Happy Birthday, Davin!

Happy Birthday, Davin!  Davin turned 6 today.  My baby is SIX!!!  A couple of weeks ago when I asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate his birthday, he said that he didn't want a party.  He only wanted to spend time with his family.  And he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and his name written with spinkles.  Today was the day...we went to Dinosaur World, ate at Wendy's, played "Cootie" a few times, read a book, and made that chocolate cake.  There was nothing particularly outstanding about the day, but it was the day Davin wanted.  No presents, no crowd of friends (no crowd at all, as we were the only ones at Dinosaur World today), and no hurry, stress, or pressure.  Just great family time.  Hmmm.  Davin is off to a great start as a six year old.

Church Directory Pictures

Two months ago the announcement was made in the Sunday bulletin:  "New Church Directory coming soon. Sign your family up for pictures."   At first, I have to admit I was a little excited about this.  Family Pictures.  I love pictures, I love my family, I love matching clothes.  This should be a good thing.  After about 2 minutes of excitement, reality set in.  There are nine of us.  Ashley is away at college.  This will be impossible.  I checked the available dates for pictures, and none of them worked for us.  Thursday through Saturday.  No way.  Ashley isn't available any of those days.  Only Sunday is a possibility.  Then a Sunday opened up...but we had plans for half the family to be in Florida for a wedding that weekend.  Another Sunday, YES!!!  I scheduled the appointment.  Conflict with Ashley's intramural schedule.  Oh well.  Eight in the picture.  Brian has a Boy Scout trip.  Down to seven in the picture.  Landon has stitches in his forehead.  OK, I decided, we'll just send Evan for a picture by himself.  The stress of planning for family pictures began to seem too much.

Last minute (really 2 hours before photo time) I decided we'd give it try.  Brian would make it home in time, so everyone except Ashley could be there.  I gave Jason and Davin haircuts, touched up my hair color, found sort of matching clothes for everyone, and SNAP...it was all over.  The first shot was the keeper.  Weeks of stress over what to wear and how to get everyone there was over with one quick click.  Of course I didn't order any pictures.  Without Ashley, they're not any good.

When we got home I took pictures of various combinations of the children in their sort of matching clothes with the cats, Romeo and Joseph, and the dog, Beethoven.  I texted Ashley to find out when she will be home so I can schedule more portraits.  Now I just have to figure out what everyone will wear...

My Plans

I had a great Friday planned.  The children and I were going to get up early and head for the zoo.  We were going to meet tons of friends there for a carefree day out.  No worries.  After lunch we'd come home, open our home-based business for a couple of hours, then get ready for a football game.  We expected a huge victory in the game, and some impressive stats for Evan.  What a great day!  What a plan! 

But it didn't work out like we had planned.  Davin, our 5 year old, got sick on Wednesday, and was still down on Friday.  There's no way we could make the zoo trip.  Then the football game got cancelled.  Ever heard of a high school team forfeiting a game?  I hadn't, but it happened.  (At least it counts as a win for us!)No zoo trip, no football game.  And sometime around 3:30 in the afternoon, the words "let's wrestle" were muttered somewhere in my house.  While I'll probably never know the whole story, the result of the wrestling suggestion was a 5 hour ordeal involving a shove into the couch, a cut to the forhead, a visit to the ER, and 10 stitches for 7 year old Landon who has a serious aversion to needles. 

This was my first day of being 45 years old; surely it will get better!