Monday, December 10, 2012

Ethan and Ava's 6th Birthday Party

Ethan and Ava celebrated their 6th Birthday this last weekend with some shared friends and family. The theme this year was camping and Thomas transformed our basement into an amazing camping adventure. The adventure included a slide down down the steps into foam pit followed by a trail through many dark tents and tunnels that led to a gigantic tree covered with green balloons as leaves and an impressive indoor campfire! The kids were pretty amazed and I think they all had a great time. When the kids arrived and sitting together Thomas jumped down from the upstairs dressed in an Indiana Jones vest and hat and asked the kids if they were ready for an adventure? Of course the kids were ready for the fun to begin and Thomas and I came up with a scavenger hunt that would ultimately lead them to the basement steps where they would slide down into the forest. The kids found all their clues, slid down the basement slide and used flashlights to guide them through the tunnels. We only had two kids that weren't so sure about entering the caves but they did ok. Once we were safe in a tent, Thomas turned all the lights out and turned on lightning sounds as if we were stuck in a storm. This is when I had a few kids plead to be released back to their parents :) Shortly after, we turned off the sounds, turned on the flashlights and read some stories instead. After that, we continued through the tunnels and made it to the campfire where all the kids bundled up in their sleeping bags with some trail mix and listened to Papa Shiplett and Grandpa Fawcett tell campfire stories. They were great! They had the kids captivated. We ate cake and amazing cupcakes (thanks to Grandma Fawcett who never disappoints with her baking creations), opened gifts and watched a movie under the stars! Thomas and I are exhausted, but it was well worth the effort. It's hard to believe we have a soon to be 6 year old in the house! Simon and Samuel enjoyed the party as well! Samuel refused to take a nap and wanted in on all the action. I had somewhat planned the party around his nap time so that both Thomas and I would be completely freed up to party with the kids however we were flexible and even though he didn't nap, he was very pleasant for the party and didn't require much added attention. Simon enjoyed the slide so much that we were still sliding days after the party was over. Finally Thomas thought it best to remove the slide since it was becoming a bit of a safety issue as the kids were sending all sorts of toys down the slide and sneaky little Samuel had opened up the basement door and slid down, unattended, several times. Very dangerous! Simon is already talking about his Birthday and how he would love a slide into a prehistoric basement! We're exhausted just thinking about it! This week, we have been trying to recover from a busy month! We did finally get our Christmas tree purchased and decorated. It's a bit smaller than last year which I think is appropriate for our size living room and it gives the kids a little more space to run around. We are excited for the trip to Grandma and Grandpa's in a couple of weeks along with Christmas morning in Ames! The kids can't wait! In the meantime, I will be baking our Holiday cookies and getting them ready to send to our family and neighbors. It's always fun to get the kids involved although I would say they stay involved for about the first batch out of 20 and that's about it! Their favorite are the date balls because they can roll them around in powdered sugar. I hope to take some pictures and get them posted. No snow thus far but we're eagerly awaiting its arrival! We had a few flurries the other night and the kids were having such a difficult time getting to sleep because they couldn't stop looking out their window at the stoplight down the street where they could see the snow falling. Unfortunately, nothing stuck to the ground. We're hopeful and optimistic though, that it will be a white Christmas!
This is the tree, although difficult to see, and the balloon covered ceiling.
This is the campfire that Thomas built and the picture really doesn't do it justice!
Here is a picture of the kids blowing out an amazing flower candle that opens up and plays Happy Birthday!
Here is the slide going into the basement! The lights were all turned off when the kids slid down as well as a wall of streamer and pit foam at the bottom!
The table of goodies along with the campfire cake!
The Birthday kids!
This is the early construction of the tree in our basement!

1 comment:

Elaine M. Zimmerman said...

Looks awesome -- I wish you guys would plan our parties. Happy Birthday, Ethan.