Zoe's Birthday Weekend - Darby & Danna's Visit

Zoe turned 6 on Saturday, October 24.  Darby and Danna, my sister's 5 year old and 3 year old respectively, came to stay with us for the entire weekend while they went to St. Louis.  The nieces arrived on Friday afternoon while Rich was picking Zoe up from school.  Here's how the weekend went (since this is going to be such a long recap I didn't take the time to crop or remove red eye on any of the photos - sorry, and excuse the mess in my house - it was a busy weekend. I also just spent a ton of time on this post and am having trouble with some of the formatting but am now way too tired to fix it - maybe later).

FRIDAY

Zoe arrived home from school to be greeted by Darby and Danna.  She immediately noticed the gift bag they brought along with the presents that arrived from Texas Grandma and Grandpa.  She talked us into opening all of these within 10 minutes of her being home.  She, of course, loved everything.

After everything had been opened, the girls played for a bit, then Rich and I took them out to dinner at Zoe's favorite restaurant Buffalo Wild Wings. After dinner we took them dowtown to a cupcake bar and they all had red velvet cupcakes.  They all liked the cupcake but didn't like the cream cheese frosting - when have you ever seen a kid eat the cake and not the frosting? Isn't it usually the other way around?  When we got home they were all worn out and ready for bed.  I read books and Zoe went to her room and Darby and Danna slept in a room together.

SATURDAY

Zoe woke up at 8 am and Darby and Danna woke up at 8:20 am (which is really 9:20 their time and Darby is usually a very early riser so this was truly magical)!  Thank you room darkening curtains :)  The girls decorated their wands and tiaras while Rich went to purchase cinnamon rolls upon request.

After breakfast they played princess, got dressed, and greeted Lindsay, Jason, and Kennedy at our house.  We headed off to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch and my parents met us there.  We all had lunch at the cafe then went out to the play area including a maze, wooden train, and tractor.  After that we picked out pumpkins (with good intentions to carve them before the weekend was over).

We all went back to our house, watched some college football, opened some more presents, ate pizza, and had DQ ice cream treats.  Zoe didn't want cake, she wanted a dilly bar - try putting candles in a dilly bar - Rich came to the rescue and proves once again that daddy can conquer all.

Everyone left around 7 pm and the girls were ready to get in their pj's so the slumber party could begin.  We put 3 air mattresses in the living room, turned off the lights, and turned on Cinderella.  They watched the entire movie without a peep, then immediately fell asleep when it was over - I REALLY lucked out on this one.  I think the long day of festivities and fresh air made it all possible.

SUNDAY

The girls slept until about 7:30 - not too shabby.  We made a big breakfast, cleaned up the living room, and invited over our neighbor's/good friend's 4 year old and 7 year old for some arts and crafts.  With 5 children, ages 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 in the house things actually went really well.  We did some perler bead projects and shrinky dinks.  The younger kids didn't last long so they just ran and played and had a good time.  We all had lunch together then went outside to play a good ole' fashioned game of tag.

After arts and crafts period was over, we loaded up the 3 girls and headed to a town about 35 minutes away.  We have some good friends that opened a chocolate shop (aside from their full-time careers as police officers) almost a year ago and they are closed on Sundays but said they would be there working and invited us to bring the girls in to make some chocolate.  Danna fell asleep on the way and remained asleep during most of the visit but she sure enjoyed eating their creations once she woke up.

We came home, the girls played for a couple of hours, mostly with polly pockets, then my sister and brother-in-law came to pick up their girls.  Phew, the weekend was over and we survived 3 girls!