of September...SOOO...we're having it shipped to friends in Washington who are coming down in November. Caleb was very happy -- and the kids are already making a list of who gets to read it 2nd, 3rd, etc. I offered to read it outloud, but they all said NO! (I read too slowly outloud!!!)

Doug also found a taralla (Mexican fishing net) for Caleb. He's looking forward to using it SOON to catch some shrimp and bait for bigger fish!
I learned a few years ago that you can't put candles on a pan of warm-out-of-the-oven brownies, so we improvised!!!
After homemade pizza, brownies and sodapop, the kids all went out and splashed in the pool, played Killer Bunnies, ran around on a sugar high and then retired to the fort the boys had made in which to watch movies and play Nintendo until they went to sleep, but did they actually sleep? I dunno. Doug and I crashed out about midnight!