The Carnival Party

Ella's Carnival Birthday Party was a blast. With just 14 kids, it didn't get too chaotic after all. We started with a craft as kids arrived. We made circus animal magnets from Oriental Trading (This place rocks for party stuff!) Then, we headed outside where all the games were set up. We had our friends and my mother working the game booths. The kids would play the games to win tickets (real carnival tickets from good ol' OT) which they could exchange for prizes (again, from OT), tattoos or balloons.

We had basketball, where you had to get three balls in the basket, which was literally my laundry basket. Ping Pong, a table of cups in which some were colored. To get tickets, they had to get the ball in the colored cup.

There was the Ring Toss, the Milk Bottle Toss (from OT) and the Bean Bag Toss. There was a lot of tossing. These guys started giving out dollar bills as prizes for knocking down all the bottles and getting in all three bags. They were fighting for "customers". Everyone really got into it, which really made it a lot of fun.

Here's the Duck Pond (ducks courtesy of OT). Our babysitter was excited to help out too. The kids had to find the matching numbers on the bottom of the ducks.

The prize bucket was the big motivator. Tons of stuff in there (You guessed it. From OT.) One ticket per prize. I gave the kids their goody bags when they came in. They were mesh net back packs that they carried around with them to hold their loot. (Yep, from OT. It's the best place ever!)

Or, they could get tattoos. One ticket per tattoo. That's my mom tattin' up the kids!

Ella showing off her star tattoo. The star of the party, of course.

They could also get balloons for tickets. These kids had a lot of tickets. I started to worry that my prize bucket would get emptied before their tickets ran out.

After everyone loaded up on stuff, we headed over to the pinata. This happy guy looks like he's hanging from a noose. Ella stuffed him full of candy. Two giant bags full. He weighed about 10 pounds. I thought for sure his head would rip right off from the weight of it all.

He was pretty sturdy but I was still afraid if I let them swing at him without a blindfold on not everyone would get a chance. We let the little ones go first without blindfolds. Kyra swinging with all her might. We blindfolded everyone else, until one girl jumped the gun when I put the bat in her hands and wacked the clown. His neck ripped open, and that was the end of him.

After all that fun, the kids made their own sundaes. Delish!

And then this little guy jumped in the Duck Pond. Just try and get him out.

His diaper soaked up the whole pool!

The parents came and picked up their kids. Everyone had fun, and Ella had the best party ever!

And, the carnival workers...well, we drank.

I need more 3-day weekends

I am really looking forward to this weekend. The official unofficial start of SUMMER! And, summer hours at work start today so I can leave at 2 pm every Friday, unless of course some schmo decides to schedule a meeting because "that's the only time everyone had available." It's happened before.

The only plans we have are Ella's 7th birthday party, which is going to be a carnival theme at my home. Thank God for nice weather! This one will be much more involved and chaotic than Kyra's Princess Party. I don't know why I do this to myself. We'll have about six carnival type games, like the Ring Toss and the Duck Pond, a craft, a clown pinata (nothing like watching a bunch of kids beat a clown with a bat!) and then make-your-own sundaes. We're even going to have a helium tank so kids can exchange tickets for balloons. The goody bags are mesh net backpacks and the goodies are all the prizes (read: junk) the kids will win at the games. I even have real carnival tickets that each kid will get when they come in. Tons of balloons. Tons of streamers. Tons of fun! I'm really excited about it, and it's my tribute to the birthday parties I had growing up - the kind you have at home with your closest friends. Of course, this is a little over the top compared to what I had. But still. Look for pictures later this weekend.

Ever so inadequate

Every once in a while I google some long lost friends from high school. I'm not one to go to reunions. That's way too much pressure. And quite frankly, I'm not THAT interested. I'm just curious what these people are doing with themselves.

It seems the people I was most friendly with are no where to be found, which makes sense because that's how I wanted to be. None of them are on Facebook. None of them can be found by Google. How is that possible? I mean, hasn't everyone done something to land their name on Google?

I did find one person, however. He was a smart guy in high school. Borderline nerdy. But cool enough. Turns out he's an immunologist, assistant professor at PENN, and was even named by Smithsonian Magazine as one of 'America's Young Innovators' developing a universal vaccine for the flu!

And here I am, just a lonely old copywriter for an ad agency. God, do I feel little.

RSVP

Lesson learned: If you want people to RSVP in a timely manner to an event, you must include an "RSVP by" date. Otherwise people will wait until the last minute, thus screwing up certain preparations, like personalized goody bags (!). Or they simply don't RSVP at all. And to those people I say, "FU. You're f-ing rude." And I'm not going to invite you to another party again. Bla!

Rockin' in farm country

When you live in a large city, you don't expect to have to take a road trip to see a concert. But, what the hell? We've got friends up for the adventure, reliable babysitters and a cooler full of acoutrements. Off we go...
But after a while, each farm began to look like the next. Farm after farm after farm to get to a major artist.

And then cars for miles and miles and miles. The problem with farm country is the endless two lane road. Not quite equipped for 35,000 people decending into town all at once.

However, it allows us the opportunity to check out the town's characteristics...like this firehouse and music academy in one. I'm guessing the firetruck doesn't get out much - notice the bench in front of the garage. And streets with cute names like Chocolate Avenue and street lights that look like chocolate kisses. Can you figure out where we went?

Because the Bruce Springsteen concerts in Philly were sold out, we decided a trek to Hershey, PA was in order. What's an hour and a half for a concert, you know?

Only after all that traffic, it's not an hour and a half. It's more like two and a half. We were very happy to arrive and have a little bit of time to tailgate. I had never seen Bruce before. I'm not a huge fan. I like him, but if it was up to me I wouldn't see him in concert. And I definitely wouldn't opt for general admission and subject myself to standing for upwards of 3 hours. But, I didnt have a choice, and all I can say is ...

Bruce rocked!

And everyone had a blast!

Pet Peeve alert: Bad email etiquette

I don't understand how a person does not respond to a direct email. I have actually emailed people for specific information for a volunteer project and received absolutely no response. WTF? Maybe I check my email too frequently, but I always respond to an email. Most people are emailing me to either tell me something or ask me something. How can you NOT respond? I am so irritated by this bad etiquette that I'm probably not going to volunteer my time on this project any longer. And, what's worse, now I don't even like these people because I'm so irritated by their bad etiquette. To me, it's simply disrespectful.

Pet Peeve alert: Merging Behavior

What is it with people who refuse to merge? I'm not talking about on the highway, but that is just as infuriating. I'm talking about a crowd of people merging onto the train.

I've been taking the train long enough to know the process--and there is a process. One from the left, one from the right. It's like being at a 4-way stop sign. Everyone takes a turn.

Apparently, this angry old lady thinks its her world, an she ain't followin' no process. She flat out refused to let me get in front of her, and it was my turn! What's worse is that this was the second time she did that to me! Bitch!

Do It Yourself Stained Glass

We have Amityville Horror windows in our bedroom. I've gotten past that, but what I couldn't get beyond was the closeness of our neighbors. The same ones who don't know how to share a driveway. I wanted privacy and I wanted it to be inexpensive and quick. It wasn't long before we found our answer at Home Depot called Artscapes. It's essentially thin vinyl that sticks to glass or plastic. I was afraid it would be difficult to work with but it actually wasn't too bad. After tracing the panel shapes on the back of the vinyl, I cut them out with an x-acto knife and followed the instructions. Which was basically wetting the glass and sticking the vinyl to it, then trimming the excess vinyl.

Good-bye neighbors!

There are a few different patterns, some looked more like etched glass rather than stained. But now I'm eyeing up other windows in the house to see where else I can put this stuff!