Monday morning, although not all that early, I decided to take the kids miniature golfing. The resort we were staying at had a little course and only NIcholas has ever gone. We told Steven we were going and he decided to bring his two oldest boys as well. We all drove down together in our car and as I was backing out, I ran into the mailbox. More exactly, the wooden post the mailbox was attached to. I was going very slowly, and I stopped immediately, but apparently, that was some seriously strong wood, because it left quite a dent in the rental car. Good thing we got the insurance!
We continued on, without further incident, to the clubhouse where we were all given our clubs and the kids got to pick out their golf balls. I have seriously never seen so many different colored golf balls before. Red, green, light blue, dark blue, purple, yellow, black, orange and pink. Every one was happy, they all got their favorite colors. Then we decided to split up the kids. Steven took my three oldest, and I took his two and Noah. This way the different families could get to know each other a little better.
The kids were having a great time at first, hitting the ball all over the place, except for Sam, who beat the pants off me. But there were people in front of us, and sometimes we had to stand and wait our turn, while the sun kept beating down on us. Did I mention we were in North Carolina in August? It was hot and humid, and the kids kept asking if we had brought water. Uh, no, that would have been a good idea, though. There was a drinking fountain in the clubhouse, but it wasn't as handy as a bottle of water. We took a nice long bathroom break in the air conditioned building, and then headed back out to finish up our 18 holes.
There was a bit of excitement, Sophie, Steven, and I believe, Sam all got holes in one. Also several balls fell into the water traps, but Steven managed to fish them out with his long reach. (Probably all that study of exactly how the human wrist moves also gave him an advantage on how to angle the club just right to use it to pop the ball right out of the water) There was even a cute little bridge to walk on over one of the little rivers. But all that excitement couldn't overcome the heat. We should have started at least an hour earlier. My crew gave out on the 16th hole, and we ended up sitting in the air conditioned car while the other group finished up.
When we got back, we found out that the other cousins had come over just as we left and were sad they didn't get to come with us. That made me feel really bad that I hadn't thought to call them first. Oma took some of the older grandkids out on one of the canoes and they ended up having quite the adventure. Not many of them knew how to row properly, so they spent a good deal of time going around in circles. Then they figured it out, but only in a backwards direction! She decided to use what she had and row backwards across the lake to the other house where David/Liz and family were staying. Unfortunately, the canoe began to take on water before they got there. Sarah freaked out and pretty much screamed that they were all going to drown until they arrived at David's. After that shocker, she refused to get back in the canoe and David very kindly drove her over in the car, even though it meant going the long way around. While Oma was going from one canoe to the other, she lost her balance and fell in the lake. It wasn't very deep, and she didn't want to scare the kids so she made sure to smile and laugh the whole time. Everyone needed a change of clothes as there ended up being quite a bit of water in the canoe, but they had a great time, except for Sarah. Nick will always remember the canoe ride with Oma.
We had planned to have a talent show for Family Home evening, but Chris and I went shopping in Hendersonville that afternoon and didn't get back until it was too late for that. We needed clothes for the family photos the next day, and then we just HAD to stop at Krispy Kreme and pick up a snack. Yes, for dinner that night I ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk in the car on the way home and topped it off with an original glazed KK. I just love vacations in America.
After all the kids had gone to bed, Marcie broke out her pillowcase full of games and taught Cristie and I how to play the Bean game. We may have also played something else, but sadly, I can't remember now. I do know that we stayed up until 2 am talking and laughing and sharing stories. That is always my favorite part of any get together, the hanging out and talking. Even as a youngster, I remember loving to hang out wherever the adults were gathered at Grandma Walker's house to listen to them talking and laughing with each other. Especially my mom and Aunt Sandy. No one could make my mom laugh like Aunt Sandy. Man, I miss that.
Anyway, it was a great way to end the evening (and begin the next morning). Especially since my children had lots of friends to play with so I could actually sleep in the next morning. Woohoo!
We got such a late start on Saturday that we didn't arrive at the resort where the reunion was being held until well after dinnertime. The kids were excited to see Uncle Adam, Uncle Jake, Opa and Oma, but everyone else were in the other houses. We got up early Sunday morning and headed back to Hendersonville for church. It took an hour to get there. It was fun to go to a ward where you think you will be completely anonymous and get greeted by name instead, the minute you walk in the door. Apparently, the lady who my in-laws called to get directions to the church was in the foyer when we walked in and figured it must be us because she didn't recognize us and there were a bunch of us!
