Busy weekend of love and goodness

I love that image. Doesn't that just say it all? In any direction? Good love. Love good. I like that.

It's perfectly appropriate for the PERFECT weekend we just had. It was AWESOME. I mean seriously. Friday my lovely cousins and their respective adorable children came for a visit. We ate too much, watched chick flicks, downed Rum Runners, and enjoyed a number of "shows" put on by the children with mad props given to the Divine Miss M. (age 5) who rocks a Princess Gown AND a Hannah Montana costume like nobody's business.

Saturday was Matthew's slumber party in the barn. The boys were all sugared up on soda, candy, ice cream cake and had a marvelous time. There was, of course, a bat. There is ALWAYS a bat. Mr. Wonderful played chaperone and slept all night in the barn too, bless his heart. I was awakened at 5:00 a.m. as they searched for donuts (clearly the earlier sugar had worn off). Again at 7:00 a.m. when my son, now high on donuts and Mountain Dew, chattered at me a mile per minute "it's 7 o'clock mom? Are you getting up? it's 7 o'clock mom are you gonna sleep all day? Mom? Mom? Mom?" They also woke up Mr. W. at 5:25 a.m. to go look at the moon. Kids. LOVE 'EM.

Birthdays 101

W

e gave up goodie bags a few years ago.
They just aren't that huge a deal around here (thank goodness) and, in
fact, are seen as kind of "babyish" by a lot of the kids.

I started just putting out a big bowl of "kiddie candy" and letting
kids take a fistful home in a bag. They seemed to love it. Now I've
even stopped that.

I also gave up trying to "plan games" when I realized I was pulling
kids away from fun "free play" to make them stand in line to pin a tail
or smack a pinata.

  We do very simple parties these days. Matthew's 12th will be held in our barn on a Saturday afternoon. He will
have a few choice friends over to swim and play video games on the big
movie screen (a Wii character 10' tall!) and sleep out in the barn all
night.

I plan to get pizza, an ice cream cake and some chips, snacks and
drinks. They will be fed donuts Sunday morning and sent home! Good
times 

Our son, being very easy
going and hasn't made any real "demands" for his party beyond "can we
get pop?"

So he, being a boy, is perfectly happy hosting his friends in a BARN.
Seriously. A big block structure with a drywall movie screen ( a
powerpoint projector to put the video game or movie on it), cast-off
furniture, etc. Trust me, it's not HGTV ready. It's a BARN. His only
request wasn't that we sweep or paint or even, I dunno, put out some
napkins. It was only this:  "mom can we put something over the sofa. It's
FLOWERED." 


So, apparently, you can host your friends in a BARN as long as you don't ask them to sit on anything floral.  


Good to know!

Monday Morning: Ready, Set, Goal

To spend more meaningful time with the kids before school swallows them back up

To plan Matt's birthday party in a way that doesn't embarrass a 12 year old boy.

To write something fabulous well before Thursday afternoon

To catch up on my laundry and vacuum under the furniture 

To return to "early to bed, early to rise" so I'm not up at 3:00 a.m. watching a remake of The Bad News Bears and marveling over the cinematic excellence that is Billie Bob Thornton in an insomnia induced mania.