Elisa is 10!

My silly girl is already 10! A full decade old. She wasn't sure what to do for her birthday or who to invite, so it was last-minute but I was able to throw something together. She picked two friends to spend the night, but one couldn't so she chose another friend instead, so in the end she had two friends sleep over, Kassidy and Christina. That same day (April 30th), Grandma and Grandpa came also down to celebrate Elisa's birthday with her! For her sleepover, we ate Papa John's pizza and watch a movie. The next morning at 10:00 was when the rest of her friends were to come. I told all the girls to bring their swimsuits in case they wanted to swim, even though the pool would be cold. I planned (last minute, of course) some fun games to play and a craft. I also bought some fun sticky toys filled with small foam balls the day before at Fry's to use as party favors. Elisa wanted cupcakes this year so I made some tie-dye ones using the striped bag frosting method. They weren't too much work, luckily. I think the girls had fun, except for when Christina upset Elisa and made Elisa cry for a few minutes when they were playing the silly card game called "Kids Create Absurdity", but once the party games got started, Elisa was back to being happy. 

Opening Christina's gift of slime which they obsessed over and played with until it got too disgusting to keep.

Elisa and Christina making videos of their slime adventures using Grandpa's phone.

The rest of the girls arrived around 10:00 am the next morning, and as soon as all of them arrived, I started with the messy game I had planned. I'm not sure of the name of it though. It's not my original idea but I thought the kids would enjoy it. I made a bunch of whipped cream, plopped it on a paper plate for each kid, and mixed some gummy bears in the cream. The object of the game was to eat as many gummy bears as possible while only using the mouth. The kids ended up really messy. Some enjoyed the gummy bears better than others. 

Christina

Gabe! Haha he looked so silly. He was one of the few to eat all of his bears.

The boys joined in all the party games, and thankfully none of the girls seemed to mind one bit.

Kassidy

Makayla

These two stinkers stuck their faces in the cream on purpose!

I can't recall if it was before or after our craft (squish-ball making), but we did get a game of musical chairs in, as requested by a few of the girls. I didn't get any pictures of it though. Here are the pictures of the craft. I made a concoction of cornstarch and water and then I passed the bowl around and let the kids feel it. They were fascinated by the cornstarch and water mixture. Then I filled a balloon or two with the cornstarch solution, tied it off, and let the kids decorated their balloons with permanent markers. They seemed to really enjoy the activity, even though very few actually left with their balloon squish balls. AKA stress balls, this craft has been around for awhile! A lot of the balloons broke at some point during this day.

Such a messy craft!

Swim time!

The few brave souls who willingly swam in the freezing cold pool. Elisa and Kassidy wouldn't get in.

Miss Elisa and her tie-dye cupcake. It looks just plain blue, there was also purple in there too.

Singing Happy Birthday!

Opening her gifts!

The girls had fun tossing their party favors at the wall and watching them creep down during the last few minutes of the party.

 

Elisa and her BFF Kassidy.

After the party, Elisa begged Grandpa to let her open his present to her even though it wasn't quite her birthday yet. He let her open it of course, and it was the box of fidget toys she told him to buy for her. 

That evening we all went out to PF Chang's for Elisa's birthday dinner. Erik and I shared the honey shrimp platter. Elisa got a dessert (banana eggrolls with ice-cream) complete with a sparkler candle!

Yummy food and a fun time!

Elisa opened even more presents on her actual birthday, which fell on a Sunday (she was not happy about that). I'm can't remember if I made her another cake or not. I do know I made a roast with rolls for dinner. She opened a present from me (some squishy toys she wanted on Amazon), some from the boys (some makeup and body care items I found at the after-Christmas sale at Walmart), and a box of like 20 squishy toys Aunt Lisa sent from Amazon!

Lucky spoiled girl!

Happy 10th birthday cute princess! We 💓 you!!

Random April Happenings, Part III

Here are more fun things we did in the month of April:

April 17

Someone rang our doorbell and warned us about a rattlesnake creeping towards our driveway. It was wasted effort since it wasn't a rattlesnake, and it wasn't creeping towards our driveway, since it had been run over and its guts were slowly seeping out of its side. I'm pretty sure it was Erik that ran it over. Yikes. Poor little non-venomous snake.

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April 18

I'm not exactly sure what Ian is doing here, but its hilarious even if it is super short.

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April 21

Elisa had Wacky Wednesday and dressed herself all silly but wouldn't let me get a good picture, so this was all I could get.

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April 24

Elisa got my phone and had fun being silly with it.

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April 28

Gabe seems to enjoy the Young Men's activities. Crazy to think he's already 12! I don't know if Gabe has very many church buddies, but he has fun and the leaders are nice to him. This activity the boys learned how to (safely) start fires.

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April 29

A grumpy but cute Ian! I don't remember why he was grumpus here. But I do know he loved to wear his Luv 2 Play socks around the house, which is the black and green sock and the orange socks are from a trampoline park. Silly Ian.

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April 29

Gabe got to got to his first temple trip (baptisms)! He was nervous and first and didn't want to go but Erik went with him and I think they had a good time.

World Wildlife Zoo

Since the kids didn't get to go on a single field trip this year, I decided to take the initiative and take them on one myself. Originally I planned on taking just Elisa (since I took Ian for his day out) and then Gabe for something else, but I decided last minute to take all three of them. Since the weather was so perfect, I wanted to take them to World WildLife Zoo. As a plus, the zoo didn't require masks, and as a bonus plus, there was a Groupon deal for the zoo. I packed us all a lunch and instead of the kids getting on the bus, they all piled into the van. I think we had a good time. There was a minor dispute over getting an Icee but other that that we had lots of fun looking at the animals. I like this zoo so much better than the Phoenix zoo because you can get a close-up view of the animals. We got to see lots of turtles for Ian, snakes and a guinea pig for Elisa, and some frogs for Gabe. Plus lots of other animals of course! 

My monkeys in front of the monkeys

These parrots are so loud

Elisa looking at the peacock.

A closer shot of the peacock. Even though he's not fanned out, he's still pretty to look at.

I was not successful in getting a picture with the kids and the fanned-out peacock

Ian found some turtles!

The kids in front of a baby cheetah(??--some type of big cat). So cute!

Ian looking at all the little birds inside the cage

There was a guinea pig at the zoo!

Elisa enjoying the Icee that we all shared

Ian found the biggest turtle ever! And sat on it.

 Ian played at the park while Gabe and Elisa enjoyed petting the goats (especially the baby goats) at the petting zoo right next to the park.

Dillion's BBQ was attached to the zoo and we sorta just happened to wander in around lunch time while looking at one for the indoor exhibits. I got a seat for us at the bar since I didn't want to wait 20 minutes to be seated on the other side. Elisa ordered the soft pretzel appetizer has her dish (she didn't touch the beer cheese dip), and Ian and Gabe ordered the cheese burger. I ordered the pulled pork nachos, which wasn't the best choice since they are huuuge and never make good leftovers, plus it was annoying to carry around the zoo after lunch, but I was just really in the mood for nachos I guess. The restaurants didn't require masks, even for the staff which was nice. We browsed the aquarium section for a bit after lunch. I wanted to get going since I had piano lessons at 3:00 so we left around 2/2:30ish. I fun trip for us! We were just missing Erik.

Ian in front of a snake-necked turtle.