We had such a great birthday weekend celebrating this amazing kid. Clay is the most loving and caring big brother. He is unusually sweet with his little sisters, always looking out for them, and he's constantly making us laugh with his jokes and silly personality. He is full of poop jokes and wise cracks.
He loves sports, Legos, and anything Pokémon. He's thoughtful, kind, and always eager to help me. Whether it's cleaning up, helping in the kitchen, takin out the trash. or even changing Lily's diaper (with a request for payment afterward, of course!), he's always ready to lend a hand. He also has some good dance moves.
Clay loves biking, playing with Luke, and spending time outside. You can often find him kicking or throwing balls across the living room floor. We are so proud of the thoughtful, funny, and caring boy he is becoming. I hope he knows and never forgets how incredibly loved he is.
Happy 6th Birthday, Clay! We love you so much and can't wait to see all the adventures this year brings.
Cake designed by Clay, all his favorite pokemon.
Clay has so much school friends, his teacher told me everyone loves to play with Clay and he's a friend to all.
Asa is one of our favorites and longest friends though!
Clay just wanted legos this year, he's so obsessed and gets so focused on them doing a set all day long if he could.
Lily bonded with Clay's friends too :)
We also had a fun dinner and party with Mimi and Papa! Hot dogs per Clay's request.
Grandpa Stevenson made the coolest lego rice crispies. Then Clay got to make his own cake stalking them. Very cool and creative. Thanks David!
For our anniversary, we snuck away to London for a quick little getaway, and it was the best time!
We left early Friday morning and took the one-hour flight to London, where we spent basically two days soaking up this beloved city. We got to see some of our besties, Riley saw a musical, Lily got her ears pierced, and we pretty much ate our way through London. It was such a fun trip and exactly what we needed.
We're so grateful to Mimi and Grandpa Stevenson for watching our big kids and making it possible for us to get away for a couple of days. It was so nice to spend some time together without a zoo of kids,
A huge thank you to Scott and Florence Thatcher for hosting us and spending the weekend with us. We loved every minute of it! One random highlight for me was getting to walk and meet their dog for the first time ever "Percy," which was a bucketlist item I didn’t even know I had I got to check off :)
Such a fun little trip, and we're feeling really grateful for the time together and the sweet friends and grandparents who made it happen
Lily blew out during Landing, poop all over my pants. . .
We stayed at there perfect little apartment in west hampstead and LOVED it. It was such a charming little area, if we ever ended up on London I would love to live there. The street they lived on was nice and quite but lived right off a fun shopping road that had all the essentials (including chipotle on the corner) and easy access to the metro. It reminded us a lot of our tokyo home, in the sense of it being a charming little street with easy access to a bustling urban city and everything you need a stones throw away.
First stop of the trip was meeting Percy! Lily was even a big fan.
Out next stop, per Riley's request was amazing indian food.
We ate at Tamil Prince it was too good. Sharing plates and trying it all.
After indian we explored more walked and ate it all.
I made Riley stand with a telephone booth because I thought Lily needed a picture with one! . . . If you zoom in you can see her already see Lily rolling her eyes at me for making her take the picture and smile ;)
Riley saw Mincemeat and LOVED it.
another lily and percy one before bedtimes. . .
and in the morning saying farewell.
The next morning we took a morning walk to the tube station from about time.
Then ate such a unique good breakfast at the Disroom: naan breakfast sandwiches!
The restaurant was a 10/10 for me. The food and atmosphere was so unique and fun.
Other Saturday highlights:
basque cheesecake
underwhelming rooftop garden that was not worth the trek to see but makes for a great laugh and memory now. . .
Old Spitalfields market was a new one for us! Really liked it. We all tried different things for lunch and was a good stop.
Because of our return plane time getting a matinee show that I wanted to see was cutting it too close, so opted for the next best thing... getting Lily's ear's pierced! In LONDON. She fancy. We might of had to exaggerate her age to do it, she looks 6 months though...
The video is the best, you would think Riley is the one getting a piercing.
Thanks again for watching these crazies and letting us get away!
We are the Stevenson family! Our story began in Hawaii where we met and fell in love. After we finished school there, we moved to Tokyo, Japan and spent five years there and had two boys. In 2021, we moved to Amsterdam and currently living there and traveling Europe. This is our space to journal and document our adventures.
