Birthday Boy

We celebrated Ryan's birthday this week.  He had four special requests for his birthday this year.  

1. He wanted a Candyland cake.

Done.  Although I really should have just given him a few bags of candy, because that was a lot of work for a boy who only wants to eat the candy off the top of it anyway.  At least it's cute, right?

2. He wanted chattering teeth for a present.

Where exactly does one buy chattering teeth?  Amazon.com, I praise thy name.  I love being able to find just about anything there....and I curse it too.  They were a piece of junk.  Guess I should have sprung for the expensive ones.  Oh well.  Ryan seemed pleased that such a strange request was honored at all.  

3. He wanted to go to "the carnival".

  This wasn't just a spur of the moment request.  He's been talking about going to the carnival on his birthday for at least the last six months.  I was really hoping it was a phase that would pass, but no such luck.  First of all, I don't even know where he got the idea of a carnival.  We have never been to one.  Then as his birthday got closer and he was still insisting on going, I was wondering what could possibly pass for a carnival.  State fair?.....over.  County fair?....over.  Town days?.....all over.  Hmmm......

Then, about two weeks before his birthday we drove past Lagoon.  He pointed at it and shouted "That's the carnival I want to go to!"  

I told him it wouldn't be open on his birthday.  

Now I know that it is open on weekends for Frightmares in October, but I didn't tell him that.  For one thing, our weekends are pretty busy lately with a couple of kids playing soccer.  Not to mention the fact that the thought of spending the day at an amusement park in the cold is not my idea of a good time.  

Well, another week went by and one day I went to pick Ryan up from school.  He came running out of the building waving his "ticket" to the "carnival'.  He was soooo excited.  It was a discount pass for Lagoon in October.  I glanced at the schedule on it expecting to see it only open on weekends, which it was, except for one lone Thursday.  His birthday.  Greg's day off from work. A day off from school.  (Which if I was a better mom probably would have already known about, but no, it caught me off guard.)  Anyway, it was all looking too good to be true.  But still I didn't tell him we could go, because I didn't want to give him false hope if the weather turned out to be yucky.  So I watched the weather forecast the week leading up to the big day, and lo and behold....74 and sunny.  Can't get much better than that.  So we went.  And a good time was had by all.

4. He wanted the game "Plants vs. Zombies". 

 

Grandma and Grandpa came through on that one.....and he's been playing it all day long.  (Just this once of course!)  Looks kind of fun.  Now that he's in bed I might just have to try it out myself!  

Old Lady Bathroom

Confession time:  I have had the bathroom of an 87 year old woman.  Fortunately it didn't smell like the bathroom of an 87 year old woman, but still, enough was enough.  I didn't really mind the decor when we first bought this house nearly 11 years ago.  After all, there were TWO bathrooms!  After growing up in a house with only one bathroom and then living in a teeny 400 sq. foot newlywed apartment, that was awesome! Anyway, like I said, it was nice, it just wasn't me.  There was peach and blue floral wallpaper and lots of ultra-fancy shiny brass hardware everywhere. I finally decided to do something about it, and this week was spent peeling up old wallpaper, scrubbing walls, patching holes, replacing all the hardware and repainting.  It's finally done and I love the new look! 

I don't have a before picture of my bathroom, but here is a sample of the wallpaper after I joyfully ripped it from the walls.

   

And here is the finished product!  The wall color is actually more of a pale neon/lime green, rather than the avocado color that comes across in this picture, and I love the fun brown polka dot shower curtain!  I still have old lady light fixtures in here, (floral/brass....sshhh, don't tell anyone!) but that'll have to wait until I can get someone over here who knows how to do electrical stuff.  I would probably just blow myself up in the process, and then what would be the point of my fun new bathroom?  :)