Halloween and Nisa's Birthday

This past week we had some fun celebrations with Nisa's birthday, Halloween and then Nisa's birthday party.

For Nisa's birthday we went to, Nisa's favorite, Chuck E Cheese. Nisa's favorite game is ski-ball and we noticed was that she is a southpaw ski-bowler. This is interesting because Roger writes left-handed and throws right handed. Nisa writes right handed, but could turn out to be a southpaw thrower. Hmmmm...

Just in time for Halloween, Gram flew up to Portland. Friday night all of the girls dressed up for Halloween and went trick-or-treating. Ellie was a princess, Nisa was Princess Jasmine and Maile was Tinkerbell. All very cute. Check out our Flickr photos of the costumes and our house. Special thanks to Gram for her great pumpkin carving skills. :-)

Sunday was the big party. Nisa invited her whole class and they pretty much all came. About 25 kids in all. Counting parents, we probably had about 50 people in our house. The theme was 'Jungle Safari' with a Diego birthday cake. As the kids showed up Grammie was playing some fun kids' songs and Gram had the kids all gathering 'round for some Safari Bingo. After a couple rounds of Safari Bingo, it was time to head down for a Safari Scavenger Hunt. Mika had taken pictures of stuffed animals that the kids had to find downstairs. After everyone was done with the Safari Scavenger Hunt, the kids danced around to Grammie playing "Down By the Bay." Then it was time for Roger's magic show. It was mostly all tricks that Roger used to do when he was a kid. After the magic show it was time for birthday cake and then the ultimate finally, fishing for stuffed animals with Gram. After you caught your animal (with a butterfly net over an easel) the kids also received their Safari Goodie Bags.

It was a packed house and there was a ton of energy (especially after the cake), but overall things ran pretty smooth. Special thanks to Gram and Grammie with all of their kindergarten expertise in entertaining and containing kids. :-)

As Gram tucked Nisa into bed she asked if Nisa had a good birthday. Nisa said, "Yep. Ummm Gram, when is my next birthday?" :-)

Here are a few video clips from the past two weeks...