The upgraded play set w/ new sand box, inflatable bouncy & "parent area" near the fish pond. I am uncharacteristically quiet. Silent. My throat feels like I am gargling broken glass. Yes, my children have given me The Ebola once again! FYI, doling out parental discipline is actually strangely effective when one whispers with a wincing expression. Both of my kids seem to respond pretty well to it. I may continue using this strategy.
Miss Crab's variety happened the weekend of The Backyardigan's Live show - she had two full days of nastiness. Baby Gonzo's variety coincided with a bad bout of teething and lasted four days this last week. My normally darling, sweet, funny baby girl was miserable and pretty much rotten to be around. My version of it coincided with Miss Crab's ginormous 4th Birthday party with 17 preschoolers and their parents raiding our backyard. I dosed myself up on ibuprofen and managed to handle the party pretty well. Photos will be posted shortly.
The Party (not to be confused with The Ebola) was great. Smashing success if I do say so. We had a huge turnout, kept it to 3-ish hours and sent home a bunch of exhausted, happy preschoolers. A giant Thank You to Ashley for lending us their inflatable bounce-house. The kids loved it. We need to also thank our neighbors for giving us the inflatable ball pit - I think it was designed to handle 2 kids at a time but I am pretty sure I saw a 5 kid pileup at one point. We rented a sno-cone machine cart and it was definitely the best idea - parents and kids alike were lined up for "blue or red or both." Does it really matter what the flavor was? It was 89 degrees and humid (ok, it was sticky gross ickiness) so iced anything was going to make people happy!
Miss Crab wore her new pink floral bathing suit (courtesy of the Reno family) and spent most of the party splashing about. We filled up the kiddie-pool, had a $14 walmart special "slip n slide" type thing and set up a sprinkler w/ a bubble machine (courtesy of my mom) positioned near it.
The menu was super simple: grilled hot dogs, baked beans, chips, pasta salad & sliced watermelon. We got a store cake (half chocolate, half yellow) with whipped cream frosting. It was decorated in all sorts of unnatural and possibly toxic colors to match the Backyardigan's theme. Kids loved it. Used hoodsie cups (I think we called them dixies out west?) for ice cream. Easy clean up!
It was a really inexpensive party but it was the party of the century for Miss Crab. We were nuts inviting her whole class, were shocked when so many RSVP'd yes but would not change a minute of it. It was great meeting all those parents and letting the kids go nuts for a few hours.
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