Mother Nature and I Don't Get A Long....

There are reasons why I generally don't plan outdoor activities when I'm hosting an event. I would have LOVED to have a beautiful outdoor wedding reception but, I couldn't handle the stress of not knowing whether it would rain or not. I had been to receptions outside, only to have everyone rushed into a house in the middle of a rain storm. Unfortunately around here you don't always get a lot of warning before you look like you showered outside.

I decided to test fate. My son wanted to have his 8th birthday outside on our Banzai water slide. I told him that his birthday was a little late in September to be having a water party but if we moved it up close to Labor Day that we wouldn't have that problem. We picked a date. We invited entirely too many friends because again..this was going to be outside and no one would be running wildly around my house. You see...the last get together with his friends involved a hole in the wall (an accident of course) that has yet to be fixed so I really wanted the party to be outside for the most part. We planned a water slide, pizza, pinata, Pokemon birthday. He was very excited. Only one person on the way too long list of friends couldn't come so I knew we were in for a very large crew. It would be okay, because it would be outside.

A couple of days before the party we sat down to watch the weather report and realized not only would it be raining on that day but Hurricane Hanna was due to hit our area the entire day. It would be sunny and warm for every day leading up to the party and every day since the party but on the day that I planned a crazy big birthday for my son outdoors....we would have a hurricane!

Yep that is right a hurricane hit that day. Everyone was okay as far as I know. Just some minor leaks found in houses due to all the rain. This is how crazy I became about this party though, just an hour before the party I was still wondering if we could pull it off outside. Don't boys like to play in the rain? My husband finally helped me realize that boys out in rain equals lots and lots of mud in my house. We finally decided to show a movie in the basement with our projector so the kids felt like they were at the movie theater. The parents only needed small boats to get to our house that day. With the help of some friends, it ended up being a great party but still a bit overwhelming with so many 8 year old boys in my house. I know T had a great day and I'm happy it all worked out okay...I just don't think mother nature and I get along or at least when it comes to me hosting parties!

School and Bikes

Okay so I guess I'm over the shock of the summer being over. It's a new school year and that means life is changing once again. I now have two kids in elementary school and so far everything is going great. I will say it helped a ton to have an older son that I knew would take care of his brother and get him to his kindergarten class. T is amazing and very dependable! C and I are at home alone most of the day and it should be interesting. He only asks where his brothers are about every 10 minutes. Although I think he is enjoying all the toys he gets to play with.

I will say with the school starting yesterday, I thought I would accomplish a lot more. I imagined all my to do lists just disappearing, my house becoming magically clean by 10 am, my laundry being washed, dried, and put away by 11, and C becoming magically potty trained by 12. Let's just say that maybe...just maybe things are gonna take more time.

I will say one thing that we did do before we started school was get those older two riding their bikes without training wheels. T has mostly been doing this for awhile but he just doesn't get out there and ride often enough to be that excited by it. H wanted to do it too but didn't like the feeling of falling down. We took them both to a parking lot on Saturday and practiced until they both got it. It was a proud moment for the whole family. T got it in about 3 seconds flat. H took more time but I don't think any of us really thought H would get it done that day and he did. Now they are both riding fools around the pipe stem. Of course they both did start the first day of school with band aids on both knees!