Abi is 13!

Happy Birthday to Abi! It's different having your birthday fall on a school day. It also is different when you are not a little kid anymore and the parents don't feel as much pressure to make it a surprise or make it magical. Right? Cause we're at the point where I'm like "I'll just take you shopping or give you money, then you can buy what you want, rather than me guessing. Poor Abi today, I didn't decorate the window for her before school, and I didn't have a wrapped present waiting on the table for her (but I did just give one to her - a cool Adidas sweatshirt that I was pretty positive she'd like, and she did, she wore it to school.) During the day, she texted and asked if she could go to her cousin's house. I said sure, it's you're special day, you get to choose. So she went to Alix's house and then by Corey's parent's (they live close to each other), and she hung out there for a while. They took her out to In N Out for dinner, then she was back home at like 7:00. Yes, kids, it's finally time for cake. (The toddlers were being very patient).

My mom had brought by the cake and her presents while she was at school. Her cousins stayed for cake - Happy birthday Abi!

I didn't get ice cream, sorry Abi. I didn't mean to not make the day magical. But you just had a full meal at In N Out, you prob had a shake too huh? You don't need ice cream, and these little kids can deal with it.

I'm going to take Abi shopping tomorrow to try and redeem myself for being so low key. The jr high and high school kids don't have school on Fridays. It's also one of my last few times to take advantage of Mel being at home as my live in babysitter. It's been great having her here, cause I also have an extra hand to keep Daniel and Peter happy and quiet while I sneak Owen off to the bus. Daniel was a little sad that first day, so we're trying to avoid repeating that as much as possible. But the bus stop is still pretty far, so I'm not sure how I'll do this when Mel's gone. I have my phone alarms set up to make sure Owen has his lunch (45 min before bus pick up)...

And then a 20 min to bus departure alarm set off, I snooze that once and then I walk him down. Cute little kids getting on the bus.

Owen is on the younger side. Today one of the mom's was making small talk with him and said "Owen! How do you like kindergarten?" And he said "Because I want to go to school." And I was like "Haha, he's young, he's a July birthday... and he didn't go to preschool... " as I tried to reason on his poor answer to her question. Her daughter is almost 6 and speaking a lot better, but I know that Owen is fine and will catch up soon. He has already been singing the Addams family song "Days of the week *snap*snap* days of the week *snap*snap*" But it has been interesting with my kids - like my older kids so often seem to be slower and reading or talking than the younger kid. Abi struggled with spelling, and Lily caught on real quick. Natalie seemed to be speaking better than Sophi when they were beginning school. For both of them it worked our okay cause they (Abi and Sophi) were able to catch up a little cause they had an extra year cause they were both September birthdays. And now Abi and Lily are in grades right next to each other (7th and 6th) and it's the same with Sophi and Natalie (3rd and 2nd grade). With O and D it's going to be switched around, cause Owen and Daniel speak about the same level, but Owen is starting cause he's a summer birthday, and poor Daniel is going to have to wait two more years until he can go to kindergarten! Poor thing. Daniel and Owen are just 14 months apart, but they will be 2 years apart in school. That darn September deadline keeps getting us. Owen and Daniel will be as far in school grades as Daniel and Peter will be.

Peter. you think you're big, but you're just little. He can reach the peddles but only if he's not sitting on the seat.

It was a nice afternoon, Peter and I sat outside and just enjoyed the evening shade.

I took a video of Daniel driving the pink car down the driveway, it was cute. I'll upload it later.