That little ward, which was actually so full we had to sit on extra seats back in the cultural hall, was so friendly and welcoming, we didn't feel like strangers at all. Several people said hello and warmly welcomed us, one guy kept hoping he would "see us again real soon". David and Liz came in a bit after we had sat down and I am afraid my kids weren't so great at being reverent, they were too excited to see their cousins. We had never seen baby Isaac before, and he's five now! My favorite part was sitting together in a row in Relief Society, four Charles women.
After church we all headed back to the resort for lunch, although it took so long to get back home it was really "linner", as we call it in our family. (We generally have "linner" on Sundays, but maybe that will change once I get my crockpot from England...) It was so tempting to stop and get a snack or do some shopping as we passed all these little fruit stands and people selling handmade items for the tourists. My favorite was "Hillbilly John's Hand-Carved Chainsaw Bears". And I never did get to try those boiled peanuts everyone kept advertising. I can't even imagine how they would taste. Must have been kind of good, they sure were popular.
We spent a relaxing afternoon catching up with everyone and generally enjoying each other's company. Steven and Cristie arrived that evening with their three little boys and our house was full. The kids recognized everyone from their Christmas card photos, and like all cousins everywhere, they immediately bonded and had a blast playing with each other whenever they could.
Amelia (David's oldest) took exceptional care of Alexandra pretty much the whole week. She was always carrying her around, walking with her, playing with her, and giving her lots of love. Naturally, Alexandra just ate it up.
We had three main goals for our trip to America; attend the family reunion, eat food from certain places, and buy a whole long list of wonderful found-only-in-America items. We started working on those goals pretty much immediately. We checked into the hotel, got the big kids in their jammies snuggled up watching tv in bed, and ran to Taco Bell for dinner. We brought back a crazy amount of tacos and the kids ate all but 2 1/2 of them. Oh, we also brought root beer to drink and Double Stuff Oreos for dessert.
Chris had done quite a bit of homework figuring out where the best place to sleep was based on the short amount of time and the huge quantity of shopping we wanted to do and the places we wanted to eat at. Our hotel pretty much shared the parking lot with several of these places, or was just down the street from them. This meant we didn't waste a lot of time driving around. He also had printed maps with directions for every store we wanted to go to, or restaurant we wanted to eat at. It was awesome.
After a delicious breakfast at IHOP, we drove to the Mall of Georgia where we spent the next 11 hours doing our part to improve the local area's economy. We even had to stop for a minute and run bags out to the car because we couldn't carry them all. This mall also had something very special for Chris, an IMAX theatre showing "The Dark Knight". While he was doing that, the kids and I shopped some more until it was time for our movie to start. We saw "WallE", which the kids loved. Even had to get Noah a tshirt with the little robot on it. They continued to quote the movie for the rest of the trip. Their only complaint was that the theater was freezing. My poor European children aren't used to air conditioning, although they weren't used to the sweltering heat outside either. They would get in the car and close the vents so the air wouldn't blow on them. What hilarious children. We, however, enjoyed being cold for a change.
We meant to get the kids to bed early, but we were all having so much fun at Barnes and Noble we didn't leave until almost 9, and then we got lost coming home, so that we didn't end up back at the hotel until after 10. Yes, the kids all fell asleep in the car. Chris snuck out after they were in bed and had some Wendy's chili. Apparently, my copycat recipe, although quite delicious, just isn't as good. He was really enjoying it until he noticed all the celery pieces in it. Mine doesn't contain that deadly ingredient and he had forgotten they put it in there. Whoops. Good thing he was already pumped full of hay fever medicine, or it could have ended not well.
The next morning we had planned to just pick up a few more things and head on up to Lake Lure, but one place led to another place and then we needed to have lunch, and we ended up leaving Atlanta about the time we had planned on arriving at the reunion. Whoops! Fortunately, Oma and company left late as well, so it was all good. They met us in Hendersonville and we followed them the rest of the way in. The kids kept telling Chris to go faster, so that the twisty, windy road would be more roller-coaster-like. You know, what they are used to. But we were following Opa, who was driving extra responsible, which while safer, is totally not fun at all. The kids liked the trip in to town that we took ourselves a few days later much better. Chris shaved 20 minutes off our travel time. :)
We went to bed tired and happy, and ready to party with the cousins the next day.
