"Balloons were balloon'ed."

So the bday party for Lil A went supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-ly. Balloons were balloon'ed. Ice cream sundaes were sundae'd. Hot dogs were hot dogged. And ketchup and mustard'ed. And instead of birthday cakes and cupcakes that apparently everyone always does and all the kids are always so tired of, we did glazed donuts with vanilla frosting and sprinkles. Lil A's donut had a "1" and a "0" candle in it. She's a double-digiter now.

Backing up a little, since we were all about not letting her see the set-up downstairs, we made sure the other kiddos helped keep her upstairs. I think at one point, J had to literally sit on her for a bit, and then that other kid, TV, the one that always entertains everyone else...yea, he did his part to keep her occupied.

So as Lil A was upstairs, we decorated the living room and kitchen, transformed the wood floor into a balloon catastrophe, and decorated for our little ice cream social...which had an awesome turnout, resulting in some decent cash flow for the bday girl and some pretty cool presents as well.

I think she summed it up best when this little dialogue piece went down:

Me: So, did you have the worst time ever?
Lil A: (barely containing a smile) Yes.

Oh, and we had a slip n' slide out back that the kids were loving. Soon after they began, word spread through the yard that there was a plan to overtake the guard (me.) I played along. Changed my uniform and went outside. Sure enough...they attacked! I was pinned down on the wet battlefield by an excess of no less than 10 kids. Of course, I emerged victorious. Wet, but victorious nonetheless. So what did I do then? Got back in line for the slip n' slide of course. Duh.

So Lil A had a great day which means we got a 100 - or at least a 98. Go, role models!

And a little aside for the cooking aficionados...everyone, and I mean everyone, loved the fact that I boiled the hotdogs instead of grilled them, despite the surge of naysayers at the beginning of my hot dog venture. So...boiled. Yes. Grilled. Only if you want to melt outside.