Steven's 6th Birthday Bowling Party!
Friday:
I started baking sheets of cake and mixing up frosting on Friday during the day while Henry was napping. It was a sacrifice for me to give up my opportunity to take an afternoon nap but it was a good choice as the cake itself took much longer to actually bake than expected (and I was making 2 layers) and it took some time to get the frosting to be just right and by the time I got home I was worthless. Luke and I actually planned to go out for a fish fry for dinner, but I was too exhausted so we went to our local Mexican restaurant and had tacos instead- then went home and fell asleep.
Saturday:
On Saturday I woke up with a terrible headache, so Luke let me sleep in for a little while and took Steven to soccer. I managed to drag myself out of bed around 9:30am and then I headed over to meet Luke and Steven and take Steven to gymnastics. Luke left to head home as soon as I got to soccer, he was meeting his brother Paul and then driving to South Bend Indiana for a Notre Dame football game.
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| I couldn't resist taking this picture of Steven and two of his friends- they looked so cute sitting under the tree. |
I also took a couple pictures of Steven at gymnastics.
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| Steven (in the red shorts) working on his bridge. |
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| working on the splits |
After gymnastics we headed to Target to buy a few last minute items for Steven's birthday bowling party scheduled for the next day. After shopping I was practically falling asleep so I decided to take Steven to Culver's for lunch so that I wouldn't have to make anything- and I proceeded to pinch myself in the leg and call the families who still hadn't RSVP'd to the party on the drive home to stay awake. When we finally arrived home I tucked Steven in for a nap and tried to eat my own lunch and rest on the couch. I didn't fall asleep, but resting helped me feel quite a bit better.
In the early afternoon, Gail (my mother in law) stopped over with Steven's cousins Nev and Addy to pick up Steven for their annual Halloween themed sleepover. They had all sorts of fun activities planned for the evening. They went to the cottage to meet Papa and then they went on a hayride, watched Halloween movies, went to a corn maze in the dark using only flashlights to find their way through and they ended the night with a campfire. How fun! I'm so grateful that Steven (and our future babies) have Grandparents who love spending time with them and having special adventures. I know it means a lot to Steven too!
Soon after Steven left for his adventure my very good friend Lindsey (since the 5th grade) arrived for "GIRLS NIGHT"!!! In the past, "girls night" involved a bottle of wine (or 2), lots of talking and catching up and usually some sewing or other fun project of some sort... Well, since I'm pregnant I obviously didn't drink any wine, and we didn't work on any sewing this time but we still had projects... #1) Steven's birthday cake and #2) the dreaded job of organizing my dining room.
Our dining room has been unusable (thankfully there are pocket doors to shut) for the last 3 months or so... The disaster taking over the room was the result of other rooms in our house getting organized- this time going all the way back to summer when we reorganized the mudroom. It looked pretty bad, slightly resembling things you've probably seen on the show "Hoarders"... okay no... not really that bad... no stinky smelly stuff, no mice, and the desire to get rid of as much unnecessary stuff as possible. It was pretty bad though, and I'm really quite embarrassed to even be sharing this, but it's just how things go sometimes I guess. Basically the entire table and the floor was covered with boxes and bags and piles of things that needed to find their rightful home... or the garbage or donation pile.
So, Lindsey and I mixed up the batter for second (huge) layer of cake, and once it was in the oven baking we started working on the dining room. I totally forgot to take any "before" pictures but I probably wouldn't have had enough guts to post them even if I had remembered. Just imagine a really really bad unorganized mess. In the relatively short amount of time that the second layer of the cake was baking and cooling we made a tremendous amount of progress and ultimately we were able to put the cake together and frost and decorate it in the dining room :) Yippie! We threw away a ton of stuff, made a few donation boxes and found homes for almost everything else. We even took the canoe paddles and life jackets and all of the skiing equipment, camping gear and some other appropriate items out to the very clean and well organized garage and put them away (even though the garage is dark and creepy at night). We accomplished a huge amount, and by the time the cake was cool we could see the table and floor. I still have a few boxes of stuff to sort through and put away, but if we would have kept working on it we would have been up al night working on the cake without any sleep.
