april twenty first was a super special day – our angel gabriel’s first birthday fell on easter sunday!! we had just returned from our trip to holland are were about to turn right back around to head out on a trip (sans-kids) to dominican republic, so it was kind of a crazy time, but this double-celebration-today turned out to be so perfect.

the boys woke up to a yarn maze winding all around the flat, leading to their easter baskets. it was so exciting that i neglected to take a single picture! we had fun playing with a few new simple toys and eating chocolate eggs, and then moses gave his brother a few little presents. we sang “he is risen” and then just before it was time to head out to church, grandma arrived from america!! she had come all the way across the pond to watch the kids while ian and i went on an adults-only trip to celebrate my parents’ fiftieth anniversary. it was such a happy reunion! i took gabriel to the garden to take a few photos of him, wearing the same outfit moses wore on his first birthday (man, i’m a sucker for that kind of thing!) and then we went to church together to celebrate the resurrection of jesus christ!
 
 
 
after church, grandma made the most amazing easter-themed birthday cakes – one little smash cake just for gabey and one bigger cake for the rest of us. ian’s mom has actually made a birthday cake for every one of our children’s birthdays! (see moses’s first birthday cake here and his second birthday cake here!) aren’t we the luckiest?! (i cannot believe that this is the only picture i got of grandma on that special day! moses was her helper decorating the cakes so it makes sense i snapped this one, but i’m so mad i didn’t get one of her with gabriel!!)
 
 
 
 
after cake (yes, we did dessert first!) we had dinner in the garden. the weather was just sooo lovely, we had to be outside!
 
then we took a commemorative dip in the birthing pool! we blew it up right in the spot where gabriel was born, there in the water 365 days prior. both boys loved splashing around in there and we decided a swim of some sort should be gabe’s birthday tradition 🙂
 
 

wow we love our angel gabriel. he is so, so much sunshine and wonder and sweetness and love packed into a tiny little human. we are very, very glad he came to our family and we had so much fun celebrating his birth this easter.