Party Party

We had Nathan's birthday party on Saturday night, and it was very nice. I have to admit I really don't like doing birthday parties. We have people over for dinner at least once a week, but when it comes to throwing a party I would always love to get out of it. It must be all the expectations that I don't like, and so I don't meet very many of them. But the parties always turn out great, so I guess I should start enjoying it. :-)

We invited 3 families over and gave them dinner of "chicken on a bone", salad, brotchen, and corn. Then we had a yummy chocolate cake and then moved on to present opening.

To make it more exciting than an average dinner invite, Steve made the guest room upstairs into a fort. He used a huge tarp we have and lots of blankets. The kids thought it was pretty cool, and it kept them all the way upstairs for at least half of the night. I let Nathan take up licorice and a bag of gum to share with all the kids. My rule (that is quite flexible) is that you can't have gum until you are 5, so Nathan has made a big deal out of this and asked to pass out gum on his birthday.

Side notes,
From what I have seen Germans let the birthday kid open their presents right as the guest walks through the front door, so I wonder what they thought about us doing it kind of formally after dinner and cake.
Second, there was a primary activity Saturday morning where they painted the kids faces like animals. Did you notice that Jacob and Nathan had paint on their faces. What animals do you think they were?
Third, Steven wasn't feeling well all day and started getting a fever right when the party started. So we had a house full of people and a sick kid, and Steven had been excited for the party also, and he spent most of it laying down on my bed. Poor kid.

Now here is that video of Brandon crawling/scooting that I was wanting to take. It was taken 4 days ago and he is already much better on his knees. Now we have to find a new place for the cat
food and water huh?