As I mentioned last night, yesterday one of Hayley’s friends had her birthday party at an indoor amusement center. I had never been there before but heard good things about it. It was no lie – the place was amazing! Unlike a lot of similar places, parents are encouraged to go ahead and join the kids, so I did. In the end I got more exercise in three and a half hours than I do in a full week I think.

They have a small section for kids three and under so at first Breanna started off there. They had a ball pit, little slide, foam blocks and whatnot, and a trampoline, which she loved.

But then I decided, after about 15 minutes or so, that I would show her the rest of the play structure. When she realized that she was allowed to go play with the big kids, she never looked back. They have a triple slide which is pretty high, about one full floor up from the ground floor. Hayley wasn’t too keen on it, but Breanna was curious. I held her in my lap the first time; the second time she went on the slide beside mine and held my hand; after that I was no longer allowed to touch her. In fact, I was lucky if I could catch up to her long enough to even slide with her at all. That child is pretty damn fearless. Once Hayley saw Breanna on the slides she decided she might try it after all and she loved it. I must confess: I loved it too, proven by the fact that I can not tell you how many times I went on them but it was definitely more than 25 times.

Don’t mind my crazy hair. Also? Those people coming down behind us totally got in trouble with the monitor for not waiting for us to get to the bottom and clear the landing pad before sliding down. Ha!

Another very cool thing at the center is their nerf pit. They have about two dozen air “guns” that you can load with the – literally – thousands of nerf balls so that you can shoot at each other. I got one full-on in the face, it totally doesn’t hurt anyone. Hayley got hurt only because she was rushing so much to load her gun that she banged her head on it. I felt her pain – in my hurry to get down to the floor to collect more balls, I dove down a slide and conked my head on the rim at the bottom. Ow.

They also have huge cannon type of things on the ground which you can load up with up to a hundred balls at a time, then you press the button and it sprays the balls all over everyone. It.is.AWESOME.

I had one mini war with a boy who looked to be ten and he was faster than me and had a larger stash (they have all kinds of fabric bags lying around which you can use to collect the nerf balls) and he totally kicked my ass. I made myself feel better shortly after that because I accidentally got some dad right off the top of his head and when he retaliated I used my higher vantage point to my advantage and slammed him with nerf balls.

It was kind of fun. Just a little. They may have had to twist my arm to get me to leave to go eat supper in the birthday party room.

(Seriously, it’s like paintball for kids!)

They had nuggets and fries for the kids, pizza for the parents, and a fun animator who kept the kids entertained. He was great – I really don’t think I could do his job. They played some games, had birthday cake, and then everyone went back out for another hour and a half.

There was only one slide that neither of the girls liked. It was about two stories high and spiraled down to the ground. I went with Hayley and she didn’t like it because her shirt rode up in back and she got that plastic burn many a kid has suffered at parks and the like. She also didn’t like not being able to see where she was going. I convinced Breanna to try it but Miss Fearless was so eager that instead of waiting to go down it WITH me, she ran ahead and pretty much threw herself into it, landed on her butt and took off like a shot. I raced down after her, and there was no screaming or crying, but when I reached the bottom she stood there wide-eyed and very soberly told me, “that slide too scary. I go on the other ones now.”

I went back up all by myself with my camera just for a 365 Days photo op, because I am a DORK.

We’ve already decided that we’re going to go back as a family some day (possibly with others as well) on a ped day just for fun. The kids really had a good time, and uh, so did I. We’ll go around 4 pm since it quiets down a bit by then compared to earlier in the day, we’ll have supper there, and let them go crazy until it closes at 9 pm if they want. It’s decently priced and it’s a fun way for them to burn off energy, especially with the colder weather approaching.

It was definitely a big hit and I’m looking forward to going back!

(Today is the last day of NaBloPoMo, my month of posting in November. However, Holidailies sign-ups start tomorrow, so I’ll still be a posting fool. Or just a fool, your mileage may vary!)

