Party!

The night before Noah's party, the children could not get settled down in bed. Amalie would saunter out of the room, a smile on her face and we would firmly take her back to bed. And then she would pop out again! It seemed as though Noah was daring her, and she was all for it. After about the tenth time, Brad went and gave the big Threat: "Noah, if you are out of bed, one more time, no more party. And Amalie, if you come out of bed, you don't get to go to Noah's party. And if you want to earn it back, you will have to do TEN chores!"

Noah took the threat seriously and we didn't hear a peep out of him after that. But Amalie, ever testing us, popped out of bed again! We put her back, telling her she could not go to the party unless she did ten chores the next day. She cried, but she stayed in bed after that and the next day, she happily did ten chores. She is such a good worker!

I told Noah I needed lots of help getting ready for the party, so he and Brad did balloons and came up with a really fun idea; they cut open a bunch of trash bags, taped them together and hung with dental floss and then filled with balloons. Then when all the kids had arrived, we had them jump up and bop them out with their heads. Like this:

I put Brad in charge of games, and they played a lot of games with the balloons and had a fun time!

Then we brought out the cake. Noah wanted me to make him a Mario cake, and I kept saying that we could do it by putting his Mario Bros. figurines on the cake, but he was insistent that it be decorated with frosting- Brad said he would attempt but on the day of, we couldn't get to the computer to get a template. So I let Noah decorate his cake with figures and sprinkles and he LOVED his cake! It was so cute! Luigi's head had broken off, so Brad came up with this clever idea and it was Noah's favorite part of the cake! I'm so grateful for Brad's clever ideas! He thinks of things that would never occur to me!
Noah opened presents and last we did the famous Ishii "Fishing" game. I had taken Noah to the dollar store a week earlier to pick out prizes for each of his friends. I am still amazed at his talent of carefully choosing gifts he thinks his friends will enjoy. He did such a great job and all the kids seemed thrilled with their prizes. Noah had picked a little glow stick sword for his cousin Derek. Derek was thrilled and took his sword in the bathroom, then came out exclaiming "It works! It glows!" He was positively glowing and then he kept going in the bathroom, each time racing out with a look of astonishment and glee, saying "It still works!" It was hilarious!
What a fun party we had!