Sylvia's 7th Birthday party

  Since we had cousins visiting for the first time in 6 years, we decided to have Sylvia's birthday party a few days early.  It was great fun.    First we went swimming at the high school pool.  (Sylvia has been wanting to have a mermaid themed party all year... thus the pool part was very important to her plans.)

After swimming, we came back to our house for pizza.  These three girls ate as much as the teenage boys did.

And here are the boys, thrilled to be at a mermaid birthday party.  They are secretly wishing for more pizza.

Eli realized that eating the plates tends to take the edge off hunger when the pizza is gone.  Smart boy.

Spencer enjoyed the balloons.  Daniel got his exercise chasing after Spencer, who was chasing after his balloon, which was heading out towards the street.  Good thing Daniel still has some speed from his younger days, Spencer keeps him moving!

We moved inside for some challenging party games, such as Pin the Tiara on the Mermaid.  Here is Ben, one of the boy's buddies showing his skills.

Unfortunately Daniel is not as talented at this party game as the kids.  He almost pinned a tiara on Ben - Asher's friend. :)    Luckily it ended up landing on Syliva's doll instead.  I still think the look on Ben's face was priceless.

Here we have the birthday revelers, attacking each other with the party favors.

Sylvia's Arial-the-Mermaid cake did not turn out quite as dashing as I had hoped.  I now know I should never attempt recreating Disney faces with frosting.  Luckily, seven year olds are very understanding.  It had candles, and tasted good... so it was a hit as far as cakes go.

Our cute little bunch of birthday cake munchers.

  After the party, everybody had a good time blasting through several packages of Snaps (fireworks) that Kaydee picked up at the store.   Kaydee is a secret pyromaniac.  Who would've known?

 After the party, Sylvia got to have Addie sleep over. (She had been staying at the motel with her family until now.) It was a first sleepover experience for them both.    We started out by decorating cute tiaras, to match the jewlery they had gotten at the party.

That moved into watching the movie The Little Mermaid, and painting nails.   Not only did Asher know all the songs, so he could sing along.. but he allowed his toenails to be painted purple.  This made him a big hit with the girls.

Addie and Sylvia each had their nails done in their favorite colors (purple and pink), with an exrtra layer of sparkle polish.   (Asher drew the line at the sparkles.)

  After a bedtime story, and plenty of giggling,  the girls fell asleep in sleeping bags on my bedroom floor.  They were so sweet together.  Sylvia thought it was her best birthday ever.   I am so glad we could have family come visit us!

Daniel's visit - fun adventures!

    We got an exciting phone call from my little brother, Daniel, last week.  He was looking for a place to do a mini-vacation with his family.   Since they are living in Chicago for the summer, due to work, we are a mere 2 hours away.  Or faster, if you drive like Daniel :)  He brought his wonderful family up for 4 days, and we had a great time getting to know his kids.

  One of the places we went was the Madison Children's museum.   Here is Spencer starting early on his rock climbing career, with Daniel coaching him.
 

Spencer was interested in almost everything.  Here he is doing a masterpiece on the painting window.

    The one thing Spencer wasn't into, was the craft area. On the other hand, Sylvia and Addie spent most of their time here.  They glued and tied various things together to make some pretty amazing creations.

It was great to have Daniel park Eil in the craft zone, and just hang out and visit.  I love my little brother.

  Eventually the crafting marathon was finished.  Sylvia wore her homemade crown and flower jewelry for the next couple days, until  all the petals finally fell off.

Addie and Sylvia both enjoyed the spinning hamster wheel.  They would've stayed on it all afternoon.

We found critters for everyone to hold on the top level of the museum.  I was surprised at how calmly everyone let mice crawl all over their arms and hands.

They were not as excited to touch the snake... but though it was fascinating.

Later in the evening, we went to a Madison Mallards baseball game.   Asher's orchestra was preforming the national anthem at the start.   (Asher is the handsome blond, front center below.)

The orchestra sounded really great!  I was surprised at how well their sound carried out of doors.

Mattias got a chance to be babysitter to little Eli for a few minutes in the stands.  I forgot how good he is with babies.                                                       

   We had great seats, and were really enjoying the game.  Here we are smiling and unaware of how crazy the weather would become in 15 min. 

  Dark clouds were on the horizon.  They rushed towards the stadium, bringing buckets of freezing cold, side-ways rain, and high winds.  Yes, there was a tornado watch on.    We were totally unprepared, and huddled over the kids, unable to get into shelter for several minutes.  We were so drenched.  Daniel ran to get the van, and we cranked the heat up all the way home.  The baseball game was cancelled, but we still had an exciting adventure to remember.

   Back in Stoughton, the Addie and Sylvia were having a party with Noel, unaware that we were out fighting for survival in the fierce elements.  They had an art party, ate Blue Moon ice cream and played Wii.   Their evening was far less exciting, but I did envy their dry clothes when we got home.