Gabriel had his 8th birthday this weekend. I can't believe he's closer to 10 than 5! I say this weekend, because yesterday was technically his birthday but he had continued celebrations today. He had a nice birthday dinner with one friend and Aunt K. last night. We all went down to his new room first thing yesterday morning with a balloon and a bag full of presents to sing "Happy Birthday" and wake him up. The babies gave him their little presents that they picked out. He was very happy with the playdough I directed Gracie to, as opposed to the princess puzzles she originally picked out, lol! Today, he had three more friends come over to play games. Richard took over duty for this one, taking everybody to the park. I was done, having spent all night up with two little girls who ate too much cake and ice cream and had upset tummies. Fantastik was our friend, cleaning beds, carpets, and our room from their explosions. To go to sleep and wake up every 15 minutes for an 8 hour period is worse than not sleeping all night, in my opinion. Richard and I took turns with them, so he got as little sleep as I did. But I took morning shift and he slept till 12 or 1pm. But I was done as soon as the first kid arrived. I couldn't even think straight, so I handed it off to him and he took afternoon shift. I went to bed and didn't see the world again until 5:00. When I woke up, Richard was ready to crash again, so I took the evening shift while he went back to bed. Now I'm ready to crawl back up to my room and we both might get a decent night's sleep. I am assuming Gabe had a great time this afternoon with his friends. I heard about play sword fights with Daddy and a great trip to the park. I feel bad for missing, but really no one would have wanted a grouchy zombie mommy around all afternoon. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. There's no predicting life(or nights!) with toddlers. Well, I'm gonna run upstairs and make sure everyone's got something to wear to church tomorrow, then I'm off to beddie-bye!