Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

This past weekend we celebrated Jacob and Elise’s birthdays. The Wheelers came over Friday afternoon and Josh came home about the same time that our kids were getting home from school. Immediately Kate and I took Elise and Audrey off for our special surprise girl night out which Elise opted for over a traditional party. The first stop was the Eye doctor’s office to pick up Elise’s new glasses and get them fitted. Once she could see it was on to our second stop, the Springwood movie theatre here in Ankeny. We took the girls to see Disney’s Enchanted (which Audrey had already seen with her dad, but they both loved it so much that it was actually their recommendation that we see it). I even splurged and got concessions, pop, popcorn, AND candy! After the movie (which was really good, we all recommend it), I found some Christmas music on the radio and we drove to Grimes. Kate was taking all the pictures. Here’s the only one that she managed to get herself in. We were at the stoplight just before entering the interstate at which time I told her to hold off on the pictures until we got where we were going because her flash was really bright and I didn’t want her to cause an accident behind us. Our third stop was at Cutty’s in Grimes, Ia. We drove through the huge lights display and stopped in at Santa’s Village for our free marshmellos. The girls really wanted to go ice skating, but it was really cold and we were all in skirts so we said that would have to wait for another time. As we drove through the light displays with the windows rolled down so the girls could see better, they decided it was a great time to try calling the woodland creatures to us with song, immitating Giselle from the Disney movie they’d just seen. Needless to say (and much to Kate’s delight I’m sure!), no animal responded to the girls pleading songs. So, with the lights behind us we decided it was finally time for dinner. I told Elise I wanted to take her somewhere that she could get a yummy dessert–she chose Cheddar’s. I got the girl’s hot cocoa to drink (and Kate got me a Cherry Coke so I wouldn’t choke ) and once our waiter finally warmed up to us they played Elise a birthday tune on kazoos. After dinner we were all stuffed and exhausted so it was time to go home to bed. Overall I think (I hope) the girls had a wonderful experience and Elise enjoyed her birthday celebration. Somewhat early the next morning Josh and Chris took the four oldest kids (Cameron was supposed to go too, but he spent the morning from like 3 am on vomitting violently so he had to stay home with me.) to the 10th annual Christmas tree etc giveaway in Des Moines. They did this last year as part of the Iowa BBQ Society and wanted to help out again. Although I guess it was really cold this year and after about 45 minutes or so the kids had to go back to sit in the van while Josh and Chris continued to help out in the cold. When they made it back home Cameron was feeling a little bit better and had finally managed to keep down a little liquid so we all went to the Panda Garden Chinese buffet where Jacob’s birthday party was to take place. He had a good turnout, everyone that he invited was able to come, and the food was pretty good! After the party, it started to snow again and we didn’t really have a plan for what to do next, Kate needed to work on a paper for school and the boys were kind of upset that they didn’t get to go to the movie like the girls did, so…we took the boys to see Enchanted. Well, we offered to take the boys to see Enchanted, but Michael and Cameron were having fun playing on the Gamecube and Audrey was watching them, so it ended up being Josh and Chris, Jacob, Elise and myself who went to see Enchanted. It snowed the entire time we were in the theatre. The other highlight of the weekend was watching Jim Gaffigan’s “Beyond the Pale” stand-up special. I never really cared for his Sprite commercials, but this show was hilarious. At one point Kate said she laughed so hard she almost vomitted! We watched it twice. “Hot Pocket!”