Party in the Park

my daughter's 4th birthday bash

I wanted to go simple and I believe I succeeded.  The first glitch came about a month ahead of time when Annabel's teacher decided to use my idea for an end of school year party.  She had no idea that I had planned the same thing for my daughters birthday but I worried for a brief moment that this would ruin things.  Another mom told me not to worry, she'd come-her kids love the park with the water spout.  18 kids later it was obviously still a good idea!

The plan was the county park where there is a water spray play area.  It cost $1 a person to get in, and without offering to pay that back I still got 18 kids, roughly 10 families.  There are picnic tables at this spot in the park and I got there around 30 minutes early to pick my tables. 

We spent some time putting down purple table cloth, a line of finger foods, the cake and 2 princess beach pails filled with flower foam to hold my chocolate dipped marshmallows on a stick (awesome).

I had out these cheap little frisbees, a water gun and a box full of water balloons-the kids had a blast.

 my husband and another father filling water balloons.

The party favors were simple as well.  An idea I pulled of another website, possibly Martha Stewart-simple brown bags with a personalized clip for closure-girls got butterflies and boys got fish.  I added the personalized tag.  Simply scanned in my daughter's signature and added a few lines of text from there.  I used photoshop, but one could easily use MS Word or any word/graphics program.

these were stuffed with pencils, paper, stickers, erasers, tattoos-a vacuum's dream.  

Each kid took home a water gun and frisbee as well.

We spent less than $100 on finger food, all in total the party probably cost $150.  My daughter had a blast, friends stayed late-a good time was had by all.  It's a party I'll probably repeat again until she complains.

all systems down

whew...

I had big plans to update this blog over the holiday weekend, for the first time ever we had nothing planned at all.  Friday night the computer crashes and its a hardware issue, neither one of us geeks are very proficient in hardware so we called on the local computer store who a few hundred later replaced the motherboard (major computer part for the non-geek).  We have it back by Saturday night, but our router dies--only it masks itself as more hardware issues.  Here we are on Weds and its the first time I've been able to get online from our desktop. Still can't get on from our laptop.

It's also the first time I didn't panic over a computer crash.  My files are stored on an external drive, its kind of a nice feeling (although I'm certain I should back up said external drive sooner rather than later).  Other than a slight annoyance of not being able to hop on the computer any ole time (and ok, the fix was not free), this was the least painful computer issue we've ever had to endure.

So another month where I start with a promise to myself to post more.  I have test driven several other blog crafts and recipes, and I've even taken photographic evidence.  Time just does not allow me to play but I see a break coming up.  

And yes, this means another promise to you my nonexistent reader that I will post more soon.

Celebration Day

Today is a big day for us-the 4 yr old's birthday party.  Can't wait to see how it goes...pictures to follow.

Osama Bin Laden

"The impulse to celebrate a death depends on what side you're on."  

The Psychology of Revenge: Why We Should Stop Celebrating Osama Bin Laden's Death

by Pamela Gerloff, The Huffington Post
I couldn't have said it better myself.  I agree with this author, "Celebrating the killing of any member of our species--for example, by chanting USA! USA! and singing The Star Spangled Banner outside the White House or jubilantly demonstrating in the streets--is a violation of human dignity. Regardless of the perceived degree of "good" or "evil" in any of us, we are all, each of us, human. To celebrate the killing of a life, any life, is a failure to honor life's inherent sanctity"

"I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."
supposedly Mark Twain, but I don't know if he really said it. Enough said really.  Time to move forward and face what comes next.

Chauffeur Kat

There has been a delay in posts due to the fact that I've been stuck driving my kids all over town!   Swim team overlapps with soccer season, and I found myself going all over tarnation to pick up soccer shoes and a t-shirt before swim team ended and then actually get to the soccer fields just 15 mins after swim team ended.

confusing, I know...we were 10 mins late.

My crochet project has gone well, but I haven't taken a photo yet-I know, slow poke.  But lets face it, there is no one out there yet reading any of this.

oh and today I participated in National Woman's Build Week.  We had a ton of fun putting siding on a house in our area, and lugging some of the lumber from trucks to backyard.  I might have pictures later.

Holly Homemaker what?

I don't know where it's coming from but I'm in a creative mood.  Currently I"m working my way through this video, er well I have 3 times with the same spool of yarn.  My arms are a bit sore, but my son has already insisted I make him a blue boy one for next winter.  Pics to come when I have it done.  Seriously, if I can teach myself to crochet in a week, anyone can.

Cooperation

I recently watched a talk show that asked the age old question-what are we doing here?  Loaded, I know.  I was really kind of surprised at my reaction and the way I was able to answer the questions asked.  The main one being "who is it that I am and what am I doing?"...really narrows it down, I know.
 
We are here so that we can grow into the full person we were meant to be.  Most of us are missing that point.  We're all too busy competing in a dog eat dog world, collecting our success and displaying them on the mantle for all to see.  We hoard our talents out of fear someone else might win or get more than we do if we share.  We're nuts.

It's supposed to be about cooperation. We should be fine tuning our talents and sharing them with the world with the idea that we just might help another along their journey.  Taking only what we need, and giving all that we can.  Smelling the roses along the way.

So Kat you ditching all your stuff and going on a spiritual quest? No, far from it.  I do however have a renewed outlook.  I feel more motivated to help my fellow man with my own talents, regardless of the return in my investment.  After all, for me it's all about seeing those eyes light up when I help someone or somehow make their day.  It gives me more spring in my step, makes me in turn smile.  My paycheck pays the bills, but it can't give me that feeling.