This morning, I received a little hope! After B's response to seeing KB's invite last night...
(basically he went into this little rant on how he had to get an advance on this week's paycheck b/c of all the bills scheduled to go out in the next few days... and we hardly have enough to cover them, so don't get my heart set having anything to spend on a birthday party, etc.).... I was feeling slightly discouraged. Today, as I was talking to Marmee, I mentioned what happened and she helped me brainstorm ways we could make her party work... without spending very much money. (she's SO good at that!!) Here's some of what we came up with....
Location: Unless you reserve them so they are all yours, the Fountains are free. They open at 10am, so though her party isn't until later, we'll go first thing, claim the tables, and then work around any extras as they come.
Food: It's going to be a potluck... so everyone bring a dish, and we'll provide drinks, & cake. For drinks we are going to borrow some of those big 10-gallon drink dispensers from church, and have one filled with lemonade, one with water, and one with sweet tea.... all easy & cheap!
Cake: Mom is going to make/decorate the cake, as one of her gifts to KB. She will decorate it to match the same theme as the invitation... and even offered to find & use a healthy recipe which uses a natural sweetener, so that we're not dealing with a ton of sugar (something we're trying to avoid with KB)!!
Decorations: From all of the past birthdays my mom has done for us... she has enough [solid] colored cake plates, in the themed colors to not have to go buy anything! Praise the Lord!! We will use plain white Styrofoam plate for the food... and plain little Dixie cups for the drinks... both of which, we also already have. Mom has a "Happy Birthday" banner in similar colors as the theme, with little cute butterflies and dragonflies on it... not the exact same style... but it will definately work! And a ton of little bubbles left over from H's wedding that we can use as favors if we want!
Invitations: I am having them printed as regular 4x6 photos (like I did for KB's birth announcements) through Wal*mart. For 30 prints, shipped directly to my home, it only cost us a little over
$5, (that's only about 16¢ a piece! - 29¢ less than the pre-printed ones!! - Whoohoo!)... which my wonderful Marmee paid for! They should be here by the end of the week! (next Tues at the latest)!
God is SO good!
I need prayer for my family!!! At the beginning of the week, Kentucky was hit by a severe ice storm... and now most of the state is currently, completely without electricity... and (due to the massive amount of people it's has affected) they may not get it back until mid-Feburary!! My family (NW Kentucky), have so far been without electricity since Tuesday afternoon. Thankfully their cell phones are still working (which they can keep charged in the car).... so I have gotten to briefly talk to Marmee twice, as well as received numerous texts from Christina & Ash!! They are living exclusively in their little den - as it is the only room in the house with any kind of heat source- and are getting by, by heating food over the fireplace to eat... and doing everything by candlelight. They currently have plently of food to eat, as, in preparation for worse-case senerio, they all took showers & prepared a bunch of food which can easily be reheated over the fireplace to eat. They say tall their trees look like weeping willows, the way the branches are weighted down.... and there is a constant [creepy] resonance of crackling & crashing all around them... as more & more tree limbs/power lines snap, under the immense weight of the ice, with a sound like gunshots... (now doesn't that just sound SO comforing?). They say they are EXTREMELY bored.... but otherwise, are doing okay!! :) Please pray for their contiued safety!!!