Thursday morning, very early in the morning, we headed off to Atlanta and a Charles family reunion in the mountains of North Carolina. Even though we had to catch the 5:15 am train, instead of the originally planned 7:09 am train to the airport, we were all in good spirits and grateful we had any plane at all to catch. You see, lovely Lufthansa employees decided to strike a day or two before our flight. Chris had signed up for email updates on our flights, so we knew that our first flight, from Zurich to Frankfurt had been cancelled. But we were immediately booked on a Swiss flight instead, and there were no worries. It was earlier, but at least the flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta was still good.
Chris left at 8:30 pm Wednesday to check us and our luggage in, to save us from lugging that and all the tired kids the next morning on the train. We can do that here in Zurich, yet another reason why I love this city. There were quite a few people in line and it was taking quite a bit longer than he had originally planned. When it was finally his turn, it was almost 10:00 pm and the airport was slowly shutting down. The lady then calmly informed him that the flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta had been cancelled due to the strike. He asked if there were any other airline we could take instead. She fiddled around on her computer a bit and then took him to a man further up the chain of command, as she was unable to help him.
This gentleman informed Chris that there was a couple in front of him, that had been waiting even longer, he had to help them first. Also, he was supposed to go home an hour ago. Turns out later, he told everybody that. Chris sat down, handed him his passport, and the guy thought it was just Chris who needed a new ticket. When he saw all seven passports, he was even less thrilled. Started typing in the computer, and informed Chris that everything was booked out for the next couple of days. There was no way we were going to Atlanta at this time. Chris said a little prayer, right then. We really didn't want to miss out on the first half of the family reunion. It would be the first time all seven children, their spouses and children were all together in one place since the night Chris left for his mission 16 years earlier. Plus, it was his mom's 60 birthday. If we missed all that, there really wasn't any point in going at all.
After the quietly said prayer, there was a bit more typing from the other side of the desk. Maybe there was a chance, the guy said. Started typing some more on his computer, and discovered that one of his colleagues had already booked flights for us earlier in the evening, and we were scheduled to leave at seven am the next morning. Hooray! A miracle. We pretty much got the last seven seats from Europe to America available anywhere. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
But Chris still had all the luggage at the airport, waiting to check it in. Most everyone had gone home, it is after ten, you know. The man was all helpful attitude now, Let's see if we can find someone to take your luggage, he tells Chris. They saw a manager lady talking to some people down the hall. Walked up to her and asked if he could still check in his luggage. She didn't blink an eye, but said they had to hurry, the conveyor belts had already shut down. So she made a quick call, asked them to start it up again, checked us in, got all the luggage on the conveyor belt, and he was good to go.
By now, it was 10:30pm, and he had been at the airport for almost two hours. Chris had only paid for 15 minutes parking, thinking he would just run in, check in the luggage and run out again. (Didn't know anything about the cancelled flights at that point.) Luckily, the police must have gone home as well, because two hours later, no ticket was waiting for him on the windshield. Thank heavens for miracles, both big and small.
Our neighbor Kirstie, very kindly agreed to pick us up and take us to the train station at the unholy hour of 4:45 am. Right on the dot, she pulled up and we all piled into her minivan for a ride down the hill. The buses don't run in our neck of the woods that early, you see. We were oh so grateful, to not have to call two taxis (one just wouldn't hold us all), and to only have a few small lightweight carryons to deal with. The children were very tired, and thus very quiet and zombielike. Perfect traveling conditions, actually. Simply point them in the right direction, give them a gentle push in the back to get them started and they walk until you tell them to stop. Too tired to fight, complain, or whine, I highly recommend it to all my traveling friends. haha.
Instead of flying to Frankfurt first, as originally planned, we went to Copenhagen, and then on to Atlanta. This should have been a relatively simple change of planes, no luggage as it had all been checked through, except for one small glitch. Rather than stow our stroller in the front of the plane like they have on every other flight we've ever taken a stroller on, they put it down below with the checked baggage. That meant we had to pass through security and customs, (got a cool stamp in the passports, though) wait around in the baggage claim area for the stroller, then go back up through security and board. But the security people wouldn't let us through without a proper boarding pass which we didn't have because of all the last minute changes. All we had was a piece of paper with our itinerary printed out on it.
