What happens when we decide to throw a 10th birthday party for our firstborn son with as many guests as he would like to invite, including their families?

24 adults, 32 children (that’s 56 total (!) if you’re counting…) and lots and lots and lots of work fun!

At Matthew’s request, we put together a Lego-themed party, complete with several homemade Lego-themed favors (in home-sewn favor bags), homemade Lego cakes, Lego party games, and even a homemade Lego-brick pinata!  We pulled together a lot of great ideas from the Internet and went crazy for the past couple weeks putting this together.  We’ll try to put up a post soon with some details on some of the fun stuff we made for the party.

To top it off, we reserved a local park and were blessed with fantastic weather, all adding up to a wonderful party for everyone!

Two days later, Lois and I are still trying to recover from the preparations and execution of this gig; but it was so worth it, knowing that Matthew (and our guests) had a blast!

Happy Birthday, Matthew!  You have been and continue to be an amazing blessing in our lives and we love you lots!!!

Here are some photos from the festivities…

Yummy cupcakes with Lego-heads attached:

25 pounds of pulled pork plus fixings:

Game 1 — “Guess the number of Lego bricks in the jar”:

Most of the children at the party lined up in preparation for group games:

Tossing legos into bowls (aka Lego carnival game):

The “hit” of the party, the homemade Lego brick pinata (get it? “hit?” ha ha ha):

Kids and adults alike took turns trying to bust it open:

Including the birthday boy…

And a few parents!

And even yours truly, taking the final swings before it finally broke open…

The yummy birthday cake made up like a Lego brick (note: it’s a bit tricky to light candles in breezy weather):

And finally, a gratuitous photo of our adorable 3.5-month-old Nathaniel with a couple of his doting grandparents:

The Lord has blessed us with yet another healthy son.

I am pleased to introduce you to Nathaniel Luke Ding, born @11:33p on 1/5/12 in Los Gatos, CA.  Measured in at 8lbs 1oz and 20inches.

For years, as a quick and easy meal for the kids, we’ve often turned to those boxes of instant quick and easy “Mac & Cheese.”

Somewhere along the way, we discovered that Kraft’s “Mac & Cheese” had a bit of disclaimer: they didn’t really use cheese but a “cheese product.”

So we decided to try store-brands: Wal-Mart, Costco’s Kirkland Signature, etc. with real cheese.  And they were better.

But not by far.

And somewhere (farther) along the same way, we thought: “Macaroni is just pasta.  Cheese is just… cheese.”  How hard could it be to make this dish from scratch?

Tonight, I tried my hand at it, following the famous Pioneer Woman’s recipe for baked macaroni and cheese.

How did it turn out?  Well first, the quantitative evidence:

1. I had a great time cooking it; for the first time preparing a roux and tempering an egg (click through to the above recipe if you don’t know what I’m talking about).
2. I liked eating it.  But then, I cooked it, I’m prejudiced.  But I would actually choose to eat this – not just when I was desperate for something quick & easy.
3. Our youngest daughter asked for three servings.  Unless it’s loaded with sugar, she never asks for three servings!  Gonna do this one again! (Never mind that she kinda had a sparse lunch.)

Qualitatively speaking, it wasn’t bad either (in other words, “presentation is everything”) — we added our own flair with panko bread crumbs on top:

Digging into the third serving!  Did I mention that it was her third serving???

One of the many blogs I follow is that of Chris Brauns, who serves as a pastor in Illinois and has written the book Unpacking Forgiveness.  He was featured in a brief Q&A video on Christianity.com discussing how Christian parents should educate their children.

His answer focused not on a particular method (e.g., homeschooling vs. public school), but on our mindset and goals.  I appreciate how he points out that every method has its own potential challenges and pitfalls.  Ultimately, he offers a brief yet helpful reminder that no matter what our choice in educational models, there is no “foolproof” and “easy” method that removes the importance of involved parents who are committed to teaching their children to know and follow Jesus.

Check it out:

In a blog post today, Nancy Wilson offers some real world insights, no doubt based on her experiences as a friend and pastor’s wife, on some of the contradictions that she has observed in younger women who express a desire to be married and yet remain single.  Both Lois and I appreciated her honesty and insights, and would encourage both men and women who are single to take a look and see what wisdom they might glean.  Among her interesting observations:

• Marriage requires a kind of death. Though this is required for both husband and wife, the wife dies in a unique way. She takes a new name, and she has a new calling. This is what scares some women off, despite their desire for marriage and children.
• Another snare lies in the whole concept of falling in love. Hollywood is not a trustworthy instructor in how to conduct a relationship. Yet many of our assumptions about love come from Cinderella and all her descendants.
• A woman is free to marry whomever she likes, so long as it is in the Lord. If he is a Christian, a woman is free to marry him. Or not. She doesn’t have to have lofty reasons for saying no. She can say no because she doesn’t like his nose or his taste in music. She is a free woman. But she ought to at least consider some of these things I’ve mentioned, in case she is exercising her freedom in a way even she would say is contradictory: “He’s everything I want, and yet I don’t want.”

Read the whole thing.

In case you didn’t pick up on the not-so-subtle message in my last blog post — and even if you did — here’s a little video that makes the point a bit more explicitly:

This was inevitable.  It happened once before, but still, there was no guarantee that it was not going to happen again.  A two-year-old plus a pair of scissors is just not a good combo.

A couple of minutes ago, my two-year-old daughter came up the stairs with a pair of scissors in hand and I found a lock of hair by her foot.

I picked her up.

And found another lock.  And another.  And still another.

Then I looked more closely at her hair and saw the damage.

Sigh. . . . self-application of scissors is definitely not the preferred method for giving a toddler a haircut.

Life is undoubtedly filled with adventures with little ones.  Now I have to go figure out how to cover her little head.