Finn's 8th Birthday
My BABY is EIGHT! Let that sink in.
Every year, Finn kicks off our birthday celebrations. We have one a month from May to October with the exception of July. Finn adores celebrations and is incredibly thoughtful and intentional about making sure each one of us feels special on our day. In addition, Finn is dramatic, creative and loving, adores listening to audio books, playing games with his brothers and loves to be in the spotlight one minute, yet will want to melt into the background the next. I continue to call him my "Polar Bear" for this, and the fact that he can be extremely happy one minute, yet full of despair the next.
This being our first birthday aboard, it was clearly going to look different. Despite this, I wanted to show Finn (and his brothers) that it can continue feel just as special. Even though our family hasn't always celebrated with big friend parties and lots of presents, not being able to celebrate with their close friends in some way will be a big change. Some of our favorite birthday memories have been just family, like Josiah's 7th in Yosemite, or with small groups of friends at the drive-in, a picnic at Avila or by sharing ice-cream together after school. Don't get me wrong, we've had our share of big ones too. My point is however, my kids don't expect their birthday to be filled with a million presents and tons of friends, but they do hope and expect to feel special. So while this was a different birthday for Finn, I am pleased knowing that he felt loved by family, and celebrated with new friends in La Paz. Thank you to all of our extended family who called, emailed or texted him birthday wishes. The smile on his face with each was pure joy knowing you were thinking of him.
He started out the day with bike riding at Spanish school and being sung to in Spanish by his classmates. We made rice crispy treats for him to share.
After school we took the bus to the bowling alley where we met up with new La Paz friends Marco, Emi and Nico. It was a good time!
That night we celebrated with cake. I made sure to bring aboard our birthday decorations so there'd be a familiar sense of celebration on the boat. Something I've loved about the boat is it doesn't take much to make it feel festive.