This week James had a great 9th birthday and I had a wonderful time turning 25 again. =) (For some reason, Anna kept calling me 25. She just knows that when my ‘number’ changes, hers is soon to follow and she can’t wait to be 5!)

So here’s the birthday boy wearing a crown in school (I know, I’m so mean making him do school on his birthday. But in ‘the real world’ people still have to go to school too!):

eating his favorite lunch (roasted steak and fried cabbage):

He loves reading mysteries right now (Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Box Car Children, etc etc) so we had a Mystery Party where the kids had to gather clues around our yard to find missing letters to this code and solve the Case of the Missing Birthday Candles. It was fun. And Anna and Joel got to help cut out question marks…

Lots of fun opening presents. This is a book of hard mazes and he’s focused not bored. =) Eventually he put it down and opened up all the legos, new Wii game, etc.

What can I say, my son is from Eugene, OR. He loves tie-dye and has asked for it for years. Grandma finally found one and sent it over and he put it on immediately! The requisite blowing of the mystery candles (recovered near the crime scene):

It was a 9×13 two-layer almond-banana cake with Cran-raspberry jam for filling. The honey-marshmallow frosting didn’t do the right thing, but we poured it over the top and moved on. For a ‘sugar-free’ cake, some people thought it was too sweet! Honey and fruit are pretty sweet. James loved it, which is what counts.

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Then it was my turn. I was treated all day like a queen. Kent made me coffee with real cream (brought by my friend Suzanne over from Kenya!), scrambled eggs and bacon! I had LOTS of help opening gifts:

Yes, most Congolese living rooms come fully-equipped with a sink. =) The kids made the fancy bows out of magazine pages, so I wanted to keep them all!

Kent made me a fabulous pumpkin pie, but it was still in the oven. So we toasted our sparkling juice (‘spicy juice’ according to Anna):

Notice that lovely water filter behind me. Love that thing! It magically turns sludge-water into clean water! Then the kids got ready for bed and came back for pie. The leftovers the next day were the best!! My helper blowing out my candle with me. (The extra pie filling made some cute little heart-shaped pies too!)

See that gorgeous wood grain on the table Kent made? Love it. Now off to plan one more birthday for our house! =)