It's a Frozen Party
Since her birthday fell in the middle of the week, we had a little party for her on the weekend, when grandparents and other family could come. Shouldn't birthdays always be on the weekend? It would be so much easier to celebrate appropriately! Anyway... in the spirit of our Frozen theme, we planned an outdoor ice skating event at a cute little rink in downtown Wayzata. As an added bonus, the temperature was hovering right around zero degrees :P I almost called it off, but I had no back up plan, so we just sucked it up and made the best out of it because that's what true Minnesotans do! :)
The birthday girl is enjoying her nice warm jammies and some cartoons before we head out into the frozen tundra ;) 
Silly girl can't wait to eat her cake. (Oh, and my favorite GF mix is this one or this one, depending on your preference). She thinks that if she scarfs her cereal down, she'll get some for "brefkist dessert." 
Between Goodwill and garage sales this summer, I outfitted everyone with skates. We're good to go! Well, let's say, we're pretty much good to go. I did not get them sharpened...
The rink had these handy little metal things the boys used for the first few laps around. It really helped them to stay on their feet once they got the hang of it. 
But in true Eitreim / Johnson fashion, they decided they didn't need the 'help' and would rather struggle through without it. We'd only gone a few time in past two years, so it was kinda like starting all over. And Elsa had never been on skates before. Didn't seem to stop them. They all made progress, and there were lots of smiles - some tears, but mostly smiles.
It was nice to have Uncle Greg, and Grandpa & Grandma E. there for some extra hands. Notice they didn't bring skates.... next time ;) They were great sports!
And of course we had to bring some treats for break time. There was a warming house which was handy for the kiddos (well, and the grandmas and grandpas). But they also had a nice fire going outside under the awning. We sat our there with our skates on and enjoyed hot cocoa (a dairy free version which we made at home) and our gluten free birthday cookies that I posted about earlier. Yummy! We had some very happy tummies :) Happy enough to do a bit more skating before heading home for the rest of the party.
She was so excited (but also a bit chilled) to go home and continue the party. We were going to be met by a few more party-goers to help us celebrate with a little lunch and presents. I've come to appreciate that these little ones don't need big fancy outside-of-the box ideas, needless to say expensive, to have a good time. I think, if they knew how to express it, all a child really wants for his/her birthday is to know how special they are and that they are SO loved. 
Excuse her, just making sure Anna is wearing the proper undergarments... Don't know where she gets this stuff.
Buddies.
