This was taken when Isaac had just come downstairs from a nap. While he's got a bit of a 'when does everyone else arrive?' look, everyone was pretty much already here when this was taken.
The weather looked a bit questionable, but while it was cool-ish outside, we didn't get any rain until much later, after we were done outside.
The food was all pre-prepared sandwiches and nibblies of various types. As Susanne (and her able assistants) had prepared everything beforehand, I didn't even have to perform my standard highly complex task of putting some meat on the BBQ and turning it over before it went black. Life is hard.
While the adults socialised and made their way through the various food on offer, the kids amused themselves with toys, bikes, the cubby, trampoline, Lisa'a new puppy and any food that was at least 50% sugar. Apparently, when Susanne asked Elissa later what her favourite part of the day was "the junkfood" was her response. She certainly didn't seem overly keen on the donuts though, at least not while hanging from a string.
Caitlin was the clear winner for this game. When I asked Elissa why she didn't want the donut, she said that she was just watching to see if Abbey or Chelsea would win. There was an adult version of this, but I won't inflict the photo's on you. I think Brendon won that one.
This was just the start of the sugar frenzie, with the cake cutting and desser on next. Anyone who went home hungry just wasn't trying.
After dessert we ran a treasure hunt for the kids, making them work a little harder for the bag of take-home goodies Susanne had put together. The clues were beyond the younger kids, but they enjoyed just running around after the leaders, helping where they could, even if it was only with popping the balloon which contained the next clue.
Chelsea or Caitlin would read the clue and then the whole group would race off searching for the next balloon. For those that weren't there, the clues were written on small pieces of paper inside deflated balloons. The kids had to find the balloon, inflate it, and pop it in order to get the next clue. After putting out all of the clues this morning, I almost forgot to put the actual prizes under the BBQ (the final spot). That was almost an interesting (if unintended) lesson in how unfair the world can be.
Caitlin did a great job (unprompted, I should add) of helping the others along without giving the game away completely.
I'm pretty sure the kids had a pretty good time, and I hope everyone else did too. Thanks to everyone who helped out with things, especially Norm, Lyn, Lisa and Michelle. If Isaac could speak, I'm sure he'd thank everyone for the great gifts.
Not 15 minutes after everyone left, Elissa was like this:
Isaac was out too. I guess the sugar high doesn't last for ever.
Cleaning up later, we had a nice reminder of the fact that Elissa is quite fond of her brother. (I do wonder sometimes, especially after having to stop Elissa from making a tent with Isaac as the pole once he started crying after being surrounded by pillows and covered up with a blanket for the 4th or 5th time.) I was telling someone how I had to stop Isaac from climbing up and getting into the kitchen bin. Elissa obviously misheard or misunderstood, as she nearly burst into tears, saying "Don't put him in the bin!". I had to assure her we were keeping him.
If you'd like to see all the photos from the day, well, at least all those from our camera, I've created a link here. All our flickr photo's are generally not publicly viewable, but I'll leave this link active for a few weeks and then it'll disappear again. You can view or download the full/original sized versions from the link.
No comments:
Post a Comment