Birthday Report

So, as Gigi pointed out, Garek just celebrated his 6th birthday. It seems like just yesterday that I was running home quick to get the bag of "stuff" because Gigi's routine Dr visit became "your having a baby today"- and the rest is history.

So, since I billed this as the "birthday report" I figured a quick recap of the celebrations and some pictures are in order (especially since Gigi promised they were coming- she is working on homework for class, so I am going to help out with this since I am sure she doesn't want me doing her homework)

This year was a two part adventure. First a "family" party on the weekend in the cities at Chuck E Cheese, and then a traditional "kids" party at our house on that actual day of. . .

So, part of the reasoning for the Chuck E party is that Garek has a special place in his heart for the place because of previous trips with Grammy and brother, but facilitating a trip up to Burnsville with kids from town- not so easy. The other big reason is that we try to do what we can to find a centralized location for the family to meet since we have family up in Duluth and we are down here in St Peter (with a few clumped in the Metro area). Unfortunately, Garek's cousins (Kaleb and Ian) became very sick the day before the party, and traveling with kids who are running a 103˚ temp is never a good idea. The boys still had a great time, and the adults got a chance to visit. Here are some pics:

Eating pizza and chatting it up with Uncle B:

Opening the present from uncle B and auntie Andee (since B needed to get back to work- he works at the LensCrafters in the same mall as Chuck's Place)


Opening more presents:


And some "adult time" as the boys were off playing:

On the actual day of his birthday, we had a party at our house for Garek. It was a lot of fun (for the kids) and not to bad for the Adults (Gigi and I are glad that Avery's dad Tony stuck around since they came from Mankato- it gave a boost to the Adult:Kid ratio).

Some highlights:

It was a "bug" themed party, so many crafts were done around the table:

Kyle got some help from his brother Tim on his caterpillar:


There were period in between activities where the kids would play/ "battle" downstairs
(things were a blur- literally):


Gigi helped Liam make a butterfly:


We opened presents:


Sang "Happy Birthday", had some cake and ice cream:

Gigi had the kids decorate and assemble their own Goodie Bags:


And that was that.

As I said before, a bit wild and crazy for two hours, but the kids all had fun (and I really, really appreciate only having two kids, as 10 is just way too many).

Final thoughts: