Harry Potter Birthday Party

Yes, it has been 3 weeks since Stevie's birthday party and I am just now getting around to blogging it. Busy, busy, busy.

Thankfully the banner was the least of my worries since I already had one in stock.

This picture is of the snitches hanging from the ceiling for our Indoor Quidich Match.

For the snitches, I bought small gold onament balls from the dollar store along with some gold leafy looking decoration. I cut off the gold leaves and glued them to the ornaments for a perfect snitch.

Then I got a Harry Potter quiz online and tested the kids on their Harry Potter trivia. Each right answer got them a snitch to take home.

I was super lazy that week (and super sick) so I didn't make a cake. I don't normally serve cake at a kids party anyway, so it all worked out.

These are snitch cupcakes. I used piped melted yellow chocolate for the wings and added a lindor truffle to the center for the "ball".

Then I put random food stuffs in glass containers and labeled them as different potion ingredients.

I gave them each a cup to create their own potion and gave them a prize if they drank it. Most everyone drank theirs. It was pretty gross, even for me.

So here was the set-up before the mayhem...

...and here is a portion of the mess halfway through it.

This will probably be the last party I do for Stevie. 13 9-year-olds in my house was too much after about 5 minutes. Taking a friend to Lagoon is looking more and more cost effective.

Especially if you can put a price on your sanity.

A Series of Fortunate Events

Sometime Last Summer:

Steve and I discuss getting new carpet in the basement. We decide to wait until the bathroom is done. I win.

Monday 5:00 pm:

Steve gets home and randomly mentions that our neighbor just bought a brand new, contractor quality, fully automated, extra long, pipe snake this afternoon.

9:00 pm:

Steve starts a load of laundry.

11:00 pm:

Natalie comes upstairs complaining that she cannot sleep. We let her stay...she's hard to say no to.

Tuesday 12:30 am:

Steve decides to take a shower, but opts to take a sleeping Natalie downstairs first.

12:31 am:

Steve notices water all over the basement TV room, back rooms, and utility room. It hasn't yet reached the girls room. Good thing Natalie came upstairs so we noticed now and not the next morning!

12:40 am:

Steve goes over to neighbors garage (fortunately good enough friends to raid his garage w/out permission in the middle of the night) and there finds a carpet cleaner we can use to suck the water out of the carpet. That along with the shop vac, we have the tools to get most of the water out. Good thing we can clean it ourselves! Good thing it's not new carpet!

12:45 am:

We determine it is not the water heater that has exploded, but the sewer that is backed up. We have all the water from the laundry in our basement. Good thing Steve didn't take that shower!

12:50 am:

Steve is able to contact our neighbor who is still awake and comes over with all his equipment, including his new plumbing snake. Good thing we moved next door to a super nice neighbor, who is also a plumber, who bought the very tool we needed for this very job this very afternoon!!!

1:00 am - 2:30 am:

Steve, Jeff, and I spend the wee hours of the morning cleaning carpets, concrete, and sewer pipes. It begins to drain properly again. We are able to get the carpets mostly dry. Good thing!

In all, it was a bad thing that couldn't have happened at a better time, amongst the most fortunate of circumstances. Unfortunately, I still had orders to fill so I was still up until 4:30am (and still didn't finish them all), but I guess you can't have it all.

Happy Birthday Big Guy

This year I was too sick to do a big family party. We ended up making pizza, opening presents, and eating cake (shamefully purchased at Costco) at grandma's house. I am saving my energy for the kid party this Friday. Should be a doozy!

Huh?

I was just told by my (almost) nine year old to stop using the word "shout" (in reference to him shouting all the time) because that word is SO 1937.

I don't know where he comes up with these things.

Oxymoron...or just moron

It is General Conference weekend once more. A weekend of church I look forward to every six months. Sure, you get to hear from living prophets, apostles, and other generally awesome people. But best of all, you listen in your jammies, in your bed, eating giant frosting-covered cinnamon rolls.

I always love listening to GC and every April and October I turn it on in the hopes of being truly edified, invogorated, and spiritually fed. However, inevitably my children start shouting, hitting, crying, whining, tattling, begging, and/or pestering just when the point of the talk is reaching it's peak. Therefore, I end up shouting, yelling, threatening, punishing, and generally driving out any good the talk was doing in a misguided effort to shut them up as fast as I can to hear what was being said. It...happens...every...time. It...happens...every...talk. They...just...know.

Thus, every General Conference I go in hoping to take 2 spiritual steps forward, but end up taking 3 spiritual steps back. Why do I even bother?

The Perfect Day

There is no such thing as the perfect day.

It is like the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy (Santa IS real!!!), it sounds nice and fuzzy, but it does not exist.

I have looked forward to today, September 7, 2011, for 9 long years. Today my youngest child had her first day of preschool. For the very first time, all four kids were simultaneously at school.

Until...


...the school called.

Stevie threw up. Way to go Stevie. Way to ruin my perfect day.

Happy Birthday Natalie!!!

Natalie's big day this year was a little toned down. She went to kindergarten, came home, went to dinner, and came back home for cake and presents. Nothing major, it had already been a pretty crazy week, so I was happy to keep it low key.

Here are pictures of the present mayhem.

I figured she wouldn't mind the smaller birthday when she got a puppy!

This picture sums up Natty in a nutshell. Happy-go-lucky, photogenic, darling Natalie.

Happy Birthday big girl!!!