Josiah

Well this post is long overdue!

With a birthday party and Christmas and Nathan leaving, things have been busy.

Josiah turned 4 on December 23. But before I get to his birthday party,

here are some things he has been up to recently...

This is Josiah and the fruit stand lady in the market. 

The fruit stand lady always has chocolate milk for sale and she is always quite happy to give Josiah a box, even when he runs up to her asking for it in English without money or a parent nearby.

This is the waterfront in Mui Wo. There is no railing. I have this terrible feeling that one day Nathan will be jumping in after one of the boys.

Josiah loves to go exploring with Daddy.

Josiah also LOVES Daniel. (Most of the time.) 

And now for the birthday party!

In case you were not aware, a December 23 birthday is a bit inconvenient. :) We had his party on Thursday afternoon, December 20. The boys all had school in the morning, but no homework since the next day was a school Christmas party. 

Josiah's 4th birthday party was a beach treasure hunting party. We invited 4 other little boys, all basically the same age as Josiah. Nathan started the treasure hunt with a huddle, explaining some rules.

Hands in everyone... let's go!!

Being the wonderful daddy that he is, Nathan spent the morning digging holes along the beach and burying treasure. He marked each hole with a balloon X. 

It wasn't too cold, but maybe a little too cold to come to the beach in a swimsuit, like Mr. F in the foreground. :) Here are the boys digging in one of the holes.

In the first hole were buckets for each of them. Subsequent holes had things like dried mango to eat, a huge bag of rocks to throw in the ocean, compasses and bubbles to take home, and bamboo sticks to turn into fishing poles. 

The fishing activity was a favorite with all of the boys. They were basically silent during the activity, each fully concentrating on catching the paper fish with their magnets. The loved it!

The five fishermen.

In the final hole was a cooler with hotdogs to roast over the fire! 

What 3-5 year old boy doesn't love fire and sharp sticks and hotdogs??

Overall, the party was a success! After hotdogs we had chocolate cupcakes and opened presents. Oddly enough, most kids don't open birthday presents at parties around here, but that takes away some of the fun, so we did it. This is the birthday boy and his little BFF Keyton. This picture pretty much sums up their friendship and explains why their very Chinese teachers simply do not know how to handle them!