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To top off the craziness of June, we also celebrated Ava's 9th birthday with her friends less than a week after we got back from NYC. She had so much fun at Rockin' Jump that we decided to try out their party planning skills. I give them an A+!

I was so stressed out last year having all of those little girls at our house for Ava's 8th party...the chaos, the noise, the mess, etc... What a different experience to take the party elsewhere and know that everything is taken care of! And, everyone had fun...even G! He was a little scared to try the trampolines, but once he did, he loved it!

The kids jumped for an hour, enjoyed a pizza lunch and some cake, and then opened gifts. They spent the last 15 minutes of the party in the arcade, having a blast winning points and redeeming for tiny little toys. It was so, so easy...all we had to so was send the invites, bring the cake and candle, and make sure the birthday kid showed up. Check, check, and check!

Checking out the Under 6 section...perfect for this little guy!


Having fun knocking each other off the beam




Just before their private dodgeball game...


Girls vs Boys! I'm not sure G was much help, though...lol




Ava's request was for a red velvet bundt cake...yum!



She's either scared or angry...


Great gifts from great friends!


Even G had fun in the arcade!



One of Ava's favorite gifts was a hatchimal...we had so much fun getting it to hatch!


What a cute little purple penguala! And, I have no idea what kind of animal that is.


We also squeezed in a few other fun activities over the last few weeks...

On the way to the Saints game with some co-workers...Sarah and I were being chauffeured by Ryan!


Ryan made it out of the chauffeur's seat to enjoy the game, too!


Great seats!


Me, Grace, and Bunny Ears, courtesy of Sarah, I believe!


 Last weekend, we had an adult night out to celebrate Scott's birthday a bit early. We hit up Surly for a few hours, and then enjoyed an excellent dinner at Mancini's in St Paul.



On the way home, we found a perfect place to watch the sunset...overlooking the Minnesota river


Earlier this weekend, Ava and I had fun with her perfume making kit. Here, she's on step 1 of the extraction process. She's shaking a water/pulp mixture to pull the liquid oils from the solid perfume pieces. We ended up with a perfume with base notes of mint, and middle notes of jasmine. Ava named it "Jasmint" and it actually smells pretty good!


We are seeing an early showing of Despicable Me 3 this morning...I had no idea movie tix were cheaper for the early shows! After that, we're hoping to enjoy a lunch out and then hit up an ice cream place for some treats. Should be a good way to end a nice weekend!

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