Birthday party or insanity?

I think we now have definitive proof that my wife is a masochist. The first clue was that she married me, but the latest demonstration happened this last weekend. Sierra turned 7 on Friday, and so my wife insisted on having a birthday party for her. I'm not sure when people started having full parties for every birthday. Growing up, there were certain ages that my parents would actually throw a party for, and the rest of the time we were allowed to invite one friend to Sunday dinner the week of our birthday. Anyway, We have a close group of friends that who have children near the same ages as our kids, and we usually invite all the kids of each family. Unfortunately, that means that we end up with 10 kids just with the families of these friends. This year, since Sierra is in first grade, Lori wanted to make sure that a few kids from her class were invited as well. Then she invited the children of another friend. In all, we had more than 20 children at the party. Things went well at first, the kids spent most of the time outside, and Lori had set up some Pokemon themed games. Everything seemed to be going well, until we brought the kids inside so Sierra could open her presents. As usual, I was taking pictures and didn't notice that the children staged a coup. They all had surrounded Sierra, with all the adults standing in a circle around the perimeter. It became a present free-for-all. Kids were practically throwing presents at Sierra to be opened, It was absolutely out of control. But the kids had fun, so I guess that was the point of the whole thing.

It being a Pokemon themed party, Sierra got a lot of Pokemon stuff. Several stuffed Pokemon, Pokemon trading cards, the whole bit. One item she got, Megan pretty much adopted. Sierra got a small stuffed Pokemon named Buneary that fit inside a Pokeball, and when the ball is thrown pops out. In keeping with a habit Megan's had lately, she got the Pokemon wet. Usually she does this when she has gotten one of her stuffed animals dirty, and wants to clean it. This time she was trying to make the Pokemon grow. Anyway, Lori put the Pokemon up to allow it to dry out, and as a punishment for Megan getting it wet. Later on Saturday, Megan kept coming up to Lori and saying "Mom, you're happy!" We weren't sure why she was doing this, but she did it 3 or 4 times. Finally I asked her why Lori was happy. Megan replied "Because she wants to give me Buneary." I had to laugh. Lori had gotten angry with Megan for getting the Pokemon wet, so now that mommy was happy, she must be ready to give it back! My kids crack me up sometimes.

I'll edit this post later once I have the pictures from the birthday party posted.

Disturbing events

A lot has happened since I've posted last (that's what happens when you let more than a month go by). Just to summarize, we bought a new car (Lori's car was dying), adopted 2 dogs (ostensibly to help Megan), and Sierra and Megan started school at the new elementary school. A lot of things, but not the focus of this post.

I called our insurance company today to get our old car removed from our insurance, and the new car put on it. I told the lady who answered the phone my name and told her that we had just purchased a new car, and traded in our old one. I gave her the details of the new car, and then she informed me the change had been made. I was a little shocked though. With nothing more than my name, and a few details about the cars that we drive, I was able to effect a change to my insurance. It seems to me that they should have at least asked me a security question to verify my identity. Pretty crazy.