Fullness

This weekend was a FULL one.

We had a carnival_ a birthday party/sleepover_ and a pumpkin carving party.

Friday night started off with the kids’ elementary school having their yearly carnival. 

They raced big trikes_ jumped on some blow ups_ got to ring a few 2 liters_  smashed some
confetti eggs_ and threw shaving cream pies at their teachers. 

They ran around a lot... and me & hubs basically ran back & forth along with them just trying
to keep up with them all night!

Then Saturday I cleaned house all day like a mad woman trying to get it prepared

for  8 little girls_ 3 boys _ and a few adults that would help us celebrate Kayli’s birthday. 

Jode came up with the idea to do a hay ride and a scavenger hunt with them. 

Which I thought was super creative and so helpful for him to do.

On the list of things to find for the scavenger hunt were things like a flower_ an acorn_ 

but then he had put in a piece of fruit…and the kids got so upset because there aren’t random pieces of fruit to be found in the commons area of our subdivision. 

We had to explain to them quite a few times that they probably wouldn’t get everything on the list…. But it was just about the most items that they possibly could find. 

He also had some things on the list that we all learned about. Like a Maple Key… 

I've seen the little round pokey balls all over the ground but never knew that they were called that.

Hubs is an outdoorsman to say the least and so he got to explain to the

8 little girls what all the items were… such cuteness.

Then we all piled into the trailer for the hayride that Jode drove us on around the neighborhood. 

The girls sang really loudly and the neighbors could hear us coming from a mile away… 

they would wave, or stop to stare and the girls would bust out in hysterical giggles 

and then start the songs all back over again.

Next up was the bubble gum blowing contest…. this idea was courtesy of my SIL, Steph. 

She used to do this when all the nieces & nephews would get together and they always loved it. 

You just get dubble bubble gum and we let them have 3 pieces at a time and you try and see who can blow the biggest bubble. Once again Jode was the measurer of bubbles and our own Gabi girl wound up being the queen bubblegum blower. Blowing a bubble of 6 inches she was the proud winner….

In the treat bags I had made each of the girls a fabric flower bookmark.

My girls right now are all into reading, which I so love. 

They have something called AR and all these different reading challenges at school where they are constantly trying to beat their last score. And so a bookmark seemed to be the perfect little treat.

It’s the simple things, you know…. And sometimes I think it’s those things that they will probably always remember. Probably not the gift that we got them for their 9^th birthday but the singing & giggling on the hayride_ the hu-ge bubblegum bubbles that were blown_ trying to find moss_ mom cutting the cake into too big of pieces for everyone_ the spooky night hayride that they talked dad into_ staying up and giggling after the lights were all turned out… it’s probably those simpler things that they will wind up always remembering.
Hopefully that... and the fact that they were_ and are extremely loved.

Because carnivals_ birthday’s _ and pumpkin carving parties help to make life a little more lovely.

Heather :)