Busy Weekend

It was a very busy weekend and started out on Friday morning. My boss decided to let the kids have a Halloween slumber party. Originally I had suggested it in place of the much larger Halloween party she'd promised them and then decided it would be too much work. My thinking was let them each invite one friend to sleep over (the sleep over part would make up for the fact that it wouldn't be a "real" party), they could dress up in costumes, rent a fun Halloween movie and order pizza...Nice...Easy....Simple....

Until my boss got involved....she turned my nice, easy, simple slumber party into a massive amount of work but letting each child invite 3 friends each and insisting that we still do party games, goodie bags, themed food and decorations. Um....wasn't the idea to NOT have to do all the party crap?????

Well, I guess it doesn't matter much to her since I'M the one doing all the work. So I spent a lot of time in the week before planning games, shopping for goodie bags, prizes and decorations.

Starting the moment the kids were off to school Friday morning I started frantically pulling all the sprawling party pieces together. Putting bags together, labeling them all, labeling glasses for the party (heaven forbid the plastic skeleton goblets get mixed up with the massive swine flu epidemic terrifying all of CT!), and cooking every disgusting thing you could imagine for the ever popular Halloween "Guess what this really is" game (oh come on....you remember....peeled grapes as eyeballs, cooked spaghetti as worms....etc etc).

Decorating, picking up guests that needed rides, running last minute "we absolutely have to have just one more thing....just a few more of those....just a couple more movie choices...." errands, and then finally the party began.

I tossed on my Bumblebee costume (which I informed the kids made me a Tickle Bee...no stinging from this girl...tickle attacks only!) and helped attempt to keep the massive histeria under control.

The kids all had a good time running wild and eventually sitting for food and games while the adults drank and socialized...except for me. I was still on the clock of course. So I ran around cleaning up one mess while setting up the next and keeping the kids from spilling electric green punch on the white furniture or attacking each other with the various weapons that accompanied their costumes (a devils pitch fork, an Indiana Jones whip, a ninja's roundhouse kick and a few lightsabers in the hands of sugar-crazed little kids...oh the joy!)

When bedtime finally drew near we dealt with the inevitable throng of kids who had melt downs and pleaded with us to be returned home to their parents rather than staying overnight. Several actually did go home that night. By the time those parents had come and gone it was well after 10 pm. Finally we started getting the kids to bed....and once they were settled I turned to the disaster in the kitchen. Yes, I probably could have left it till morning, but since they'd be feeding 6 kids breakfast there I knew it would only get worse. My wings drooping I stood in front of the sink for another hour washing dishes and wiping counter tops. Finally at nearly midnight I blew out the last of the candles and escaped to my bed, my feet about to fall off.

Thankfully my boss did a lot of the breakfast clean up before I'd even gotten out there Saturday morning. So Saturday wasn't too bad. I stayed in bed all morning, did a little shopping in the afternoon (got a great Christmas present for my sweetie...hoping I'll get the chance to give it to him in person *sigh*) and then spent the evening hanging out with one of the families I used to nanny for.

Sunday was Stake Conference but since the church they were holding it at is really far away and I already felt completely drained from the Halloween slumber party fiasco (and coming down with a cold on top of it all!) I decided to allow myself to sleep in and then spent the day listening to conference sessions I'd missed a few weeks ago and watching a few gospel videos. I took a walk while listening to the Priesthood session on my ipod and enjoyed the gorgeous fall weather. Then when I got back I decided to do some baking. I made my first attempt at Cinnamon Raisin Bread :)

I need to roll the dough thinner to make it more swirly and I need to use more raisins and cinnamon inside, but all and all it was pretty darn good for a first try and tastes really yummy!

Sunday evening I started feeling really sick to my stomach and spent most of the evening in bed not wanting to move for fear I'd get REALLY sick! This morning my boss informed me that she and her husband both were sick last night as well. The kids got the flu mist vaccines last Thursday and we're thinking that we may have caught a mild flu from the vaccine....weird but I guess it makes sense that the vaccine would bring the active flu into the house.

Stomach is alright today but I'm feeling tired and achy all over. Hopefully it'll all pass quick.

Hope everyone else has a lovely Monday :)

XOXOXOXOX