3 Day Birthday Celebration

Day 1

Kimball had a 3 day celebration for his birthday this year. Wow!!! Grandma Connie came to stay with us for a couple of days. She got to our house on Wednesday and watched the kids while I worked that night. Thursday we took him shopping because Grandma Connie wanted Kimball to pick out his own present from her and Grandpa Dave. So after spending way to long at Toys-R-Us Kimball finally picked out a new bike. (With a little persuasion) While the man at Toys-R-Us was finalizing the fix-ups on the bike we went to lunch. We went to the Olive Garden to celebrate. Kimball was very impressed that at the end of the meal when the waiters and waitresses came and sang a birthday song to him and he got a birthday cake. We picked his bike back up from the store and went straight home. Luckily it was not a terribly cold day so he could try his bike out. I meant to get a picture of Kimball on his bike with Grandma Connie, but I didn't get a picture of the two of them together so this one of him with Hazel will have to do.

Day 2

Kimball's Birthday was on Sunday this year, so we had his birthday party on Friday with all of his friends from church and preschool. This year he had a camping theme for his birthday party. We had the party at the church.

When the kids first arrived they were given little green drawstring backpacks that I spent the week making, and a foam visor that they were to put their names on and decorate with stickers. Then we went to the gym where they were given plastic frogs for a frog race.

After the frog race was over we "hiked" to Camp Kimball down in the basement of our church in the Scout room. The night before Grandma Connie and I took Kimball and Hazel over to the church to decorate for the party. We put up a tent, made a pretend campfire in the middle of the room, laid a piece of blue fabric on the floor in one corner for a lake, decorated the poles in the middle of the room to look like trees, and put glow in the dark stars all over the ceiling.

The kids threw "rocks" (little denim pillows I made out of old jeans) into the "pond". They searched in the balloon filled tent for plastic snakes and bugs. We sat around the campfire and "roasted" marshmallows on sticks as I read them some funny ghost stories. Oh ya and we did the Going on a Bear Hunt chant.

We turned the lights out and looked at the stars and then each child was also given a flashlight to go in their backpacks for home, so we had to turn them on and off a hundred times. After our star gazing activity we turned the lights back on, sung Happy Birthday, and then served cake. The cake was actually chocolate cake that I baked in clear glass mugs and then put marshmallow cream on top to look like hot chocolate. (I should have just used cool whip because the kids were not all that fond of the marshmallow cream.)

In all it was a fun time for everyone. . . even me. As you can tell I love planning and preparing for such a celebration as much as the kids enjoy the party. Kimball had a really good time and was able to help with the preparations for days before so it was great. Although, I could not have pulled it all off without my Mom's help. It was fun that she could come and celebrate with us.

Day 3

Superbowl Sunday!!!

Go Steelers!

In primary on Sunday they asked Kimball what he was going to do to celebrate his birthday. His response, "watch football." I was a little bit embarrassed by this remark, but it was no secret that we would be cheering for the Pittsburgh Steelers as all of us wore yellow and black to church in some fashion. We didn't look too tacky. I wore a white skirt with a yellow and white sweater and my black leather jacket. Hazel wore a white sun dress with a yellow shirt underneath and her black boots. Andrew wore black dress pants and a yellow dress shirt. Kimball was the more obvious out of us all. He wore black dress pants, a white shirt, and a black vest; but to get the yellow in for him we put a yellow shirt under his white shirt. You could see the yellow around his neck.

Kimball requested tacos for his birthday dinner, so we ate quickly so we didn't miss much of the big game. Then after dinner we had a football shaped rice crispy cake. We had a great time watching the game. . .even me, and I hate watching football. (I was even yelling with all of the excitement.) Andrew went on his mission to Pittsburgh, so Kimball has grown up with the mentality that the Steelers were the only team. One of his first words was "dut-down" as he would throw his hands in the air. My grandpa reminded me just a couple of weeks ago that Kimball always cheered for the "Stee-wers". So as you can imagine his birthday was quite amazing because it was again on Superbowl Sunday and his team was playing . . . and won!