After talking about it for months, Gabriel finally turned 7.  Of course, Sonny and I were not as anxious about him getting another year older, but he could hardly wait.

We started the celebration on Friday night.  (See picture on home page.)  Since Gabriel was born on the same day as my niece's husband, Michael, we try to celebrate their birthdays together.  (What makes it even better is the fact that they both are named after angels.  We think that's pretty unique!  Two boys named after angels born on the same day 17 years apart were brought together to be part of the same family.)  Anyway, the family gathered at my brother and sister-in-laws house where we had spaghetti with the trimmings and honey bun cake with ice cream or Jello. 

After singing "Happy Birthday", blowing out candles and eating the cake, we watched Michael and Gabriel as they took turns opening their gifts.  Gabriel received a lot of art supplies and some toys.  Michael was given several hunting supplies and money for shotgun shells.  (Can you tell what their main interests are?)  When they finished opening their gifts, we took a few family pictures which we haven't done for several years.  After the more serious pictures, we decorated balloons and took a couple of crazy pictures. Then, instead of the usual paper wad fight, we played balloon games.  It was a lot of fun!  

On Saturday morning, we woke Gabriel up to the singing of "Happy Birthday".  He excitedly got out of bed to open his first gifts of the day.  While Gabriel and Bryson played with Gabriel's new game, Sonny went to the store to pick up a few party supplies and I began preparing lunch.  Around noon, our guests started to arrive.  Gabriel was so excited because this was his first "kids" party.  Even though we only had two boys his age at the party, we invited their families to also come.  He was thrilled to be able to share his day with his buddies!  It didn't matter to him if there were 2 kids or 20.

Once these two families arrived, we ate lunch together, let Gabriel open his gifts, let the kids break open the Transformers pinata, then sang "Happy Birthday" and ate birthday cake with ice cream.  The kids were having so much fun playing that they didn't even want to take time out to eat dessert!  That was fine with me because I knew they were enjoying each other's company and wanted to make it last as long as possible.  We all had a great time together!

Then it was time for everyone to go their separate ways and time to clean up from the party.  Gabriel played the rest of the afternoon with his birthday gifts.  When it was time for supper, Gabriel had requested that we go to his favorite restaurant.  So we loaded into the truck and drove to Ta Molly's.  Once again, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Gabriel - along with the Ta Molly's employees.  They brought out a huge sombrero for him to wear and gave him strawberries and whipped cream to eat.  He grinned from ear to ear.  It was a Kodak moment!   

As his birthday celebration(s) came to a close, he gave each of us a hug and kiss goodnight.  His birthday day was complete and he was content.  He had finally turned 7 years old and all was good!  It wasn't all about the gifts.  It was about being with family and friends, getting a little older and celebrating life!

I am so thankful to God that I was around to share these special moments with Gabriel and that our family has a closeness that makes us want to be together!  My prayer for you is that your family can have that same peace and closeness and be able to celebrate the life that He has given each of you!