James Van Der Beek is celebrating another year around the sun with all six of his kids.
To mark his 46th birthday, the Dawson's Creek alum shared some sweet photos of him and his children on Instagram Wednesday.
In the first photo of the carousel, Van Der Beek smiled with his daughters Gwendolyn, 4, Emilia, 6, Annabel, 9, Olivia, 12, and sons Joshua, 10, and Jeremiah, 15 months — whom he shares with wife Kimberly Van Der Beek.
The actor continued cheesing in the other shots, while his children pulled some adorable silly faces.
"46 trips around the sun… I've been feeling into a new relationship with time, lately," Van Der Beek's caption began.
"I used to try to bend it to my will: Speed it up, squeeze more into it, short cut it. Or panic at its passing. Or just ignore it altogether," he wrote." But recently, I've found myself happier the more I'm in touch with reverence, and deference to time. Yes, it CAN be stretched. It can fly…"
"But this planet, this dimension, is governed by time: Trees grow at their pace. The earth spins at a near constant. And the more reverence I can find for all of it, the more life becomes a living prayer of appreciation. For life. For nature. For the great cosmic mystery of which we can sometimes can catch the edges," he continued.
Adding: "And the more I deference I can summon to the lessons earned only in time… the healthier relationship I have with miracles. And the easier it becomes to root in the present, open to the perfection of a process I was never meant to control."
"Which is all really just a long-winded way of saying: Middle age rocks 🫶," the actor concluded his caption.
Last month, Van Der Beek and his wife shared photos on their respective Instagram Stories showing what it was like to travel with six little ones.
"I used to say that vacations with kids are vacations FOR kids - not for you. Because they require a certain surrender of your own agenda, your own comforts, even your own desires," he wrote to begin a lengthy, heartfelt caption.
Posted alongside a collection of photos and videos from the adventure, which showed the family filing off the plane, Van Der Beek continued, "But it struck me today, as @vanderkimberly and I were managing more tiny humans than I'd previously thought possible… that any excuse for a single-minded focus on those you love most really IS a vacation: From all the stresses and 'priorities' constantly nipping at the back of my consciousness, vying for my attention."
The father of six concluded, "It makes sense if you don't think about it too much. But it did make me happy today."
