A Tale Of Two Birthday Parties

 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness. And so begins the story of the twins' 5th birthday party.

THE INVITATION

THE DECORATIONS

 

Brayden was very excited to watch me make this decoration. When it was finished he gasped and said, "That is like a total BOY decoration. I love it!" He also chose to help me make the Shade Shack sign instead of watching a movie with Kenzie. He was totally into party planning mode!

The surfboard fence on our "beach" was supposed to serve as the backdrop for pictures of the twins opening presents. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. But more on that later.

 See the umbrella on the deck? That plays an important part later as well.

THE GUESTS

BACK: : Theodore, Alvin & Simon!  FRONT:  Saria, Mykinze, Kayla, Birthday Boy Brayden, Jack, Ben, Brody, Lyndsey, Birthday Girl Makenzie, Evelyn & Kara  NOT PICTURED: Korvin, Kyla & Bailey

THE GAMES

As they arrived the kids did the limbo, complete with a beach party playlist. A big thanks to Jess, Dallin & Jenna for helping with all of the games. After that, we were victims of a shark attack (each of the 72 balloons I blew up had shark teeth drawn on them for authenticity). The kids vigilantly fought off the sharks with the Aquabats song Shark Fighter appropriately acting as the soundtrack. 

Once the sharks were out of the water, the mermaids came out and passed seaweed to one another using their mermaid tails.

After that it was free play time. The kids went crazy splashing water on each other, playing with the giant beach ball. It was the best of times. . .

. . .until the season of darkness set in. And boy did it set in quickly! A little more than half way through the party we heard thunder. It looked like the storm was going to go around us, but we were not so fortunate. It had been windy all day, but it really picked up speed.. As we were grabbing the presents, party favors and herding kids into the house the wind knocked the umbrella on the deck over and took our patio table with it and completely shattered the glass. My iPad and some speakers were on the table playing music for the party. They got a bit scratched up, but are still functional. The balloon arch that I put up for each birthday was also smashed to smitherines. It was the worst of times!

And that's how we ended up eating cake and opening presents in the garage.  

 

THE CAKES

I was pleased with how Makenzie's flip flop cake turned out.

 I was a bit disappointed with Brayden's shark cake though. He asked me what color it was going to be and I told him it would probably be light blue. When he asked why not grey, I looked at him and in my best southern Steel Magnolias accent said, "I can't even begin to think how you make grey icing!" My humor was lost on him. At the last minute I decided to try and make it grey. . .not a great idea.

A big thanks to my friend Tasha for grabbing the camera in the midst of all of the chaos and snapping pictures of the kids in the garage and blowing out candles. Another big thanks to my MIL for keeping the kids entertained with songs while we got the tables in the garage.

 One little girl had too much cake and threw up. Fortunately, she made it out of the garage first!

Wouldn't a picture with surfboards in the background be much cuter than all of our clutter? Oh well, none of the kids seemed to mind. All of their friends gave them very fun presents!  After that, the party was over. As I was handing out their goody bags, I noticed that the gummy sharks melted and had turned into blobs. Of course.

THE AFTER PARTY

As soon as the kids left, the sun came back out and it stopped raining. So all of us big kids decided to play a little game we like to call "Rhodes Rio Ball Ruckus!" It is a lot of fun, and also brutal at times. But lots of fun! Andy was the man! Even when it was three-on-one, he couldn't be beat.

 Dallin's team finally scored on Andy's team and claimed victory! Unfortunately, during the last game the wind picked up the ball and threw it into the fence, put a hole in it and then blew it across my dad's garden where it flattened the corn and some giant sunflowers. Yet another casualty of the party.

Five Has Almost Arrived!

Today we took five year pics at my friends house. To say she has a green thumb is an understatement! Here are some of my faves.

MAKENZIE

BRAYDEN

TWIN-SPIRATIONAL

THREE'S COMPANY!

The Thrill of Victory. . .The Agony of Defeat

Friday night when Andy got home from work, he said he wanted to do something fun with the kids on Saturday since he didn’t have to work. He thought bowling would be a fun family activity. So, we took the kids to Fat Cats in Ogden. (Incidentally, I won the game and enjoyed the thrill of victory!) After that we went to El Matador and had lunch.