So they sent us back down to the check in area, where we were the last ones on the flight to be helped. We tell the attendant that we need proper boarding passes and he says, "Why did you come all the way down here? You should have just gone straight through to the next boarding area." Yeah, tried that, didn't work. So they issued us "real" boarding passes for security purposes (is there an eyerolling smiley?) and we ran to make our connection. When we got to the gate they told us the flight was closed and we couldn't get on. After a few minutes of us being stunned that they had shut the gate without us, even though they knew we were coming, they realized their error. Apparently, they had us mixed up with the family that was trying to fly stand by. Uh no, check out our nifty boarding passes, we got seats. So they eventually let us on the plane, and we breathe a sigh of relief.
We flew in the day, meaning the children were pretty much awake for the whole long flight over the ocean, although some did take a short nap. We ended up with the very first row and the very last row in the economy section. Somehow, in all the confusion of being the last to board, I ended up in the bulkhead row with all four small children, while Chris and Nick got to kick it in the back row together. To Chris' credit, just as I was thinking up a justifiable evil revenge to exact on him for sticking me with all these little kids all by myself on a 10 hour flight, like a true knight in shining armor he appeared by my side and asked if I would like a turn in the back row with Nick. This was about three hours into the flight. He took care of the kids single-handedly while I took a nap on Nick's shoulder for the next 3 hours. That was the best.
I did start to miss all that leg room in the bulkhead however, so I went up and traded seats with him again. Actually, he came back with Noah and Baby to say hi. Noah made this adorable little sad face and told me to come back up front, he missed me. After my nap, I was feeling great, so I took over for the rest of the flight, while Chris and Nick stayed in back. We tried having Nicholas trade with one of the younger kids, but he was happy where he was and didn't want to move. That whole doesn't-like-change-thing again. It was fine, though, the kids all had individual screens to watch whatever they wanted, and a window they took turns looking out of, so they were well entertained.
At one point, we all had switched seats, so that Baby, Sophie and I were all sitting over by the window. Noah came running over exclaiming, "Just want to see if we're still flying!" He took a quick glance out the window and shouted, "Yep, we're still flying!" Then he ran back to his seat and sat down. Cracked us all up, plus a few fellow passengers.
The kids refused to eat any of the airline food, but I knew that ahead of time and had packed quite a few sandwiches, fruit and snacks for them to have instead. Would have been nice to also pack our own juice, ggrrrr, but at least on this flight they were quite liberal with the free drinks and were constantly passing out cups of water to anyone who wanted one. That was nice.
When we got to Atlanta, who did we run into in the airport? Melanie's Mom and Dad. Melanie is a lady who now lives in our ward from America. Her parents had come over to visit, and were flying home the same day we were. They weren't on our flight, but we saw them just before/after customs. That was kind of fun, totally didn't expect to see a familiar face in that huge crowd. It did take quite a while after we landed to actually get to our rental car, 3 hours to be exact. Atlanta airport has this new absolutely, stupid, makes no sense whatsoever rule, that after you wait for your baggage, go through security, and go through customs, you must re-check your bags and wait for them at another baggage claim area in a different part of the airport. Even if all you want to do is EXIT THE AIRPORT!!!! Where they think I could have magically gotten something dangerous after my bags have been checked, rechecked, x-rayed and separated from me on the flight over, I will never know. They don't even sell anything dangerous in the airport I could have picked up. But still, there we stood and waited and waited and waited for our bags a second time so we could walk out the door. We have vowed to never, ever, ever fly into Atlanta with it as our final destination again. No matter what. It bugged us that bad.
But then we got to the hotel and all was good again. More on that later.
Okay, so this is three weeks later, I admit. In my defense, we left for America two days after his birthday, and it's been pure roller coaster from that moment until this one. So now I shall try and catch all my devoted readers up on our lives. (Chris jokingly told me I needed to hurry and update my blog for my devoted readers. I laughed, then got an email from one of them asking me to update. That was kind of funny. Thanks, MP!)
This is the first year Noah really wanted a birthday party. We had decided on a pirate theme several weeks ago, and I scoured the internet for creative things to make and do for the party. That is my personal reward for throwing these birthday parties, don't you know? A valid excuse to spend hours in my craft room! The one thing I was sad about, I finally found the face paint for pirate beards and moustaches after the last kid had gone home. Sigh.
