Birthday Party a success!

First things first -- where's the ibuprofin?

Yes, we had a grand time with my daughter's second birthday, and everything went off as planned with plenty of fun in the sun. As usual she was spoiled (as she should be) and received so many nice gifts from all of our friends and family.

It's a lot of work, but these are the events that bring folks together to celebrate and enjoy the good times in a child's life. So we are all grateful to be able to take time out from our busy lives to just soak in the happiness and blessings that you receive from spending time with those who you seem to never get a chance to see enough of.

And of course, being able to see your daughter break out into a huge smile and laugh while being surrounded to a chorus of "Happy Birthday" is simply -- priceless!

With another birthday come and gone (well, sort of - today she opens up presents from us - these never made it to the present pile, I guess), we are happy to enjoy the rest of the weekend recovering and getting things back in order.

Getting ready for my Daughter's B-Day party!

Ah. It's time to get things in order for tomorrow's birthday party for my two year old. Best I can hope for is - decent weather. Where else do you put that many people when it rains? Especially, the kids. We live in small quarters not conducive for entertainment of children. Oh boy.

Well, no matter what - rain or shine, we will have fun. I think its going to be near 90 degrees tomorrow, so it will be a scorcher.

So, half day of work today, and then the real work begins. Plenty to do - lawn work, shopping, mulching, setting up a heavy canopy, cleaning everything up to look nice, and all of the inside prep work and cleaning. Ugggh! My wife and I will be jumping around at full speed while trying to keep the kids at bay. But this year one rule - we don't aim to make the darn place look like a museum. The goal is "Optimal" not "Perfect". The days of focusing on minuscule perfectionist details that no one else notices are over!

And at least this year we opted to skip the grill work, so we ordered food. Besides, people are all hamburged and hotdogged out from July 4th. So we'll opt for grinder sandwiches delivered, while at the same time - removing the fear of kids burning themselves by bumping into a hot grill out of the equation too.

How come Elmo and Barney never show up to help?