A Frozen Party

I do not like running "friend" birthday parties that much.  It's just way too social of an event for my comfort zone. But I know its a fun part of childhood so I don't want my kids to suffer too much from my antisocial tendencies, so I do it, and it's not so bad.  Anyway, Anna only had a family party last year so I felt like she could have a friend party this year...especially since she probably won't next year when we move again.

Now this was not a pinterest approved party with cute handmade party favors and games drawn by hand and cute labels for all the perfectly theme matched food items...topped off with a hand made multilayer cake.  I bought things from the party store and a cake from Sams Club.  Nothing against that kind of party.  I was even thinking of trying to do some cuter things, like snow flake shaped jello or snowflake shaped watermelon pops, but I just didn't have enough energy.  I'm getting more and more tired as I get closer to that 3rd trimester (just over 24 weeks now and baby is still doing well).  There is some unspoken mom pressure sometimes to make your parties extra cutesie these days. But I didn't do any of that.  And the kids still had a great time.  I think the moms care more about that than the kids do.  Old school birthday parties still rule. 
Anna wanted to have a Frozen birthday theme so that's what we did, even though I had been warned by several people that you can't get Frozen party supplies anywhere.  That's not actually true anymore.  Supply has increased.  Party City had a bunch of stuff and so did Oriental Trading.
We had eleven kids at our party, including four of my own, and LOTS of activities.  I had to have a schedule so I wouldn't forget what to do.

First we decorated foamy crowns with glitter glue and jewels - a good arriving activity.  
Then we played pin the nose on Olaf (above) - purchased from Party City for $4 - not hand drawn.  ;) The kids loved it.  You can also kind of see my new haircut in the this picture (above) - well, just new bangs.

 We played dangling snowballs - really just powdered donuts

 That's a game the kids always love too

We played "cold snowball" (instead of hot potato)

And did a snowball toss game where we knocked over stacks of cups with snowballs (soft hacky sack sized balls)  That was also very popular!  Scott restacked the cups quickly between children.  Everyone loved seeing them get knocked over!  We also played throw the snowballs into a basket, but that wasn't nearly as exciting.

And we did a snowflake scratch off craft

Then we built our own Olaf out of marshmallows.  We were able to make this craft without the cute labels that say "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" on individually wrapped baggies.  Although those are cute.  I put out bowls of supplies and the kids made whatever crazy snowman they wanted, with as many body parts as they wanted.

 Everyone liked that one a lot too

We had a pinata

 Here is the cake I baked and hand painted.  Just kidding.  It's from Sams Club.

We had lunch - little make your own deli meat and cheese sandwiches with lots of fruit, cheese and crackers and blue Kool-Aid.  The kids found plenty to eat.  I actually did have a bowl of baby carrots that could have been Olaf noses (although no cute label, so no one would know) but I forgot to put them out.  :)

 Then we sang Happy Birthday

 And opened presents

We also listened to Frozen music throughout and sang along.

And we ran out of time, but would have wrapped kids up as toilet paper snow monsters if we needed an extra game.  So that was our party.  Anna had fun, the kids had fun and it wasn't too stressful.  Scott stayed home for part of the morning and helped me run the party.  I'm glad its done now.  Happy Birthday Anna!!

A Major Award

 All our kids participated in the library reading program at the base library this summer.  I entered what they read and what I read to them online and they got to earn some different prizes.  This week the base library ended their program and had their end of year reading program party.  Scott got a call that John had won an award at the reading party (determined by a drawing) and they wanted to know if we would be at the party.  We were planning to go to the party for at least part of it anyway, so we went.  At the very end of the party, which included food and an animal show, they gave out awards.  John got called up and won a Rock and Roll Elmo toy.  He was definitely the smallest reading program winner.  There he is with Scott up on the stage.  At first I think he didn't know what was going on but then got excited when he saw the Elmo toy and heard people clapping.

Here is John with his major award!  He didn't know why he was getting it, but he was excited!  Anna was mad that he won, citing that he couldn't even read as a reason he shouldn't win.  I see her point, but reading to him still counts and he won by a drawing, fair and square.  Plus Anna needs to learn about losing gracefully.

 Anna got plenty of chances to play with Elmo and help John play with it.

John loved hearing Elmo sing and watching him dance and play instruments, so he liked his new toy.  It's sort of like an early birthday present.  Good job listening to all those stories, John!  Hooray for reading!

