And the Two Are Four

There is nothing like one of my children's birthdays to make me feel older. And when the birthday is two of my children's birthday, well.
      
My eyesight is fading and my gray hairs are sprouting.
    
Yesterday was Abraham and Miriam's birthday. They turned FOUR.
    

      
Four doesn't seem so old, except that it means that later this year I'll also have a six-year old and an eight-year old. And in a few days, my youngest will be one. (Nothing happens to Edee, though, a fact that caused much consternation and pouting yesterday. Her birthday was in January.)
    
The day started late, a direct result of our having gone fishing and splashing (which is not exactly conducive to the fishing, ahem) at Canyon Ferry Lake the day before. The days end late now -- the sun has not fully set until 10 PM, and we didn't head out of the fishing spot until 10:18 exactly. I know, because when Miriam said, "It's late and we need to GO. TO. BED," I looked at the van clock and she was right.
       
So when we headed to Wal-Mart yesterday to buy a few things (all of the presents and the cake ingredients), it was early afternoon. And I refuse to apologize for this. Those of you who are die-hard early birds, congratulations. You get the worm.
   
We chose the divide-and-conquer approach. Ethan took Birthday Girl, Benjamin, and Edee. I took Birthday Boy, Lily, and Jonathan. As all the toys are in the same relative section (no, they don't conveniently put all girl toys on one end of the store and all boy toys on the other), we were only about 2 rows apart, but we tried to not shout what we were getting and hid everything under beach towels (also presents) turned inside out. Ethan's crowd bought for Abraham, and we bought for Miriam. As we had general categories that were the same (towels, sunglasses, pajamas, some kind of tractor toy or doll that wasn't a baby), we would take our charges to the row looking but also listening to how the Birthday Child we had was responding. Then we would call each other.
   
So, Ethan would call me with what Miriam was excited about, and I would call him with what Abraham was excited about.
   
They were both excited about sunglasses, having decided that mine were just too big to be of any use to them:
   
          

   
It was all very exhausting.
   
When we checked the mailbox, we found an autographed book from Grandma Allison, creative homemade cards from Aunt Becca and their cousin Titus, and a present from Grandpa and Grandma suggesting that they go see "Up." We had about two hours before the next showing, so we threw them in their beds to rest and I scrambled to get their cake together (one recipe German-Chocolate Upside-Down Cake, what else?, split into two round cake pans). Then we woke them up and headed to the THEATER!!! (A rare treat, indeed.)
    
The movie was wonderful. The theater was packed with other young children laughing and snortling and dropping their popcorn and getting up to go to the bathroom right along with ours. (Just a side note -- see this movie sometime even if you don't have little kids. It's more about life in general and fulfillment than it is about kiddie humor. Very good.)
   
So it was about 9:30 when we finally got back home and they ate their cake and opened their presents.
    
     

   
There was great excitement and a few tears (Edee's) and a bit of sibling rivalry (Jonathan stealing the tractors).
   

    
And now it's 10 in the morning, and two of them are still sleeping.
    
Nice.
      

   

(Miriam and Abraham, sitting at the table for the first time.)

   
   

(Abraham and Miriam at the table yesterday)