Parker's Pizza Parlor Birthday Party

We celebrated Parker's 10th birthday on Saturday with a pizza party.  It feels surreal that Parker is 10 already.  It also means I've been blogging for a decade!

I made a quick pizza bunting from leftover costume felt for decorations and hung their costumes from the fireplace shelves.

Prep was fairly simple for this year's party.  I opted to order from Dominos instead of making a bunch of pizza.  We got more variety and they all stayed hot.  A basic salad on the side to accompany.  I am really proud of the cake this year.  I made it half vanilla and half chocolate.  I used red candy melts to make pepperoni, Buncha Crunch candy for sausage, and shredded white chocolate for cheese.

After cake it was time for presents.  Parker really understands the concept of opening presents now which is really fun.

He got a super fast new fidget spinner (seriously, this thing went for over 6 minutes!)

He also really loves his big street sweeper truck.  It can really pick up trash from the floor!

Dancing to his Spiderman watch

We ended an epic party day with a visit to Best Buy to check out all the washers and dryers.

Happy Birthday Parker, we are so proud of you and love you so much!

Herrmann Thanksgiving in Two Harbors

We drove up to Two Harbors to spend Thanksgiving day with Jimmy's sister's family. Esme had so much fun playing with her cousins.

Aunt Julie also had a dancing hippo that sang my favorite novelty Christmas song, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." I really wanted to take it home with me.

As usual, Julie did not disappoint with the food, turkey and all the fixings and three different pies for dessert.

Esme had more than her fair share of chocolate pie!  Parker nibbled on his.

We spent the afternoon chatting and watching the kids play games.  With a little help from me, she smoked Paul in Sequence and Sorry!  He'll never live this down, especially since it's in pictures.

It feels so nice to be gathering together with family for the holidays again.

Buxton Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving #1 was on Wednesday night.  Jimmy channeled his inner Crumbl and made cherry cheesecake cookies.  It was a graham cracker cookie, cream cheese frosting, and cherry pie filling.

Pretty traditional Thanksgiving fare was on the menu.

We also made mini chocolate pies for the kids before starting the pool tournament.  I was surprised to see we'd never had a 5 person bracket before, so I had to look up how to make one. 

I was the first person knocked out, but there was some pretty intense game play for Jimmy.  He and Jayden were down to just the 8 ball and pockets on the opposite sides of the table.  Neither wanted to make a risky move, but Jayden finally did and ended up losing.

Esme is honing her drawing skills by doing a picture of Grandpa Buxton.

It was at this point I realized I forgot to take a picture of the cookies, so here it is cut in half with a healthy serving of cherries.  Esme kept telling me she wanted pumpkin pie, but only ate the whipped cream.

Jimmy was able to play a calm and cool final game to take home his first title over Jayden.  (There was a second tournament on Thanksgiving Day with my brother and his girlfriend in which grandpa took the win, so there will be a dual title this year.). Hopefully we can all be together like normal next year.

Urban Air Birthday Party

Esme was invited to a classmates birthday party yesterday.  We've never been to Urban Air, but have enjoyed Sky Zone pre-Covid.  She tends to be pretty shy in situations like this, but enjoyed playing.  There was a large playground maze that I normally would have gone in with her, but I didn't have a pass or socks, so it was a little nerve-wracking trying to keep track of her.  There were a lot less trampolines than Sky Zone.

After pizza and cake, her friend Jonas asked to play.  They helped each other navigate the big maze.  He was the sweetest.

I think I still prefer Sky Zone, but it was a fun place to check out.