Gabe's 6th birthday party swimming with his classmates

One of these days I'm going to learn to say no or realize when I can't really accomplish all of the things I optimistically thought I could. Days like this teach that lesson.

We "only" invited Gabe's classmates and two soccer teammates (also from his school) to a swimming party at one of our favorite swimming spots. It was my bright idea to use the invitation I'd worked on for hours last year as well as the leftover favors (from the swim party that took place on a rainy day). Later I was admonished for not inviting everyone to this party, but at the time I was just doing what I thought I could handle.

We found out after invites were out that he was invited to one soccer teammate's birthday party at a bowling place as well as a class picnic that evening. Stupidly, I let Gabe go to the other party before his own, which ended up making him late to his own party (and making me late, too).

Gabe was almost as excited to blow up the inflatable signs from last year's party as he was to see everyone.
I was occupied with party stuff and Eva from the time we got there--and I hadn't eaten all day, so I was famished from nursing. So I'm thankful that David got these shots!
Gabe swimming with Jake (the other soccer teammate, whose dad was the assistant coach)
Sean, our neighbor and friend
The whole crowd--this year, the theme was roads & signs... not to venture too far from cars, of course.
That's Jackson, Gabe and Spencer, who swam despite a broken arm.
Gabe chose a stop sign for his cupcake.
This is Taylor, whose mom Paula was in band and graduated with me.
I made David pose with one of his cute "Slippery When Wet" cupcakes.
And this was my other favorite, the traffic light cupcakes.
We did the same favor bags from last year complete with license plates, but this year I also did drivers' licenses because I had all of the kids' pictures from school events.
Carmen begged for a second cupcake. She is eating so much these days, you'd think we starve her. But she's growing a lot!
Paloma was there, but I have little evidence of her or Eva's presence. My favorite part about the pool we went to is the little kids can't accidentally get into a deep part; the bigger pool is separated by 40 yards or so and stairs. And you can see all of the shallow kids' pool, which is reassuring for parents trying to keep an eye on more than one kid.
Eva stayed in the shade the whole time because it was sunny, hot, hot, hot and sticky!

Almost everyone left at the same time because they were trying to be on time to the class picnic at another park. We had to clean up and take lots of stuff home first, so we were pretty late, but didn't want to miss the opportunity. This is his beloved kindergarten teacher, Ms. R.
The kids played on the playground for a little bit and we ate S'mores as appetizers for dinner. (Timing is everything, right?)
Afterward, we went to Red Hot & Blue and split two entrees five ways.
Then we went home and Gabriel got to open his presents from the party and from us (because we couldn't find the time to do it before this).
A Jaw-dropping reaction about the contents of this sack--
more Cars cars!
A Waldo book he doesn't have memorized (yet)...
A book called Made You Look, which Carmen is constantly demonstrating (as in this picture)...
One of two large water guns... his first guns of any kind, and what fun!
Ahh, Moon Sand. One of those gifts Mommy would never buy, imagining the mess. But the mess doesn't overwhelm Jackie, so he'll get to play with it sometime.

When telling someone he liked their gift, I heard Gabe say, "I'm not going to return it, even though there was a gift receipt!" Yikes, the things they pick up.

Meanwhile, I was at the end-of-school breakfast where our principal was doing his KJIM show.
I sat with my department colleagues as I usually do.

This guy got the biggest standing ovation--he's the rookie assistant principal who made a huge difference this year with many, many kids.
And it touched me to learn that one of our coaches has this child with special needs. The coach is amazing in his demeanor and sense of humor. The son would laugh each time we laughed, and my day was brightened by him and the way his dad responded to him.

My baby boy is 6?!?!

Gabriel's birthday was my last day of work and the kids' last day at Gigi's house, so I thought it would be nice to let him get donuts.
He even got to go in and pick what he wanted and what to get for the girls.

He also got to carry the donuts in to Gigi's house--what a good helper!

Fast forward to when I came to pick them up: Paloma was NOT happy to see me (again). She let Lala hold her, though.

When I arrived, the kids asked if they could swim. Of course I said yes because it was Gabriel's birthday.
All of the kids enjoyed swimming with Hidy.
Gabe really had the best time with the hose.
It kinda reminds me of when he was one and all he wanted to do was turn a light switch on and off.
Gigi brought out lemonade for everybody.

And everyone loved on Eva a little bit!


After our swim we let Gabe pick where we'd eat dinner, and he chose Texas Roadhouse (as he usually does). I was happy to see several former students there--here are two, Ora and Pantera.
When the waiters came to sing, we were all surprised.
Gabe was a little apprehensive about getting on the saddle
and, not surprisingly, seemed a little embarrassed waving the napkin as they sang. ( I reminded him I had to dance like a chicken on my birthday!)
After we got the kids to bed, David & I started making cupcakes for Gabriel's party the next day.
I'd been planning this all week, but I was pleased with how well they turned out. (Luckily my husband is very good at writing with icing!)

Jon & Kate + 8

Have you seen this show? We haven’t watched much prime time TV in the last few years; I resisted getting interested in anything new. I don’t have time for that. And reality TV has never appealed to me much; reality trumps TV anytime. However, a student asked me this spring if I’d seen Jon & Kate + 8. I didn’t know what she was talking about. And then I saw the show, and now I’m hooked!

David walked in one night and asked me, "Why are you obsessed with this show?" I said, "I'm not obsessed, I'm just interested. There's nothing else on on Monday night, anyway." He started watching and then he got hooked, too.

Jon & Kate explain in the open of the show that first they had beautiful twin girls who they enjoyed so much they decided to try for one more, but instead they got 6: sextuplets: three girls and three boys. So in the episode I first saw, they were taking two 6 year olds and six 3 year olds on an airplane. Crazy! Watching that show makes our household seem so much easier. I just looked, and you can read Kate's story before the show here.

Another show we’ve recently become interested in is Ace of Cakes. The first (and only) episode we saw so far showed a chef named Duff making amazing cakes that looked like, among other things, a Delta airplane on a Godiva tarmac, a Noah’s ark cake, and my favorite, a subway car wedding cake complete with graffiti.

My mom is the cake decorator in the family, but occasionally we need to make a cake too. We don’t want to burden her. She stays busy enough doing a cake for each grandchild’s birthday every year. So for Gabriel’s birthday party with his classmates (he wanted to invite the whole class, so we did a separate thing) we made cupcakes using fondant for the first time.

The kids got out of school early (at lunchtime) the last two days, so Gigi got the girls out to go meet their bus at our house. But the last day, Carmen had a swim party to go to. Her friends, the triplets from her class, have a new pool. And their mom, Letitia, graciously offered to get Carmen to the next party that afternoon, which was for Margo, another kid in our neighborhood.
This is one of the triplets, Macy.
This is the birthday girl, Margo, who turned 8.
It was a BIG party--I'd bet 50 kids! One cool thing is that Margo asked for books for the kids at Scottish Rite in lieu of presents (like she also did last year).

I got there late so I never got to see Carmen skating (she says she's no good at it and apparently didn't try for very long this time).

Gabriel wanted to try skating, but I couldn't help him until David arrived to help with Paloma and Eva.


And what a workout that was! Yikes! He is heavy!