A couple of weeks ago my side of the family had a fun unofficial reunion. Those members of the family living in Utah met those of us living in California halfway...in Las Vegas. We stayed at several units of a timeshare and at some point during the week, each of my siblings were able to be there at least part of the time. Not everyone was there at the same time, but I was one of the few that got to see everyone during our stay. The girls and I drove out and Aaron met us there later in the week (he flew to Vegas straight from a class he had to teach in Reno, and then we all got to drive home together.)
The weather was hot, but we had a lot of fun mostly just hanging out. While we were there we went bowling, played tennis, played Frisbee golf, played games, visited circus circus, and did a lot of swimming in the pool. The cousins had a blast together. Trenton and his family got there the night before we left so we didn't get any pictures with them, but I'm so glad we got to at least visit for a little while. Like I said, we were all there at different times so we were unable to get a group picture. But here are a few of what I did capture with the camera:
Chandler, Grace, Cameron, and Davis ready to bowl.
Eve, Grandma, Grace, Grandpa, Jason, Daphne, and Shawn at the bowling alley.
The girls with Jason and Becky's Kids: Davis, Eve, Daphne, Grace, Olivia, Hayes, and Chandler
The girls with Shawn and Vonnie's kids: Daphne, Katelyn, Grace, Alyssa, Eve, Aubry, Cameron, and Christopher
Grace, Liam, Jeremy, Ty (two of Jeremy and Miriam's boys) and Eve in the pool.
Eve, Grandma, Grace and Grandpa playing games.
Eve trying to be like Daddy with a chocolate soul patch.
Tausha, Grace, me, Daphne
The girls with Jonathan and Casey Anne's kids: Eve, Savannah, Chloee, Daphne, and Grace
Our family with my parents (notice Daphne's little legs on the couch behind us...she fell asleep!)
So those of you who know Grace are aware of her great ideas. She has an idea about everything. If you are simply informing her of the day's plan she "has an idea" of how to make it better or more interesting. "How bout [this] mom..." before I finish my sentence. Needless to say she had some pretty grand ideas of what she wanted her birthday party to be like. She knew right away that she wanted a Willy Wonka/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory party. She's been a longtime fan of the Roald Dahl book and old Gene Wilder movie. We discussed the possibilities, and even though I wasn't willing to wallpaper the house with lick-able fruit or make her dad a Willy Wonka costume, Eve into a blueberry, and Daphne into an Oompa Loompa; we still were able to come up with some fun, yet realistic ideas.
The Invitations: We wrapped up chocolate bars to look like Wonka Bars and slipped a "golden ticket" inside each one. When we delivered the bars to her friends they got to tear open the outside wrapper to find the invitation (which was the golden ticket.)
I found a picture of an actual golden ticket from the movie, printed it out, made a few changes to make it applicable to our party, copied it onto gold paper, and voila!
This Oompa Loompa poster served two purposes: a bean bag toss game and we used it to take silly poses of our guests (we will send each of them a copy of themselves in the thank you cards.)
Grace made this sign to welcome her guests.
Favors: Giant lollipops and "an afternoon supply of chocolate" (our version of the "lifetime supply of chocolate," which was the grand prize promised in the story.)
Pin the hat on Willy Wonka game (I think we had some peekers...there are just too many kids that got the hat in the right spot!)
My personal favorite: The cake. This is my artistic interpretation of the candy room that the characters first enter in the movie (when Gene Wilder sings "pure imagination.")
The chocolate fountain...this was a big hit! The kids (and adults) enjoyed dipping fruit, pretzels, and marshmallows into the flowing chocolate.
There were lots of chocolate faces (and shirts!)
More happy, chocolate faces!
Grace blowing out her seven candles with the help of Daddy!
Opening presents from friends.
