Bouncy Birthday Bash

Last weekend, our family friends hosted a party to celebrate their son Ethan's 6th birthday. God bless them for having it start at 9:45; those of us with nappers at home really have to stick together! :)

The party was at a bouncy place in Bothell. What's a bouncy place, you ask? Well, it is basically a warehouse-size room that has a bunch of inflatable climbing/bouncy/play structures for the kids (and their adventurous parents) to play on/in and, essentially, exhaust themselves. It was great!!!

When we first arrived, Annika was off like a shot, but Conor wasn't quite sure of the whole thing. The bouncy structures had rather noisy fans to keep them inflated and Conor wasn't quite sure of things yet.

I mean, come on ... this is scary, ferocious-lookin' stuff! ;)

 

So, we took it easy and hung out at the drinking fountain for a bit. He thought it was pretty fun to have water appear when he pushed the lever. I'm terrified to think about how many germs he probably picked up during this warming-up phase, though. Eww!

Once we found Annika (which took some doing because she was having the time of her life running around like the ball of energy that she is), she took on the role of big sister and gave Conor a tour of the joint and pointed out how much fun it was. He didn't buy it.

Eventually, I had to resort to a little tough love and gently put him on one of the easy, low-key bouncy structures so he could see it was just like jumping on a bed, something we discourage at home, but cheer on at bouncy places!

Once he realized things weren't as scary as he originally thought, he was geared up to have a great time and bounce himself into a sweaty haze. He adopted a slide that he felt comfortable with and used that to build his confidence and sense of adventure.

While Conor was busy going through the tube, up the stairs, and down the slide, Annika decided to conquer mountain climbing... sort of. There was a blue pyramid thing in the same play structure that Conor was sliding in and Annika decided to perch herself on top of it. Thank goodness she is small and solid muscle; she shimmied herself all the way to the top!

(the perspective shot)

There were also some bigger slides that the kids (and their mama) had fun on. Note to self: Jeans slow you down on inflatable slides ... wear knit pants next time! Annika decided to go down on her tummy and her posture completely reminded me of a penguin sliding down an iceberg into the water. Conor adopted a Superman pose as he slide down.

 

And some bonus videos of the kids on the big slide, for your viewing pleasure!

 

 

A special thank you to the Minnich family for including us. We had so much fun celebrating Ethan's birthday and burning off a ton of energy with your crew!

 

Happy 6th birthday, Ethan!!

Annika's 5th Birthday Celebrations

I can tell the month of August is getting away from me when it isn't until the 19th of month that I get around to blogging about Annika's birthday. Shame on me!

We decided to keep things a bit simpler this year and scaled back from previous year's birthday extravaganzas. We invited a couple of her classmates over for a kids' party and then had family over for a BBQ dinner out on the deck later in the day. The weather was incredibly cooperative, which was a definite treat. Even with the low-key approach, we were completely exhausted by the time we fell into bed that night, but it was more than worth it!

During the morning celebration, Annika was joined by her buddies Allison and Violet; these girls play beautifully and could practically form the first-ever professional giggle team. The girls had a blast playing games—including pin the starfish on the mermaid and pop the sea bubble, building their own sea-themed snow globes, bouncing in the bouncy house, and beating the heck out of a mermaid pinata (which, ultimately, Eric had to take a few whacks at to open it ... that sucker was well engineered!). 

After a bit of cleaning and food prep, the family portion of the day got under way. Fortunately, we planned a BBQ on the deck; the weather was just hot enough that we wouldn't have wanted to be cooking in the kitchen; that's for sure. We had grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and we are so grateful that our loved ones were with us to have some fun together for Annika's birthday. All-in-all, a wonderful way to celebrate our sweet 5-year-old little girl.

Allison trying her hand at pinning a starfish on Ariel

Annika's turn

Annika, Violet, and Allison ... the three amigos

Blowing out the candles on her mermaid cake

Conor really gets into his desserts

Eric's parents gave Annika a much-coveted cowgirl hat
and pink cowgirl boots that light up. Really, could it
get any better?

Yeeee-haw