June 4^th proved to be the birthday party extravaganza. We scheduled a two hour party with tie-dye, pizza, gifts, cake, and ice-cream. Finally, no pinata or goodie-bag!

After weeks of rain, the yard is a lush green and the flowers bring dazzling color. We finally turned on the air-conditioning and brought the house down to a chilling 77 degrees while the day peaked at 100. Étienne's party started with a tie-dying session with our friend Kyle. Each guest tied and dyed a t-shirt to take home.

Kyle gets bright colors and great designs on the shirts. The kids may not know just how great a job they did on the shirts. I think the parents appreciated the artwork more.

Keeping the outdoor activities going,we served pizza and lemonade to the masses. I like the square cut extra large pizzas. There seemed to be less waste.

We finally moved indoors for gifts,cake and ice cream. Étienne requested root beer cake, rocky road,and vanilla ice cream. Judy prepared a rich chocolate sheet cake with a seven minute icing. The hint of root beer in the recipe made it very special. Root beer is Étienne's favorite because we make floats after dinner, and he drinks it at Ya-Yas while I nurse my martini.

For the first time, my Nikon let me down. Every flash picture was terrible underexposed. I re-set both the D90, and flash unit but could not fix the problem. I may need to read up on this one.

Here is Étienne modeling the new Kyle backpack

Phone calls from the relatives capped off the successful party. Étienne thoroughly enjoyed his friends and everyone had a great time. The 100 degree heat did not slow them down one bit. I saw a great round of “Duck, Duck, Goose”.

After sending off all the guests,picking up, and cooling down with gin and tonics, we prepared for the next party. One of our guests, Cole, hosted his birthday that evening at a friends pool. Between the two parties there were only three common guests. That made each party special and unique. At Cole's party I got to meet an ex-student from Carl's 2^ndgrade class. The boy was pulled out of Price-Harris last fall and home schooled for the year. He plans to return to Price-Harris this fall and rejoin his classmates in the 3^rd grade.

After the day of parties, we are enjoying an organized house and looking forward to our first camp of the summer next week. Veronica's gifted status at schools makes all three children eligible for an enrichment day camp at a local high school. I am gearing up for three sack lunches all week. What will I do to stay out of trouble without the kids around?