Balloons 101

It's an ugly job but someone has to do it. Getting the balloons blown up for the birthday party. We have gone the route of renting the helium tank and blowing up 12,000 balloons, it seemed like. A word to the wise all the small kids hated the shriek of the helium coming out of the canister. Now that we are on our 5th party we have streamlined our routine a bit.
Working Mom just bought 1 package of themed mylar baloons (slight prick of conscience that they might be bad for the ecology?). To get the Birthday Girl out of the house while the parents set up the picnic tables at the park I, A Woman of a Certaine Age was sent to the market to have the balloons filled. Birthday girl swooned over the large My little pony balloon. She only had eyes for it. I tied it securely to her wrist and clipped it to her skirt with fear it might float off. She walked it to the car while I carried the other 5 of smaller sizes.
I put it in the back seat and told her to get into her car seat. Somehow the silver My Little Pony Balloon loomed large and looked like a silver shark jerking back and forth against the carseat and the back window. Birthday girl screamed and refused to get in.
There I was one hand filled with floating hearts a screaming little girl and really the strange silver thing lurching in the back seat it was really scary. So what would any Nana do? I pulled out the shark, held it above the car roof where the birthdaygirl could not see it and she climbed in. I clicked her seatbealt and slid the shark who metamorphised back to a sickingly sweet pony in the front seat. The head rest shielded it from the Birthday Girl's view. PHEW. The little heart ballons rested happily next to her.

The Party began, people played, sandwiches were eaten.

And then tragedy struck. One sweet little boy thought that Big MLP balloon was the pinata and he took a swipe at it. Up it floated. Suddenly fifteen little girls were screaming and he looked traumatized. For awhile the balloon hovered under the branch of a pine tree. But slowly tantalizingly it slid out and up to the big blue sky. I started calling, "Bye My Little Poney have a nice flight, Bye!" You know they have wings right so they must want to fly. Working Mom and Dad were still monitoring the play structure so I sent a friend to get them. Dad quickly got this picture of it's way up to the clouds. See the tiny silver dot above the third pine tree? Small girls were still screaming...

 So what did clever Working Mom the school teacher do? She announced "Pinata Time". That solved that.

 Note to party throwers passing out flowered celophane candy bags keep those in line busy until it is their turn. I was a little weirded out when one mother pulled her two children over out of the line to the side and announced "My children don't like to hit things." What Pinata's are now acts of violence???
                                   Well almost everyone agreed on cake. (I will not even comment on the parents who think sugar is a gateway drug to heroin.)

                                And cake fixed everything! Naptime for all!
A Woman of a Certaine age.

 I asked Working Mom if she wanted to blog and she said, "Are you kidding? We have to do thank you notes." Many families now send photo cards of their child at the party with a printed "Thank you, Child's name" like Christmas cards... Working Mom thinks that is cheating... It's the Puritan work ethic in her heritage coming out.

Having a Birthday the first week of School

"Like I have time to  blog!" Working Mom

"It's raining in the Bahamas!" Newly Wed

"Does that mean a possible future grandkid???" A Woman of a Certain Age.

"Did you know you have to raise your hand to talk?" Schoolgirl

While asking about her new teacher who I got to meet at pickup, I remarked to my granddaughter, "Mr. T Is very charming" wanting to reinforce everything good for the transition to school.

"Would you like to marry him?" she asked. Granted last week end she was the flower girl in the big wedding in our family... but I was surprised. I really didn't want her propositioning him on my behalf.
I said no.

Today the Working Mom is throwing the Kindergartener's 5th birthday party in the park. WM and I have had 5 years of over the top parties for her (Cinderella came last year...) and Grampy had already done a bar b q in the park the year before that. Cowgirl theme... so we decided we are all tired of pizza and it costs a fortune, so we are making p nut butter and jelly sandwiches, singular, not togther, cut in triangles in baskets. We will honor the pnut allergy rule as Working Mom is allergic to pnuts herself and her first real communication I taught her after "thank you" was "I AM ALLERGIC TO NUTS AND ALL NUT PRODUCTS!"

5 years ago

leads to this: first day of kindergarten

The real point here is for everybody to remember to take it easy. Each family has so much going on that we all need to remember to relax. WM's anxiety was "what if we make the sandwiches too early and they are too dry?"

I said" Are you kidding? There is cake, a my little pony pinata and new kindergarten families are coming who are consumed with curiosity about each other... Do you REALLY think that will be a problem???  I mean, sheesh, we had a WEDDING last weekend, This is just a bunch of 5 yr olds who will be running around and shrieking with joy". Of course I could be wrong. We may become THAT family who served DRY sandwiches and ruin the Schoolgirl's entire social future. 

 I plan to nap at 3 PM today but we shall see. A Woman of a Certain Age

The Lucky Bride

 It was a beautiful wedding in every respect. It poured rain the week before and Hurricane Irene came the following weekend. But she had blue skies, fluffy clouds, true love, family...small children sneaking cake and everyone dancing. Let's just say there were SOME moves truly busted...

