Best damn birthday party ever!

Olivia officially turned two years old back on the 18th. We had a smallish party for her then with a cake and some presents. But that was nothing compared to what we had in store for her today...

Back in February, we went to PEI for their 3rd annual Jack Frost Children's Festival (I'd provide a link, but all of the links that turn up in Google are broken). One of the highlights of that trip was the hours and hours we spent playing in a variety of bouncy castles. Olivia absolutely loved them, especially when I climbed in with her (having someone my size jumping around causes all of the kids to go flying, which they all love).

The bouncy castles made quite an impression and Andrea was determined to get one for Olivia's second birthday party. She did some searching and came up with Glow Parties (also known as Glow Promotions). They rent out those black signs with the bright pink, red, green, etc lettering. They also have a big list of various bouncy castles that they rent out.

The pirate ship looks absolutely amazing, but it's really big (waaaaaaaay too impractical for the yard) and cost something like $475 for 3 hours. Although we love Olivia to death, that's a tad much for a kid's birthday party. Instead, we settled on the blue castle. The picture doesn't really do this thing any justice.

So, for $150 they come out, set the thing up, leave us all kinds of instructions and safety tips, and head out. Two hours later, they come back, pack everything up, and leave.

The weather has been really crummy for the past few weeks, so we were pretty worried about the whole thing. We were able to cancel out on the bouncy castle on the day of the event, should it be raining, so we weren't worried about that. What we did fret about, however, was what we would do with a house full of kids should the weather be bad.

Olivia knew that we were getting this thing for her and she was pretty excited over the last few days. When the truck finally arrived this morning to set things up (just shortly after 10! Yay!), she started squealing with excitement. "My party's here! My party's here!!" It was all we could do to keep her out of their hair while they set stuff up. When it was finally set up, her and I went in and she squealed endlessly. Money well-spent, I would say.

This all happened rather early. The party was scheduled from 11am to 1pm, but the castle was set up by 10:15. We gave Olivia a bit of time to herself in it (it was for her, after all), and then started calling people to come over early, if they wanted.

Without a doubt, the kids absolutely LOVED the bouncy castle. And when they grew tired of that (which they eventually did, however briefly), we've got a huge fort/picnic table/swing set thing in the front yard as well that kept everyone occupied.

There were hotdogs, chips, veggie trays (mostly for the adults), presents, cake, loot bags, and hats. Everything that a rockin' party needs. And everyone absolutely loved it. Olivia was having so much fun that she didn't want to open her presents - she wanted cake instead. Can you imagine that?? Of course, it was a totally cool Dora the Explorer cake (pink and green, just as she requested), but still... weirdo.

As always, all good things must come to an end. Eventually the Glow people showed up to take back the bouncy castle. That was not a particularly happy moment for most of the kids, who had found their way back in. There wasn't too much fuss, though, which is surprising given how tired the kids surely were.

At that point, people began packing up to go home. By about 2pm, Olivia was absolutely beat. The last stragglers headed out and we took a VERY tired little girl up to bed. No fighting this time. We laid her down in bed and she immediately rolled over and went to sleep. We never heard a peep out of her until just before 5!

All in all, an incredible success! It simply was not possible for the party to have been any more perfect. Perfect weather, good friends, good food, great entertainment, presents... what more do you need?? Of course, the big joke now is, "well, how are we going to top that next year?"

- Mike

Greetings, Facebook people

Since I've added the URL for my blog to my Facebook page, I figured I'd better add a recent post welcoming anyone who might wander this way.

Not a whole lot to see here, mostly because I'm lazy. I've got tons of things that I should write about, but I seem to lack the motivation necessary to get it done. Oh well...