The Next Big Thing

If you understand anything about my fascination with certain children's songs, you know why, on my last phone, my ringtone was "The Hairbrush Song" by Veggie Tales.

Well, tonight, I was exposed to my next great obsession - "The Gummi Bear Song." Without any further ado, here it is - I hope you find it as infectious as I have.

I find the underwear and facial hair quite disturbing, but it works. Enjoy!

Reindeer Poop

Tonight while I was at the restaurant, I had an epiphany. Amie was giving little bags of "Reindeer Food" to some of the waitresses that had children. I misheard her, and thought that she was giving out "Reindeer Poop." My mind's gears started to grind and I came up with what I think might be a fun idea for my nephews for Christmas. While opening gifts around the tree, someone can notice a bag of "Reindeer Poop" nearby. I can ask my nephews to help me find - and clean up - the rest of the "Reindeer Poop." I can, of course, reason that there will be eight bags laying around (Dasher, Dancer, etc.), and I can leave them in places like in front of the refrigerator (where they raided the refrigerator), near the fireplace (where they entered the house), or in the bathroom (where they didn't make it in time). Maybe I can even come up with a cute rhyme for each bag, that will lead them to the next bag of poop. I was thinking of getting gifts for everyone from the "Christmas Crab," but I'm not coming up with enough ideas for Maryland-specific gifts.

Brainstorming a Birthday Party

My girlfriend, Amy, and I went to lunch today, and while there, we brainstormed ideas for her oldest son's birthday party this year. We came up with such a good idea, I just can't keep it to myself! It started out as a beach theme, since the party will be in July. We were throwing around ideas for a scavenger hunt of some sort, but after looking through the Oriental Trading Company catalog she'd brought along, we started thinking about a Camping theme, and then saw some bug jar craft kits.


That totally opened the floodgates, and ideas were just pouring out of my head. For the hunt, Amy will make up bug jars for all of the participants (like what is in the catalog), and get plastic bugs.


She will set up a campsite in her backyard, with things like a tent, a picnic basket, a bucket next to a campfire, etc. Then, in select locations, she will put piles of bugs and a picture of the next location to go to. Each child will be given a picture of a location, and they will go collect a bug for their jar, and next to the pile of bugs, there will be a picture of their next location. Hopefully, the kids will be running around all over the place, collecting bugs, and whoever finishes first will be the ultimate winner, but everyone will get a jar of bugs to keep, and a prize of some sort for participating. Then, for food, in addition to cake and ice cream, she could have hot dogs on a stick that she could precook, and put on a stick to let the kids hold over the fire for a few seconds to "cook" it, chips, s'mores, and roasted marshmallows. I think it's a fabulous idea!
We're also currently working on a craft idea, like a picture frame with nature stuff glued to it, that the kids put together. She's got woods behind her house, so they could go on a nature hike to look for the nature stuff. When all of the kids arrive, Amy intends to get a group picture with the campfire setting as a backdrop. She can print those pictures before the kids leave, and put it in their frames. Not too shabby, and relatively inexpensive.