Sterling turns 8

Sterling turned 8 today, and we've been celebrating all weekend. Sterling chose to eat breakfast at Ikea and go to the zoo for a fun activity yesterday. The €1 breakfast at Ikea in Holland is much better than the breakfast in the US. It includes 2 freshly baked rolls, Dutch cheese, and also a hard boiled egg in the shell. We decided you will never get an egg like that in anAmerican restaurant, since it looks too much like something that actually came out of a chicken.

At the zoo we just mozied around and took our time looking at all the little displays and even the surgery lab. That's the best part about a season pass, it doesn't matter how much you see or don't see, all that's important is that the kids have fun. Probably also why I don't mind if the kids spend hours in the playground.

Today was Sterling's actual birthday, and he was given the chance to be baptized. We had a very sweet baptismal service for Sterling with a lot of my family in attendance. In order to make it the best for Sterling, we decided to do it all in English, which I am soooo glad we did. Today was also stake conference, and people wouldn't have time to go home in between conference and the baptism, so I provided lunch for them all. This was also a great opportunity to actually sit down and talk to my family and catch up.

I didn't realize just how bad that monster zit looked on my cheek until I was looking at these pictures later at night. Where was my concealer?

And of course a birthday isn't a real birthday without cake and presents! I originally wanted to give Sterling "Mario Kart" for his birthday, but after being scammed on the dutch craigslist, I ran out of time. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't get him that gave, because now he is actually using his imagination playing with things like Legos and building/painting with little crafts.

We love Sterling so much, and are blessed to have him in our family. He's a great helper around the house, and very considerate towards his sisters.