He who has the Son has Life: The siblings enjoyed the party, too...

well, Noah...not so much! Poor guy. He was so tuckered. Sweet boy's only had the four teeth for months now and he's finally trying to get some more. Bad timing. He's had the fountain of a runny nose, diarrhea, and cling-on to Mom. Fun, let me tell ya. He could somewhat hold it together when I wasn't in sight. Charlie sat with him so I could play with the kids on the roller rink. I loved that job! It meant holding Parie's hands as she learned to skate, taking a few turns around the rink doing the same with both of Tommy's hands, and encouraging Fletch's friends who were beginner skaters. Every now and then, I got to chase Fletch and John McBride. That was the highlight...being the reckless Mom that tossed the rules aside (surprise, surprise!) and in a crowd of parents with iddy bitties on the rink, I speedily chased down two nine year olds who thought that was the funniest thing. I only almost crashed twice. No regrets. Fun memory with my precious son.

Paris wanted in on the icing make-up! Eating with no fork was lots of fun for all! (Smearing on your face was about all the cake was good for anyway...)

Tommy wore the rollerblades he got for Christmas (as did Parie). They both made great strides in learning to skate. Parie got quite discouraged at one point as we slowly made our way around the rink with me holding both her hands. She said, "I'm terrible!" as she fought to keep the elephant tears from slipping out of her wet eyes. Just in the nick of time, her almost best friend, Rachel, showed up on the rink and was struggling even more than she was. Suddenly, all those kids zooming past her didn't matter anymore because she could join in the struggle to learn this new skill alongside one of her best buds. Rachel, John Flipse's younger sister, was holding the railing the entire way around the rink. Paris suddenly realized she wasn't so terrible after all. She was just learning a new skill like everyone has to do at one time or another. After the party, Paris stayed and skated with Rachel and her family while we took the party boys home. Paris spent that night at Rachel's house (something she missed out on two weeks ago because she got the stomach bug the morning of her upcoming slumber party at Rachel's). She was ecstatic to have the playtime with her buddy. As soon as we walked in our home after picking her up at Rachel's church on Sunday, she burst into tears that her stomach hurt. She fell promptly to sleep (a rarity these days at nap time), and two hours later woke up vomiting. Poor kiddo. Something about Rachel. Mind you, this is the friend that Paris had spend the night a few months ago, and I heard them TEARING down the stairs at 4 a.m. I leapt out of bed to find them fully clothed playing flashlight tag with full make-up on, their beds made, and enough Barbies out to know they'd been playing for hours. I was hot! I made them go down to the basement because there was no way I was going to have them waking the rest of the household up at that unseemly hour! They played house for a few more hours before I found Paris at 7 a.m. curled up in the fetal position in Noah's (never used) crib in the basement. Poor girl had fallen asleep while playing "baby" during her game of house. She was out for the rest of the morning. Paris started her day (for the second time) at lunch time after her friend had already gone home!