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I know, by now I should be over it.  I should be focusing on the wonderful party that everyone enjoyed.  Only I even care that it thundered and stormed in a hurricane like fashion all over our Rainforest Monkey Sprinkler Park Party.  I should be bigger than this.  I should.  But after 8 weeks of coloring and sewing and laminating, I’m just not there yet.  I’ll get there, and maybe even soon.  Tonight?  Hey, anything can happen.  A warm thanks to everyone who called today asking for pictures.  I wanted to wait until I grew some maturity, but we all know that might take years.

So it started out like this:

And ended up like this:

And in between were good times, good times.  I had envisioned a lot of this:

And really, none of this:

But when I prayed to God on Saturday morning, I very clearly heard him to say to my heart, “Lori, I’m going to go a different way with this one.  I’m going to need you to go a different way as well.”

So I pulled up my bootstraps, and backyard decorations were ripped from stakes to look more like this:

Frog Races were moved to the picturesque and downright luxurious garage (use a French accent when saying “garage”; it sounds much better) by a truly gifted husband who didn’t FLINCH when I said, “Everything on stakes will need to come off and everything not planned to be staked will need to be staked.  In 15 minutes.  Without any yard in which to anchor the stakes.  You OK with that?”  Yes, yes he was.  HE is AMAZING:

The Lizard Toss was moved to the dining room:

And while I don’t have any pictures of Snakes in the Grass, it successfully took place all over the house.  Countless snakes, lizards, and frogs were caught by 17 children who seemed to care very little that the rain poured down, as they giggled and had silly times.  Feeling the need to add an activity, I taped up mural paper and brought down an insanely large selection of markers, asking the kids to draw a Rainforest Mural.  My basement is now decorated with a beautiful interpretation of a million rainbows:

As I look across the pictures tonight, I see many things that turned out as I hoped they would.  The lemonade bar with striped paper straws, Ball jars, monkey “wine tags”, and melon skewers:

The kitchen ceiling covered in hanging things…ooohhh, my favorite of all party items:

Those crazy drawstring favor bags filled with monkey pencils and monkey crafts and monkey snacks:

The bar loaded down with Rainforest Trail Mix, Chocolate Covered Bananas, and Monkey and Dragonfly shaped confetti I punched out of scrap cardstock:

And the ultimate of all party food…my Piece de Resistance, Monkey Poop (aka Oreo Truffles):

And of course I’m grateful for so many, many things.  For Goomommy and Goodaddy who helped me with a ton of tasks, and ran the last minute errands, including picking up the all-important cake (OH I LOVE THE CAKE…”Piece of Cake” in Greenwood, Indiana…call them if you need nothing short of perfect).  For Auntie Amanda who not only watched the girls during my psychotic 8 hour cleaning schedule (I cleaned windows I didn’t even know I had), but also decorated the back porch in the pouring down rain (after she stayed up until 1 am helping me finish everything and also wrapped all the presents):

I’m grateful that Uncle Rex, Aunt Mary, Pop Pop, Auntie Amanda, Goomommy, Goodaddy, and Pa Pa Bump came a long way to share in this special day.  I’m grateful that so many fabulous and lovely friends joined us.  The house was simply overflowing with joy and laughter.  The happiness was immeasurable.  It was if the sky were raining happy.  We could feel it.  I’m grateful for Chris and Wendy who called to offer their help in what they anticipated, correctly, was last minute engineering.  I’m especially grateful to Krista who loaned me the jungle vines and monkeys that became critical basement decorations in what became the unplanned core of the party:

Silly thing, but I’m grateful I got this one picture before the thunder began:

I’m grateful that I had a blast making this mess.  I do it because I enjoy it.  When I stopped working, a part of my brain begged for stimulation, and as it turns out, that part of my brain likes to trace frogs on foam board.  Every birthday I can think of only one thought: what if this is all we get?  How would we celebrate if we knew our days were numbered?  Because…they are.  I know it sounds morbid, but with a death rate of 1 per person, I want my days to be filled with color and wildly ridiculous food experiments.  I want to look backwards at 97 years of age (HA!), and say I DID IT.  I took each opportunity possible to celebrate the sheer act of living.  Apparently, my style of living requires a hundred trips to JoAnn Fabrics and the Dollar Store.

Just in case anyone was wondering (and a few have asked): I DON’T plan crazy parties because I think anyone else should do it.  I know I have one foot in the crazy hole and another on a slippery banana peel.  I don’t do it to impress anyone.  It’s hard to impress people with sheer insanity anyway.  I like to let my creative brain loose in benign places.  My home partnered with kids’ birthday parties meets those requirements.

As I sorted through photos late last night, there was just one that mattered.  One that told me the story I’d like to remember.  When God told me he was going a different way, I think he was speaking more globally.  He was trying to tell me he had gone a different way with my life 7 years ago.  And he’d like me to open my eyes and really SEE IT:

Happy Birthday Ducky Wigglebottoms and Boo Boo Chicken.  I love you more than you will ever know.  And that goes double for you Greg.  Now let’s make some popcorn and sit on our BUTTS for a while!!!  I need a break from all this fun!  But just a little break.  Before the girls fell into comas Saturday night, after hundreds of hugs and “I wuv you Mommy”, they said, “Next year….butterflies!”  YES!  YES!  I’m SO LOVING that idea!  Greg immediately started searching for live butterfly suppliers and I started pondering how hard it would be to make butterfly wings for all the kids to wear….shutting up now….