Eyeball Shots and Birthday Parties

Okay, this is my face, but I swear in real life it is much rougher with a mixed complexion and worry lines creasing my forehead (of course, the forehead was not captured in this shot; if it was, I'm sure you'd see those lines).  The camera was being suprisingly nice and gentle when it took this shot, which is refreshing, because often times it can be my worst enemy.  I was playing around with the camera yesterday morning, trying to get a close-up of my eyeball for a possible practice painting project (ooh, check out the alliteration there with those four "p's"), and after one click of the camera this is what I wound up with.  After this shot, I tried several times to get in closer to my eye, but I just wound up with weird close-ups of my nose or obscure pieces of cheek.  It turns out it's really hard to take a self-portrait of your eyeball when you can't see the view-finder.  I eventually gave up.  Maybe I'll have Trin give it a shot.  Or maybe I'll take a picture of my sister's eye instead, that way I can get in nice and close.

Complete and utter change of subject, but yesterday was Elijah's seventh birthday.  I officially have no more little little kids (purpose repetition of the word "little"), which makes me feel...old.  As long as you still have diapers to change or a toddler running around, you still qualify as a young mom.  But none of these apply to me anymore.  Trin's in the double digits now, and time is definitely not moving any slower.

Naturally I had to work yesterday, but I woke Elijah up with a big hug and told him happy birthday.  Later on, during first period, I called Elijah up on my cell phone, put him on speaker, and my class sang happy birthday to him.  Clint took Elijah to his mom's house that morning before he was due at school, and Teri made him chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  Once he was at school, we had cupcakes delivered to his classroom.  Last night, we had dinner with Teri and let Elijah open up one present (since we were technically not celebrating his birthday until today).  Today was Elijah's birthday party, which we had at a local skate center.  Teri made him this adorable superhero cake:

The kids had so much fun, although I feel bad because I think I was probably a lousy hostess.  I wound up skating the majority of  the time rather than conversing with guests, and before I knew it, the party was over.  I couldn't help it, I heard the music and could see that open floor and it was just too irresistible.  My mom came out and skated too, which was awesome until she fell.  Hard, on her butt, legs flying up, arms swinging, the whole thing.  It took her some time to recover from that, but then she went out again for about another half hour.  I also spent a good amount of time skating with my five-year-old niece Samantha, and I don't think she or I ever stopped smiling the whole time; we were having so much fun.  I'm so glad I got to spend that time with her. 

We forgot to bring our camera to the party (arghhh), but thankfully my dad took pictures which he will eventually send my way.  As of now, here (above) is the most recent picture I have of just me and my little man (taken on Halloween).

Please time, please, slow down just a little.