Today, friends of ours held a birthday party at a kids’ play center with a mammoth spread of ladders, slides, nerf ball guns, and obstacle courses. Not only did the kids have a great time, I actually reclaimed my youth and my energy and ended up running around for most of the three hours as well. I can’t even tell you how many times I climbed up to the top and slid down. I’m sure to be exhausted tomorrow but in the meantime I just got the best exercise I’ve had in ages.

Pictures to come when I’m not so tired!

Don’t worry, I’ll post another video later today for Friday Flashback, but in the meantime, please take a second to enjoy the best moment in parade history.

Courtesy of Will Wheaton.

So when you’re a Canadian and you confess (see yesterday) to being jealous of all your American friends who are celebrating Thanksgiving even though you already had your own Thanksgiving last month (and thus making you greedy), there’s really only one thing to do – especially when all those American friends are yammering on about their turkeys and stuffing and sides.

You have a “Yanksgiving” dinner!

(God you have no idea how much I wish I could claim that term as my own, but alas, I got it from Andrea who got it from someone else.)

Hence, the reason we had roast chicken, steamed carrots and broccoli, baked potatoes, and fresh dinner rolls (lightly toasted and warmed) for supper tonight on an otherwise ordinary Thursday.

Sure, it’s not quite what I’d have for Thanksgiving and there was no pumpkin pie (sob!) but it was good enough for me.

besides, there’s always Christmas for turkey with all that goes with it!

Jealousy is an ugly trait. It’s usually pointless and only serves to make you feel worse about yourself and it’s something I don’t like to indulge in, but I am only human and sometimes I just can’t help myself.

So I confess. I am a jealous bitch tonight, and unreasonably so to boot.

I am jealous that tomorrow is Thanksgiving for Americans. Because I want turkey and stuffing and casseroles and pumpkin pies and family dinners too!

This is highly unreasonable because hello? I just celebrated Thanksgiving last month with all the other Canadians. We had ours, I stuffed myself happily and was quite pleased so I have no reason to be all green-eyed that tomorrow is just a regular Thursday for me.

Still, when you’re carving your turkey or serving a delicious plate of pumpkin pie, please think of me. And know that I’m salivating.

It’s not the first time it snowed since Summer ended, but the snow we got overnight was the first snow of substance. I didn’t even see it start, I just went to take the dog out for a quick bladder break around 10 pm, and it was a total shock to find a thick blanket of snow on the ground with more falling from the sky.

The only thing that made it even remotely entertaining was seeing Pearl’s reaction. She freaked out and started running through it all, jumping and playing. It was very cute but I don’t think it’s enough to last me the whole season.

This morning I woke up to snow plows on the street and a sick kid yet again, so at least I got to go back to bed for a couple of hours.

I’m just not really ready. There’s been a lot more snow this time in other years – I still remember the day we brought Breanna home from the hospital when she was a whole two days old. It was a total blizzard and the roads were slippery and by the time we got home I could barely uncurl the fingers that had been gripping my door handle until the knuckles turned bone-white. It was a bit nerve-wracking.

So really, so far the snow hasn’t been bad at all. But I still remember the ridiculous amount of snow we got last year and how it just stretches on endlessly. I’m not ready for Winter yet. At all.

Hayley stayed home from school today, which was a shame since she had a Ped day on Thursday and Friday. She had a really sore throat and a low fever so it was pointless to force her to go. And I could tell she really was sick because she never got dressed and she was really Cranky with a capital C all day long. She was trying to make Wall-E eyes out of styrofoam cups and while she eventually succeeded, I thought she would split the earth in half with her rage for awhile when it WASN’T working.

I figured she’d be okay tomorrow but this evening she was sobbing about a sore stomach and that she felt sick. The fact that she refused to eat her snack proves she isn’t exaggerating. Blah. ‘Tis the season for sickness. How much longer until summer when germs aren’t so rampant?

*******

I am on book four of the Twilight series. I haven’t seen the movie, though I would like to. I would prefer to see it with another female since I don’t think it’s George’s kind of movie at all, despite the vampire theme.

I loved the book Twilight. I also really liked New Moon. I then LOVED Eclipse like whoa. And now I’m on Breaking Dawn. Oh good lord. What an awful book. So far I have hated most of it and I’m about halfway through. The only reason I’m continuing is because I’m emotionally invested in it, three books’ worth. I have to know what happens next. But it is BAD. Really bad. A friend of mine told me that the author was really rushed by the publishers to put it out there. I still think she may have been drunk, high, or both at the time of writing. It’s that awful.

