4 times around the sun

ezra turned 4 yesterday.

you woke up to a path of stars leading to your birthday table and thought that santa had left them.  you opened all of your presents from us and your grandparents taking a moment to appreciate each one.  you loved all of your gifts, but the gift that inspired the most immediate play were these rainbow silk scarves.

a beautiful morning for a beautiful birthday boy.  

ezra since you came into the world, you have become the center of our universe.  our daily lives are filled with the sweet soul you carry in your lithe little body.  from the moment we wake up together to greet the sun to the last kisses in the night, we start and end our days together with the same warmth and love we felt for you the day you were born.  you have grown into such a kind and loving boy.  you have begun to become more aware of the world and others around you and often share your bright spirit with the people we meet.  you say bonjour and merci, hello and goodbye, please and thank you.  when you play with your friends you are still very cautious and let others go first down the slide.  but, you have mastered our local playgrounds and are a great climber, twirler, runner, and jumper.  you still prefer to eat chocolate over anything else and your favorite foods are pain au chocolat, pancakes with nutella, chocolate!, pizza, mini baguettes, yogurt, and bananas.  your favorite vegetables are carrots and broccoli.  you like to order your own pizza from pizza dan and always get cheese with mushrooms, but you hardly eat all the mushrooms and always eat the crust first.  you say yours and mines and neven for seven.  you love your family near and far and still remember and talk about our dogs sunny and lola - especially lola.  we saw a wild goat a few weeks ago and you said, "it has a lola face!"  you love to call for group hugs and are starting to give kisses to mommy and daddy.  you often say, "i live on earth" and recently have begun to say, "i live on st. maarten" and that you want to live on your island forever.  you have grown nicely on this friendly island with its warm sandy beaches and children loving locals.  we hope you will always carry the warmth you have been surrounded with in your heart forever.  we love you ezra - our sweet little island boy.  

yarn along

here is a post of my latest knitting project and read in a yarn along hosted by ginny.  

this hat is a last minute christmas present for ezra.  it is a reversible rib stitch hat and while it is slow going the result is worth the wait. i am loving this yarn and am so glad i picked it up in california when we went for a visit in may.  it is opal schafpate - a super wash sheep's wool from germany.  the colors and softness of the wool are extraordinary.  there will be more of this yarn in my knitting future!  

the only time for reading this last week has been for ezra.  this is one of our favorite books from the library.  the illustrations are lovely.  and when daddy makes all the bunnies talk on the page to ezra laying in bed at night he is a happy boy in bunny dreamland.  now it's off to the beach but i'm bringing this knit along!  only 3 days of knitting left!  

Layla's

earlier in the week we went to layla's - a favorite restaurant and bar on the beach.  we don't go for the food or the drinks however.  we go for the playground.  it is by far the best playground on the island.  i will never take a public playground for granted again when we move back to america in *gasp* four months from today!!!  so here you see michael and ezra enjoying the beginning of our stay-cation on our wonderful paradise island (despite the lack of playgrounds).  michael is starting to loosen up after sitting in a chair studying for 70 hours a week for the last year and a half.

you can see michael in the lower right sipping his mango smoothie and ezra at the top of the playground equipment in the upper right.  i am enjoying taking pictures at my leisure.

and sitting in a chair a bit...  : )  life is so different as a family.

michael even pushed me on the swing and i got this silly picture of my feet hovering above the earth.  

here's ezra at the same swing moments later.  a new perspective with a different hipstamatic lens.  i do just love these effects taken with my iphone.  

a celebratory slide by michael.  ezra was loving this.  he made daddy go down the slide many times.  

we had a wonderful time.  the first of many to come for the end of 2010.  when we walked out of the restaurant the owner gave me a cute zip up black hooded sweatshirt with the layla's restaurant logo on the back.  he said a pretty girl is the best advertising which has had me wearing the sweatshirt for days since then.  a compliment can be very influential.  but, it is a cute sweatshirt.  

i love these two cuties more than anything...

this moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.   inspired by soulemama

anse marcel

these were taken last sunday.  i thought i lost the batch of photos and was so happy to discover i hadn't!

yarn along

here is a post of my latest knitting project and read in a yarn along hosted by ginny.  

this shot was taken in the car as i was riding into philipsburg with michael and ezra to the library.  i have still been reading the books from last week's post and thought i'd share with you ezra's favorite library book that we read over and over again.  i want to purchase this one to add to our library of lionni books.  he's very good at keeping his stories simple for children yet poignant enough for adults to also enjoy reading them.  there is always a great message - this one is about sharing.

on my needles is the last triangle to make a birthday banner for ezra shared graciously by christina on her blog.  i love all of her ideas and am truly inspired by her creativity.  she is amazing and if you haven't already you must check out her blog.  hope you are all happy knitting and reading inside!  

the end of 4th semester

fourth semester started with a hurricane and is ending with the beautiful trade winds blowing their soft breezes on us.  the sun is lower in the sky (even here in the tropics) and it is comfortably warm.  my heart is happy and mind unwinding as i have spent the last 24 hours as a family again with my husband done with his penultimate semester of basic science classes.  christmas is finally here!  

the night before michael's final exams, ezra and i went to a christmas dance performance in which our friend cat did an awesome crowd pleasing tap dance.  ezra told her afterwards several times in the car, "you are amazing!"  it was the first performance he's been to and i was proud of his ability to sit through 2 hours of dancing.  during intermission he said he wanted to dance and for me to watch him.  

we stopped by our favorite local christmas tree and ezra spotted this santa ornament under the tree.  moments later we met the woman who decorated the tree and she told ezra she put that santa there knowing that the children would see it.

after finals the celebration began.  our friends came over and ezra was happy to give hugs and nose kisses.  we took rahul to the airport today and ezra cried when he said goodbye.  he loves him so much.

we stopped for a group photo in front of the lobby christmas tree.

and then we drank and ate at our favorite indian restaurant until we were all too full to have anymore.  fourth semester was so busy, that we hadn't been to anand's since the beginning of the semester.

here is michael who i'm so proud of for working so hard.  i think he's proud of himself too as he should be.  it is wonderful to see him achieve his goals and gain more confidence.  he is an amazing man.

i completed the last christmas gift i had intended to make at the end of our meal.  one waits at least 20 minutes on the island for their bill once it's been asked for.  island time..

on the way home, ezra saw a shooting star through the open sunroof.  he then said to look for a wishing star.  he assured us all several times, "don't worry, you'll find one."  i love his outlook.  when i find that wishing star i am wishing for a lovely stay-cation with michael and our family coming to visit us for the holidays.  i think i needn't worry for that wish to come true!  wishing you all the warmth and love of the season!