Busy

I have been so busy lately that some days I don't even check my email (which I used to do every day). I've been working overtime since the middle of May (trying to get our department caught up) and have been working an average of 10 - 15 hours overtime per week (one time was closer to 20).  During this time I was also planning my step son's surprise 11th birthday party.

The surprise birthday party was on Friday (July 11th) at our Stake's Recreation Center (which was basically a gym, kitchen, bathrooms inside the building and a covered pavilion outside with a shed and fenced in "yard" with plenty of space for kids to run around. We had the party indoors and just brought some of the tables inside. We had the 6 guest show up and I let Steve know so he could bring Hunter. When they showed up we shouted "Surprise!" and Hunter was surprised/shocked/scared. When I explained to him that it was his birthday party he looked less shocked. It was only 2 months after his birthday so I can understand his confusion.

We started on the first activity while Steve went to get pizza (Little Caesars - the best for the price) and the first thing was painting their own chalkboards. Steve and I picked pieces of wood from The Wood Connection and made our own chalkboard paint (thanks Pintrest!). The reason we made our own chalkboard paint was so that they could pick their own color. We had red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, and lavendar (I tried to get the kids favorite colors but I was only given the colors of my niece, Violet, and so I got the green (Shamrock) and turquoise for her and the lavendar for Hunter and the rest were just rainbow colors.

After painting their chalkboards we ate lunch and had cup cakes and ice cream, let Hunter open his gifts and let the kids run around the gym until we were ready for the next craft.

The next (and last) craft was to design their own t-shirts. We bought different colored t-shirts from Michaels (on sale for $3.33 when you bought 3 - so basically 3 for $9.99) and Clorox Bleach Pens. We put plastic bags inside the shirts (so the bleach wouldn't go to the back of the shirt too) and let them use the bleach pens to design/decorate their own shirts. The darker the color of shirt the better the outcome, the lighter the shirt the less you noticed the design. We let the shirts sit for at least 10 minutes then I rinsed them out in the sink (and there was no issue with the bleach smearing and ruining the design) and then put the shirts in plastic bags with instructions to the parent's (or kids) that the shirts needed to be washed immediately when they got home.

The party turned out great! The kids had fun, the adults had fun, I had my sister and niece help me set up and my husband and sister cleaned up while I was rinsing the bleach off of the shirts. We were there (Missee, Violet and I who got there first) for a little over 3 hours and it was fun.

That night I felt physically, emotionally, and mentally drained. Partly because the party I had been planning since April (before Hunter's actual birthday) was done and partially because I had worked 47 hours that week from Monday through Thursday. When we went home I crashed and have been relaxing the rest of the weekend.

It's so nice to finally have a three day weekend that I am not working through!