Weekend Update

Birthday party season is back in full swing. Multiply three children in school or pre-school by fifteen to twenty classmates each and you get a pretty good idea how I spend my weekends during the school year. If we decide to sell our house, I vote we replace it with an Airstream trailer. Then we can just tow it to whatever party facility all the kids have unanimously decided is this year's must-rent and live out of it. With the gas money saved, I could afford presents.

This weekend we got hit with four birthdays, three girls, one boy. You do the math.

Yesterday I set out on a mission to find four birthday gifts on a limited budget. Bonus challenge: they could not be junk. At the dollar store I was able to put together three girly-girl bags that I think would pass for boutique swag. And for a nine-year-old boy, a dartboard, consigned to the discount store by retailers who feared it would put somebody's eye out. But in light of the Mattel toys lead-contamination scandal, a toy with visible hazards might be a welcome change.

The total damage for four presents, including gift bags? Twenty five dollars. Turns out, I am the poster girl for frugal living.

In other news:

Wrangling three little boys into church clothes, through an hour-long service, and away from the refreshments table is not nearly as much fun as you might think.