Seven days

Seven days ago, we had a house filled with waaay more kids than we ever imagined possible. But today, I'm sick and sprawled out in bed surrounded by every modern sick person's staples- water, books, magazines, cough drops, my phone, a laptop and a tablet loaded up with the kind of shows that make educated people weep. One of my nurses is making me a soft quesadilla for brunch (since chubby people still have an appetite even when achy and coughing), and the other one has ditched me to scream and play in the cul de sac with the other neighborhood children.

Although this weekend isn't exactly what I had in mind (but should have seen coming, since at least 5 kids were sick in our class this week), last weekend was perfect chaos. We celebrated Ryan's big day with a carnival-themed birthday. There were six kinds of carnival-themed games- the classic donut on a string, balloon darts, tin can toss, coin toss, ring toss and a ping pong ball toss. Rich spent a few days building and setting up the games, and did a phenomenal job. And thanks to some amazing parents who helped us 'man' the booths and agreed to wear  red 'carnie' vests, I think the kids had a great time.

We also had a 'carnival' menu that very likely shaved a year or two off each person's life- corn on the cob, watermelon, baked beans, cheese pizza, hot dogs, caramel apples and strawberry lemonade. (Sadly, no pics as I was too busy running around.)

No carnival is complete without peanuts, popcorn and circus animal crackers!

The ticket redemption table with the ticket redemption manager on duty

The big top tent pinata (that I am glad is blurry in this picture...as it didn't look like a big tent so much as a Swahili hut that was in the process of being fumigated).

The miniature popcorn cupcakes, a rare Pinterest idea that actually turned out!

In seven more days, we'll have officially started our summer vacation, so I hope that my resting and pumping myself full of green juice will have paid off. :-) We have a 'fun' summer (the Asian child version, so you get why the word fun is in quotes) planned and I can't wait. :-)