Katherine's Birthday - Part 1

Katherine, my little angel, turned 5 years old last Saturday. We had an amazing day. It started out kinda slow. We stayed up past midnight to make cupcakes and Katherine was so excited. Heck, I was excited. It was her birthday!!!

For the record, I stayed up until 3 am making Raspberry Jell-o cupcakes, but I forgot to take a picture. So, here is a picture of the ones I made for her class the day before.

And yes, they were as yummy as you can imagine. They were delicioso!

So anyway, back to Katherine's birthday. This year Katherine's birthday is very confusing. There was the "party" at the school, where I sent treat bags with invitations to her home party, some candy, sunglasses, treasures, a notebook and crayons, along with her cupcakes. Everything seems to be a hit.

Then there was her actual birthday, where we had a visit from Gigi bearing a funny card. Then we were going to go out for pizza, games and bowling at The Gate. Oh, before hand, Daddy took Katherine to the store and let her pick out 2 toys, one of which Gigi had purchased, which is cool. (We paid $17.99 at Meijer on Saturday - Gigi paid $7.29 at Wal-mart the day before. Not cool Meijer, not cool.)

Well, we got through the Gigi visit and Katherine was only a little disappointed that she wasn't going to Gigi's house, but only because I was always convincing her that we were going to the games. So we get to the Gate (3 pm in the afternoon on a Saturday) and it's dark, cigarette smoky and crowded with adults. So we're can't bowl. We run through the alley part to the kids section (why is that at the back and not the front?) and almost all of the games were broken. Talk about crap. Plus, Katherine plowed through 5 bucks in 5 minutes. Not right!

So Jonathan had a brilliant idea - let's go to Chuck E. Cheese's! So we did - we went down to Alpine Ave. We got in there and had to wait in line a bit, but it was so worth it. We ate pizza and took turns running around with Katherine. She loved the crane game, but I didn't get a picture of her on it. But I did get pictures of her on pretty much everything else. =) And guess what? It took her 3 hours to plow through 5 bucks of tokens. That's awesome!

Afterwards, we went to the theatre next door and saw Madagascar 2, which was so funny. The theatre was virtually empty (there were 11 people in the whole place) and so Katherine walked up and down the rows picking out her new seat, all the while through the movie. She was quiet, though, and really enjoyed the movie.

After a long day, we headed back to Big Rapids, but stopped in Cedar Springs for a movie and something to eat. It was a long long day, but the best time. Katherine was so excited to go home, when we pulled into the exit, she screamed "HOME!". It was very cute.

Well, this weekend is the Family and Friends party, and then Katherine's birthday will officially be over. We've only gotten an RSVP from one of Katherine's school friends, so I don't know how fun that hour will be, but once her friends go home we will have family over for games and food. I'm scatter brained as to what I have to do yet, but I'll get there.

Fall to Indian Summer to Winter?

It could only do that in Michigan. And it did it within the past week. Talk about weird. Katherine was wearing shorts last Wednesday and wore capris to school on Thursday. Saturday she was wearing a winter coat and her boots because it was snowing.

So this weekend we unexpectedly had Nathan with us. It was awesome. We had a good time. Friday night we had a mini game night. We played Yahtzee and then Chutes & Ladders. It's kind of hard - Nathan and Katherine both have short attention span. It's always fun though to break out the board games, the good music and the hot chocolate to spend time with the kids.

Saturday we woke up and cleaned the apartment. Gigi came over and took Katherine to her and Papa's house for the evening, so the three of us (Jonathan, Nathan and myself) took a midnight stroll through downtown Big Rapids. Not exactly midnight - we left our house at 9 pm and came back at 11 pm. The weather was a bit cold but the air was crisp and it was great for a walk. We goofed around, chatted, listened to music, and got to experience the freaky people that inhabit our town after dark. Mostly Nathan.

Katherine had a lot of fun at Gigi and Papa's (my parents). She got to play Papa's drums while Papa built her a playhouse from a huge cardboard box. Then Papa, the superman he is, made cheese pizza, her favorite. Think she's got them wrapped around her finger enough? =)

Sunday, we woke up and decided to play games again. I whooped Nathan's behind at Monopoly. Thanks to my brother Ryan for being a cutthroat Monopoly player from the age of 7 so that I knew how to completely abolish Nathan at the game. =)

Since I really killed him at it, he wanted to play Risk with me. We had to go get Katherine at this time, so we put the game on pause for a Katherine and food run to Baldwin, then came back and started.

I will state this now - I don't think I properly know how to play Risk. I read the instructions over and over and over again, but I still don't get it. So, we play based on what it seems like the instructions are trying to tell us. It's a mess, but Nathan and I have fun.

Well, it's cold out, but we haven't yet turned on the heat. I really don't want to either. Sweaters, blankets, boiling water, whatever, just don't turn on the heat! I'm dreading seeing the first bill, deciding whether to get the kids presents for Christmas or just to pay for heat. =P

And here is Katherine's "I Love You Mommy" song. It rocks!

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.