A day of celebrating

It may not seem like much, but this is huge for Eli.  Last week, at swim lessons, his instructor said he's strong enough to swim, he's just needs an ounce more of confidence and he's there.  I remembered how Alison quickly built her confidence in the shallow end of our pool and it seemed to have worked for Eli too...that an the incentive of ice cream.  I told him that when he swam alone, without any floaties or assistance, we'd go to the ice cream parlor.  We haven't been there since he was 2, so it was a good motivation.  He was so proud of himself; he was shouting, "I did it!  I can swim!"  So off for ice cream we went and he again won the prize for best ice cream choice.

eating strawberry cheesecake

birthday cake

cotton candy

When Ben got home from work, we jumped into "fake birthday" celebrations.  We told the kids we were celebrating Colin's birthday before daddy left, but surprised Alison and the party was also for her (her dream is to have a surprise party).

Theme of the party: use every random previous party decoration I had stored.  Thankfully the kids thought it was fun to have 5 different "themes".

Ben made pizza for dinner; bbq chicken (Alison's favorite) and cheese.

We got them each an outdoor toy, perfect for the beginning of summer.  Although we felt bad that Eli didn't get anything, all of the kids will be able to use the new toys.

Eli was SUPER excited about the cake.

Colin put his whole face in the cake, so I would say it was a win in his books.

I know a pre-birthday party may have confused the kids a little, I'm still so glad we did it.  Selfishly, it takes a little bit of the pressure off of their real birthday and even though Ben will miss the actual day, I can remind them of the party we had with him.