Birthday birthday birthday birthday...

Gabrielle's birthday party was the first one. Even though his birthday wasn't until the 10th, same as mine, and even though his party was ON his mom's birthday, he had the coveted Saturday afternoon slot on the Birthday Weekend Agenda...

His was the wildest of the parties, thanks in part to you and your California sensibilities. It was a hot day, hot and humid, so it was a relief to see the kiddie pool in the corner for what we supposed would be some feet-splashing good times. You can see it here, behind Gabrielle who is modeling his new goggles.

As usual you needed to be the focus of the process, so you decided which of the many presents Gabrielle would open next - focusing somewhat predictably on the present you brought!! No worries that it was at the bottom of the pile...

For much of the party, though, I couldn't really take many pictures, since you were running around naked and all... One moment we looked and all the kids were standing around the pool, starting to splash a little bit and throw balls back and forth. The next, you are bare-ass naked in the middle of the pool, having a grand old time and certainly solidifying your status with this group as The Life of the Party! Hmmm. That's probably a post in and of itself...
The next day, Baby Annabelle's party down the street... Before we went over there Grandma Suzanne and Grandpa Dale came over for lunch, and we had a little birthday celebration with them. Baby Annabelle had quite an affair, with crepes and cheese plates and games for the kids and butterflies and all of your friends were in attendance. Thankfully, no nudity this time!

So Monday was my birthday proper, and I was pretty happy to have a slow day at work and planned for dinner out and cake. I knew you and mom were planning on picking up the cake down the street in the afternoon. Hoping to have a bike ride in the early afternoon, I was bummed that I didn't get downstairs soon enough. We'd be off to dinner, I'd have to get a ride in after cake, which mom said would be ok...

After dinner, for a good 10 minutes I wondered what the heck mom was doing since cake didn't seem to be moving forward. Also, it was at this point I wondered why the cooler was out. And perhaps the fact that the cake had come in a box slightly larger than our kitchen also could have tipped me off that something was afoot.

I honestly didn't think much about it, though, until Grammy and Grampy walked through the front door, and my first thought was "they must have come over for cake" and finally it started dawning on me that several people might be coming over for cake...

But it was still a huge surprise to see the Leonards Party of Six (five in this case) roll up! And Ingrid, Mike, and Gabrielle came as well, along with Grandma Suzanne and Grandpa Dale, along with a bunch of the neighbors!!



It turned out to be a surprise party, and a good one at that! I didn't get many pictures (hey, it was my party!) but we had a great time. Your Aunt Heidi showed off her considerable skills at Trampoline Management, keeping all the little ones frantically busy while maintaining order and harmony on the trampoline itself. Mister Clarence brought me an M3 for my birthday, a competition model to boot! Though 'model' is definitely in the literal sense I hope to augment it with a real one soon enough.

Wow. The next day we also saw your cousins - you and mom rode the train with Grandpa Dale, Emma, and Owen, and then spent the day downtown running wild all over the place. In the afternoon I came down, and we all went to the park. And I do mean 'all', including Lucy and Jack! Mom, Heidi and I had to set up a zone defense to manage all the little ones running around everywhere!

Jack and Lucy are getting big, are walking all over the place, and are so cute! Jack would follow you around, or having lost you, walk around in circles barking "MAYA! MAYA! MAYA! MAYA! MAYA!!!" You were fairly oblivious to his attention, spending most of your time by yourself or with Emma and Owen.

Finally you got together for some group fun, and we managed to get a shot of you all together.

Then it was time for fast running and swinging and sliding again...




You and Owen had a good time chasing around the pigeons, as if there were any chance you'd actually be able to catch one!

When it was finally over, Aunt Heidi broke out the new George books. Of course you were entralled, as was everyone else!

To say Heidi has a way with little ones is a bit of understatement. I'm glad I caught this moment as it demonstrates you are able to cuddle. First time any of us has ever seen it. We'll call Aunt Heidi "The Maya Whisperer" from now on!

That was quite a weekend. It was nice to see so many people and get to play so hard, and it was nice to have 4 birthday parties, even if all of them weren't for me! As usual, many more pictures in the album so click the link or picture below to go have a look...

From My Birthday Weekend