As an aside, the dog is barking furiously out the window at a blimp. Can't say as I blame her.

I need an oven thermometer, does any one have any suggestions about buying them?

Right up there with Kiddie Birthday Inflation.

I started getting those damned B-day catalogs right before Owen turned 1. Sickening with the theme decorations, goodie bags, toys, etc. *shudder*

My kids better be satisfied with cupcakes and a donkey's ass.

My kids better be satisfied with cupcakes and a donkey's ass.

As long as you never give them the idea that they have much say in the matter, they ought to be. The biggest birthday party my parents ever gave me, was taking me and two school friends to McDonalds. Most years, if any more than cake and prezzies at home with just the nuclear family was involved, it was going out for ice cream with one set of cousins.

I was generally quite happy with this arrangement.

We had pretty neat parties. But they weren't huge. A swimming party at the church swimming pool. My brother had cook out parties. One summer right before my birthday my brother came down with the chickenpox. Mom called all the mothers to let them know and cancel the party. The other mothers said they'd send their kids and hope they'd come down with the chickenpox.

As long as you never give them the idea that they have much say in the matter, they ought to be. The biggest birthday party my parents ever gave me, was taking me and two school friends to McDonalds.

My parents gave us good parties--but they were usually at home or very small (a group of six or seven girls at Pizza Hut). And when we were in grade school, we got to take Halloween theme cupcakes for our classroom treat every year.

ONCE they invited all 22 of our classmates to a party at our house. My folks were very brave.

ONCE they invited all 22 of our classmates to a party at our house.

That is brave. I was allowed to have as many guests as the year I was turning (6 guests when I was 6, etc.) My favorite parties were swimming at the club where my parents where members. We'd have a sleepover after the swimming - my mom said the swimming really benfitted her because we were all exhausted.

I always got to invite EVERYONE to my parties, not just eight or ten kids (an envy-making fact among my friends). Mom would make ice cream cake (layering the ice cream and the cake) in whatever combination I wanted (generally chocolate cake, chocolate chip mint ice cream) and color the whip cream icing however I wanted. We'd play party games and have goodie bags. We'd decorate with streamers that would stay up until they sagged enough that we could pull them down just by jumping. Sometimes there'd be a theme, one year everything was Chinese. (I was older by then, we actually had food and not just soda and cake -- chicken chow mein iirc).

For my little sister's parties sometimes one of my friends and I dressed up and were assistants. One year my Grandmother made us panda costumes. The next year we were Raggedy Ann and Andy.

One of the big deals about birthday parties was that it was the only time we had soda in the house (and for a few days afterwards). That was a huge treat.

I remember preparing for the parties as being nearly as much fun as the things themselves. We made pinatas and stuffed them with whatever I picked, decorated with the colors I picked...

The theme I see when I look at this is that it was MY special day and I could create something special and be in charge.

I remember when my friends started having roller skating parties. That was pretty fun, but sometimes they didn't open the presents during the party -- I considered this unforgiveably rude.

drive-by/drop in: hi, been on vacation, taking my mother to MD appts (she's having back surgery next week), + have stressful time-critical stuff going on re my house.

BUT, I wanted to stop by and thank Lee for the awesomely beautiful tiara that's ARTISAN-MADE! It's gorgeous, with gold colored wire holding fall-colored beads aloft. It's just lovely. Alas, I'm digital camera & home-computer-free but I shall bring it to work and see if one of my coworkers will shoot a pic of me wearing it with the company digitial camera and put it up somehow. (Ooo! I can try saving something into yahoo and posting it. That'll be an adventure; my first time!)

I return you to your regularly scheduled bitches. See you later. ::waves::

Mememe:

Annabel could easily climb onto the couch at my childhood home. Ours is an eensy bit higher and has more slippery upholstery. This is leading to much toddler frustration. I'm not helping her. The instant she masters getting onto this couch, I can't store the remotes and my library books on the shelf behind it anymore, and I haven't figured out where else to put them yet.

The cat I thought was sick, possibly dying? Belongs to the neighbor across the road. Is perfectly healthy, though missing an eye, and its supposedly sickly behavior (e.g. not scatting when shoo'ed away) is just laziness and unflappability. Its name is Oreo. Apparently while we were gone it decided to claim our yard as its own.

I realized on the way home from errands today that the collar of my polo was rolled under on one side. I really wish my neighbor, the librarian, or the cashier at the store had been thoughtful enough to point it out. Maybe they didn't notice either....

See Great Write for an update on my writing contest experiences.