Turning Eight

Yesterday we celebrated our oldest, Oliver, turning eight years old. It is hard for us to believe how fast it has gone. Oliver was our miracle baby, after more than half a decade of infertility. That stage feels like forever ago, but every birthday of his brings those memories to the surface. The longing fulfilled is truly a tree of life! (Proverbs 13:12).

It brings me to tears when I think of celebrating his eighth year with us, all while carrying his newest sibling. Our longings have been multiplied! Praise our Lord! I personally thought it would be fun to have his sibling born on his birthday, but he had requested I wait at least one more day :).

We celebrated with his choice of meals: Dutch baby for breakfast, Chik fil a for lunch, and Noodles and Company for dinner. We also took a trip to his park of choice and watched part of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang together. The day rounded out with a homemade ice cream cake. He said he had a great day!

Oliver’s early birthday present this year was a camera. He had been expressing a lot of interest in photography and I had been occasionally letting him use my camera, but we felt it was time to encourage that creative skill and allow him something special he could tote around and use himself.

I have been loving plugging in his camera card with him and looking through his photos since we gave it to him. I thought it fitting to end his birthday post with a selection of photos he has taken on his camera this summer. Money well spent, I think. I cannot wait to see how he continues to grow!

All photos to follow taken by Oliver, age 8 on the *Fujifilm X100f. Photos are also edited by him or just straight out of camera using Fujifilm’s built in film simulations.

*a great little camera for personal use or starter camera for older children that they can grow with I must add. I have personally been very impressed with it. We picked ours up used on Ebay.