Celebrating Seven

We did lots of celebrating our seven year old. First, Jillian requested to have a party at Quarry Hill Nature Center. QH hosts great (and easy for parents!) birthday parties, and the kids get to pick a nature activity led by a naturalist. Jillian chose to have a cave tour as the educational part of her party, and we did this the Sunday afternoon before her birthday. We lucked out for some absolutely gorgeous 60 degree late October weather. In addition to J and A, William, Rachel, Lizzy, Caitlin, and Ella were in attendance.

The kids clowned around as we waited for the naturalist to arrive. Here they were pretending to be snakes slithering towards me.

Love the envelope that Rachel wrote on to attach to Jillian's present...these girls are growing up!

Matt couldn't take the snake slithering, so he decided to entertain the kids for a few minutes by spontaneously starting an animal charades game. They were ALL IN. Nice call, Dad.

 Jillian was being a bear here....

 Adrienne debuting as an elephant....

 Caitlin was doing her best giraffe impression...

Finally, it was time to head to the cave. Jill led us to it via a short hike.

Preparing to go in the cave, getting instructions from Jill.

Love the identical expressions here...

At the entrance of the cave, testing their flashlights.

At the back of the cave, looking out the tiny two windows.

The crew: Adrienne, Ella, Will, Rachel, Caitlin, Jillian, and Lizzy

After the cave tour, we had just enough time for some cupcakes. Jillian requested "chocolate chip cupcakes, with chocolate frosting, and dirt, and worms". So--thanks to oreo crumbs I had my dirt, and then I shaped the gummy worms into a "7" on each cupcake and called it good. Easy peasy. Oh, she also requested "blue Gatorade" as the official party beverage. OK...

On Jillian's actual birthday, she woke up to a nice surprise--her birthday shirt and a decorated room, and a gift from Adrienne waiting outside her door. 

Adrienne kindly gave her a "coronation Jane" doll from the Descendants. Jane completes the Howe girl female Descendants character collection. It's very exciting.

We've got some awesome bed head over here...

I love the card Adrienne drew--it's Adrienne (on the left with her signature "donkey ears" hairstyle), and Jillian in the middle, wearing her new Mal birthday shirt and holding the Jane doll.

Jillian wanted to take Dunkin Donuts for her school treat, so we quickly ate some yogurt to offset the donuts, then headed downtown to eat some donuts and pick up more for school. Jillian had a fun day at school, then chose a dinner out at Newt's as her birthday meal. The girl needed some cheese curds and a bacon cheeseburger. We opened her gifts when we returned.

 Daddy priming the Merida (from Brave) suction cup bow and arrow. Why did I buy her this???

 Lots of suction arrows are being shot at these windows every day

More proof of growing up: Requesting music for gifts. She was over the moon to finally have all the Descendants music at her fingertips!

Oh boy....excitement over the Mal Spell Book (I am telling you, the Descendants obsession is just out of control!)

Jillian asked me for ice cream cake on her birthday, so I made an easy layered ice cream dessert with crushed oreos and sugar cones, and ganache on top. Fa-bu-lous.

Cheers to being seven! 

Halloween

We woke to lots of rain on Halloween, but by the time it was time to trick-or-treat all was well and perfectly 'spooky' to have some fun. Our little spooks were excited, and very into their costumed roles.  Jillian was of course Mal from Disney's Descendants. She is Maleficent's daughter, and Jillian's favorite character in the movie. We had fun teasing her by asking if she was dressed up as Aunt Mal. Adrienne was "a monster high girl". Adrienne has never seen the Monster High show (kid show with ghoulish looking characters--think Monster-like Barbie dolls), but she has always been attracted to the apparel/dolls/books in stores. She saw this little vampire-like costume at Costco and declared it to be "Monster High". Plus, she got some green vampire teeth at her preschool carnival last month so she was all set. She proclaimed that she was the main character, Draculaura, but the way she says it is so cute--"Drack-ee-ola". 

Matt took the girls out trick or treating for about an hour--first, they drove to a neighborhood in town with lots of houses close together, and then they came back to do our cul-de-sac. I was asked to stay here and pass out candy, which I of course didn't mind. Pretty tough to sit and drink some hot tea while reading a book and handing out candy. Soon these two little cuties rang my door bell.

Matt set up the big screen in the living room, and then the girls sat and ate candy and popcorn while we all watched Disney's Frankenweenie movie, waiting for continued trick or treaters.