A Pirate Party

Anders turned the big 5 this October.  We usually do a big party with friends for the 5th birthday and Anders requested a pirate party.  I have a love/hate relationship with parties.  I love planning them, making crafts, researching and creating games, and making food.  I hate the chaos of the actual party. So usually I do all the planning and work beforehand and Hans entertains the kids at the party.  He's the fun one....story of my life.

 All the food had a pirate theme.

 We had several stations set up for the kids to visit.

This was Digging for Buried Treasure.

There was sand everywhere.  Actually, I'm still finding sand.

 They could also visit the Tattoo Parlor...complete with a grumpy tattoo artist.

 Pin the Eye Patch on the Pirate

 Hans realized the kids could see through the mask, making the game too easy.  So he took his shirt and wrapped it around the kid's head.

 Some kids got wild and crazy and wanted to pin the eye patch on upside down.

 Then the kids thought it would be a good idea to make Hans play the game.  See?  He really is the fun one.

 Then Hans worked on his acting skills by reading a pirate book.  The kids loved all of his voices.  They were hanging on his every word.

 My little pirate was really enjoying himself.

 He's trying hard not to blow out the candle before the song is over.  He just wants to eat the frosting off of the cupcake...he can't wait!

The party ended with presents.  All the kids like watching the birthday boy open presents...it's actually pretty funny to watch.

So looks like a fun day...right?  That's what the pictures will tell you.  But it was loud and crazy and a couple of the kids kept telling me how much they didn't like my food.  And that is all fine and expected.  But my little introvert who often separates himself away from a loud bunch decided halfway through his party that he would rather play up in his room all by himself than be with this friends.  There were tears when we told him he had to play with his friends.  I was partied out.  Can you guess why I don't do "friend" parties every year?

Slammers Game

We left New York in enough time to make it to a Slammers game in Joliet.  We got a great deal for the tickets and they were already purchased when I found out that it was Princess Night at the ballpark. Ha!  Since we were meeting Sophie there I went out quickly and bought a tiara and some jewelry for Sophie and the boys to share.  That didn't go over well. With any of them.  I had a good laugh though.

 Gus was ready.  He even had a glove to match his outfit!

 John is always enthusiastic.

 Sophie hates that I take pictures all of the time.  She usually tries to block me as she is now. But look at those eyes...she is enjoying it.

 We did actually watch a little of the game.

These two just love each other.  Sophie really loves Anders because she shared her slushy with him and she is a major germaphobe.

No tiaras, princess dresses, or jewelry were worn...but we all had a great time at the ballpark.

The Strong Museum

One of the days while in New York we drove into Rochester and went to The Strong Museum.  This place was amazing!  I think we spent 5 hours there, but it was not enough. (Editor's note: Yes, it was.)

 This room made you into Lego-type figures that move around.  The boys had a great time dancing and watching themselves.

 I had to pry them away from every exhibit so they could at least see half of the museum.

 We had to take our picture in front of the Sesame Street door.

 As you can tell this wasn't as exciting as the other activities.

 I'm not sure what happened right before this.  Although I'm sure the wind just blew the wrong way.  As you can see, Anders was in a mood.  Shocker, I know.

 Hans made friends with a troll.

 John wanted to do the same thing as his dad.  And this must be what his dad's facial expressions look like to him.  Love it.

 Anything art the boys are game.  These light tables are so simple and yet kept them captivated for a long time.

The museum also had a pretend grocery store.  The kids could take little carts, shop for things, and check out themselves.  Gus loved using the register and even put on the store manager apron and talked on the intercom.  

We ended the day by getting milkshakes.  That was the only thing that was going to get these kids to leave.

New York

This summer we went to New York to spend the week with my family.  This is the first summer our Fiene clan has been up there and not gone to the cottage.  It was different, but I loved exploring the area around my grandparents house.

Our first stop was my Aunt Diane's house.  It is always our first stop and we are always excited to be there.

 Aunt Diane always has fun things to do.  There were fun whistling arrows for the boys to shoot AND they made their own ice cream in this ball.  After the ice cream ingredients were put in the boys were charged with rolling the ball around without stopping for 10 minutes.  They had tons of fun.

After we got to my grandparents we did a ton of stuff.  I kept forgetting my camera.  I'm sure there are pictures floating around somewhere.  We went to the Herschell Carrousel Factory.  This museum was pretty neat.  We were able to see the process that went into building a carousel and carving the horses.  It is actually pretty sad if you think about the fact that people don't work with their hands like this as much anymore.  Everything is mass produced.  After walking through the museum the boys were able to ride on a few older carousel type rides.  They had a wonderful time.

 It wouldn't be a true visit with Grandma if there weren't marshmallow shooters involved.  The boys, and Fritz, has a blast with these.

 Anders had a hard time getting his marshmallows to shoot out.  He huffed and puffed, but nothing.  But that didn't stop this little warrior.  He eventually figured it out.  I'm just glad he didn't start bashing his brothers over the head with the shooter.

This kept them occupied for hours and Fritz had a great snack.

 We also got to go on the Maid of the Mist.  I haven't been since I was a kid.

 All ready to get wet.

 The falls were beautiful.  These are the American Falls.

 This part of the horseshoe here is part of the Canadian Falls.  

 We survived and managed to only get our shoes wet.

The day before we had to come home we all (aunts, uncles, and cousins) had a gathering at my Uncle Mark and Aunt Anne's house.  Or, as the boys like to call him, Uncle Whitey.

The boys really got into the Can Jam game.

We had good food, games, and laughs.

LegoLand

While in Texas we went to LegoLand in Grapevine.  The boys have been in a crazy lego phase for a year or two now with no end in sight.  Any opportunity they have to spend some time building, reading, watching, imagining and creating they take with great enthusiasm.

The first thing we did was watch a 4D Lego movie.  What makes it 4D you ask?  Well, there are gusts of wind and you get sprayed with water.  The boys thought it was amazing.  I was glad we adults managed to score seats that received only a light misting and not a torrential downpour.  Seriously.  There were some seats left with standing water.

There were some little rides there.  One of them was a little racetrack where you drove little lego cars.  Here they are showing the kids what to do should they get stuck on the track.

John did pretty well.  He didn't hit the curb.  It gives me a little hope that he will be able to drive a car one day.

Anders, well...

it was a good thing he paid attention to what he needed to do when he got stuck.  He got stuck many, many times.  It was very cute.

Gus did pretty well too.

We discovered a pretty, pink castle.  In the castle there was a stage with karaoke.  I though the boys would love karaoke.  Anders really wanted to try it out and John was trying to keep him from going to the dark side.

I tried to convince John to go in there with Anders.  John would not step foot on the pink tiles.  He was not amused by me.

Eventually he gave in because he is a super awesome big brother.

He even stopped giving me dirty looks long enough to sing Old MacDonald with Anders.

Anders was not as interested in building his own car to race down these awesome tracks, so he played in the huge, soft lego pit.

I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of the race cars the boys built. Or the actual races.  But the older boys and my dad had a good time designing, building, and racing their cars.

This LegoLand also had a fun splash pad.

I constantly had to remind Anders not to drink the water.  That is so gross.  

Can you tell that my mom and Hans are enjoying their time in the Texas heat?

They actually had a lot of fun.  Hans is a big kid himself, and my mom just loves watching the boys having a great time.