The Dark Age (Scarlett Turns 6)

Scarlett's birthday was March 9.  We had a full day planned of birthday fun but mother nature had a different plan.  The evening before her birthday there was a terrible wind storm.  Power went down all over SE Michigan.  Our power went out that night.  Luckily it wasn't cold, so we were comfortable.  We got the girls to bed at 7 and it was pitch black.  Jake and I were thinking - do we just go to bed?!  Luckily we remembered my laptop was charged so we watched a DVD (old school!)  Our deep freeze can stay cold for 24 hours without power.  The next day we were borrowed a generator from the Furnesses and plugged in our fridge, freezer, and sump pump (our sump pump was almost full!  Jake had to bring the generator home in the morning so the basement didn't flood.)  The power came back on that next evening, thank goodness.  We will be getting a generator of our own now.

That morning school was cancelled cause they didn't have power either.  Since we woke up without power it was a quiet morning.  Thank goodness our water heater still worked!  I was worried about how to make her day special without power or any resources.  Luckily Laura invited us over for the day!  She went all out for Scarlett: homemade waffles (she even separated the eggs and just used the egg whites to make them extra fluffy), made lunch for everyone, and even had cupcakes afterward.  Thank you Laura for turning the day around and making it so special!!!  Scarlett loved being home from school and was so happy.  She kept say "I'm so very 6 year old today"!  Laura babysat the Glassmans that day - it was a party!  (and yes, Jaide has a sword tucked into her Anna dress).

The next day at school Scarlett used her "Dress Down Day" sticker so she could wear her new rainbow shirt.  It was hat day at school so she wore this tiny birthday hat and badge.

We planned Scarlett's birthday party on her actual birthday at a bounce house place.  They didn't have power either so we had to postpone the party.  I was really proud at how Scarlett seemed to go with the flow and remained positive through all the changes.  Since we got power restored to our house late that day we and the party was cancelled we decided to take her out to dinner.  We went to Red Robin (yummm!)  The manager came to our table to chat with us.  Scarlett told him that her party was cancelled cause of the power.  At the end of the meal we saw he gave us the 3 kid meals and 2 desserts for free!!!  How nice!!!!!  We opened her gifts that weekend.  Since we went out for dessert we used a banana for her candles!  haha!

I took the twirls to Target to buy Scarlett's presents.  They bought her the movie Trolls.  The day before she opened her gifts the twirls kept saying "Scarlett don't guess your present! I won't tell you what movie it is... that we saw at your school... the girl has pink hair... don't guess it!"  hahahahaha!!!!!

The next week we rescheduled her party.  This year I wanted to do something low key, just take our kids and a friend to a bounce house place.  I wanted it to be super simple and fun.  A few days after we sent out the invite I felt very strongly that we needed to invite all her friends.  I know it gets crazy with a big group but I would hate for someone to have hurt feelings.  So we invited her primary class and her close friend from school.  I was hoping low-key but it became way more expensive than we were expecting.  It was a fun adventure but I doubt we'll ever do that again!

Since we had to reschedule from the power outage Pump-It-Up turned on the blacklight for free and gave us a discount.  I thought that was generous considering the power outage wasn't their fault.  The facility was a little big for the twirls so Jake and I had to help them through a lot of it.  But the older kids did great.  They were all so sweaty when we went in to eat dinner!  And so was I!

The facility was a bit pricey to rent, but they really did take care of everything.  At the beginning they took my bags full of food and gift bags.  When we were done playing they had set up the table, dished up pizza, set out all my side dishes with serving spoons, and displayed the goodie bags.  Seriously not a bad way to go!  Then at the end they did all the clean up!  Scarlett wanted donuts that I bought a week earlier before the party was postponed.  I threw them in the deep freeze for a week and they still tasted great!  Whitney fed Skye for me while we sang to Scarlett.  I was walking by and Skye reached for me and clearly said "Mom!"  So cute!!!  Skye wore a blue plaid shirt and the twirls kept calling it her "daddy shirt."

Happy birthday to our sweet, smart, crazy, creative, inquisitive, loving little Scarlett!