Happy 6th Birthday to Gavin!

We celebrated Gavin's birthday in Georgia on his true birthday weekend and then in Florida the following weekend. For his Georgia birthday celebration, we did a race on Saturday, spent the day at a new place, Jungle Jym's, where all kids had a blast (bouncehouses, arcade, inside playground, putt putt golf), and then wrapped it up with a VSU basketball game where Gavin was recognized as an outstanding reader in his school.

The morning of the race it was pouring rain and 46 degrees. I decided to not run my 10K race and I thought Gavin would choose to not run his 1 mile race, but he's mightier than me. He put on his rain coat and said he was ready. Luckily, the rain stopped long enough for us to do the mile run. Gavin did AWESOME! He paced himself even though every other kid went out the gate full force and we were in "last" place. I was so surprised that he kept his cool and paced himself despite seeing everyone else sprint out. He paced himself so much better this time and we took 3 short breaks. He finished strong and sprinted to the finish line.

In Florida, we had the immediate family get together on Saturday, March 7th. Gavin's requests for this birthday were a Paw Patrol theme and a coconut cake. We fulfilled the coconut cake request in the Georgia celebration and my mom took care of the Paw Patrol theme in Florida. When Gavin came home and saw the decorations he had pure joy in his face. The environmentalist in me struggles with the themed parties.  All I see is "waste, waste, waste" but seeing his reaction did make me feel better about it all. 

It is so fun to see Gavin's perspective on the whole party. My mom was feeling a little guilty that we didn't have a "real party" for him- like somewhere else or with other kids. But at one point Gavin told us, "This party is awesome!" because we really did think of every little thing that he likes and included it.  Nick and I are so glad that he is so family oriented, he is happiest when he is around ALL of his family as he says.

The popcorn machine was a hit. Even though I didn't understand why my parents bought it, seeing the kids reaction to it was pretty awesome. Liam had his pure joy face and was jumping up and down when we first turned it on. Our kids LOVE homemade popcorn but the machine  made it new and special.

Patiently waiting for the singing to be over so they can eat cake

I love Ellie's face as she stares at her cupcake

It is funny to see how each child had a different method of eating a cupcake. Ellie went for the frosting very carefully. Gavin ate it sideways so he can get a balance between the frosting and cake and Liam asked me to take off all the frosting, he just wanted cake. 

We're SUPERHEROES! Gavin Hero 6

It seems the kids have gotten better at taking pictures and Nick and I are getting worse!

We took pictures with both sets of grandparents and uncle John and Titi Maribel and Isa but they're in someone else's camera. These are the only ones I had on my phone.

 Lily was such a good baby the entire party. She played well with all the kids, ate well and was happy to be around the festivities.

All in all, another great birthday in the books. HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY GAVIN!