New Year's Eve Extravaganza

So...sometime last summer, Memaw and Grandpa took the older boys to the Children's Museum for the day and became members. Somehow, I got a hold of an events calendar and saw this New Year's Eve celebration called "Bubble Bash 2008 - Bach to Bubbles". Um.....how much does Aiden love bubbles??!! That's all he asked for on his 2nd birthday! We went through at least 5 gallons of bubble solution in the back yard last summer! He's completely obsessed (as am I .... a little maybe) with Susan's double-bubble machine! He even collected all the bubble wrap from the Christmas ornaments, called them bubbles and carried them around for 2 days. So we're thinking, based on the name and the illustration on the calendar showing a little cartoon character conducting music with bubbles ALL around him that this is going to be a BUBBLE FEST....OF COURSE WE'RE IN! Um....it wasn't like that at all. It was FUN...don't get me wrong. But...it was basically a day at the Children's Museum with all these different activities going on like bands, crafts, snacks etc....but no major, crazy bubble action to be found. In fact...the only OUT OF THE ORDINARY bubble thing we got was our parting gift....a bubble blower and a bottle of bubble solution for each kid. Cool! Not as cool as we THOUGHT....but cool!!

Before we delve into Bubble Bash - let me back-track to Monday morning when Brady slipped (as a new walker) at a friend's house during playgroup and managed to ding his poor sweet head on the corner of a lower cabinet. We called the pediatrician...ran down the typical signs (no passing out, no vomiting, eyes not dilated, acting normal, swelling came OUT.....etc). They suggested that we take him to an urgent care facility only because of the location of the injury and the fact that he might get a scar if we didn't get any necessary stitches etc. He didn't need stitches....but they put a little skin glue (dermabond) on his laceration and we came home. Thankfully, Memaw was off for the week and watched the older boys and, thankfully, Bri was home to go with me. It was so not a big deal, but nice to have the help! While we were at urgent care, I told Brady that I gave him major props for having his spill when he did....at playgroup with 6 mommies around ready to rush in! Without having to do a thing, I had ice in my hand for his head, Anne packed up my diaper bag and put it by the front door, Susan and Kristin got the older kids dressed...Kristin even found my shoes and put my coat on for me. Way to go little dude! Brady's after-accident nick names: little warrior and son of Frankenstein.

I included this picture because of Brian. Every year, he takes about 2 weeks off around Christmas....and stops shaving. He calls it his "Christmas Beard". For some reason, he was also particularly found of wearing his new northface beanie hat around the house all day every day...he looks like such a thug! Sexy honey! hee hee.

Here we are arriving at the Children's museum. The boys were so excited to see this giant aquarium. I was laughing because it's the least impressive thing about the place!
Even cousin Jack wanted to check out the fish. Onward boys!!
Aiden loved the tubes of air. You can put balls and scarfs and other stuff in these compartments and then open/close doors to make them fly around these tubes that have forced air in them. Pretty cool

Ah....the water table....always a popular spot! And what a super sweet jacket too. haha.



It's kind of hard to see, but Logan is surrounded by a giant bubble. You step inside of a ring that rests in the solution and you use a rope to pull it up.

Daddy got in on the bubble action too....um....for the kids obviously.....to amuse them....not because bubbles are really fun to play with :)

They have several little baby areas and poor Bray kept getting dragged, against his will, out of them because his older brothers wouldn't stay in one place for more than 5 minutes.

The ball run (that's what I'm calling it anyway) was Aiden's FAVORITE thing. He stood there for quite a while.

Bray liked it too.

Downstairs, they had some cool music (well...there was some cool drumming for a while). There were also snacks and some craft rooms too. Here is Aiden with a shaker he made. I didn't take any pictures, but they had some cookies that were frosted white that you could color on with food coloring markers. Aiden made his with stripes and I drew a hockey stick on cousin Jack's for him.
We finally convinced Logan and Jack to make the shakers too

Seriously, the only reason I was able to convince Logan to make one of these was to tell him that they could close it with green tape.

Ah....mommy's boys playing the drums.....you make me proud. Someday maybe I'll let you play Rockband with us ;)

Aiden stuck the sticks down the middle of this giant, heavy, iron drum thing. I had to scoot it over and fish them out. Not surprisingly, I found more than just the 2 he stuck down there. I guess some other kids had the same inclination.
Brady was having a BLAST playing this thing. I only moved him because he's a bit wild and, when some other children came over, he whacked a couple of them by accident.

This is always my favorite thing....the giant "lite brite" display (it's not really lite brite, but it's similar in concept). Look....someone on the other side of this one is making a cool sailboat!
OH! It's Daddy and Aiden! (are you wondering why Logan isn't in any of these pictures? That's because he was off with Grandpa who was his own personal escort that day. They were moving so fast through everything that we couldn't keep up).

The museum thing ended around noon and everyone went home for a nap before our 2nd annual neighborhood New Year's Eve "sleep over" party at Chad & Anna's house. The kids all arrive in jammies, eat, have a fake countdown (which we actually forgot to do this year) and then we try to convince them to watch a movie downstairs and fall asleep in sleeping bags while we do adult things upstairs (like play games - haha!....like Rockband.....and Scene It). Here, Aiden spends some quality time with daddy and Mr. Chad (an ex-Iowa football player) checking out the scores on TV before bedtime.

Whatever Chad was talking about had Aiden captivated. I'm sure he was saying something involving the word "ball"
Time for the movie - here are all the kids in their sleeping bags. There were 12 of them in total downstairs with 4 babies asleep in various rooms upstairs (including Brady).

From left to right: Logan, MacKenzie (who requested that she lay by Logan) and Aiden.


This is what almost every child did all night long...pop up....
...wander upstairs for some food, water, a trip to the potty, just to check out what was going on etc. The only children who fell asleep and stayed asleep were Aiden and one other little boy. AND...those two fell asleep pretty close to 11 anyway so I'm not sure it was that great of an achievement.
When it was time to pack everyone up and go home, we left Aiden still snoozing in his sleeping bag until the last possible minute. I mean the WHOLE basement was cleared out, Brady's pack n play was broken down, Logan and Bray were in the car, everyone else had left...Aiden was snoring! Then we scooped him up, drove the 10 houses back home and put him in bed. During our 30-second drive.....Logan finally fell asleep!!!

For some reason, instead of taking pictures of the party people, I took several of the TV. 2009 Hooray!

Also missing from my camera - a shot of Brian and I! What DID I shoot instead? Two strangers on TV kissing and wearing large goofy hats. (shrug)


2 comments:

Karen said...

Sounds fun! I haven't been to that museum in a while. Will has those same "off road" pjs. I love them!

Anonymous said...

That museum looks awesome! So many fun things. I'm sorry it didn't turn out to be all about bubbles- but sounds like Aiden had a great time anyway!

Poor little Brady's head! He looks so pitiful. Hilarious that your dignified husband looks like a hood! Hope the hairy face got a little softer!

Your New Year's eve party sounded like a ton of fun. It's terrific to have a great group of neighbors to hang with!

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Stories about BRLAB: Brian & Renay, two relatively sane parents, and our three adorable, but active boys: Logan - 9, Aiden - 7 and Brady - 6. I started this blog to document our adventures and milestones for those family members who are far away and can't always share the fun in person. This blog has become my way to keep track of everything in the lives of my growing boys - from the super big stuff that seems the most important to the small things that probably really ARE the most important. I always include tons of pictures because I plan to make a book out of the blog on a yearly basis. Time flies by so fast, I can only hope that these posts will help us remember all the wonderful and silly times we have together as a family.