Gabriel Angelo's Twelfth Birthday

The Cake: The cake was a joint effort, but Francesca did most of the work. I know Gabriel was pleased with her dedication, right, Gabe? He gave the initial idea which stemmed from his love of his Science Apologia Zoology 2 course. He began to harry his volunteer staff as he stated we weren't being accurate enough according to the animal habitats, amongst many other annoying details. That was when we booted him out of the kitchen.  I let him know how wonderful it was that he was so knowledgeable about his subject, but no one was going to notice or care about the accuracy of the cake - we were going to EAT the cake. Francesca had baked it the night before and spent most of today decorating it. She was very generous of her time and talent and I must say that it turned out super cool!

We all felt bad eating it after all that hard work!

This fall Gabriel will be attending a private school for the first time. This is sure to be a year of change (for all of us). He will have more structure in his life which is a department that is lacking more so since the last baby was born. I hope to see a lot more of these sweet smiles around here. Gabe is at the age where he wants to be with the older boys and do older boys things and watch older movies. It's a tough age in the transition years as a tween. He'll get there soon enough, but I feel bad that he is sandwiched in between girl siblings. That makes it difficult to have a buddy at home to hang out with. That is one reason we are sending him to school - so he can develop friendships with other boys his age and play sports. Boys need this very much. I have many regrets with my first two boys and they have had to suffer unnecessarily because of this.

Gabe's present....a new bike....right before he wiped out....and Nathan captured it all on video like a nice big brother. Crazy boys!

Happy Birthday, Gabey Baby (as we still call him)!