At the Splash Pad

Even though we had a fun vacation I've still been having summer guilt because I don't have a lot of energy these days and a lot of our outings have been doctor appointments, therapy appointments or meetings of one kind or another.  So today I had a little extra energy and took the kids to the splash pad. Taking kids swimming is also scary to me since none of my kids swim that well yet and I'm just nervous managing four non-swimmers alone.  So the splash pad is a good option.  There is a great splash pad near us that I posted some pictures about last year (see that HERE).

When we visited last year a few times it was always insanely hot and crowded.  Today not so much.  Part of why I decided to go today was that it was 85 degrees vs. 99 degrees.  And apparently that's not hot enough for most people to head to the splash pad.  Hooray!  It reminds me of when we were at Six Flags a few weeks ago and we overheard some natives pooh poohing the crazies who would go swimming when it was a frosty 80 degrees outside.  Really?  Anyway, it was still plenty hot and humid and we had a lot more space to play since it wasn't wall to wall people.

 It was good it wasn't crowded 'cause John decided he should throw all the rocks

We brought water shoes of some kind for everyone, but Grant still preferred to play on the non-rocky surfaces.  He hates weird stuff on his feet.  :)  Here are Grant and John in the rocky waterfall area.

 All the kids loved the splash pad part

So many ways to get wet

 There are also some fun playgrounds and another rock water area.

The kids played and played and loved it.

And the only child in the whole place who thought he should explore the paths in the park (walking away from all the water and excitement) was John Guptill.  I had to chase him down this path and carry him back screaming.  He likes to take the road less travelled.  Anyway, we had some good summer fun.  Hooray for 85 degree days!

Historic Kirtland

Our final site seeing stop on our summer vacation was Kirtland, Ohio to see some LDS church history sites.  We saw the Kirtland Temple, but didn't take a tour inside.  Since this temple is not owned by the church and not a working LDS temple, anyone who wants to can take tours inside.  They were done with tours for the day when we got there.  The temple is still very special to the LDS people and I'm sure they would like to own it someday.  The missionaries at the Kirtland visitor center said they have a good relationship with the Community of Christ (the church, formerly Reorganized LDS that owns the temple).

 Here you can see the scale of the building.  Huge!

Nearby are some other church historic sites.  It's a little village with restored buildings from early church history.  We saw a short film about Kirtland at the visitor center.  Then we saw the Newell K. Whitney store.

 Inside the store

 Upstairs in the store

 At the Newell K. Whitney home.  We didn't get great pictures of a lot of things 'cause John and Grant were melting down at the same time.

 We did get to see the saw mill

 And the ashery

It was a beautiful area.  He had a nice visit at Kirtland, although these pictures may not adequately reflect it.  It was a nice end to our busy vacation.  After Kirtland we rested, then drove the rest of the way home the next day.  So much adventure, but nice to be home again.

BONUS PHOTOS!!

Once we got home, Scott googled our major route out and back

Nearly 3000 miles  And that's not counting our day trips here and there in New England

And our overzealous and untended garden once we got back

Super zucchini!!  Sigh...time to do laundry

Niagara Falls

Continuing on in a westerly direction we drove to Niagara Falls, New York.  I'd never been there before and neither had the kids so it was cool to see.

There are lots of activities to do and see but all we did was ride Maid of the Mist, the little boat that goes up close to the falls so you can see it.  It was blazing hot!  And wearing those plastic ponchos felt really hot while we waited.  

Luckily it was a short wait.  We were soon able to get on board.

We found a nice spot up top on the falls side.  John still couldn't see without assistance.

First we passed American Falls

There you can kind of see American Falls behind Scott

Here's a little better view of American Falls.

We got only barely misted at American Falls

And up ahead is Horseshoe Falls

That's when things got serious!  Seriously wet.

We got past some point and started getting large sideways rain kind of "mist"

Everyone on the boat screamed and cheered

Some moments were a little lighter than others

We kept John as dry as we could.  I wasn't sure if my camera would be the same after or if the pictures would turn out, but it all seemed to work out.

Thank goodness for ponchos

The mist felt nice 'cause it was super hot

Some pictures from the observatory point

There's the Canadian version of Maid of the Mist that runs from the other side of the river.

Glad we got to see the famous Niagara Falls!