Finally we were able to work on the cake. My phone died so I only have a couple pictures to share right now. I'm waiting for Lindsey to email me the rest but she is a very busy lady who works full time and has her own very successful sewing business as well. I'll post more cake pictures when I get them.
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| The layers of the cake before we started |
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| Here is Lindsey, leveling the cake |
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| Adding Darth and Luke figurines |
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| Sketching the words on to the cake |
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| Tedious writing |
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| making a border of stars |
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| The finished product! |
When we finished the cake (I think about 1am) we cleaned up the kitchen and packed up the cake and went to bed. I think the cake turned out absolutely fantastic, and huge! HA
Sunday:
The morning of Steven's party (Sunday morning) I had to drag myself out of bed, I was so tired from working on the cake so late the night before. Lindsey had slept over, and somehow she woke up feeling peppy??!?!? (but she isn't pregnant with twins). Steven came home shortly after I woke up, he was so exhausted from his sleepover so I really wanted him to nap before his party so he would feel refreshed. He didn't want to lay down right away so Lindsey helped him work on some of his homework while I put some of the things from the dining room away and cleaned up the house. After getting a few homework assignments accomplished Luke came home, Lindsey headed home and soon after Steven was ready to lay down and rest. Steven had had really difficult time staying in bed because he was so excited for his party- poor kid I remember feeling the same way when I was little. He did manage to sleep for a little while and Luke and I used that time to get things in the car and to get ourselves ready for the party. Steven woke up ate lunch and we headed to the bowling alley for PARTY TIME!
The party turned out great, Steven had so many friends come and they all just had a blast! The kids bowled (some for the very first time) for about an hour, drank a bunch of soda and juice and then had pizza followed by singing happy birthday, eating lots of cake and ice cream and opening presents. I'm sure all the parents appreciated picking up their very sugared up and wild and crazy children at the end of the party.
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| The birthday boy, driving to his party! |
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| The party crew! |
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| Say "Happy Birthday Steven"!! |
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| Say "Star Wars"!!! |
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| Silly faces!!! |
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| Birthday Cake! |
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| My handsome husband cleaning cake and ice cream off the floor! |
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| ooooo la la |
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| A cute family photograph- our first family picture of our pregnancy- 13 weeks and showing officially "The Ninneman 5" |
So, as you can see from all of the pictures, everyone had a great time, and it was a huge relief to be able to pay for the party and leave without cleaning up the mess :) and instead head home to spend some quality family time together.
Two years ago we made the mistake of having Steven's birthday party at home and after everyone left the party I literally cried, and Luke and I officially decided we would not have Steven's parties (with all of his friends) at our house because it was just way too overwhelming to spend so much time cleaning our house just to have to clean again after everyone leaves. We are bravely hosting a second birthday party for Steven this coming Saturday but we are inviting family and friends and although there will be a few kids it won't include all of Steven's friends from school and sports so it shouldn't be too bad... I hope.
Steven's kindergarten Fall/ Halloween party
Tuesday:
Tuesday was Steven's kindergarten class Fall/ Halloween party, and since Henry was at his preschool class I had a few hours of free time to go and join in on the fun!
I dressed up in my Disco Dancer costume. My friend Lindsey (who also helped me make Steven's birthday cake) helped me make this costume 3 years ago. Thankfully it has an empire waste and still worked with my double baby bump.
When I dropped Steven off at school in the morning I told him that I was going to come to his party and surprise him with a special costume, and he sure was surprised. When I walked in his classroom he was standing near the door playing "pin the nose on the pumpkin" and I walked up to him and he couldn't figure out who I was right away, a couple seconds later when he figured it out he practically screamed and laughed! He couldn't believe it was me, neither could the other kids in his class, haha! They all see me once a week and they know what I really look like but they still kept asking if my curly black afro wig was my real hair! LOL
Steven was dressed as the "Bumble Bee Transformer" he was so excited to wear his costume to school. All of the kids looked so darn cute in their costumes.
The party was a lot of fun, there were several stations with games and activities set up around the room. I got to travel around the room with Steven's group. First, we played candy corn bingo, then we played Halloween themed games on the Smart board, then we colored pictures of our costumes and played memory, and then we played a dice game and made skeletons.
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| Steven and I playing the skeleton/dice game |
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| Look at all of those great costumes!! |
More birthday fun soon to come :) Check back soon!
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