We had her birthday party for her friends Friday night. When I asked her months ago what she wanted to do for her party, she chose to take her friends out in the boat. It's nice to have a June birthday so you can plan water activities (this from a winter baby). We've been having an extremely rainy June with it raining all this week but we had one nice day, Friday! She invited six friends to come. Our boat holds 8 so with her and Dode, it would be a full boat. Then Dode told me that he'd like another adult along to help launch/recover the boat and to help with flagging. Usually when you invite friends to a party there's someone who can't make it but not this time! Dode took Isaac along as a helper. There were a lot of nervous moms worried about their daughters drowning. I assured them that they'd be safe and would be wearing life jackets the entire time.
We forgot to send a camera on the boat.
Here they are after the ride, cold and wet.
They blew up our three man ski tube and soon girls were having a blast riding behind the boat. Once Dode got the girls onto the lake, they all starting demanding "faster! more wild!" With all the nervous mom's in mind, Dode had to deny their daredevil requests. We'd told the parents to pick up their girls at 9:00 pm. In my mind, that meant Dode would be here by 8:30 to give the girls time to get changed out of their swimsuits and eat some birthday cake. In Dode's mind that meant play until the last minute as long as you're home AT 9:00. At 8:45, I was getting worried that nervous moms were going to be showing up and I wouldn't have a daughter to return to them. Dode pulled in at 8:50 with all the girls safe and happy. One of the parents pulled in right behind him and I breathed a sigh of relief! The girls said it was the best party ever (but don't they say that at every party!).
Elizabeth and Dode went to Denny's Saturday morning for breakfast, where you can eat free on your birthday. She loves Denny's and looks forward to it all year. Dode tolerates Denny's because he loves his daughter. Elizabeth got a healthy breakfast: cheeseburger, fries, large soda. Dode stayed with the more traditional grand slam.
The plan was for them to canoe the Stillaguamish River after breakfast but it was raining. Elizabeth had been looking forward to floating the river with equal parts excitement and dread. She loves nature and the chance to spend a few hours quietly viewing it sounded wonderful. What didn't sound so great was the chance of tipping the canoe. Sitting in a canoe for two hours in the rain was out, so instead, they took her new indoor RC airplane to the church to fly it in the gym. She just got it on Wednesday as a birthday gift from Boma. She'd been down to the church Wednesday night to practice it and was eager to give it another shot. They weren't there long before she got confused about her controls and drove it right into the ground. Unfortunately, the propeller rod snapped and they came home early. She was pretty quiet on the way home but perked up when she learned they could order parts and she'd soon be flying again.
Once they got home, we loaded up and headed out to Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island. They were having "CamOcean days". Several local organizations set up booths with educational information and games for the kids to play. The focus of the event was educating the public about the ways the choices they make effect the health of the Puget Sound. My dad met us there to spend some time with the birthday girl.
playing a game about the food chain
face painting: our state bird
learning about watersheds
I sure like spending time with this guy!
A meal fit for the princess. See the salt shaker? She loves a TON of salt on her fries.
Let the singing begin!
I think Elizabeth had a good day. She fell asleep in the car on the way out to Camano and again on the way back so that's got to be the sign of a youth having a lot of fun!
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