Happy Birthday Jacki, Amy, and Sandy!

I threw a fun birthday party today for three awesome ladies, Jacki, Amy, and Sandy. Since their birthdays were close together we thought we should have a big party for all three of them. The party started around 11:45, so I had some time after dropping the kids off to school to tidy the house up. Charlton didn't wake up till 9:30. James and I took advantage of that and did some reading and then started cleaning. He wanted to wash the mirrors in the bathroom and in Gillian's room (she has sliding mirrors instead of normal doors in her closet). I don't know how well he cleaned them, but he was having fun and feeling important. Then, Charlton woke up and worried me. He was fussy, had a cough and his temperature was high. James suggested we say a prayer and we did. I gave him some medicine, and then fed him. As I was feeding him, I noticed he wanted to chew the bottle more than drink it. Charlton has been drooling for the past three months, and his first tooth had finally arrived. So adding that irritation to his cold, no wonder he wasn't happy. Later, when all my friends and their kids arrived for the party, Charlton was very accommodating and went to sleep, allowing me to be the good hostess that I am. Although, I have to say I wasn't quiet myself during the party. My mind was with Charlton and his well being. The fact that I couldn't do anything about him and his cold, but let his little body fight it on his own, frustrated me. I'm so grateful for my faith in the Lord. I know I can rely on him anytime. Prayers is something I can do, and so I had a lot of those today.

The party went great. We had great food prepared by everybody, the children had fun playing outside and inside, and the birthday girls enjoyed their special day with friends. Here are some fun pictures I took during the party:






After the party was over, I cleaned up and went to get Gillian from school. Since it's Friday, they don't have homework, so I just let them do whatever they want to do. Gillian wanted to read and disappeared in her room happily. The boys wanted to work on puzzles, read books and color. I was reading in the living room, and was looking forward to some quiet time, when the boys relocated from their room to where I was. James worked quietly on his puzzles, but Jefferson was working on 100 piece and just wasn't feeling up to it. He kept asking for my help, till I stopped my reading and sat with him on the floor. James finished his, and joined us. As we were working on the puzzle, James and I noticed Jefferson had moved to the couch and was reading some books. We were astonished by this and asked Jefferson what happened. He without looking away from his books answered that there was too much of a crowd down there. He kept encouraging us to finish the puzzle,though, because he wanted to see the glow-in -the-dark dinosaur skeleton outlined on the puzzle. When Elijah got home, he happily included himself in the puzzle making team. His reason: I did some of it. Yes, the easy part...






I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but every evening we've been reading mysteries in our house. Elijah reads Hardy boys with Gillian, and I started reading A to Z mysteries to the boys. The children really love this part of the evening, because they get to be with us and read fun books. Tonight, Elijah and Gillian finished their Hardy Boys book quickly (they had few chapters left and she didn't have another to start), so she joined us. When I read to all three of them at the same time, instead of having them fight over who is going to sit with mom, I have them draw or color on the floor, and I sit by myself. That's what we did tonight, and we all had fun. We even finished our mystery. Jefferson insisted that I take a picture of his favorite coloring page, his anaconda: