First days of summer and birthday celebrations

We officially kicked off the last summer we'll have with only one child last Wednesday. With all of the chaos that May is at school with senior nights and grad parties and all that hoopla, Eva was starting to feel a little bit left behind by her mama. This resulted in a daily heart breaking round of peeling her off me to go to work in the last few days, so boy was I relieved to finally be able to tell her, "It's you and me all day today, kiddo." The first few days she didn't seem to believe me and was still very clingy and cried a lot, but by the weekend it seems I had convinced her it was true.
We headed down South for Alexander and Amelia's birthday party a day early. As soon as we started to walk inside the house, Eva started to excitedly say, "Alex? Alex?" It was fun to see her so excited to see her cousin. Though I'm sorry to say, she may have been even more excited to see Briggs. I just have to laugh remembering how Briggs was the first thing I had ever seen her be legitimately afraid of. You'd have never known it based on how much she wanted to go visit him in the garage or the backyard. Unfortunately it was pretty stinkin' hot out, so we had to convince her to stay inside until the heat of the day was just a tad bit behind us. Eventually the kids played, Aunt Ashley and Uncle Trevor arrived, Grandma and Papa came over for pizza, and everyone had a good time. Aunt Molly and I had lots of fun getting the cakes ready for the party the next day!
There was a little worry about the party being really hot, but luckily we had such a nice breeze it was a great afternoon to be outside. Alex was so excited to open his presents. It made me think about how I can't wait until Evalee understands the excitement surrounding her birthday as well! He was pretty excited about this fireman dress up gift he got until his daddy brought out the gator he got as a gift from his parents. Oh the excitement amongst all the little people! Everyone wanted to ride (drive)! Eva did her best to keep up with all the other kids, and she did a pretty good job, I think. Travis and I were both impressed with how well she played with others. After a bath (which probably should have just been a hose down with how gross our daughter was by the end of the day) we headed home so Travis could work on Monday. It was a great weekend, and it was great to see my favorite nephew and niece on their special day!