Birthday parties

I get overwhelmed so easy, yet I keep putting on birthday parties. What is wrong with me?

So I have 5 children and they usually have a birthday ever year, right?  Well this here momma can't take the stress of throwing a party that any times a year, so here's my plan.

Starting when the child turns 2, each child may have a party on an even year of age.  This makes it so that my girls, who both have a birthday the week before Christmas and are three years apart from each other, won't have a party on the same year. I still have to "throw" a party every year around Christmas.  Fun.

Our process for doing the whole birthday party thing usually follows the same pattern.
First we ask the child turning an even age what sort of theme or toy they like.
Or we browse the various themes at Oriental Trading.
Most parties we have done at the house or at Laurel Park.
We usually invite whole families when the children are small. Most of the families we know are large. I try to make sure we have enough food. We usually have a cake, ice cream and some other things like chips and salsa or veggies and dip.
I have tried to have gift baggies or something for the kids to take home, but I usually forget to give them those things.
I like for the moms to stay, but most like to drop off and have fun without me. But I am ok with that. I just don't think about it too much.
I also think through some sort of a theme-related game to play, but sometimes it is ok if the children just want to play.  The children have only gotten violent and turned on each other a few times. No long term damage has been recorded.

There is really no reason to get overwhelmed with putting on a birthday party. Ok, so now what to do for my dear husband's birthday?  He'll only be a young 40 this year. An even number, so I ought to do something....

Up and coming freshmen

I've got a freshman in my house, under my roof, and eating my food. I question his time on the computer, his time outside, and his time with friends.

 I want him to understand programming and be good with stop motion, but I don't want him to only be about computers, games, and devices.
 I want him to be outside and do active things, but we will pay for being on a soccer team and giving up our family camping trips.
  I want him to establish friendships that are more natural for him, not who I would pick. He'll have to deal with good people/bad people all his life. I can only minimally encourage who he hangs out with and I can force no friendship. I can't even force my own.

So what will I do?  I will pray for him.  I will defer some of those hard decisions to Greg. Greg will pray for him. I will talk and Greg will talk to him about wisdom and being careful what we do, say, and see. Hopefully we will be good examples.

Merrisach Lake camp

First ever camping trip in July. Yes, it was hot. Yes, the bugs were as bad as I figured.
But the a/c in the pop up worked and the bug spray mostly worked. We were next to playground. That made everything so much more bearable. Even little bear could go around the playground with a sibling on baby duty. It turned out, well, nice, considering it was July 4th. Sad, though, we saw nor heard nary a fire pop.