It's shaping up to be a birthday party sort of weekend.  We have a friend over this morning for the little girls, and we're meeting other friends at the pool in the afternoon.  Tomorrow afternoon Caleb is invited to a pool b'day party (whole family is invited to stay).  Sunday JuJu is invited to a neighborhood party (and to spend the night!).  Pool and b'day parties sound like a fun and virtually free way to spend the weekend. 

We had originally planned a trip to Atlanta for my nephew's b'day party.  Happy Birthday, Daniel!!  But I used up the paycheck, and gas prices are creeping up again.  Now all of this weekend's activities will be close by, which is nice. 

At some point, I'll need to have the girls clean up the multi-kid room.  It's abominable.  The thing is, they destroy it when friends are over.  It's a trade off; they actually play with toys, when friends are over.  Would I rather have the room clean (and them quite possibly lazing around on the couch asking to watch t.v. all day)?  Or would I rather have them engaged in creative play, reeking havoc on the bedroom?  Depends on the day, really.  Today, I'm glad they're playing.  I'm sure there's a happy medium in there, somewhere between "everything in it's place" and "category 6 disaster area," but I never seem to find it.  It's all or nothing.  I'm maintainance impaired in that way.

Anna's still sleeping over the din of 3 little girls and Luke and Caleb in the next room.  That's pretty amazing.  I let her stay up late-ish last night, after she watched all the kids while I had a night out.  She even had the kids tidy the den (for Twizzlers!).  She's a good babysitter.  On Monday, she leaves for 5 days at a beach conference with her youthgroup. . . Not sure how she got old enough to do that.  I'm excited for her.  She'll have a blast.

P.S.  I just went into the room to settle a trading/snatching issue between 2 and 5 year old, and Caleb was explaing to Julia the various reasons why "Oreo" is an inappropriate name for a dog (littlest pet), who is almost entirely white, with just a few black flowers.  ;)