After a rocking celebration at the farm we just had a little bit of family fun for Langy-Lou's second birthday yesterday.
I love family traditions so we've started to weave a few through our own little family celebrations.
Langlan's birthday started off with a few pages of Dr Seuss's Happy Birthday To You!, a tradition we unknowingly started 10 years ago when I bought a copy in California for Andrew's 21st birthday.
Andrew and I were in the birthday teepee, Langlan was zooming around the living room on his new scooter!
We then moved to the table where we started a new birthday tradition. With a whole lot of help (thank you!) I made a birthday ring. It's a Steiner/Waldorf tradition that has its roots in Germany/Europe (I think?). Each year we light candles on the ring and choose figurines that represent the year before and the year to come for the birthday person.
This year, for Langlan, we chose:
2 lovey elephants that represent friends and family. Langlan loves people, and people love Langlan so we thought this was an appropriate symbol of his life at the moment. We love that Langlan is surrounded (near and far) by friends and family who love him and we know this bunch of awesome people will only grow in the future.
A tree to represent Langlan's love of the outdoors. If given a choice Langlan always prefers to be outside, no matter the weather. He loves putting his boots on and squelching about with the chooks in the muddy pen, he loves flying 'high, high' on a swing at the playground, he loves digging in the garden and walking with his mouth open to catch the drops of water in the rain. He's an outdoor boy and we're hoping for more outdoor adventures in the coming year.
A rainbow because this boy already has an imagination that is somewhere over the rainbow. He sees rabbits on roofs (thanks Grandpa), thinks he can fly as long as he jumps from somewhere high enough and believes that whale is the only way to sing. This boy has character, and a large dose of imagination.
A flame, to show the small flickering flame of God in his life that we hope will grow and burn and shine. Langlan loves going to 'baby church' and gets very excited every time we drive past the church building. He loves the music and the lights at church, putting his offering money in the bucket, and running around amongst all the churchy peeps. This is only the beginning, from this little God-flame we're praying that big things will grow.
Langlan sat nodding his head as Andrew and I explained all this to him,
and then blew the candles out over, and over, and over, and over...
While we ate breakfast a little slide show of Langlan and his loved ones was playing on the laptop, so cool to see what the last 2 years has held.
Daddy went off to work after this and then the boy and I played.
The evening was for sushi, an often requested meal, with more birthday singing and candles and special drinks.
Then back home for the last installment of the birthday book before one tired and very happy boy crashed into bed.
Happy birthday little boy, we love you so much!
