Not much of a swimming party

The plan for Evan's birthday was a pool party.

I had seen the forecast earlier in the week predicting thunderstorms, but I resolved not to get all worked up about it. Then, apparently I went into denial mode. Until Corin called this morning when we were walking home from swim team and said that the front page of the paper was screaming about severe storms rolling in.

Still, I resolved not to panic, but began talking to Evan about what we would do if we couldn't go to the pool. Not rock climbing. Maybe bowling. We'd see.

Then, as the sun continued to shine, I felt silly for having called the bowling alley in Midtown to check availabilty. It was going to be just fine.

Ahem. Until we stepped outside at 4:40 to grab towels and head up the street for the 5:00 party. That is when I notice the ominous clouds. And that was when the phone started ringing.

One of the moms up the street (between our house and the pool) had just stepped out and heard the thunder and was wondering what the plan was. And then the phone rang again. And again.

What happened after that is a little blurry. It was all a flurry of making phone calls to the Decatur bowling alley, parents of boys who were coming to the party, etc.

Ultimately, we made the decision to have the parents bring the kids to our house and have my parents and my sister help us ferry them over to the bowling alley. It was a little tricky to get the word out, and Corin ended up going to the pool to hang out to wait for the two kids whose parents we couldn't reach. But all in all, the party was a huge success. Who knew 7 year old boys were such big fans of bowling?

I'm choosing to block the part that happened after the goody bags containing the beyblades were handed out and the beyblade trading had begun and one of the trades went horribly wrong. I could tell you that there was literally much wailing and gnashing of teeth, leaving the birthday boy and one of his sweetest friends in tears... but, I'm choosing to block that part. (I had just finished patting myself on the back for giving out such awesome party favors when it all began to unravel.)

Otherwise, the boys (and Pressley and Abby) had a fantastic time.

Now, if you'll excuse me... I need a glass of wine.

That's the Poison Serpant beyblade, thank-you-very-much. Had never heard of it two weeks agao and now I've made it into a cake. The boys all thought it was way cool, so it was worth the few new gray hairs it caused.

It is hard to believe...

...that seven years ago today,

I was just beginning to fall in love...



with this little bundle.

It is hard to believe...

that in such a short time...

he has grown into this sweet, sensitive...
smart, inquisitive...
charming and handsome...
young man.

What's been keeping us busy

Soccer

Baseball

Losin' teeth

Soccer banquets

Baseball banquets

Ballet recitals

Art Portfolio Night

Need I say more about why I've been absent?

Birthdays and Bunnies and Burnout - OH MY!

Yall! I can NOT seem to stay on top of the blogging anymore. We have had a lovely, busy, busy spring so far. And, now it is May(hem). I don’t know when May became the new December (last I checked, October was the new December), but I think I started around the time the kids started school and sports. Because May? Dang! We are still doing spring sports (which I realize I still have not posted pictures of), but now we’ve added swimming – purportedly 5 days a week -- on top of that.

It is enough to make a grown woman cry.

But, in the midst of all that, we’ve managed to have a pretty rockin’ 5th birthday party and a very nice Easter.

Pressley’s birthday coincided with the very late Easter this year. Which meant a very busy Easter weekend. We kicked it off on Saturday with Evan’s baseball game and the annual Easter egg hunt at Briarlake. We were planning to then go to Pressley’s soccer game (which started 10 minutes after the egg hunt; 20 minutes away…), but I don’t know what we were thinkin’. Something had to give.

When we got home from the Easter egg hunt, we got busy preparing for Pressley’s party. She wanted a Rock Star theme, so we rolled out a red carpet down the front stairs, put up a stage and a back drop in the sitting room, hired teenagers to do hair and make-up, and bought a Wii Just Dance Kids game for the girls to jam with after they got all dolled up. It turned out super cute. Boring old mommy had wanted to do the party at the gymnastics gym where all we’d have to do was show up with a cake. But, Pressley was insistent on the Rock Star theme, and I will now admit that it was worth the extra trouble, because it was memorable. And because she loved every minute of it.

I feel we have made up for having her birthday party at Monkey Joe’s last year, where we had to keep herding her away from the Monkey before she saw him and flipped out.

The stage is set...

Miss P on her red carpet

Miss P on her stage

The birthday girl having her make-up done

Nail time!

Time for cake!

All the rock stars - all done up

Just Dance!

And dance some more...

Glam cousins

Sunday was a lovely Easter, but not at all laid back. We went to early church (after the Easter Bunny had made an appearance) and out for a quick lunch, and then came back home to get ready to host the family for Easter dinner and another egg hunt with the cousins. I told the family that I would be happy to host, but that they should not expect that I would have cleaned up much of the party aftermath, and that would just have to be ok. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to care. If they did, they hid it well, because, hey…at least they didn’t have to clean up their houses.

I kid. They would have done it in a heartbeat, but our neighborhood green space is just such a great place to hunt eggs; it is hard to envision it anywhere else.

Easter Bunny loot

Kids putting flowers on the cross at church

The fam!

Cousins ready for an egg hunt

Score!

The exhaustion.

The pouting.

The accounting.