Visiting Grandma and Grandpa - Megan's birthday

Grandma let Amelia and Megan help make Megan's four layer chocolate birthday cake.  She even had them crack the eggs!  Neither girl was hugely fond of getting their fingers all messy with egg, but Grandma encouraged them to keep at it.  She also let them scrape out the mixing bowl and turn the mixer on and off.  Grandmas have the time and patience to do a lot more fun stuff than moms do.

And of course Grandmas let all the kids lick the frosting spoons, even Nathaniel!  Needless to say, Nathaniel really enjoyed getting a taste of chocolate frosting:

Grandma even let them make a tiny little layer cake using the small cake pans that we used to play with at Grandma Sylvester's house.  They got to ice it themselves and decorate it with sprinkles.  They thought it was so fun to have a tiny little cake that they made all by themselves!

We had a little birthday party for Megan, but it wasn't too much of a success since Noah fell off the balance beam first thing and cut his chin open.  Plus I didn't get many photos because I was either getting Nathaniel in bed or waking him up for most of the time.  Dad had made a really fun scavenger hunt, which Amelia and Natalie enjoyed doing.  Megan was in a crabby mood because she couldn't find the clues as fast as the bigger girls, so she spent some time sitting in time out.  While Noah was getting doctored up, the girls enjoyed playing on the obstacle course, including hopping in these hula hoops.

Even though it wasn't hot, the kids still wanted to play with water balloons.  This year Noah was determined to make his balloon last as long as possible, so he would very gently place it in Mom's hands and catch is just as carefully.  I think they got to 25 tosses before the balloon dropped.  Natalie was so funny because she turned her head away and squinched her eyes shut every time someone would toss a ball to her.  I think she was afraid of getting her face splashed.  I don't have any pictures of my kids because either they were playing with me, or they were just interested in smashing their balloons on the ground.  Dad was the only one who got really wet, and I can't remember who it was who soaked him.

We managed to get a photo of the birthday girls with the rest of the kids, although Nathaniel was taking a nap at the time so he missed out on the picture taking fun.  We took this photo right before we ate cake, and we told the kids that they had to smile in order to get cake.  It worked pretty well, and took less than a minute from start to finish.  Bribery with cake seemed to work well...

Megan had requested a FOUR layer chocolate cake for her birthday, since she turned four years old. The rest of us like the extra layer of cake, too, but Mom said four is the highest she would go.  So next year, Megan won't get a five layer cake.  Unless she can convince Mom to change her mind...

Mom let all the bigger grandkids help her blow out the candles on her traditional pinwheel cake:

And Grace let everyone help her blow out the candles on her cherry crisp, also.  Brian discovered that putting a little bit of cherry crisp on a bite of chocolate cake was a delicious combination.

While Megan was opening her presents, I guess Amelia got cold and wanted to snuggle with Natalie and Noah.

Grace wanted to get a photo of Nathaniel wearing her Wrigley Field hat, and he seemed happy enough to wear it, although I think it's a little big for him.  Nathaniel really liked playing with and chewing on Mom's big measuring spoon.  I think all the grandkids have enjoyed that toy.

Grace got Megan a sticker book about birds and a picture book about dinosaurs; Megan loves her books, she is very interested in both birds and dinosaurs right now.  In fact, she was telling Grace the names of some of the dinosaurs!  While Grace was reading Megan's new book to her, Nathaniel decided to try out a book of his own.  Tastes good!