Meadow Turns 9, Jumps for Joy

After a late school year Meadow was finally done for the year. And sadly her last year at Barton. Next year she'll move to a school that's closer to us.

We treated her to ice cream at Sonny's Cafe.

After taking 2 years off from birthday parties due to Covid, this year we promised Meadow a party.

For her cake she requested a rainbow cake.

Unlike at her 4th birthday where I colored the batter naturally I went the artificial route this time.

I followed this recipe for Rainbow Bundt Cake.

You add each color one layer at a time. How it makes a rainbow shape as it bakes I don't know. Too bad I won't know how it looks inside until I cut into it at her party.

The next day, Meadow decorated the cake with rainbow sprinkles of course.

Can't wait to see what it looks like inside.

Oh, just our almost 9 year old eating the extra frosting. They learned from their papa.

Brooke's getting really good at these food trays. First the Easter bunny and now a lion.

Meadow wanted a trampoline party this year. Actually she really wanted a party at our house, but our house is just not ready for entertaining yet.

Meadow had a Lion Guard theme to the party.

She had been planning this for months.

Soon our guests would arrive.

I hate the cheap toy party favors that are given out at birthdays. We chose little plants instead.

She invited one friend from school and the rest were her friends from birth.

I wasn't sure I'd be jumping, but I in fact did go jumping since Theo was afraid of the other kiddos.

There was a couple other birthday parties here but not many kids out jumping.

Theo and I had a blast while Meadow ran around with her friends.

Someday we'll have to come back and go as a family. Apparently Davin and Dora do this.

I was just as thirsty as Meadow at this point.

I wasn't sure about the trampoline park idea, but it ended up being lots of fun.

I couldn't believe the kids jumped the full 2 hours.

Her friends and her also played some of the arcade games and gave Meadow their tickets.

Meadow won the mystery prize, except it was missing.

So she got a slushy in its place.

Time for cake.

Brooke outdid herself this time.

Sort of had a mushroom look, but still cool that it turned out.

The mushroom rainbow bundt cake was a hit.

Back at home it was time for Meadow's favorite part. Opening presents.

New books and crafts.

And a ukulele. She's been wanting one for a long time.

Brooke and I nearly completed the last of the woodchips. Now we can start adding new plants.

Our yard has lots of potential. Hopefully we can make it beautiful again.

Comments

Campervan Vacation: San Francsicso, Northern California and the Great Redwoods Forests

Day 1 Minneapolis - San Fransisco And we're off again. This time on an actual planned vacation. Somehow we managed to all get up and eat breakfast despite a relatively early flight to San Jose. Travel Theo is so cute. He didn't remember the last time we took a flight back in 2020 , so we let him sit at the window. He was interested for about 5 seconds. He was more into the movie choices on the back of his seat. Brooke, Meadow and Theo sat on one side and I got to sit with strangers. Unfair. Meadow coordinating as usual. We flew into San Jose despite wanting to start our journey in San Francisco. After debating Caltrain, BART or renting a car, we just took an uber. Not cheap for one person, but basically the same price as our other options with the four of us. An hour or so later we arrived at the Hotel Triton in what I guess is simply called Downtown. Fortunately for us our hotel was right at the gateway to Chinatown. Perfect as we were hungry for lunch. I...

Backcountry Camping with Kids in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Day 1 Back in May I stumbled upon Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had no idea there was a National Park in North Dakota and that it was the northern end of the Badlands. Usually our summer vacations coincide with Scott's work trips. Since he didn't have any this summer I thought we should take advantage of actually taking a vacation. What, my workcations are always classics? I suppose a second real vacation this year wouldn't hurt. We definitely have more time than normal. As long as we took Covid-19 precautions and avoided people. We finally settled on a time to go. Blake joined us so we borrowed our dad's van so we could ride together. Scott had just driven from Michigan the day before. Blake had met my parents in Wisconsin to get the van and then drove from Duluth to pick us up. I offered to drive since I literally only drive twice a month. I was still pretty tired from a long drive home. Since we were near Fergus Falls we had to stop by the abandoned state ho...

Japan Family Trip - Part II: Exploring the Shrines and Wilds of Nikko

We had originally planned on taking the bullet train down from Tokyo to Kyoto for a day or two. While being epically fast, it was a bit spendy for the four of us. After talking to Brooke's coworker we settled on a two day trip to Nikko and its World Heritage Sites to break up our week in Tokyo. This turned out to be an amazing decision. The town is teaming with beauty from ancient shrines to epic waterfalls and some of the best meals we had on our trip. Kyoto didn't seem all that appealing to me when I started researching which location to go to. I too am glad we chose to head north to Nikko. When we booked our Tobu Nikko Spacia X tickets I upgraded to the premium seats thinking that we'd be sitting facing one another. Instead we ended up with 4 individual seats, two in the first two rows and two in the last two rows. It turned out just fine with the kids sitting in front of us in two groups. Meadow and I were seated at the front of the car. Once in awhile we'd pas...

Search This Blog