Baby bowling shoes?! It doesn't get any cuter than that!

When we got home, everyone got to work cleaning the house. Andy still had a few more things downstairs that he wanted to clean, but first he wanted to do some repair work outside on the swing set while it was somewhat nice outside. Meanwhile, I was upstairs cooking dinner. The kids played up there for a bit and then decided to go downstairs. I thought it was curious that they were being so quiet . . . that’s usually not a good sign. But (stupidly) I decided to enjoy it while it lasted.

When I went downstairs to tell them dinner was ready, I discovered that Andy had left the bottle of Windex out and the kids had decided to finish “cleaning.” There were wadded up paper towels and Kleenex all over the floor and an empty bottle of Windex. They sprayed the bar, their books, the side table and the toilet. Oh yeah, and our LCD TV. The ammonia in the Windex stripped the protective coating and discolored the plastic on the bottom of the screen. On the day before the Superbowl, no less.

While I know they didn’t intend to ruin anything, it is still extremely disheartening. And frustrating. Just a few weeks ago, Brayden somehow got into out bathroom cabinet (despite the child lock), got out the spray bottle with ammonia and sprayed it on the carpet in our closet and on my nice bath towel. Both are now permanently discolored. I had a long talk with him about using cleaners and how spraying those cleaners on the wrong thing can ruin it. Only Mommy and Daddy are allowed to use the cleaner. A few days ago we had the same discussion.

I guess we are all to blame for what happened to the TV, but it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. Andy is especially sick about it. I know it’s just stuff—stuff that can be replaced—but it is yet another item on an every growing list of expensive things that have been lost, flushed or damaged by the kids. (I still haven’t replaced my wedding ring.) Now I just feel defeated.

Lexi's 2nd Birthday!

The Birthday Girl!

The Morning

We kicked off the celebrations first thing in the morning. The kids ate breakfast and then we opened the presents from our immediate family. Lexi got a baby carriage for her dolls, some new jammies and a tricycle.

The twins were still sick, so we couldn't do much of anything else to celebrate. Instead, I took Lexi to get her 2-year-old pictures (shown above) taken at the mall. Then we picked up Andy and the twins and went out to lunch.

After lunch, it was warm enough that we could go outside and ride. Lexi's little legs are about a centimeter too short to get the pedals around by herself, but we all took turns pushing her.

The Party

Later that evening it was time for the party! Brayden and Makenzie had been excited all week for the party, and their enthusiasm was contagious. By 5 p.m. no one, including Lexi, could wait for the party to start.

The Invitation

The Decorations

The Guests

Lexi was lucky enough to celebrate with both sets of grandparents. We missed our family members that live out of state or were too sick to come to the party!

The Games

We kicked off the party with Oscar's Trash Toss. I didn't explain the rules very well, but everyone still played and seemed to have fun.

The Cupcakes

These cupcakes were the inspiration for the entire party theme. My sister sent me a picture of them in the summer and Brayden declared that we needed to make them for Lexi's birthday. I also made some elmo cupcakes, but they didn't turn out nearly as cute. 

We even remembered to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl this year! Hooray! She wouldn't blow out the candles, though, so Andy decided to help her out. Lexi, our extremely independent girl, did not appreciate this. We had to relight the candles and let her do it.

The Haul

By this time, Lexi was a seasoned pro at opening presents and wasted no time tearing through the paper on one and moving on to the next. My camera couldn't match her speed and precision.

Once again, everyone spoiled little Lexi. She got lots of fun presents from everyone, including a baby doll from Grandma & Grandpa Mildon and a bouncy donkey from Grandma & Grandpa Rhodes. She promptly decided that the baby needed to go for a ride with her.

The After Party

After everyone went home we untied the baloons and let the kids have a little after party fun as we always do.

The fun came to a screeching halt, however, when one of the balloons popped and each of the kids had meltdowns for various reasons. Too much sugar, cough syrup and stimulation and not enough sleep. It took 45 minutes to get everyone calmed down and in bed. After that, I needed to go read my own bedtime story, a fun little book that our good friends the Noskers gave us for Christmas. :)