Pajama and Pancake Party

Leila went back and forth on what kind of birthday party she wanted.  Since her last birthday she had been saying she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake party, then around December she was saying she just wanted a party with no theme and then in January she went back to wanting a Strawberry Shortcake party.  About two weeks before her birthday she saw a picture on Instagram of my cousin's little girls pajama party.  She insisted that was what she wanted and was so excited about it.  Since I'm a procrastinator I had not planned a single thing yet so it worked to switch themes last minute. the official theme became a pajama and pancake party.

We had the party on Saturday morning the day after her actual birthday.  She invited a bunch of girls from school, church and the neighborhood. Everyone wore their pajamas and came for breakfast.  

We had pancakes with toppings, bacon, fruit and donut holes.  I was kind of surprised the girls were a little boring with their pancakes.  Most of them just wanted syrup and nothing else, a few added whip cream but that was about it.  Leila always has ideas for what she wants to do at her party and this year was no different.  She wanted to play a Christmas Grinch game she learned at school, paint finger nails, and color on pillow cases.  

 Top row: Olivia, Bella, Leila. Makenna, Greydon, Ellie

bottom row: Madi, Madisyn and Alanna

Even though Christmas is over and this Grinch game had nothing to do with a pajama and pancake party the girls loved this game.  This is the entire group after the game.  

Here they are painting their nails.  I painted all the girls nails except two because they wanted to do their own.  This is when it would have been nice to have another adult to help with the painting. 

 Next up was coloring with fabric markers on pillow cases.  

This is the first time since her 3rd birthday she allowed us to sing happy birthday to her.  I think she was loving all the attention

 The noise volume of this party was unreal.  8 little 5 and 6 year old girls means tons of talking, screaming, laughing and shrieking.  

This was probably one of the easiest friend birthday parties I've done.  It was early in the morning so we were done by 10:30 am which was so nice.  Paul was home to help with the party and all the girls were old enough to follow directions and do the activities without a lot of adult help.  Their were some tears at the end, Leila was upset we didn't get to play Simon Says and didn't want her friends to leave and several of her friends were in tears because they didn't want to leave either.  But overall Leila was happy and had fun which means we had a successful party!  Happy 6th Birthday Leila!

Birthday Interview

Leila's 6th Birthday Interview

1. What is your favorite color? red, pink, purple and light blue

2. What is your favorite toy? Ariel bath doll, puzzles

3 What is your favorite fruit? apples without the skin and oranges

4. What is your favorite TV show? Busy Town Mysteries and Happy Feet 2

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? peanut butter sandwich but no crust and no jam

6. What is your favorite outfit? jeans with bows and blue striped heart shirt

7. What is your favorite game? Busytown and Headbanz

8. What is your favorite snack? string cheese

9. What is your favorite animal? a Butterfly

10. What is your favorite song? I am a Child of God

11. What is your favorite book? any Pinkalicious book

12.  Who is your best friend? Bella, Madi, and Madisyn

13. What is your favorite cereal? Cinnamon Toast Crunch

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? jump on tramp

15. What is your favorite drink? water

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas and Easter

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you? my favorite blanket

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? pancakes

19.  What is your favorite dinner? Cheeseburgers and Spaghetti and Meatballs

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a teacher

21. What is your favorite treat? Oreos, graham crackers with frosting and junior mints

A little trip north

Paul had the last week of January off and we really wanted to go do something fun and get out of town.  So we decided to leave our frigid, snowy weather and head north to even colder snowy weather.   I'm sure going to Minneapolis in the  middle of the winter doesn't sound like much fun but we really had a blast.  I found a hotel that had an awesome water playland for the kids and I knew if all we did was spend our time at the pool it would be a fun vacation.

The drive was pretty quick and easy, all  the kids took naps and watched a movie.  We made it to Minneapolis in the late afternoon, checked into and hotel and then wandered around the Mall of America.  We grabbed dinner at the mall, checked out the amusement park, visited the American doll store, Disney store and the Lego store.  Then headed back to the hotel for a little swimming.

Leila was checking out the American doll of the year Saige

Asher in a tunnel at the Disney store

Leila and Greydon having a conversation with the magical mirror

The pool was so much fun and we had it completely to ourselves when we first got there.  Later on a few more kids showed up but it still felt so empty.  Leila and Greydon jumped right in and played for about two hours until they were completely exhausted.  It took Asher a little bit to warm up and it didn't help that he tripped a couple times at the beginning and got a mouth full of water. But by the end he was loving it.  He climbed the stairs to the slide, got down on his tummy and went feet first down it.  I would catch him at the bottom and help him walk to the edge of the pool, he would climb out and walk to the stairs and repeat the process all over.  He did this for a solid 30 minutes before he was worn out.  We went back to the room and got ready for bed.  The kids were asleep within minutes.  Unfortunately nobody slept well, Greydon occasionally wakes up screaming in the night and it takes us a few minutes to get him to wake up, stop screaming and then go back to sleep.  This happened multiple times and then around midnight one of his screaming episodes woke Asher up who was then up for over two hours.  If I tried laying him down he screamed and since we were in a hotel I couldn't just let him cry it out.  Finally I got him to sleep and Greydon stopped screaming and we were able to get a little bit of sleep  

  

On Tuesday Morning we slowly got ready and had breakfast.  At the Mall of America they have toddler Tuesday and have a couple events for kids plus discounts on rides and food.  We went to the craft and play they put on and then bought the kids a pass to ride the rides at Nickelodeon studios.  

We let them go on the rides for a couple hours and then had lunch and then we did a little shopping.  The mall is huge and has every store you can think of in it.  We wore the kids out walking around the entire thing.  Before leaving we hit up a couple more rides and then headed back to the hotel for a little more swimming.  

The pool was so fun and the best part was having it completely to ourselves.  Grey was constantly on the move it was hard to get a picture of him, most of them are blurry because he wouldn't hold still.  Leila was bouncing back and forth between the kids play land and the big pool.  It was easy to keep on eye on everyone because there were not other children getting in the way.  

That night we went to dinner at Mickey's diner in St. Paul.  I'm pretty sure I've seen in on Diner, Drive-ins and Dives and it's been on several other food network shows.  It's a tiny street car diner with delicious food.  My cheeseburger did not disappoint and Paul's hash browns were amazing.  By the time we got back to the hotel the kids were exhausted and went right to sleep and slept the entire night.  The next morning I took the kids swimming one last time before we checked out.  Then we had to visit Ikea since we don't have one in Des Moines.  Leila and Greydon played in the kids land while Paul, Asher and I did a little shopping.  After lunch at Ikea we headed on home.  While we were in Minneapolis, Des Moines got a big snow storm and school was canceled.  Luckily our drive home was clear except for the blowing snow.  

I think the trip wore the kids out, they were exhausted