All his little friends from church came, including his favorite, Xenia, the only girl pirate, plus two friends who used to live in town. Since the party was on a Tuesday, Chris wasn't there to help out with Alexandra, so I was glad Pamela and Cathy decided to stay. Cathy ended up running the entire game of Pin the Flag on the Pirate Ship while I fed Baby. We also played Pirate Bowling, Musical Islands, and Hook the Pretzel. These were American kids so they actually ate the birthday cake I had made to look like a pirate ship. That was fun for me. Rather than tossing most of the cake because no one ate any! The sad part, no one in the family got seconds because Papa decided to toss it for us. We weren't too happy about that one.
As a final game, we sent the kids on a treasure hunt, since that is what all good pirates do. I had run out of time, so had Nicholas draw up the clues for the kids. Some of the clues were found out of order, which frustrated the clue writer, but eventually we worked it all out and the treasure was discovered buried in the footstool in the living room. Each little pirate got to take home a treasure box filled with sugar in various forms, and a parrot to sit on their shoulder. All in all, I think the kids had a good time and I know Noah loved it.
Can I just say, four year old pirates are about the cutest things on the planet!
Yesterday Sarah officially turned 7! We didn't do too much to celebrate as we had her huge party on the 12th. But she still got her special birthday cereal, her special birthday lunch, got out of doing chores for the day, and had presents and ice cream. We would have gone to the zoo as well, but she and Sophie had horrible headaches and slight fevers in the morning. :( I thought they were getting sick and canceled the outing. They felt better later, but by then, Sarah decided she wanted to be a pajama sam for the day, and so that is what we did. She said it didn't feel like a birthday because there weren't any decorations put up, so I blew up some princess balloons I found at the store and she was happy.
I wrapped her presents and put them on the entertainment center to wait until Papa got home like we always do. At around 2:30 she started asking me when Papa was coming home so she could open her presents. At 3:00 I let her open the gift Oma had sent, hoping to placate her. That worked for about 15 minutes, and then the asking started up again. Every.five.minutes. So at around 3:45 I had had enough and told her to call Papa and see what he had to say about it. She did, and he said he would be sad to miss it but that he understood how hard it is to wait, so as long as we took lots of pictures, she could open them now. She was thrilled with this and happily smiled for all the pictures I took. She seemed pleased with her gifts. There wasn't anything too huge, since the Wii was the main present, but every birthday kid needs something to unwrap the day of.
I think her favorite gift was her new left-handed scissors. She spent the day cutting all kinds of things, the wrapping on her presents, scrap paper she found in the drawing door, and then her hair! None of my kids has ever done that before, and I thought she was past the age where that would be a problem, but apparently not. I am going to have to have it fixed before we go to North Carolina and take family pictures. Silly, Silly, Sarah.
And as always on her birthday, that night at family prayer I was most thankful that 7 years ago, Dr. Lauper listened to the Spirit and did NOT put me on a helicopter to transfer me to another hospital. Even though there were no beds for me in the hospital, outside of the labor and delivery rooms, and no incubators for my soon-to-be-born preemie baby. Something told him to just wait, and he did. That action, or non-action saved both our lives. My placenta tore away from the uterine wall and she was delivered by emergency c-section, at the same time we would have been up in the air flying to the new hospital. There would have been nothing the medics on board could have done, they aren't equipped for actual operations on those things, and we would have died before they could have landed anywhere to get help, most likely. It was scary enough as it was, all by myself in the hospital, I can't imagine the horror if I had been in the helicopter. Shudder. So yeah, really glad we all survived and lived to have three more children. Thanks again, Dr. Lauper.
We had two momentous occasions happen on our stairs today. These are the stairs inside our apartment that lead up to the play area and my craft room. First, Noah was walking up and somehow, no adult saw it so we aren't sure exactly, he fell down. This happened once before about two years ago and he ended up with a sprained/slight break in his collar bone. This time, he landed just right (or wrong) and broke the bone right above his left elbow. He was crying quite uncontrollably for a while, so Chris decided he needed to go to the hospital. But Noah didn't want Chris to take him, he wanted me. He also didn't want to go to the hospital, he wanted Dr. Kramreiter. Unfortunately, Dr. Kramreiter doesn't work on Saturday, but I did take him instead of Papa.
