Best party ever!

I wish today were Jack's birthday because we just went to the best birthday party and I would love to be able to tell him it was his. I have somehow gotten away with not throwing him a party yet (I mean, seriously, do you care when you're two? I think it's more for the parents than the kid at that point), but on #3 people are really starting to up the ante and Jack's too old not to notice anymore. Which is too bad, because I am really not good at thinking of themes and menus and games and favors and make-it-yourself souvenirs. It will be years before Jack will be ready for the kinds of parties I'm good at throwing (which involve fewer crafts and more booze), but I will really have to try this year, because we can't say that the best party we went to in 2011 wasn't Jack's.

But really, it was the best party ever. They rented a bouncy house.  And.... (stop it. you had me at bouncy house.)



I think maybe instead of building a shed in our backyard we should've put in a bouncy house. Think of the money we could've saved on childcare! Just stick Jack back there in the morning and you'd be good to go until naptime.

They also had a build-and-decorate-your-own truck station, and a huge sandbox and a water-table, and a zillion different toys strewn around the yard. But I think my favorite thing about it was how chill it was, just sitting in the shade, watching the kids play. I even put Sadie down for a nap at some point and got to have an hour of uninterrupted grown-up conversation.

So between now and December 16 I will accept your very excellent ideas for how to throw a fabulous birthday party a week before Christmas when it very likely will rain.

And with that I will bid you adieu and apologize in advance for what may be another long while before I blog again. I have a second round interview for a job at Stanford that I will probably not get but am still going to pour my heart and soul and every spare moment into preparing a talk for, and the final report due for the job I'm supposed to actually still be doing, and a conference to organize and hold, and a contract on-the-side job (which seemed like a good idea to accept at the time) to finish, and two more talks to give at a Bay Area agency and at SF State... all in the next two weeks! That's what I get for having a mellow summer. When it rains, it certainly does pour.