I’m on section three now, and I really hope it picks up now that it’s back to Bella’s point of view. Please.

*******
I bought a Halti for Pearl because that dog is unbelievably bad about walking on leash no matter what I try. I heard good things about the Halti so when I saw it was on sale at a local pet store I went and got one yesterday. We didn’t bring Pearl because while she is cute, she is also an imbecile who acts up around people.

They said the sizing chart is usually right but it’s a good idea to bring the dog in to try it on, especially since it was non-refundable being a sale. It was close to closing time on the last sale day so I went with the size two which said that was appropriate for Beagles.

I brought it home and tried it on. Too big. On the INSIDE of the package, which can only be seen after you purchase and open it, it says that female dogs generally need one size smaller than the breed in question. THANKS. That was helpful.

Thank goodness it was cheap.

In the meantime, walking Pearl still makes me want to a) strangle her, b) stab myself, c) all of the above.

*******
Off to read Breaking Dawn now, where I will continue to try to avoid stabbing myself.

If you ask Breanna about her birthday party, the title of this post is what she says – “It a good party!” At one point on Saturday night she turned to me and said, “It so nice people come to my party!” She loves a good party with her friends and family.

She got some very nice gifts, including some clothes (and a really nice parka with a “fur”-lined hood), a dinosaur kit, a Mickey Mouse art set, and some gift cards to go buy stuff she wants (I foresee more dinosaurs and some more Wall-E stuff).

After the presents, Breanna kept asking about her cake. She had accidentally seen it in the fridge that morning so at one point she kept asking if she could have her “dinosaur cake”. I had asked George’s mom to make the cake for me since our oven is still dead, and I requested she use the bundt pan. Then on Friday night I frosted it with thick chocolate icing to make it look like a mountain. Afterwards, I took red fruit roll-up strips and twisted them down the sides to turn it into a volcano. As a finishing touch, I washed some of her small dinosaurs and put them around the top of the volcano. She loved it.

My favorite moment of the night came when we brought the cake out to her. We all started singing as I carried it to her in the living room. Breanna had such a huge fear (and not totally unfounded to be honest) that Hayley would blow her candles out on her, so we had gotten as far as the third line in the song when Breanna leaned over and blew out all the candles in one fell swoop. Take THAT, big sister!

After she cut the cake, she sat very quietly at the side table in the living room and ignored everything but the plate sitting in front of her.

She’s pretty intent when it comes time to eat something.

By the time everyone left I managed to get the kids into bed by a little after midnight (they were amazed that it was “already Sunday”) and they fell asleep in no time at all.

It was a great party with a lot of fun for the kids and the parents alike. Even though we started it after supper, we had gotten a lot of snack stuff, including swedish meatballs and Tandoori wings and a giant vegetable platter. My biggest fear is running out of food. I think it comes from the time, so many years ago, when my family had my aunt, uncle, cousins, and the boyfriend of one of my cousins. My dad had made an enormous feast with soup and salad and veal oregano. We were all stuffed and my dad jokingly asked if anyone wanted seconds since we were all so full. The boyfriend, a thin guy to boot with a super metabolism, shyly said he’d love some more. My poor dad had to confess there was none left. Oops! Since then I do overkill on party food and as a result we have so much stuff left over, but that’s okay, we’ll certainly eat it!

Breanna was a little disappointed that everyone wasn’t coming back today (today was good – clean-up was pretty minimal and took little time to accomplish, whew!) but she’s already looking forward to her party next year so that must be a good sign!

More photos can be seen over here!

I’m just about to crawl into bed, somewhat exhausted, but I wanted to take 30 seconds to say that Breanna’s party was great, everyone had fun, there was more than enough food (my biggest party fear is always that we won’t have enough), and Breanna really enjoyed herself.

I’ll leave you with this picture of the birthday cake I made for her – a volcano with dinosaurs on top.

More party details tomorrow – for now, sleep!