Thwarted yet again...

I apparently floated right past the "easy" line when the Big Guy Upstairs was handing out adjectives for life.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is Emma's birthday party. We called four friends last week and invited them to go glow golfing, then come back to our house for cake.

Easy. Inexpensive. Simple. Very little prep work.

And not to be.

I had to go to the mall today and while I was there, I walked over to the Glow Golf place to find out long it would take to play a couple rounds of hitting a very small glowing ball into barely lit holes.

Guess what?

Glow Golf is No. Longer. There.

Gone. Finito. Extinct.

I just stared at the empty storefront, causing a traffic jam of last minute school clothes shoppers.

What to do now... There is no Plan B!

Home I came to research options. What do to, where to go, how to create a fun birthday party in 18 hours. (Keep in my, Delicious Readers, that the whole point is to *not* have this at our house!)

Thank goodness for the internet and a very intelligent 11 year old daughter.

After brainstorming and researching for two stressful hours, we had three viable options:

1. Michael's had party openings available. Average cost: $12 per child, plus $50 for instructor and use of party room.
2. Young Art (a local art class place) could squeeze us in as a group of drop-ins. Cost: $28 per child.
3. Swimming at community center. $3.75 per child (but way more stressful than either of the other options.)

Emma, during all this, was at a friend's house. So by the time I got her back, we needed her to make a decision asap.

She nixed swimming immediately. She loved the Young Art idea, but was intrigued by Michael's because we had to go there to decide if, and what, she'd want to do there.

As she and Hayley perused the aisles and contemplated all the grand possibilities, the manager gave me the policy rundown. As an after thought, he threw in the little detail about the $50 fee. Ok, for what it was adding up to be, the girls could do a fantastic session at Young Art.

Long story short, we finally decided to buy little wooden boxes for the girls paint/decorate. And we'll just do it here at home. *sigh*

I guess I have to straighten the house. I guess I have to prepare. I guess I'll have to clean up the paint disaster.

It's so not as easy as it should have been.

Clunk.

That was my forehead hitting the table.