Happy Birthday

I believe birthdays are a BIG DEAL! You take a birthday to celebrate a life that means something to you. You celebrate how they bless your life, another year that they have been a part of your life and you celebrate the year to come. I like to be sure that the day is special, that we do something on the actual birthday if possible and the person feels special. Dave feels differently. He doesn't care either way if we do anything for birthdays or if he gets any gifts or any of that. So it is my job to see to it that he is celebrated. And this year, I believe I did a pretty good job. Dave has NEVER been ice skating (which is so surprising to me since he is from Illinois and not California!) so I took him ice skating in Boston on Frog Pond. Yes, the same Frog Pond ice skating trip we attempted on our anniversary last year. For those of you who missed that ordeal, click here- http://lifewiththelibbys.blogspot.com/2009/03/plan-b.html
Anywho, Dave did great. He didn't fall once! I haven't been ice skating since I was a kid so I had a really good time too. After skating we went to Fire and Ice restaurant. I swear we are 2 of the last people on earth to go to this place and I wish we had gone sooner...it is so fun! And it was absolutely delicious. It was the perfect place for 2 picky eaters to go :)

I know, it's not MY birthday but HELLO, it is a frog and I certainly needed my picture taken with him.

Dave did so great at skating! This will be fun to take the kids someday.

Dave and I on Frog Pond. The weather was beautiful!

Dave waiting on his food at Fire and Ice. The way it works is you put it all together in a bowl and they put it on this giant grill for you and cook it right there with the sauce you like. Now can't you see how perfect it is for the picky eaters??? We could put on or not put on whatever we wanted!

Me and my birthday man at Fire and Ice...both VERY full from a great lunch!

Ok, this was random. There were squirrels all over in the Commons in Boston. Then we found out why. Some lady was hand feeding them peanuts! Not that I would ever get this close to a squirrel but it was cool to see how close they were coming to us. (No, this is not my hand...I'm not that crazy!)

You know, I had planned on this blog post right after we celebrated Dave's birthday. I wanted to post about how important I think birthdays are and how important I think it is to celebrate a person's life. This past weekend my close friend lost her mom suddenly. Her mom was much too young to lose her life and my friend is much too young to lose her mom. It made me even think more of this whole birthday idea. We never know what tomorrow brings so we need to be sure to celebrate today...whether it be a special day like a birthday or anniversary or any other ordinary day. We need to be sure the ones we love know they are a BIG DEAL and they need to be celebrated.
Friend, my heart is breaking for you and I have not stopped praying for you this week...

Love in the Libby House

Dave and I have never really been big on Valentine's Day. Not that we are against the day. We have just never made a big deal with a big date and dinner and all that. Normally Dave will get me something little (this year, chocolate covered strawberries and apples...YUM!) and then we get take out and a movie for that night. It's been a fun tradition of just having dinner with just the 2 of us and once we had kids, we carried on the same tradition...just after they go to bed. This year we changed the plans just a little bit. I wanted to make the day fun for the kids since we just love 'em so much! So in the morning when they got up the kitchen was decorated for with a Valentine's tablecloth and goodies for each of the them. The boys thought it was great until Caleb started crying because he only wanted gifts at Christmas time...I couldn't quite figure that one out. For breakfast it was heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes which Caleb would only eat one of so that he could still have a donut at church (smart kid!). And here comes the best part, after a relaxing day at home it was time for the kids to go to bed (I know what you are thinking, no, bedtime wasn't the best part of the day!). I chose a story to read called "A Heart Like Jesus" since it was Valentine's Day. The premise is that a mom just gave her heart to Jesus but her little girl can't quite figure it out because she can still hear her mom's heart beating. So it explains that when we give out heart to Jesus we give him what's inside, our thoughts, worries, feelings and not really our heart. In the middle of the story, Caleb asked me if we would see Jesus someday. He has been on this "What does Jesus look like?" kick. I told them if he lived for Jesus he would see him in heaven one day. He kept asking me if I was sure and I laughed and told him YES, the Bible says so. Then at the end of the story I went over it again about what happened to the mom when she gave her heart to Jesus. After I was done, he said "I want to do that." I said, "What?" and he said he wanted to give his heart to Jesus. I hadn't gone down that road at all with the book. He just came out with it on his own which is what was so great. I went on to talk with him about what that actually meant and then we got daddy to all pray together. We did and then Caleb prayed too. Caleb's lit up when I told him Jesus was so happy and the angels were having a party because he gave his heart to Jesus. I think he may have thinking, "Party? That means cake!". My eyes welled up, I got goose bumps and it was the most amazing feeling. When your child gives your heart to Jesus and you get to be a part of that, I think it is a better feeling than when you gave your own heart. It was most certainly the BEST Valentine's Day we have ever had. There is nothing better in the world than raising kids for Jesus!
So after the kids were in bed, I made dinner for Dave and I and we sat together and watched a movie while eating a yummy (and still warm since there were no little kiddies around!) dinner. It was a good and blessed day.

My little Valentines! I just love the way Hannah is looking at Caleb.

The kids fun Valentine's dinner. Bananas, apples and caramel dip, popcorn, cheese and crackers, pretzels and a few other goodies. I do this with snacks sometimes during the day and they think it is so much fun! Caleb's exact words were, "This is dinner...oh my gosh!!!"