Owen turned five last week! We had a couple of different small celebrations that helped to mark the occasion…

On the night of his real birthday (12/12), all the kids took a bath before dinner while Eric was at a meeting, and then we had hamburgers, fries, and green beans– all of Owen’s favorites — and a kampai (toast) with dinner. After dinner, Owen opened presents from us and family members…The Santa beard was from Auntie Beth… He went to bed with the basketball from his Uncle Marky!

On Saturday night, we had our friends the Thomsons and the Ishidas over for a little birthday gathering… Of course, that meant on Friday night, after the kids went down, it was time to make his cake! In keeping with many other late-night cake endeavors, our friend Megumi was staying over..and of course, as she always does, stayed up to encourage. This time, Eric didn’t just design the cake- he also helped with the decorating…

It seems that no matter how much prep I get done before the kids go down, I am still always up until 1 or 1:30 each time I make a cake. This time was my worse time ever – 3 am! Megumi and Eric were right there with me the whole time (Megumi is trying to grade papers)…

What was our cake? It was Owen’s choice (though he seemed surprised- and very happy – to see it the next day!) – it was “Gekki Chopper” – the latest Japanese Power Ranger figure. Here he is (after a few hours, the cake started to seem like a real person… around 2 am a person I was rather sick of :))

We had a really fun party on Saturday night. It is great to have the Ishidas, our neighbors who are our kids’ Japanese grandparents… and the Thomsons nearby to share in our family festivities…With these two fun families, who could help but laugh all night?

The day after Owen’s birthday, he came home with a special framed card, note and photo from his teacher, Hirose Sensei.

We love her so much, and so does Owen (his first crush, perhaps?) But I was especially touched by her note to Owen. In addition to writing about how much Japanese he can speak now, she also wrote: “Whenever Owen’s friends need help, Owen is always nice and helps them. I really love this Owen who displays such kindness…”
Each morning as Owen and I bike to his school, we pray together. As I pray for his day, I always ask that God would give Owen a soft heart for friends who might be sad. Moms are never quite sure if their kids are really paying attention during prayer time, but I think he is… We’re thankful for Owen’s soft heart, and continue to pray that God would take this little boy who loves power rangers, karate, basketball and Legos, and give him a heart that loves the things that Jesus loves.