Daddy's Birthday

Amidst the chaos, I was able to pull off a family party mid-week for Daddy's Birthday.  Right in the middle of it all, I said, "next year we're going out for dinner."

The baby fell asleep on the way to the store in the morning, so I drove home instead of getting some necessary items for making the cake.  Once I arrived home and pulled into the driveway, the baby was awake again, but by then I wasn't in the mood for the store anymore.  I thought I would just "make do".  As a consequence, I had to improvise on the cake a little bit, and I wasn't able to prepare dinner ahead of time.  BIG MISTAKE!

The good news is the table was set for dinner by 9 am. 
My ice cream cake "invention" was in the freezer by 10 am.
Presents were wrapped (with Hagen's "help") by 11 am.
I ended up picking up groceries at 2 pm on my way to pick up the kids from school. 
The kids and I walked from school at 3 pm as usual, just missing a huge down pour of rain.
Ran into Walgreens in the pouring rain at 3:30 pm to pick up a photo gift I made.
By the time we got home, it was 4 o'clock.

The kids were starving, but I urged them to wait for dinner.  "We're having a party!" I reminded them.  I had to whip up chicken enchiladas while McKinley worked on her homework, while feeding the baby, and helping Everest with his homework.  I am in awe of this multi-tasking 9 year old!

That's when I received a text reminding me McKinley had a rehearsal from 6-7 pm.  Okay, I'm going to try to make this work...

Soon after, I received a call from the Birthday Boy.  He was held up in traffic and wouldn't be home at 5 pm as expected. Somewhat a relief, but how would we get McKinley to rehearsal?

Baby was crying, homework wasn't going well, kids were starving.... that's when I declared, "STOP!"

RELAX and take care of things one at a time. 
Here's what I did at 5:30 pm to get things in order:

Put the baby in his crib for an evening nap.
Gave the kids an appetizer.
Sent a text that McKinley wouldn't be able to make the rehearsal.
Opened two cervezas to compliment the entree.

I don't know what time we finally ate, but it didn't matter anymore. The Birthday Boy was surrounded by his loving family, and we were "having a party!"  After dinner Daddy and the kids (baby included) even went out an jumped in a giant rain puddle in the driveway.  Now that's what I call fun!

~A

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