Phew!

Well, it's over! Yay! The last two weeks for our family are very chaotic! Cory's birthday, on the 23rd, then Alex's on the 28th, then mine, last Saturday... it's enough to make one want to swear off of birthdays altogether --- almost! We had a great time, of course, and we are absolutely loving the barbecue that Mom and Dad gave Cory (thanks again, by the way)... heehee... I have just cooked steak two days in a row! Yum... before the barbecue I couldn't cook a steak to save my life, unless it was chopped up and disguised in a stirfry. These ones, however, are fabulous! (Wonder if anyone remembers my brief stint as a vegetarian in grade 11, prompted by that nasty Slaughterhouse video Mr. Theilmann showed us in Geography).

Then was Alex's party... lots of kids and lots of adults. I almost survived the day keeping everyone outside, but towards the end, when it started to rain... we had to move the event indoors to serve the cake. That was the end of my clean house...

My birthday was a cakewalk (pardon the lousy pun) in comparison, as Cory was in charge of dinner, so of course we drove to PG to go to Kelly O'Bryans! :) We left the boys with my in-laws for a couple of hours and went to the Simpsons movie... the second time I have left Connor with a baby-sitter... the first, of course, being to go to the Harry Potter movie. The movie was hilarious and Connor apparently didn't cry too much (hopefully Judy's not minimizing the crying to spare me the guilt).

Our nephew, Brandon's, first birthday party is on Friday, but since I don't have to do anything but attend, it won't factor into my stress levels. So... officially, we're back into routines, the cake is out of the house, and we've returned to some level of order.

I had a lot of fun planning Alex's party and filling the goodie bags... I thought I had all the treats purchased until I found a 12 pack of these at the grocery store... what summer backyard party is complete without "shades"... modelled by my adorable model (who promptly pulled them off and put them in his mouth).
Here's Connor sitting up at 7 months old... actually, it's 7 months and 3 days --- my 31st birthday, but close enough to count as a 7 month photo, I hope... hey, I was busy! He sits up all the time now... and it's getting really difficult to get him to do "tummy time" cause he is constantly rolling over on to his back and squirming around... so maybe he won't be crawling any time soon.

And, also taken on my birthday... a train collision in PG. Just as we were driving into the city two trains collided and went up in flames... we saw the smoke first so we drove to Fort George Park to investigate... maybe not the smartest thing to do, but we weren't the only people checking out the source of the fire. It kind of put a damper on the day, but I'm happy to report that (according to the news, anyway) no one was injured, so we're feeling a lot better about what we saw.

Hmm... pattern developing... also on my birthday. Dad gave Alex a transformer (his very first, we're so proud... sniff!) for a late gift... he was thrilled! Just today he said "I wish I had more transformers". Here he is at Kelly O'Bryan's, just tickled with this new toy.

And, there you go... maybe I'll have some neat photos to post of Brandon's birthday party after Friday... can't believe he's already 1... and yet my own baby is over halfway there... so I guess I can!