The fog has lifted...

and *thankfully* the grouchy, irritable, intolerable mom my kids had to put up with is gone. Life is back to normal, which is definitely a good thing!

The past two days we spent a good deal outside playing in the snow, having snowball fights and building forts and a snowman. Today, however, the 50 + degree weather is gone and it's freezing. Literally. The actual temp is in single digits and the wind is blowing to the point of taking your breath away. Definitely not the kind of weather to play outside in! So today, the kids and I, along with Michelle and her kids, went to the Playground for Kids.

Katherine really wants a birthday party for her friends only -- and at a fun location of her choice. I had been planning to have it at the Playground for Kids, but after visiting today and talking to the owner, I'm rethinking.... Let me know what you think...

Pros:
1. Super fun for the kids. It has several inflatable jumpy things that the kids adore.
2. It has this super cool tree climbing structure with a clubhouse, tunnels along the ceiling, and slides coming back to the ground.
3. It's immaculate. Not that I'd recommend it, but if the kids ate something off the floor, I wouldn't go into freak out mode.
4. Katherine can invite 22 kids.

Cons:
1. It's located in Ankeny which is a good 15 minute drive from our house. Significantly longer if you live to the west of us, which several kids do.
2. The structure of the party is, well.... almost too structured. There are 3 rooms (smaller room which contains 3 jump things, a larger room that has the tree house and more inflatables, and then the party room where you open gifts and eat cake), and you can only be in ONE room at a time. Which means that the kids can not run around and play as they choose. Even though it would be a "private" party, two other parties would be going on simultaneously, which means that it's not really "private".
3. If we decide to bring in pizza, it must be from Godfather's and it's $17 for a large single topping pizza. OUCH! Especially considering we'll have 20+ kids and their parents.
4. We can only invite 22 kids. Each child after that is $10 and I'm not sure how many kids could realistically play in the small room comfortably. I can already think of several siblings that will be there.....

So I'm thinking of having it somewhere a little closer to home. I don't really like the Chuck E. Cheese idea. There's way too many kids, it's dirty, chaotic, and far too difficult for a handful of adults to watch 20+ kids properly. So I've already eliminated that in my mind.

Katherine and I have thrown around the idea of Backyard Adventures and Rainbow Play systems. Both of these would be private, and the kids could run around as much as they wanted and could be supervised much more easily. Oh, and I can have more than 20 kids -- comfortably.

So what do you think??? Even though I really like the idea of the place in Ankeny (Playground for Kids) it seems a little far for everyone to drive and could get super pricey if we decide to do pizza..... I don't want to "cheap out" on her birthday party, but I want it to be fun for all.

Oh, in other Hanson news.... Matt has been thinking of getting a new car for AGES. He's been emailing/calling the Infinity dealership in Minneapolis for a few weeks now and finally decided to take the plunge. He just put down the deposit on an Infinity G35x, and is planning to head up there on Friday to see it in person and test drive it. I'm thinking the kids and I won't go. Katherine has school that morning, and it'd be a REALLY long day for the kids in the car. Anyway, it looks like the days of the Camry are over!