Birthday party time

 I just can't catch up here!  But hopefully by the end of today I will.

Gotta start with a collage of my roses.  I am tickled pink (and yellow and red) this summer with them!

Last Saturday around noon we picked up Destiny and Elizer, went to Giant to pick up Elizer's birthday cake, then hit the road for Lancaster.  Elizer napped while we drove.  Good timing!

His party was held at Bounce Kraze, same place as last year.  Their three-hour party package is two hours of bounce time and one hour in the designated party room for pizza and drink, birthday cake, and gift opening.  

A lot of people came this year! 

Pictured above: Elizer with Destiny's little sister Alaya; with his Grandpa Orlando and Daddy Alex; with "Dada"; and Great Grandma Carmen.  Alex's younger brother (curly hair) is on the bottom right. 

Pictured above:  Frank with J'von; Alex's sister and her son (Elizer's favorite cousin); Destiny with her mom; some of Destiny's maternal family.

It was kind of hard to coral the kids into the party room when their two hours of bounce time was up.  It was even harder to keep them from escaping the room, haha!

First there was pizza and drink. 

Birthday cake time!  The party theme was Paw Patrol.

Singing "Happy Birthday." 

Gift-opening time.  No small feat when a three-year-old would like to open and play with each gift, but there's a deadline for using the room!

We did get a picture of Elizer with his mommy and daddy before we had to be finished. No wonder he's so darn cute with such beautiful parents!  (Special thanks to Frank for making and designing their shirts!)

Destiny had brought a piñata along and SO MUCH CANDY!  So we took that outside and improvised.  It was still fun!

On the way home we had some gorgeous views of the sunset. 

Destiny had to start work at 7 am on Sunday, so we took her home and brought Elizer home with us.  We decided to deal with the van-load of gifts the next day.

Elizer went with us to church Sunday morning.  In the afternoon Dick went over to Anthony's woods.  Elizer napped, I worked on next Sunday's music, and later took him to the playground below our house.  

In the evening we performed miracles, haha!  Cleaned out Elizer's room of things he no longer needs (including the rocking chair, boohoo!) in order to make room for new birthday gifts. 

Assembling his new work bench.

Destiny is good at assembling things too.  She definitely has some of Frank's skills. 

When we left that evening we had a van full of things to take to Kid 2 Kid (a consignment shop), Goodwill, and the trash.  Felt like a major accomplishment!  

On Monday Destiny and I would be taking care of it all.