We're back! And someone just turned four...

We're home! We arrived back in Germany at 6:30 last night, and finally got to our house at around 10:30 or so. It was a long trip back, and I'm just glad that it's done. We had a wonderful visit back in the states with friends and family, and I've got tons of pictures that I've been uploading to my Flickr account, but I'll blog about all of that in chunks. There's way too much to catch up on for one post.

I feel like this was one of the best visits that I've ever had with my younger siblings, especially. Between cherry pipes shared with Christopher and Joel, cuddling out on the porch on a chilly evening with Grace and Joy, interesting talks with Caleb, visiting the biker bar Hannah works at, cooking with my mom, hanging out with my dad, and doing a little shopping with Rachel, I feel like there was a lot of life that happened, packed into those four weeks. I even got to hang out with Grandma Claire a few times -- she has the shopping stamina of 10 women! We also got to see some of my dad's side of the family in NJ, and had a lovely time.

But for today, first things first -- it's Sparky's 4th birthday!

We are so glad to be back home with Mr. FiberFlash. We've all missed him so much. Even Daisy has been watching him like she knows who he is with smiles and gurgles and such.

Instead of a cake, I got some big chocolate-dipped cookies from the bakery down the street, and piled some whipped cream next to it. Since Max is two and would have been mad otherwise, I put a candle in both of their cookies to blow out.

Happy birthday Sparky!

The kids are in bed now, so it's time for some Mojitos, etc. *wink*