Birthday Do-Over

It started on Friday night.  Anika and another 6th grade girl had played on the 5th grade girls basketball team for two games each.  The fifth graders were short players, and were allowed one 6th grader for each game.  So, on Friday night, they had the 5th grade girls basketball team party and Anika was invited.  It turned into two of the girls spending the night at our house.  In the morning they allowed Jessica and Maria to join them for nail and hair salon.

After lunch, we dropped of one girl and picked up her little brother for Brandon, as well as three other 6th grade girls, a second grade girl and a third grade girl. It was time to celebrate some winter birthdays!  We all went sledding.  Its hard to get a good view of how tall this dune is, but its a good walk, and a fast ride!

walking to the tippy top - I refused to sled from up there!

4th grade boys

The 6th grade girls

The younger girls

After a bit of sledding, we went home for ice cream sundaes and hot chocolate.  And one last present.  I hadn't told any of the girls coming that it was a birthday party.  I didn't want to mess with favors and presents and all that.  We put a candle in Jessica and Anika's ice cream and sang and I gave each of them a book - Anika's is an extreme dot to do (literally a page of numbered dots that become a picture) and Jessica got a doodle book.

Once they were fed, Matt played the videos he had taken and the pictures we both took of them sledding on our TV so they could all laugh at themselves.  Then they played for awhile - matchbox cars of all things.  The younger girls did perler beads.

It took me an hour and a half to get them all home, but we made it.

Matt and I went to a concert with two other couples that evening at their church.  The concert was nice and we all went to one of the couples house for pie afterwards.  The ladies left to go pick up that couples four children from various playdates, then we headed home.

Sunday was the Superbowl.  Matt was missing the fact that our house wasn't being bombarded with teenagers.  I assured him that if that was something he truly wanted, we could have the jr high party at our house next year. We'll see what happens. So, he got on the computer and found Superbowl quiz questions that each of us had to answer.  Who would win the coin toss?  Heads or tails?  first commercial, interceptions, sacks, etc. Brandon won, but Anika was 6 for 6 on the first questions.  We had fun with it.  

All in all it was an amazing weekend. It felt so normal.  We were with friends, we were just the six of us, we hung out, we went to pick up and drop off kids, we ate, we slept.  It was so nice to have normal for a moment.  And I realized I couldn't have done any of it if I still worked at the airport.  I miss the people I work with, I miss the job, but I wouldn't have traded the time we had this weekend for any of that back again!