Big Rapids Fall Fest, Planning Katherine's party and other news

Well, the Big Rapids Fall Festival was this weekend. In my opinion, it was crap. Now, I know that I had no hand in planning the event or donating any of my time, money or energy in the event, but I know for a fact that this could have been A: better planned and B: funner for the kids. I know what the 9&10 news story says. I just don't agree.

There were exactly 11 games at the festival (if we insist upon calling it that). Most of them were a spin on the Bucket Bonanza game made famous by Bozo the Clown (who, in all of his awkwardness, would have made the festival a hit instead of a miss). Then there were 3 different games of Pick a duck, all of the ducks bobbing upside down to show which ones were the winners and which were the losers. Then there were 2 fishing games, in which you throw a line over the sheet and snag a prize. Honestly, I could have spent a dollar at the dollar store and come home with better prizes and more candy.

I will be nice. Most of the groups were student groups donating their time and money to get some penny candies and some little prizes for the kids. The activities were supposed to start at noon, but by the time we got there at 12:15, they were out of prizes and giving out candy that had been dropped on the ground. If you think I'm generalizing, I'm not. I seriously saw a woman drop candy on the ground, pick it up and give it to a child. Yuck.

So, all in all, it wasn't the best time. Katherine really enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up in their costumes and is really looking forward to trick-or-treating this Friday. She's also looking forward to something else...

HER BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!

She's been using her pretend phone to call me all weekend and invite me to her birthday party, which is perpetually tomorrow. She is so excited, and wants me to have rainbows on everything.

Since it is a rainbow party, I'm still trying to come up with more things that will be Rainbow-y and cheap, the magical combo. So this week I will be hitting up my favorite - Dollar Tree - to get her Halloween party stuff and check out what I can get creative with for cheap.

I have the perfect idea for her birthday cake - a rainbow layered jello cake. I've been searching around online and haven't been able to find exactly what I want to do, but I took an nudge from an episode of Ace of Cakes and an idea from online and I'm going to combine them into a Rainbow shaped jello cake. We'll see!

And for reference, I am looking for ideas for games and activities for the children at Katherine's birthday party, preferably color themed. If you guys have some, let me know!

PS No drinking games. ;)

Katherine's Birthday Party

Hey all.

Katherine's birthday party is November 22, but I've been playing with ideas in my head for well over a month now. Since she wants a rainbow theme for this party (yeeha!) it will be my responsibility to find, create and build ideas for decorations, food and favors.

Now we are on a very tight budget. We have a million bills to pay right now and it's all coming at once. So everything I do for this party is going to cost us BIG, or that's what I'm thinking when being creative.

So, since we have such a restrictive budget, I'm going to keep track of how much I spend on each thing to do with this party. Here is my planned budget.

Food (Entree, appetizers and desserts): $75
Decor (Balloons, streamers, art): $15
Favors (Treats and prizes for the kids and other guests): $10
TOTAL: $100

Now, this is just want I want to spend, at most. I don't want to go any higher than this.

I have a menu, but I post that later.

A different site - a different mind

Well, here I be on this one. I can't figure out how to blog on Facebook and MySpace annoys me, so here I am. Blogger. Wee!

It's almost the end of October, and boy is the weather showing it. Cold, rainy, windy, cold again. It makes me want to make soup everyday. Wish my family would eat it!

Katherine is in her 4th week of ECDD and speech therapy with Miss Molly, and I'm slightly disappointed in her teachers since she's not showing any real improvement. She's reverting back to the gibberish-baby talk more often than not, even though I'm working with her on every single sentence. I'll make her say it over and over, repeat after me, all so she understands the correct words. Maybe I am just frustrated because my expectations of Katherine's improvement was too high.

Nathan's soccer team this year was an enthusiastic bunch. They only won 1 game but they played well and Nathan had fun. Too much fun, if you ask his grades. His grades have been poor since participating in soccer. If he plans on joining basketball this year, he better pick it up!

Next month is Katherine's birthday! On November 15, my girl will turn the big 5. I'm so excited and so is she. I told her this morning that her birthday was coming and she sang the birthday song until it was time to go to school. We are having a birthday party for her on November 22nd, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It's going to be rainbow themed, which will be fun to do decorations and food for. We've invited almost everyone, since I'm sure I forgot someone and will offend them. If I forgot you, you're invited! If you want to bring something, bring it! I've decided on a somewhat Italian theme with pastas and snacks galore.

I'll post some of my recipes for my party later.