Climbing her way to 10

Grace wanted to do something BIG for her 10th birthday party.  We always do birthday parties at home, so we told her she could go somewhere cool with her friends for the big 1-0.  Originally she wanted to go kayaking (she's wanted to go back ever since our family reunion trip down the river last summer.)  But, March just isn't quite kayaking weather.  So, she settled on a climbing party .

I totally see why people fork out the dough to do parties at other venues.  It is soooo easy.  Wow, all I had to do was prepare party favors and make the cake.  No cleaning the house, no making sure I had enough activities, no decorating, no managing chaos, no clean-up afterwards... total breeze.  It ended up working really well with our other weekend plans too since we didn't get home from skiing until Friday night and didn't have much time before the party on Saturday.

Here's a little photo tour of the day, starting with the cake.  Grace loves my fondant cakes and still insists that I make her birthday cake from scratch.  We decided to make a red-rock formation.  It was such an easy cake to make - so forgiving.  Dent in the cake?  No worries, add more and make it look like a weathered boulder.  Fondant cracked when you lifted it onto the cake?  Even better!  Now it looks like a crack in the rock.  Cake tipping to one side?  Fantastic!  Have you ever seen a perfectly upright rock anyway?  I made the fondant ahead of time since it keeps well and then made the cake fresh Friday night and decorated it Saturday morning.  We added little rock candies to it for detail and then decorated the top when we got to the gym.

Grace

Aiden

Ethan

I was so impressed and happy that Grace got to the top several times!

Grace's friend, Kayla, was also impressive.  She was fearless and fast.  We timed her on this climb.  She got to the top in 1 minute 14 seconds.  Little monkeys!

Dallin and Grace

Harriet, Kayla, Ethan

Kayla, Christian, Grace, Harriet

Grace, making it to the top of the rope-less boulder

Christian

I ended up with so many cute pictures of Harriet.  She tended to stay low, which meant I could see her face.  She was afraid of heights and didn't do much on the ropes and just stayed in the bouldering areas where you free climb.  She's definitely stronger than I am.  

Well, Happy 10th Birthday, Grace!  That was sure a fun party.  I actually enjoyed the entire thing.  The staff at Stone Age were awesome, the kids were all super great, the party room was bright and nice, and climbing proved to be a perfect activity for a bunch of kids on a birthday.  

Sent 'em home with a bag of edible rocks as a party favor.