The doctor really wriggled his arm around quite a bit, and poor Noah was trying to be so brave, but it really hurt him. They finally gave him a little pain medicine, and that helped a tad. Then the head doctor came in and started wriggling it around some more, and Noah was really crying out. He had had enough of their manhandling, even though I could tell the doctors were being very gentle with him. The head doctor told the nurse to give him some pain medicine. She told him they already had, and he asked what kind. When she told him, he shook his head disapprovingly and said, "No, no, not that. Give him the good stuff." So he got a second dose of something stronger. So strong that they told me it may knock him out, it would definitely make him very woozy, and to not be alarmed if he acted drunk. Also, don't let him sit on anything he could fall off of, and if he fell asleep make sure his bed had rails on it, so he wouldn't fall off. He never did fall asleep, but he is definitely acting drunk.
He tried walking by himself and was swaying from side to side, and couldn't stay in a straight line. I rescued him after just a couple of steps because I didn't want him to fall down and break the other arm! The two positives are the new tiny teddy he got from the nurse to hold on to while they were examining him, and the cool green cast he gets to sport around tomorrow at church! On the way out to the car, when it was all over with he said to me, "That wasn't so bad. I didn't even die!" Apparently, he thought that going to the hospital meant that he might die. Poor baby, I am going to hope it was the drugs talking.
This afternoon, little Alexandra climbed up these same stairs all by herself to the very tippy top. She was very excited and proud of herself, and yes she was being closely monitored by Papa at all times. Does it make me a little scared that she now has the ability to cause herself great physical harm by tumbling down the same stairs that broke Noah's arm? Yes, which is why the gate is going up this evening. I do not want to be on a first name basis with any of the emergency room staff.
Yesterday was my 38th birthday. I have always enjoyed my birthday. I like celebrating it. I like when other people celebrate it. I have no problems reminding people it is time to celebrate it. This year was no exception. My friend Julie is here visiting from Switzerland. She is actually staying in my friend Angela's house which is just across the street from me. She mentioned wanting to get a game night/girl's night out together sometime this week and I suggested Thursday night would be perfect since it was my birthday! I sent out an email to some folks, she called a few others and come Thursday we had quite a crowd gathered.
As usual, I was late. :( Couldn't quite get all the kids to bed on time, but I was able to sneak away without Baby. She fell asleep early and stayed asleep! Must have been my birthday present. When I walked in the door, they greeted me by all breaking out in a beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday" and there was a cake (really delicious candy bar brownies) decorated with slightly stale Peeps. My favorite! It was very sweet, and I totally loved it. As if that was enough, I also got presents! Scrapbook paper and a yummy smelling candle.
We spent a few minutes just chatting with each other and snacking on all the delicious treats people brought. I was going to make chocolate rice krispie treats, but decided that since it was my birthday I didn't have to bring anything. :) I love being able to just talk to people outside of church, and catch up on their lives. I could call them during the week, I suppose. But that sucks up a lot of their day, and mine as well. So events like these where I don't feel guilty talking their ear off, are perfect.
I was trying to be really good, and just have little tastes of everything. But there were so many delicious things to try, that eventually I just had to stop. My stomach didn't feel so good. That could have had something to do with the fact that I also ate birthday cake before I came over with my family! Anyway, then it was time to play! We started off with a hilarious game called "Mad Gab". The trick, we learned, is to have one person read out the words, while the rest of the team closes their eyes and just listens to what they are saying. Makes the correct phrases really easy to hear that way.
At about 10:30 I called Chris to see how the kids were, and he told me that Alexandra had just woken up. So I walked over to get her, and he went to bed. That was perfect, because now I could stay playing for a lot longer without a guilty conscious. Angela has American Idol for the Wii, so we all took a turn trying for a chance at fame. I thought I knew the song I had chosen, but when it came time to sing, I only knew the chorus. Simon was obviously very impressed regardless, because I made it through to Hollywood. haha There were tons of people wanting to play so a few of us drifted over to the kitchen table and played a few rounds of Rummykube. Like most games I play, I very rarely win at this one, but I still enjoy the competition.
I made it home just at midnight, so I didn't turn into a pumpkin. It was a great birthday, and I am so blessed to have great friends to celebrate it with.
