It was a long, hard weekend. The birthday that would never end. Kathy up early Saturday morning to go to work, only to arrive and find she had not been scheduled to work that day as she had requested. She came home muttering something about how much she can’t stand Helga (the scheduler.)

We took the kids to see “Wild Hearts Never Die.” A nice (true) story about a girl, her horse, and a tower that she and the horse jumped off.

Ted stopped by to help me get the keg for the party on Sunday. He stayed for BBQ Chicken. We watched Eric for Bob and Carol. Eric was pretty good. Danny made him a little bed out of his Sesame Street sleeping bag and Eric’s baby blankets. Though he missed his mom rocking him to sleep, he gave in and fell asleep soon enough.

Sunday morning, Danny and I took on Nicole in a round of Labyrinth. Fun game. One of Carol’s “Discovery” toys. I like the cartoon drawings. Nicole didn’t think it was fair that we won since it was two against one. I asked her if she wanted to have Danny on her team next time. She said no.

The cookout/pool party was fun. In attendance were Ted, Nancy, Shawn, and Brittainy – making her walking debut; Carol, Bob, and Eric; Shelly, Ken, and Alison ; Mom, Dad, Grant & Ted; Jeannie and John – and later Lauren – just in from California; Frank and Stephanie; and Harrison who is a bachelor for the week.

The Weber grill never worked so hard, cooking hundreds of hamburgers and hotdogs. Later we all went down for a long afternoon at the pool. Danny taught himself to do a flip when he saw Frank and Ken doing all of their usual spins. Frank and Ken are happiest when spinning in mid air. Mom came down. Dad stayed at the house and watched the braves game, which was a shame, since Frank brought the keg down to the pool in his truck.

Frank, Stephanie, and Harrison stayed into the night. We ordered pizza. Harrison lost his shoes and a shirt. Frank left his sandals and sun glasses here. Mom left her camera.

I suppose they are de facto birthday gifts.