Birthday Bash Weekend

Karl was riding his birthday high all the way through this weekend. Yesterday was his party with his friends from school. I finally decided that I've hosted enough children's parties at my house, and have a new rule: all "friends" parties must be somewhere far away from the things that seem to attract unruly children (e.g. treadmill, bucket of musical instruments, the 100-year-old guitar hanging on the wall). This year we rented the party room at the AmericInn in North Branch, so all the kids could swim and be wild and loud and have fun, and I could just watch and smile, knowing that our house is quiet and clean...

Karl was thrilled to see his name on the hotel's whiteboard!


The boys alternated between the pool...


...the hottub....

...and the steamroom (which gave off "toxic gas!"). At first they complained it was very hot in there (it was about 98°), but then someone said, "No it's not! We're men!" and then this group of 6- and 7-year-olds all started chanting "Men! Men! Men! Men! Men!" None of them lasted more than a few minutes in there, and they were soon back to doing cannon-balls into the pool.


I didn't even have to cook! They ate Domino's Pizza and Dairy Queen cake made across the street! Apparently it is cool in first grade to eat your cheese pizza with M&Ms on top. All nutritional sanity goes out the window when it's birthday time I guess.


After the party, Karl got to stay and swim because the party package comes with a hotel room. The plan was for Laura to join us after the party so she could swim without having to deal with all those boys, and then go home with me while Matt and Karl stayed overnight at the hotel (Laura had said she hates hotel beds and would rather stay at home). All week we had been asking her if she was sure she didn't want to stay overnight there. "100% sure!" she said. As soon as Laura got there, though, she changed her mind (which of course is her prerogative as a woman). Fine. After a quick trip to Tanger to get her some pjs, we all went swimming and then I went home by myself. I slept very well. The three of them did not (since Laura was there, Karl could not make his dream of sleeping sideways in a bed come true).

Oh well, the fun continued when we went to Pam and Fred's today to celebrate Thanksgiving and the Meissner-Schneider cousin birthdays. Karl is always happy when there is a Vikings game on, especially when they win!


Laura, Emily, and Aly.


After dinner, the kids worked on gingerbread houses.


Then it was time for presents!


It was a crazy-busy weekend, but tomorrow's a big day too. Stay tuned!