Free Pancakes

Click on the image to go to the IHOP site to read about National Pancake Day and how to get your FREE stack of pancakes!

House Party

Have you ever heard of HouseParty.com?  It is a free online community where people are connected through parties. When you register, you have the opportunity to host a House Party for your friends and family while testing out some kind of new product. If you’re selected as a host, you can use their website to invite your friends and family, share pictures and videos, and explore the thousands of other parties being held in homes across the country. As a host, you receive a Party Package that contains items to help enhance the party for you and your guests – and YES, the Party Package is completely FREE!  To see the list of current parties needing hosts, click here:  http://houseparty.com/events.  Enjoy!

Birthday Fun Night

We have a tradition in our family when it comes to birthdays. The birthday person gets to choose what we have for dinner and then we go see a movie.

Tonight Amy wanted chicken so we went to Gus’s World Famous Chicken place.  It was pretty good but I don’t see why everyone thinks it is so amazing.  I think next time I will get the spicy instead of the mild. Maybe I will like that better.

The movie choice was Megamind, which honestly, I was really not looking forward to but ya know what, it was a great movie! We saw the 3D verson. Boy, has 3D come a long way! I used to hate them but they don’t cause my head to hurt like the old style.

On the way home I started thinking about the few years that I have left to do this with my kids.  Will they still want to do this when they are 18, 19, 20, etc? Who knows. I am not going to worry about that.  I am just going to enjoy these special moments I have with them now. 

Big Birthday Parties on a Budget

We did it! We gave our daughter a fabulous Sweet Sixteen birthday party and it didn’t break the bank.

The cake was made by one of my daughter’s friends who has been teaching herself about cake decorating and I think she did an amazing job!

It was a GLOWING SWEET SIXTEEN party featuring a dance room with black lights, disco ball and a strobe light…ALL BORROWED!  The music was made possible through a party mix that my daughter had made on her iPod.  We hooked it up to a speaker with a built in power source (Also borrowed) so the music was bumping!

The bon fire was glowing brightly and was a great hang out area that didn’t cost me anything… well, except for the hot dogs they cooked there!

We also had the beautiful and HUGE Princess Castle Moonbounce from Playland Moonbounce which I had bartered for. This was a hit with the little kids and the teens also!

The only part of the party that I had to pay for (except food & paper products) was Laser Tag and it was SOOOO worth it. The kids LOVED this!

All in all, it looked like we spent a ton of money but this party cost us less than $400 (including food, etc). We still have some food left too so the cost is actually lower. Everyone that came  (at least 45 people) said they had a great time.  No, you won’t see this on My Super Sweet 16 TV show (which I have never seen but have heard a lot about) but who cares.The memories that my daughter will have of her special night will last a lifetime. I still remember my sweet 16 party…it was a few years ago! LOL

I have two more kids that will want big 16th birthday parties in a few years…I wonder what I will come up with for them and if I can do more for less!  I love a challenge.

Princess is turning 16

Next week, my daughter will turn 16.  It really doesn’t seem possible.  I can not be old enough to have a 16 year old! We have a Glowing Sweet 16 party planned for Friday night.  In addition to Laser Tag, disco ball, black lights, strobe lights and a bon fire, we are going to have a PRINCESS MOON BOUNCE with SLIDE from Playland Moonbounce!!

You may think that sounds like an odd thing to have at a 16th birthday party but she is our princess and we want to make her 16th birthday a very memorable occasion. Besides, we never rented one when she was younger so why not now??

I can’t wait till Friday night to celebrate her birthday with our friends and family.