Survival.

5 Boys > 2 Parents Sanity

I'm not sure how it happened exactly...but after several days of recuperation, it appears we have survived the boy filled weekend. It was loud, it was messy at times, and it was most definitely chaotic...but overall...I'd say it was a fairly successful weekend for Gavin's big 1-1. Friday night he had 4 friends spend the night & though I had a mini stroke over a legitimate offer to spray paint part of our outside storage area, the boys had a blast. Gavin is really hung up on Guthrie's right now so we started the evening out with Guthrie's for dinner & then John, begin the brave (insane) loaded all the boys up and took them to see Ice Age. They returned home with plenty of energy to burn & spent the rest of the evening playing outside and having video game battles. Thanks to my saint of sister who kept the girls, it was a boys only zone, and was undoubtably outnumbered.

The next morning, though they were up VERY late, the boys were all up and ready go by 7. This is far earlier than I ever intend to be up, much less ready to go anywhere on a Saturday morning. The boys were forced to play as quietly as possible until a more suitable time. However, this is like asking a freight train to whisper, so much to my displeasure, we had no choice to begin the day. Around 10:30 John & Brian loaded to boys up and headed to Sam's Surf City water park for the day. As, being female (and sane) I was banned from going, but John said everyone had a really good time.

When they arrived home Gavin was a bit tired to say the least. Unfortunately in Gavinworld, being tired + a party = meltdown. We had planned a family/friend cook out Saturday evening however Gavin was absolutely spent by the time it started. We decided to just go with the flow and forgo singing "Happy Birthday" (as Gavin REALLY hates that) and also gave him the option to save any gifts for later (as the stress of everyone watching him open gifts is also not a favorite activity of his). We had a really good turn out though & some really good food as well! We just moved forward and let everyone enjoy a good meal and mostly good company too! After a while, Gav came around and ended up enjoying himself, though he did ask more than once when everyone was leaving.

Here are a few Party shots! We don't have any from Sam's Splash City though.