A Birthday

Our little Harper has turned one. Can you believe it! I can’t. I can’t believe it has been over a year since our newest addition joined our clan. She has grown quite a bit and has acquired many skills. She started walking at ten months, shame on us for never blogging about that and has started to say a couple of words. Well, sounds that remind me of words. The cutest is that she says “Hi Dad.” Notice that it isn’t “Hi Mom.” Why do children punish us mothers by learning how to say Dad first? hehe. Harper says: hi, girl (“gir”), frog (“fra”), dad (“da”) and mom (“ma”). She also says “tika tika tika,” which is her cute little way of saying tickle tickle tickle. The "tika tika tika" is even cuter since it is accompanied by an outreached hand and wriggling fingers trying to get you.

A couple of weeks ago we had a party for Harper. Marc and I decided she would like an ocean themed birthday. We had a lot of fun making ocean invites, decorations, and food. The best part of the birthday was getting to share the day with a great group of family and friends.


At her party the kids played in the pool, decorated cookies, and went fishing. The cookie decorating was a big hit, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a decent group activity. The kids couldn't have been more excited to spray different colored frostings on their cookies and then finish them off with various sprinkled toppings. Our little fishing game - which consisted of Marc hiding behind a fish scene and "hooking" assorted toys on the end of the fishing line - seemed to be fun for the kids as well. Despite the fact that Harper kept trying to pull back the fish scene to reveal Dad, the kids were all willing to suspend disbelief for a chance to fish for toys. Before Harper revealed the proverbial man behind the curtain, I think we even had a parent or two wondering how this fishing operation was working.



To top things off, we performed a Korean tradition aimed at predicting what sort of successes will come Harper's way in life. We did the same with Ellie. The basic idea is that you lay out several objects on a table - each symbolizing a different sort of accomplishment/success - and you let your child reach out for the object of their choosing. Harper reached for the pencil. I will have to follow up with the meanings for each item. As you can see from the photos, Harper is wearing a Hanbok, or traditional Korean dress. She wasn't particularly thrilled about putting it on, but she soon got used to it and even managed to smile while in it. It's funny to think back to how big Marielle's Hanbok fit her. She didn't really grow into it until this year. My, how different our daughters are.


Thanks again to all of our family and friends for making the such a memorable occasion.