I of course misplaced my Xanax for flying home, lost a pearl earring (don't tell the Working Mom, I borrowed them from her) And flew out of D.C. the evening before they closed the airport due to Hurricane Irene. I am nervous flier under the best of circumstances but a hurricane without Xanax?

Jet Blue I love ya! My flight to DC was 4 hrs, and we arrived ahead of schedule on the trip home. My ticket was so inexpensive I purchased an extra space seat near a window up front because I knew I'd be frazzled after the wedding on the return flight.
At the end of my row of 3 seats was a tony woman and we gave each other the thrumbs up when no one was seated between us.

At the last moment a young Mom with two kids under 4 years old got on with only 3 seperate seats left in different rows available, in each quadrant of the plane. As the seat between us was empty one was assigned there.

MOM ALERT, my children call me the Universal Mother because I consider all children around me under my care...meddling they call it... I'm SO embarassing they say. So I gave up my seat and took the first empty seat in the back between two giant men who were both not pleased to lose their extra space. My original seatmate took a single seat in the front row and the Mom and kids got the row together. They were very good and did not make a peep he whole flight.
The Jet Blue people thanked me and it was funny how I tried not to touch the arms of the two giants I sat between.

This is my hot tub at home. I put on aires by calling it "my spa". I think I harmed my legs by wearing high heels for 9 hours for the first time in years. Even dancing. It is clearly a sports injury. I really admire my daughter, the brand new Newly Wed for how she arranged this perfect wedding by herself, with a little help from her friends. And where are they honeymooning??? The Bahamas. A Woman of a Certaine Age.

Washington D.C. Earthquake

After the earthquake the Washington monument was closed due to slight cracking near the top. Wouldn't want any marble tiles to fall. The Newly Wed and I were out about town today in the rain. Washington still looked beautiful.

Stormy weather in D.C.

the above picture is simulated

First I love to watch the news. Today it is of cans of food on the floor from every grocery store in Virginia. Then some polls, then some hurricane warnings, then pictures of cans on the floor in Virginia. But here's what gets me! The newscasters start BASHING CALIFORNIA! "Why," they say "we know you Californians are used to earthquakes but we're not." Hey I didn't say anything!
One local, venerated newscaster went so far as to tell Californians on air to, "Shut the hell up." Well, we say, we hella won't. We just want to say relax, don't have state envy... A Woman of a Certain Age and a Newly Wed

Did you see this! Too funny.
http://jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation

Little boxes, little boxes, little boxes filled with yumminess

Three days and counting. Thank God my Mom is here! So far I have tried on my dress for her, now she has me worried about cleavage, then I caught the veil in the garment bag zipper and ripped it... Mom trimmed it after a little bitty freakout... Now we are packaging truffles which are the favors. I made them and the whole thing with boxes and ribbon cost 50 cents a piece...It's the new ecconomy.

Sincerely, Still Single 

Travel with children. To Benadryl or not to Benadryl...

My only sibling, my only sister and my "first baby" is getting married on Saturday. It's bananas. Let me put it to you this way... My first word was "mama"... Her first word was MY name. Mom was shocked but I earned it. Every time she even started to frown I'd go into my 3yr old version of a Flashdance routine. I could even hit the chair. I was kind of a big deal.
My daughter will have her first plane ride en route to the wedding and I have packed a lot of activities for her. We decided not to get her a personal DVD player for the trip. Every single one of her friends has one but she already has so much. Also all the parents say give the child benadryl to sedate them. People even say to do that when taking a child to the dentist. I'm not doing it. I am counting on the Strawberry Shortcake activity book with the two toned glitter crayons. Nana says the clouds are enough. I am also bringing an extra T shirt for me in case my daughter throws up on me.

Here is what I've packed for her, and no it's not a week long wedding celebration- it's for two days. Nana is even taking the flower girl dress. Never go anywhere without a tutu. Pink enough? I actually do own nice luggage from my old life but my new world has become a pink gingham kind of place- and that is cool with me. 

 We fly home Sunday night and I start my teaching job the next morning. No hangover for me! Being a teacher in California I only found out my assignment last week. High School English. Here is one of about 5 boxes I have to take that day.

The next Monday after that my daughter starts Kindergarten and has her 5th birthday that weekend. Notice pink is a running theme in my life??? I have to have it then because the folllowing weekend is my 30th birthday. So saying I have to plan ahead is a bit of an understatement.

Working Mom, Sister of the Bride, and Mother of the Flower Girl
yep we all wear many hats or should I say Fascinators?

How better to kick off a Family Blog than by having a wedding?

Here I am in the receiving line dressed up, a smile on my lips, and my hand extended. "Nice to meet you".

                         Her Inspiration Collage

 (Yes that is the room, the real invitations, and those are the bride's maids' dresses)

                     Well it will all be for real next Saturday.

The Bride to Be just called and said "I think everything's in order, I have worked so hard on this..." I wanted to say, "Don't tempt the fates..." but my Good Mom self thought before speaking and said, "I know all your hard work will be rewarded..." and I am so proud of her paying for this all by herself. Oh yes, she did invoice the Groom for his family... It's a new tradition we're starting. Wish us Luck! A Woman of a Certain Age, Mother of the Bride