The month of July, smack-in-the-middle-of-summer, is packed with events and school preparations. I managed to get the supplies and books finished in June, which left filling out the remaining necessities in the uniform department for July. I got them ordered in a relatively timely fashion, I thought, and ordered them on a faster-than-usual delivery schedule – but still, they will not arrive until Thursday, so we’re barely getting them in under the wire. Hoping everything fits as it should.
That being sorted, all that remained was birthday planning for Ruben and Jordan. Oh, they have been awaiting the end of the month with great anticipation! Saturday I took Jordan and Xavier over to Safeway and let them go in to choose the cakes. I offered to take them to Nothing Bundt Cakes, which just opened nearby, but Jordan is not a fan of their cream cheese frosting, so he declined. They managed to snag one vanilla and one chocolate so there would be something for everybody’s tastes.
We took both Tom truck and Big Red to church Sunday morning. Technically, with 10 of us from our house plus picking up Ana on the way, we would not have needed both vehicles. However, the air conditioning in the back of the van has gone out, and we decided it would be too miserable for everyone to cram in their with only AC in the front, and carrying the cakes on laps and all. So Paul took a few kids with him in the truck and dropped the cakes off in the SVdP refrigerator before mass. Then afterwards, he went to get Ana and I took most of the kids and headed over to Grandma’s house.
The boys chose an iconic birthday lunch menu:
Strawberry Jell-O Salad
Caesar Salad (with Strawberries)
Grandma’s Famous Cheesy Corn
Macaroni & Cheese with Octopus
Cake and Ice-cream for dessert
Grandma has been making the Octopus Mac N Cheese since my big kids were littles – and it hits every time.
Jordan was very pleased with how his bank account looked after dinner, and Ruben was super stoked with his gift from us – an MP3 player and blue-tooth speaker. Laurent also got him a craft project – a bird feeder and some paint and brushes, and a “Powered by Ramen” T-shirt. And of course, money from Grandma he can spend at Wal-mart (if we can steer him away from wasting it all on Robux!).
Pix of the day:
