at your house, that should really be the tipoff that you have a problem.
My blogging time has been nil this week. I've been meeting with
contractors, roofers, siding guys and drywall guys. And not because I am looking
to do any work on the house, I'm just looking to get it to stop raining
in the house.
So here's the thing, my boys both have birthdays in the summer and we have
been planning their parties for weeks and weeks - not because our parties need
that much planning, it's more because the parties kept getting postponed - first
we had Hurricane Irene visit us on the day of the party. Irene, ever the lovely
house guest, brought with her a flooded basement and lots and lots of water
pouring into the porch. She also brought tons of debris in the backyard, so Plan A
of having the party in the backyard was nixed, as was Plan B, having the party
in the porch. We weren't cleaned up by the following Sunday, so once again, the
party was postponed. And now, as this Sunday is looming right in front of me, I
still have water pouring into the basement (maybe it'll wash the mold away!) and
a very wet carpet in the porch that we are trying to dry out. But no more
postponing because, frankly, at this point, I think I am the one causing it to
rain. Every time I pick a new date for the party, it rains. It also rains the
four days before the new date. There is some message here, I am just
not understanding what it is. But we did briefly consider changing the party to
some kind of Shrek/Swamp themed party so we could use the backyard, but the
mosquitoes beat us back inside, so we're back to to our original plan.
And what would that original plan be? I'll tell ya.
My six year old, bless him, asked for a Home Depot themed party. I wasn't
quite sure how to do that, so what else could I do but google it, right? Googled
and this is what I found - apparently, you can have a birthday party IN Home
Depot. Who knew? Not me, that's for sure. I wasn't even sure the Home Depots on
the east coast would do it, the parties I found online were in middle America,
but if you don't ask, you don't get. So we asked, and finally, we got. Oh, and
wait, get this. It's free. A free birthday party in Home Depot. I'll say it
again. A free birthday party in Home Depot.
So you know how Home Depot has these free workshops for kids on Saturdays?
No? So they do. So we asked if they could run one of those workshops on a Sunday
for a party, and lo and behold, after calling every single Home Depot in the
county and the next county over, we hit on one that would do it for us. Most of
the stores we called weren't quite sure what to do with us. A party? Here?
In the store? But we got lucky and found one woman willing to help us and
from there, it was all too easy. She set it all up and we just have to show up
on Sunday morning. Easy peasy.
My five year old (bless him too, of course, just in a different way)
insisted on a Dunkin Donuts party. In Dunkin Donuts. Except there was no way I
was taking all the boys in his class - about 20 - to Dunkin Donuts. Our local DD
is small and there are other people there and not a place for many many five
year olds. And besides, what would we do there besides eat? I mean, how many times can you visit the bathroom, you know? And I'm not so sure DD would be happy to have us come in there with a pinata and an art project. So we compromised. We we planned on having a Dunkin Donuts Carnival - at home. In the backyard. And if it was raining, in the porch and basement. Except now, it's none of those places. Now it's going to be in the living room and dining room,
and possibly the kitchen. Fun for all.
So what's a Dunkin Donuts Carnival? Imagine a regular carnival birthday
party - throwing beans bags through hoops, pin the tail on the donkey, fishing
for magnets - except that here we will, if all goes well, be throwing bean bags
through donuts, pinning the sprinkle on the donut and fishing for donuts. The
cake will be a bunch of donuts from DD and the party bags will be brown paper
bags from DD. I felt a little funny about asking the manager there for the bags
and straws and napkins for the party, but then my mom and I took the kids there
for lunch one day and we dropped almost fifty bucks on their sandwiches* and
drinks and donuts and whatevers, so I didn't feel so bad anymore. I asked and
was granted my wish. So now I have a stash of DD bags, straws and other stuff
and we're ready to roll. Almost. We still need to put together the party bags,
finish the balloon pinata, blow up a gazillion balloons and set up the whole
house for the carnival. Hmm, now that I think about it, all we've done is make
posters for each carnival game. Okay, gotta go do some carnivally-type things.
Pictures to follow.
*my kids don't get cheap cream cheese bagels like other kids. My kids
walk in there and order tuna bagels with sliced tomatoes and egg white omellete
sandwiches on lightly toasted bagels.