Violet's 7th Birthday

We began decorating the night before - putting streamers by her door, hanging twisted streamers around the house, getting balloons and gifts ready.  I made a trip to the store yesterday to get "birthday" wrapping paper since all we had was Christmas wrapping paper.  Dave and I got her 4  Berenstain Bears books, Looney Tunes cartoon DVDs, and an alarm clock (something she had always wanted so she can wake up on her own for school).

The morning of her birthday started with Dave and I waking her up singing happy birthday.  She woke up in her zip up purple with monkeys fleece jammies, cheerful, thankfully.  She immediately noticed the streamers in the doorway and said, "ohhh YES! Those are my favorite!"  She climbed down from the top bunk of her bed and played with those for a bit. Then we got all the kids dressed and headed downstairs where she was greeted with her balloons, streamers, and presents.  She was so happy to see balloons.  Grandma Martha was also visiting for the weekend (arrived Thurs night and left today, Sunday).  Martha had prepared a yummy dish called baked blueberry french toast so we ate that for breakfast.  It was yumm-O!

Violet hopped, skipped and danced her way through the day.  She enjoyed getting up in the front of the Sunday School kids along with her friend Ivy who had a birthday 4 days earlier.  They sang happy birthday to her which is always fun for a kid.  

I planned a lunch meal including some of her favorite things to eat - grilled chicken, stove-top macaroni and cheese (homemade by me), and broccoli.  She ate a huge serving of noodles, broccoli, and a few bites of chicken.  Dave was happy to grill the chicken (even though it was only 10 degrees out!) that we covered with a bottle of Sweet Bourbon glaze that we had gotten from Chev Ivo in Galena awhile ago.  After the meal Vanessa got super crabby so I put her in bed for a nap before we dished up the cake/ice cream.  I think Eli was sleeping too, I can't remember.

Dave and Martha made the cakes yesterday and I decorated them....with purple frosting, of course...she always requests purple frosting.  But that's ok, it looked great and she LOVED it!

I helped her light the candles with matches, not the best idea.  We played the "happy birthday remix" song on youtube while we lit the candles.  She blew them out before we sang but eventually got them all blown out.  She wanted the whole "7" on her cake so she got an enormous piece with ice cream.  Everybody enjoyed cake...especially Calvin.  Martha had a long drive ahead of her so she left shortly after cake/ice cream. 

Violet really, really wanted to do her pottery pot....so Dave worked with her on that for a couple hours.  It was very messy.  We brought in the little plastic picnic table from the deck, which was FREEZING.  She sat on a towel to warm her buns. She had to be near an outlet so the motor on the pottery wheel would spin.  We tried setting it up on the table, then the kitchen counter top, then realize both places would be too messy.  The little plastic table worked great.  The first attempt with the clay did not work since it wasn't pliable enough.  He added some water and it turned out better.

The end result was something that looked like a little pot, slightly crooked, but it was super cute.  No baking, it just dried out on its own with air.  I gave Violet a bath while Dave gave the others something for supper, and they were all off to Awana at 5:45 pm.  It was "crazy hair night" so Dave spiked up Calvin's hair into a mohawk, and I twisted Violet's hair into two buns on top of her head.  Not much I could do to her hair while it was soaking wet.

At the end of the day she said it was the best day ever!

Dave added swirled food coloring to the cakes, it was very pretty but not visible once it was frosted!

Her reaction to finding out her present was an alarm clock.  Calvin knew I was giving her one and he was excited to "give" it to her, and was satisfied with her excitement about it by giving me a smile and a thumbs up.

 "Ewww" to the gooey clay.