Halloween candy follow-up

We decided to let the kids go ahead and just eat their own candy. By Saturday night, we remembered the real reason for putting the candy in the community bowl--OrphanAnnie's(7) candy was almost gone. She had originally had at least 100 pieces of candy. I hate to even think about how much sugar she had that day. Bookworm's(9) candy was almost gone by Sunday night. Thank goodness, Littleman(5) has a little self control--he still has quite a bit left. I don't know how to teach self control but I think my girls need some lessons.

Dinner Conversation

Tonight for dinner I made some hamburgers. It was a thrown together kind of meal so I didn't even have tomato and lettuce. We were also almost out of pickles. This is very bad in our house since LittleMan(5) doesn't like the "brown stuff" on his hamburger, so his "hamburger" consists of a bun, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and--at least for tonight--A1 sauce. Without pickles there is no nutrional content in his dinner. ;) So as we were digging out the last few pickle slices from the jar I said, "I better put pickles on my shopping list." (This implies that I actually am organized and have a shopping list, which I don't.) Bookworm(8) said, "Tomatoes and lettuce, too." I said, "Yeah, but tomatoes and lettuce are a little different than pickles because they go bad." OrphanAnnie(7) said, "You need those green bags that keep food fresh for a long time." Bookworm(8) piped in, "Yeah, just 2 payments of $19.95."

My kids don't watch too much TV.

Call me "Coach"

Since no one else would volunteer and the games start this week I finally stepped up to be LittleOrphanAnnie's(7) coach for coach-pitch baseball. Yes, that means that I, as the coach, am supposed to pitch. Lisa, all-star pitcher, I need your help! We have a practice tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. I'm hoping that this is all so laid back, it won't be a big deal that I can't pitch very well. And who knows, maybe with practice I will improve. Our team is the Astros and I'm getting a pretty nice ball cap out of the deal. :) I'll keep you posted as the season progresses.

Birthday Party

We had LittleOrhanAnnie's(7) birthday party on Saturday. I let her invite way too many kids. I really shouldn't say it that way because I made her invite some of them because I didn't want anyone to feel "left out". I think it turned out okay but it was a little stressful and Hubby about lost it a couple of times. He said, "Next time, no more than 5 friends!" through gritted teeth as he was dishing out the 14th serving of ice cream to the last of the screaming kids. I have to agree. What was I thinking?

When I was growing up I had just a few birthday parties through the years. Birthdays were really not that big of a deal for us. Hubby, on the other hand, had a birthday party every year and usually with a cake shaped like a dog, or baseball mitt, or the Statue of Liberty. ;) You know you spoiled him right, Mom?! We've compromised by having a birthday party with friends one year and the next they are allowed to have one friend come with the family to something fun like Chuck E. Cheese, or the movie, or even a water park (I don't know if we'll do that again but we did it once). Besides the hullabaloo of a party that stresses me out, the kids get so much stuff when they have a big friend party. This is, of course, really fun for them but they don't really need it. I guess that problem could easily be fixed by just inviting a handful of friends instead of a dozen.

LittleOrphanAnnie's(7) party did turn out fun and one thing I'd recommend is having a simple magic show. We had just had a magic themed Cub Scout Pack Meeting so it was on my mind and I used a few tricks from that to put on a little magic show. They were really easy tricks but the kids really liked them. The treasure hunt was a pretty big success too. I think the favorite part of any party we've ever had is always the pinata. I think it's always a good idea to have a little candy held aside in reserve to give to those kids that aren't aggressive enough to get very much from the resulting dog pile that happens when the candy falls.