Rhodes Family Page: Avery's 4th Birthday, Pack Saddle Lake Hike, Boys Go Fishing, Huckleberry Picking

I know it has only been ten days since my last post, but it has been a busy last ten days! Mainly because we celebrated Avery's 4th birthday! I decided to have a backyard party this year instead of going to Porter Park like we have done in the past. Avery wanted a "My Little Pony" party. This was also the first year we did the whole "theme" party. Usually we just choose colors like "pink and mint" or "pink and gold" and go with that. But this year we decided to go crazy and make it a my little pony fest!

I bought some decorations off of Amazon and made some myself. The favors included bubbles personalized with each guest's name on them, and a rainbow of skittles in a bag. The activities were all based on the ponies - so we had "Rainbow Dash's Under-the-Rainbow Dash (crawling under pool noodles that were staked into the ground to look like a rainbow tunnel), "Twilight Sparkle's Sparkling Waters" (a kiddie pool), "Fluttershy's High Flying Trampoline" (the tramp), "Apple Jack's Balloon Toss" (throwing water balloons into a hula hoop), "Princess Celestia's Hair Salon and Cutie Mark shop" (sprayed their hair with pink or purple stripes and then gave them temporary tattoos that looked like ponies), "Rarity's Friendship bracelet shop" (making their own beaded friendship bracelets), and "Pin the Cutie Mark on Pinkie Pie" (I bought that poster from the party store, like pin the tail on the donkey). Phew! That was a lot to remember! So they would basically just go around to each station and spend however much time at each one that they felt like.

Then we opened presents and had cake. ;) For food I also did a "rainbow fruit tray", some "rainbow salsa" and chips, some jello cups in various colors, cheetos (just because Avery loves cheetos), and water.

For guests, I basically told the moms, "You can bring the siblings as long as you stay." ;) So we had quite a few kids! Guests were: Kendalin (and Brittaini Milner), Harper (and Barb Hemsley), Evan (and Sam Buis), Jadey (and sister Salem and brother Cash, mom Brittanee Yates), Paisley (and sister Cadence, mom Bethany Mecham), Chloe (and mom Nichole Boyter), Adrie (and two sisters, Camri and Tailey, and mom Lindsey Call), Margo (and sister, Kooper, and mom Shalee VanGenderen), and Josh and the boys and me and Avery! So we had about 17 kids I think with all the siblings included. Then all the adults too. It was a wild party! ;) Avery had tons of fun and the next day when she woke up said to me, "Can i have a pony party again today???" Um… no. Mommy is exhausted. She was so excited for it though. She asked every day for the days leading up to it, "How many days until my birthday!?" I am glad she had a fun day. The things we do for our kids…. ;)

Then I also will post some pictures of a few other fun things we did lately. We went huckleberry picking that we did this afternoon after church with our friends the Buis's. Also, I ended up babysitting their two kids, Evan and Maci, overnight while they went to this fancy dinner event in Utah. It was kind of a last minute thing, so that happened on Wednesday and Thursday. Between that and the party the week flew by pretty past! Then Evan had his ninja turtle party on Saturday! So it was a party-filled week!

We also took this GORGEOUS hike up to a place called Pack Saddle Lake. They had this rope swing that Caleb took the first try on and about died. That was not good. He let go without being far enough out on the swing and landed in about 10 inches of water. Oops. He cried and scratched up his leg but he was okay and hiked back out alright. Josh also took the kids to ride horses up at his parent's house. And he took them fishing with Jay and Danny one day too. Man these kids are spoiled! So many fun things!

This upcoming weekend is the last day of Avery's dance class, gymnastics class, and the boys soccer games! Then on Thursday we leave to go to Utah for the weekend for Mandy Schmidt's wedding.

I think in August things will slow down for a few weeks and then school starts on the 24th!! It's so crazy that Summer is nearing it's end. I am NOT excited for Gabe to start Middle School. :(

I can't think about that right now… wahhh…. Here are some pictures!!!