Ariel's slumber party (a month later)...

Well, almost a month after she turned 9, we finally got to have her "party." We had thought about having it here at the house, but being in the middle of a constant remodel, it just wasn't gonna happen. So I decided to book a room at one of the local hotels and let her pick a few friends to invite. Since I'm always a fly by the seat of my pants kinda girl (the doctor calls it ADD) I talked to the moms of the girls between Tuesday and Thursday, and got the room booked and the party plans finished as I worked Friday.

So, friends invited, suite at the hotel paid for, plans to get the pizza and cake and meet the other girls at the Howard Johnson at 6 for a night of swimming, golf, shuffleboard, and girly giggles!

I had warned one of the moms that has recently moved to AC that even when I planned to be extra early, I was always running behind. Well to say the least, I exceeded my expectations!

I was working that day, so I brought one of her girlfriends home with us. Since she had a basketball game the next morning, I had to run by the house to grab her uniform and our suitcase. We got all of that done in plenty of time to run by Walmart, grab a cake, then run by Papa Johns to pick up the pizza. I called it in as I was checking out at Walmart, in order to give them plenty of time to have our pizzas ready and get to the hotel by 6.

YEAH RIGHT!! So I get to Papa Johns to pick up the pizzas, only to be told, "Your pizzas are being delivered."
Me: "Ummm, excuse me? My pizzas are what? I DON'T EVEN LIVE HERE!!"
Guy: "Oh, really? You don't live at 1215 20th Street?"
Me: "No, I live 20 minutes out of town, and you wouldn't delivered if I wanted you to!"
Guy: "Well I don't know why they are being delivered, I'll call the delivery guy."
I stayed very calm, laughing this entire time. Because remember, if you don't laugh, you'll go crazy. ;) I called Keith to have him go to the hotel to meet the other girls while me, Ariel, Drew and Ally waited for the delivery guy to get back with my pizzas. Turns out they can't get in touch with him, so the manager decided to remake my order, for free. Sounds great, that's 50 bucks I don't have to spend. I called the other moms to let them know what was happening, and that we would be there once we got the pizzas, which we finally did almost an hour after promised. As I was getting the fresh pizzas my phone rings. The delivery guy had just walked past me and was calling to tell me he couldn't find my house. Really? NO WAY!?!? Ya think that's maybe because the address doesn't really exist? Again, we just laughed. The lady ahead of me that came to pick up her pizzas that were also being delivered wasn't so friendly.

So we got to the hotel, put everything in the room, and let the girls eat pizza. I commented to the other moms that I really thought I'd paid for a much nicer room, but didn't question it, since it wasn't going to be used for more than sleeping. The girls had a WONDERFUL time and Ariel declared it her best party ever.

So we go to check out the next morning so I can take the girls to breakfast at IHOP with the money I didn't have to use on pizza. The boys had gone home with mema. The lady at the hotel's desk was on the phone with her manager telling about how unhappy many of the guests were. I almost hated to mention the fact that I had to take a cold shower, but...she asked! Then she mentioned that I had paid for a family suite, but that was definitely NOT the room they put me in. Whew! I wasn't going crazy. Thankfully, I was able to call Hotels.com and they refunded a good portion of the room charges.

So we get to IHOP and are eating breakfast when Keith calls. Mema was planning on bringing Drew, Isaac and our nephew Ethan to him while she took her car in for an oil change. One problem! They had just called him to come to work. So instead, she brings the three boys to me at IHOP. The to say the least, looks and comments I got from the people in IHOP when I walked out the door with 7 kids BY MYSELF were priceless!