Dan is 6 today!

Today is Dan's 6th birthday. We had a fabulous day and a wonderful party -- especially considering we threw this party together in just over 24 hours! Late Monday afternoon, Andy told me 'Dan's having his party at Peter Piper's.' Really? That's news to me -- I thought he'd decided to do the family only thing at ITZ. But, nope, they decided on Peter Piper's tomorrow. I said "gee, it would help if you'd tell the adults when you plan a party -- makes it more likely to happen!"

So I jumped online and posted an invite to the whole tribe, called Susan (who's not online) to invite her and Spencer, and called Jenny to be sure Scotty could come. I'm hoping that even a few folks can make it on such short notice. By Tuesday afternoon, virtually everyone had rsvp'd that they come! We had an amazing time at the party, and the day only got better as it went on!

Dan, Conor & Emma in a still moment -- there weren't many of those.

Most of the day it was a mad chase thru the restaurant!

When Andy and I left Peter Pipers -- without Dan who'd gone home with Mindy -- to go to gamestop we both marveled that he'd entrusted us to get his Gameboy Advance with a game. In fact, when I walked over to the car to meet Andy, he said to me, "Wow Dan's putting a lot of faith in us to buy his gameboy!" (really, exactly what I'd just said to Mindy!) It was to be a fill-in/back up until the Nintendo DS's came in. We'd been told by every store in town that none were available and no one knew when -- the best I got was 'next month.'

We walked into Gamestop at Coors & Paseo and found they had DS's! One black and one pink.... I explained that we really needed too, non-pink ones, I couldn't buy just one. Asked if they call other stores to check on availability. They jumped into action, found us one at Zuni & San Mateo in black (way, way across town!). We bought the one they had and headed out to get the second. I realized there was no way Andy would have time to swim if he went with me. Then it hit me -- half the tribe would be at the pool! I could leave Andy there, deliver Dan's swim gear for Kevin and still get across town in time. Of course, it all worked out great -- I got the DS for each, Dan's new game at the cross-town store, and found the one Andy wants on ebay (just hit that buy-now button, Dave -- and it's on it's way!). Life here is good as I sit in the debris of nintendo boxes, wrapping paper and gifts from our tribe -- all those who came to the party -- and Linda & Judson who didn't even know there was a party but remembered it is Dan's birthday!

This is what the cusp of 6 looks like. Gary took this shot last night -- just two hours before Dan turned 6 -- after Dan passed out in the rocking chair. Just too sweet not to share!