An Incredibly Happy Birthday

Monday, March 21, was Gabriel's 1st birthday!  I can't believe how the time has flown!  It seems like just yesterday I was preparing for his arrival and now it's been a year!!!!

But our birthday story really begins on the Saturday before his birthday with Gabriel's first sleepover.

Now, lest you think I carry this birthday thing too far, let me explain the whole sleepover thing.  Elizabeth's friend, Annie, who is like an extra part of our family, was spending the night with us on Saturday night.  There was a dinner for all the choir people of the church and since Elizabeth is in the choir, we all went to snack and socialize.

There is another teen in the choir, Jordan, who absolutely loves Gabriel.  (She admitted that she makes her schedule to come to church on Sundays and Wednesdays around Gabriel's schedule of when he will arrive.  She goes to visit him in the nursery before, after and between the services, and takes him to the youth room on Wednesdays until he gets kicked out by the youth leader when class starts.)  Anyway, she was there at the dinner, too.  As the evening went on, Elizabeth mentioned to me that it might be fun for Jordan to sleep over, too, and since Jordan agreed, and Jimmy and I are always of the opinion of 'what's one more anyway', we agreed to have Jordan over as well.

We had already planned to watch a movie at home, so we set the TV up on Jimmy's work place and the girls put their sleeping bags on the floor to snuggle in and enjoy the flick.  

There's Jordan to the left (with Gabriel, of course) with Elizabeth and Jo in the middle and Annie to the right.  Since Jordan is besotted with Gabriel, she had him sitting in her lap for half of the movie ('til he was just too tired) and fed him little pieces of popcorn.  Gabriel was in heaven!  His sisters don't treat him this well!  So, Gabriel had his best friend over for a sleepover for his first birthday, but where he went to sleep at a somewhat reasonable hour, the girls did not. 

The next morning, we went to Sunday service and class, and when we came back, I told Elizabeth that after she and Annie did their homework, they needed to make Gabriel's cake so that it would have time to cool and we could ice it and decorate it for Monday evening.

Well, since homework took a long time to complete, and since the girls hadn't gone to bed at a reasonable hour the night before(despite my telling them to be quiet and go to sleep!), Annie and Elizabeth ended up relaxing upstairs in Elizabeth and Jo's bunk beds and the cake did not get made.

This meant no cake for Gabriel's birthday!!!

So, with my wheels turning and clanking, trying to figure out how I could get the cake done and decorated by Monday evening when I had to work all day Monday and we only had a small window of time to cut the cake since I have Women's Bible Study on Monday evenings, Jimmy, Elizabeth, our van load of neighborhood kids and I headed off to the Youth Leader's house for small group study.  (It seems that everything happens in the spring...small groups and Women's Bible study.  It's a lot, but I don't want to miss the gems I get out of each of them and they only last a certain number of weeks!)

But, much to my surprise and delight, when we got to Mr. Kevin's house, Jordan, who is in Youth Group with Elizabeth, came bouncing up in her mis-matched socks and told me that she had made a cake for Gabriel!

It was so sweet!  I mean, the cake was sweet, but the thought and the cook was, too!  

So, Monday night, after dinner, we stuck a candle in the cake

and Elizabeth lit it, (well, she tried to, but the match wasn't cooperating) 

And we all sang Happy Birthday! 

 

Gabriel had some help blowing out the candle,

and Gabriel got his first piece of birthday cake.  He wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first.  We rarely just plop something so wonderfully gooey on his tray for him to do with what he may.  

But then he realized that cake was for eating, and the fun began!

Jimmy was astounded that I gave him the whole piece to eat on his own, so it was determined that I would have clean-up-the-kid duty.

But it was well worth it and a fun time was had by all!

But wait!  There's more!

I have been told to add the following pictures because they look like a president.  Which president, I don't know, but a president none the less:

 

Did you see the president?  Yeah, I'm not sure I do, either, but when your eldest makes a request for a special appearance in your blog, you can't say no, right?  Besides, this reminded me of when my mom, brother, sister and I would go grocery shopping together when I was young and when we would come home and my dad would be unpacking the groceries, inevitably the roar would come from the kitchen:

'WHO GAVE THE BREAD A BEAR HUG?!?!'

I promise we didn't do it on purpose!  Really!  It just always somehow got mangled between the time that it was fresh on the shelf to the time that it ended up in our kitchen.  

Anyway, it was a great day, and this blog is testament to the fact that we all survived the first year of our Gabriel!