SL's birthday party went really well Sunday. Birthday month is over, thank goodness!
I tried out a very structured party with activities and food being brought out at a certain time, and it kept the noise and chaos levels very much under control. Far less cleaning up afterward than when we let kids and adults have the run of our house including the kids' bedrooms!
It was a clown-themed party, so I dressed up in goofy clothes and pigtails and led the activities. We did:
- Tracing kids' body outlines on a big roll of paper.
- Balloon animals (I learned 4 basic ones and custom-made them for kids)
- Clown hunt (I printed little pics of clowns from online and hid them around the house)
- Pin the tail on the donkey (again, I printed out the stuff I needed from the internet)
- Cake walk (or in this case sticker walk, since the prizes were sheets of stickers)
- Musical pillows (instead of musical chairs)
- Ball toss (or rather, stuffed animal toss, into a plastic container)
I didn't spend nothing, but it wasn't too bad. About $5 on balloon animal supplies, $12 on stickers for prizes, and $100 for 5 pizzas and a large salad from our favorite gourmet pizza place. (We were expecting about twice as many people, so we had lots of leftovers, which will do for several days of lunches.)
I'm not a terribly outgoing or high-energy person and I don't like public speaking, so it was a bit of a stretch to be really upbeat and loud. But it worked to keep the kids in line and, at the end of the party, I felt much less exhausted than when we'd just let the kids run all over the place.
Another great enhancement to my party technique: At the appointed time I said the party would end, I started asking people if I could help them get coats, and talking loudly about my kids needing a nap. Got everyone out 5 minutes after the end time. At AA's party, a few people stayed an hour and a half longer than the invite said!
Our 5-year-old REALLY struggled that day, both with the games (she had some bad luck and didn't really win many of them) and with being jealous of SL's presents. Lots of crying meltdowns. But, I was really proud of how hard she tried to curb her poor loser-ness and her envy. I was a very petty kid so I know it's just in her genes. I talked her through it and she was able to calm down periodically, enough to rationally discuss it and even voluntarily apologize to SL for how she was acting. She really is a sweet kid and so smart, but just, you know, wishes she got her way all the time.
Condo news: The electrician took another look at the fixes needed. The quick fix he did, but the other one he said would require knocking into the wall, possibly the ceiling. Luckily, we'd heard from our realtor that the buyer was willing to waive that repair requirement in exchange for us paying $200 more of their closing costs. That sounded like the much better deal, so she's working on an amendment to the purchase agreement now.
Still waiting on:
- The exact amount we need to bring to closing on the condo (will hear before April 9)
- News on whether the refi option is available for our duplex yet (emailed broker this morning but haven't heard back)
- News on the WV deal (will know by April 12)
- An update on how the renovation of the UK flat is going (may not hear anything until May, but I hope we get incremental updates!)
Weekend doings plus a bit of condo news
March 30th, 2015 at 05:59 pm
March 30th, 2015 at 06:59 pm 1427741951
March 31st, 2015 at 10:59 am 1427799574