Saturday Adventures

Elle had her last day of gymnastics on Saturday and since Kaygee and Pop Pop were visiting they got to come and see her in action. She did a forward roll on the uneven bars, walked the balance beam by herself, did a flip (somersault) in front of the whole class and hung on the rings. At the end of class each kid got to walk up on the "stage" and the teacher gave them a ribbon. She seemed pretty excited about the whole thing, which was super cute.
Then we were off on our day of adventure. We headed north to PA for Shane's 3rd birthday party. We stopped and had lunch at Fudruckers. Although I have never been to a Fudruckers, I was a little scared, so I tried to steer the group to another place, but it wasn't open yet. My really good friend Alyssa and her husband Tom went out to eat at Fudruckers once when we were in college and right after, she got the stomach flu (this is he Valentines Day stomach flu that I also had). And so even though I knew she didn't get the stomach bug from the burgers, I did what any good friend would do and never ate at Fudruckers. Sadly, I was missing out because they do have some pretty yummy burgers there and a ton of games. So while we sat at the table and ate, Ellie ran around and played with the video games.
Wade had been trying to win Elle something from those stupid claw games, you know, the kind with the big metal claw that comes down and its filled with stuffed animals to grab and win. Well, after robbing me and his mom of all of our quarters, he finally won a purple gorilla for Elle. I was in the bathroom when it happened. So I come out and she runs over to me holding the gorilla and Wade walks by me and kind of smirks. So I say "You're feeling pretty good about yourself right now, aren't you?" He laughs and says "Yea, I am."
When we got in the car, Wade asked her what the gorilla's name is and she said "Jar" which I later realized is George (as in Curious George) but now we call him Jar.
We finally arrived at the party which was a Birthday Carnival for Shane. There was a clown and moon bounce and a swing set and a pool. All of which Elle took full advantage of. She had so much fun. Of course she had to be the first (only) kid in the pool which meant that I had to be the only adult in the pool. Funny how being a mom changes you. For example, never in my life would I have been the first person to put on my bathing suit and go swimming at a party, no matter how hot it was. Much less the ONLY person besides a two year old. The pool did feel really good though and she had a blast. She was so cold, her lips were purple and she kept saying "I'm freezing" but she would not get out of the pool.
We got to spend some time with Ryan, Shane and Casey after all the other families left and Wade was cracking the kids up by swallowing the helium from the balloons and talking to them. Crazy uncle Wade, everyone loves that guy!