Jackson's Party

I'm not really sure where Jackson came up with the idea for a penguin party, but that's what he said he each time I asked him (I had to keep checking to see if he'd change his mind).

Yeah, this happened a few weeks ago - there is a reason I didn't post it earlier (just waiting on pictures from someone else's camera). But I say I don't need a reason to not post right after things happen, since I normally don't anyway.
To make the party penguin-ish, the plan was to swim in cold water, slide on ice, carry an "egg" (rock) on their feet for a race, eat penguin cupcakes, and then they got a couple penguin party favors to take home. Just in case you're looking, there aren't a lot of penguin party favors out there.

It looked like rain was coming, so we didn't put their swimsuits on. I told them they could get their feet wet. They got their clothes wet, too. Sorry party parents.

I can totally understand why Olivia and J. have their skirts pulled all the way up at this point. Grown-ups never get to do anything.

Here's the sliding on ice part. No one else there had done this before. I guess if you have snow to sled on, you don't need ice blocking, but I remember some fun ice blocking YM/YW nights in AZ. Going pretty fast, crashing into each other at the bottom, going back for more . . .

This time, we were trying to push kids down on the ice, while trying to keep them from falling off. That kind of hurts your back. A little more with each kid in line, in fact.

John didn't believe me that it really works, and I couldn't even give a good demonstration because I wasn't wearing very good ice-blocking clothes. Otherwise, you'd see me flying down this hill, of course. Ice in Arizona must be more slippery.

Jackson does have a penguin stuffed animal that he likes, but he hadn't ever talked about penguins before he said he wanted this party. So his penguin is my party decorations. I also tried to get black & white balloons, but the "black" balloons blew up purple and the floral guy couldn't find anything else.

Penguins cupcakes - or maybe baby owls? Familyfun.com does it again.

Sadly, this is one of the best pictures I have of Jackson from the party. He doesn't like the camera, but he did have some smiles on his birthday, really.