FONDUE FOUNTAIN OF FUN

The theme was Dress To Spill, and IT WAS FUN! I mean, how could you NOT have fun with ten other kids, pokey skewers, and all the gummy bears, marshmallows, and Nilla Wafers you could want to drench in liquid chocolate?

Aubrey celebrated year #5 with family and friends on Saturday the 10th.

She had old friends there -- the Javadi girls, and our neighbors Whitney, Vincent, and Amelie; and she had new friends there -- Nick and Mia (the twins from Dane's class), Josh (from Dane's class) and his little sister Abby, and Jennifer (from Miss Jane's class) and her little brother Ryan.

We first blew up balloons and the kids decorated them with stickers galore (that was Aubrey's idea -- and it went over well).

After that, the kids all sat on the floor to listen to a book. Before reading the book, I introduced each kid and they got to tell everybody their favorite color (which was very fun and sweet -- answers changed a lot as they listened to new ones, and eventually "the rainbow" was chosen as the best color).

I read "Lilly's Chocolate Heart" -- a Kevin Henkes book about a little mouse who has to figure out what she'll do with her beautiful chocolate Valentine's heart. Ultimately, she decides to eat it, which all the kids yelled out at the end. A perfect segue into the next activity, the chocolate fountain.

So, we sang Happy Birthday to Aubs and then THE FOUNTAIN kept everybody mesmerized and occupied for 15 chaotic but fulfilling minutes.

Then we played a musical unwrap-the-gift game where everyone got a little gift.

Then Aubs unwrapped her gifts and eleven kids played in our teeny tiny abode for the next half hour. Went better than you might expect... which is easy if you set those expectations low enough.

We were exhausted at the end of the day -- and Mick had 3 midterms the next Monday/Tuesday -- but it was such a great time, all in honor of Aubrey, that funny little chick.

*Note: Due to blogger formatting challenges, I can't label these pictures individually -- I can't even be sure which order they'll show up in on different browsers. Basics, though: Whitney's the little girl blowing up a balloon, the pic of many girls with Aubs are the Javadis and Mia, cute little red-headed Jennifer has the chocolate moustache, Aubrey and Abby have chocolate moustaches as well.