Eli's 9th Birthday

We celebrated Eli's 9th birthday with a few friends while we were in Gainesville. He wanted to have a Gator party and cake. I did a google search to get ideas for cakes done in orange and blue. Mind you I had no idea of making the cake myself. Just wanted to take a picture to good ole Publix and have them make it. Well... while searching, I came across this Gator Cakes website and was LOVING what I saw! I had Eli come to the computer and he liked them too. So thanks to technology, I was able to order a cake from 900 miles away! Here was the final result.... My sweet bff Bridget offered to pick up the tablecloths, plates and napkins for me. Not an easy task with 4 little ones, I know!

Since we were flying in to Gainesville and then having the party 2 days later, I wanted to keep it very small and simple. We invited 4 sets of friends to join us at Possum Creek Park for cake and ice cream. Here's the birthday boy with his cake....

Singing "Happy Birthday dear Eli"....

and blowing out 9 candles! (I had sent Philip to the store to buy the ice cream, candles, etc... Little did I know that he bought the trick magic candles. Eli blew all 9 candles out in one breath and I thought we were done. But, one by one they all started flaming again. Such a jokester that I married!)

Here are all the mommas and kids that came. These 3 sweet girls are what I miss most about Gainesville. They are truly terrific friends! (On a sidenote, look at how many kids we have between the 4 of us! 13 kids ranging in age from 13 months to 9yrs old!) Too bad we aren't standing up behind our own children. It would make it easier to tell you which child belongs to which momma. We were doing good just to get them all sitting down and looking in the same direction!

It had been raining on and off all day. The party was scheduled at 4:30pm and around 2:00 it came a torrential downpour. I quickly tried to think of what else we could do inside on such a short notice. Philip and I talked to Eli and decided to just cancel the party and have the cake and ice cream after supper with the Guillot family. (that's whose house we stayed at) We thought Eli was okay with that but he got really quiet and we knew that he was sad about not having his party. Around 3:45 the rain had stopped. Bridget and Terese (the blondes in the above picture)convinced me that we could still do the party at the park. We'd take towels to dry off the play equipment and the actual playground would be fine since it was mulch. That worked out very well and I'm so glad we went ahead and did the party at the park. However, a few minutes after we finished the cake and ice cream, the torrential downpour came back....

We all stayed under the pavilion to stay dry. (well the adults did. the kids would dart out in the rain every so often. They had such fun doing that!) We waited until the hardest rain seemed to pass and then we made a mad dash run to the car. Here's Eli, Emma Kate and Philip (carrying Zander) as they make a break for it....

I had told our friends not to get Eli any gifts since we'd be flying back on the plane and didn't have the extra room. I'm sure you know that they did not go along with that! He was so surprised and excited to receive Toys R Us gift cards and a Gator shirt from them! Before we left for our trip, he also received a HUGE Nerf machine gun and a Nintendo DS from his grandparents. His present from us was going to the Gator Homecoming game (I'll be posting about that next!) Hopefully this will be a birthday he won't soon forget!