Red Rover red rover...

After getting back late that night, I stayed up even later blowing about 100 balloons up for Leah’s birthday. Luckily I recruited some help, and after they were all done we tried as quietly as we could to stuff them in her room at about 2:30 AM without waking her. We oiled her door since it was squeaking so much, and got them, a French poem I wrote for her, along with some random other little gifts in without disturbing her too much. Luckily she’s a heavy sleeper. The next day for her birthday she and I went into Geneva and rode the merry go round in downtown and got some food and window shopped before heading to the park where everyone was waiting to surprise her. We had sent out invitations to everyone a few weeks before and sure enough, everyone showed up, which she really appreciated. We had fresh strawberry pie and ice cream thanks to Sarah. We stuck 20 candles in it, and due to the wind, they were a little hard to blow out before the wind got to them. This was made increasingly difficult by the fact that Marvin, as Leah was trying to blow them out, started yelling at the top of his lungs, "BLOW!! BLOOOWW!!!!" You kind of had to be there, but we were all laughing so hard, including Leah, she couldn't blow them out. This was followed by a rather amusing game of Red Rover. It started out innocently enough, but soon turned quite violent. Remember how when we went canyoning there was a girl who made a great bear impression while diving in the water? Well, the same girl got called over for Red Rover, and she was running full force, head tucked in like she was going to ram something over and made this kind of growling noise again, and plowed over these two girls.

Leah went flying, another girl was down for the count; those of us watching were dying of laughter, it was like a slow motion scene and the bear impression reemerged. Another exciting part of the game took place when a girl got called over and she busted through two people so hard her little button up shirt was ripped in half. It was a hilarious moment and we thanked her for taking one for the team. Overall, I think the birthday bash went off well and Leah enjoyed herself.