Whirlwind Weekend

With Julia's birthday taking place on Friday, we had much to do.  She was allowed her first friend party for this birthday (we only do those every other year), so we had the family gathering and the friend party for which we needed to prepare. Julia chose a trip to the pool on Friday, so I took half the day off so that most of us could go, and then she had a two hour gymnastics class on Friday night.  Saturday found us doing our usual rounds of baseball and wrestling, followed by baking, cleaning, and working in the church nursery. Finally, 7:00 rolled around, and the family showed up to celebrate.

Note to self, buy the canned icing for decorating - working with the tubes is not so easy.

 

If I recall correctly, my pictures of Julia with family from previous years lack quality, so I tried to make up for it this year, but I got lots of silliness.

Julia with her Aunt Tara

Aunt Tessa

Savannah wanted to show everyone her art desk, so everyone discovered that Savannah and Julia are sleeping in a crooked bed because of a bad bed frame...yes, we do live with some things that are broken, but some kids don't have beds at all!  Tessa ordered a new bed frame for the girls today.  Thanks Tessa!  In my defense, I did not realize it was broken.  I thought it was simply crooked because the box frame was not properly set, and because of the way it fell through, I knew that I could not fix it myself and was awaiting Andy or Zach to take care of it.  After the guys (ahem, I do think Jonathan led that effort- not Zach or Andy) tried a couple of times to fix it last night, and Julia jumped on the bed sending it right back to the crooked position, I realized this was a bigger problem than I thought.

I have five siblings, who along with my parents, buy a group gift for the kids on their birthdays.  Julia received a Nintendo DS this year, and here she is waiting for it to be fully charged.  I was concerned that it would be useless without any games, but Savannah has one as well, and she has let Julia borrow some games. However, they have had much more fun playing with each other on their individual machines.

Julia with Aunt Tiffany, Uncle Tony, Austin, and Logan

Getting Julia to smile for her picture with Grandma and Grandpa required some help from Uncle Jonathan - a very funny guy.
Uncle Joshua
Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Danielle (baby Regan is safely tucked in her mommy's tummy)



Today we had a 2:00-6:00 skating session and birthday party.  Church ran long because we had a meeting to attend about transitioning Zach to high school programming, so I felt rushed getting ready for the party, but it all worked out.  I am so proud of how much Wyatt and Julia have improved with their skating, and this was a plain ole fun party!
Julia was able to choose one song for the rink to play, so she chose Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry.  A song that I actually heard for the first time when Julia started running around singing it a couple of years ago.  Wyatt campaigned hard for a Michael Jackson song, but Julia only had one choice.

Of course Zach had no interest in the popular music played at the rink, so he kept himself plugged in to heavy metal.

Julia's guests - Ian, Christopher, Lauren, and Nate.  Yes, the party was heavy on boys, but Julia seems to have connected more with the boys this year - not surprising as Julia is pretty much a tomboy except in the area of clothes and make-up.  We did actually invite the whole class, but birthday parties outside of the school year are not usually well-attended.

One of the kids had never skated before, and his mom was unsure about whether she would be able to hold him up, so I decided to skate.  I went one round with him, and he was finished, but since I had skates, I kept on skating. 

I think we can call this birthday a success, and I am just one half day of work away from my own summer break!