Since Sarah's birthday is in the middle of summer vacation, and most of her friends will be gone then, we decided to have her party a little early. She wanted a princess party, and I tried my best to make fun for her and the kids. Some of it didn't turn out like I had hoped. The cake was an ugly, hideous mess, although she told me she thought it was pretty. Sweet girl. The pinata was all right, and they all loved the crafts and games, so I guess I would call it a success. Chris helped me set up, then he and the boys disappeared upstairs. This was a princess party, not a prince party. Alexandra managed to wiggle her way in to the party for part of the time, but she pretty much stayed out of the way, so we didn't send her back to exile with the boys.
We had a table set up for them to decorate their tiaras as the guests were arriving. One by one I would pull them over to the royal salon and paint their toenails and fingernails, and also applied a little eyeshadow for those that wanted it. They all came dressed in their fanciest princess dresses and looked SO DARLING! One girl declined to dress up and at first it bugged me a tad, but this party wasn't about me, it was about the kids, so I just let her be the odd-girl out. I got some great ideas for games off the internet, including Princess and the Pea, Pin the Crown on the Princess, and Princess Walk. We also made Princess Scepters and busted open the Pinata.
I only planned two hours for the party, and for the one parent who was here on time, that wasn't quite long enough. Fortunately, the other mothers know how kids parties usually go, and they didn't have to wait as long. :) As usual, none of the Swiss kids liked my cake with it's strange colored frosting, but they took a few bites to be polite. The candy in the pinata was a big hit, though, as well as the candy bracelets and necklaces we passed out at the end. The funniest part to me was that Sarah got the same box of stickers as a present that we had bought to put in all the girls' treat bags. She was quite excited that she didn't have to share these ones!
It was a lot of work getting everything ready, but it was totally worth it. Sarah thanked me several times, without being prompted, for her party and that she just loved everything. "It was the best princess party I ever went to, Mama." Aw, so sweet.
Friday was the last day of school. Woohoo! Also, it was a great mail day. The toy Chris bought for everyone for a huge joint birthday present arrived in the morning. I love when the maillady has to ring our bell, cuz she has some giant package that won't fit in our box. (Of course, I am usually still in my pajamas when she comes, but she doesn't seem to mind haha). It was a Wii!!!
Chris set it all up while we were eating dinner and then we let the kids stay up a bit longer than usual to try it out. We decided to name it Chuck while installing it. We all made our little Mii things, and are having an absolute blast playing with it.
I have always hated video games. They are stupid time-wasters with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and I always said I would never own one. I still refuse to ever buy the kids Game Boys or PS things or whatever little electronic gadget is the latest "it" toy. Too expensive and there are so much better things they could be doing with their lives. However, if you are reading this and your kids have those things, don't think I look down on you or anything. I just don't like them for my kids, your kids could have 20, I don't care. :)
But then came the Wii. Where you have to actually move your body, stand up, interact with others. It's not just mind-numbing, ignore-everyone-around-you button pushing. No, it's not the same as actual bowling, but it's so much more fun than the old-style video games. Plus, there are tons of games that are more fun as two-player games, or even more than that. No more one person sitting around watching someone else play for an hour or more. ZZZZZZzzzzzzz! One person bats, one person pitches, then they switch. Plus, the games are short! So they can play for like 5 minutes and be done. I like that a lot.
So, yeah, I told Chris I thought it might be fun to get the kids one sometime. This was at Christmas, when they were THE thing to get for Christmas in the States. I felt bad about that since here, every store that sold anything electronic had them for sale, but not many people were buying them. Or so it seemed. Anyway, we decided that the kids really didn't need any more "little" toys. But a large gift they could play with for a long time would be a good investment. So, yes, I now have a video game in my home. And we all love it. It is so fun. Chris and I played tennis after the kids went to bed and had a blast. We can't wait to get them more games for it for Christmas now. I am totally hooked.
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Sun said:
Yay! I'm glad you're back posting. We've been checking everyday. Noah's party looks like it was so much fun. I... read more
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Sun said:
Happy Birthday, Beautiful Princess Sarah! My favorite part of my birthdays growing up was having to not do any chores. read more
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Sun said:
Oh poor little guy! The "prizes" they give out do really help...at least for the kids. I think they should... read more
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tanya said:
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on It's done!
Max had a great time - thanks! The cake is so cute. read more
on Happy Birthday, Noah!