Musings on a 9 year old's birthday

Here I sit, an hour away from the total chaos that will by my daughter's slumber/birthday party and I'm thinking of games for them to play. Why is it that every single one of them has to do with blindfolding the competitor? I've done the whole pinata thing (sans blindfold) and do not wish to repeat the experience - especially given that I live in an apartment and there are no damn trees in our yard to use for such an experience. Of course, then we would have to deal with the fire ants joining the party at some time.... anyway....

The other games that I have come up with are "pin the tail on the donkey" (which, yes, I did purchase for a dollar at the proverbial dollar store), comes with a blindfold. Then I came up with cotton balls in one bowl, and empty bowl next to it, and then the competitor is blindfolded and expected to use one hand and a spoon to scoop as many cotton balls into the empty bowl as possible within a minute (or however much time you want to take up on the activity). How about rice in a bowl with safety pins? Blindfold the competitor and give them a certain amount of time to extract as many safety pins from the bowl of rice as possible? Again, it's the whole blindfold thing? Are birthday parties no fun unless there are blindfolds involved? I've never even blindfolded myself (or my husband, or anyone else for that matter) during sex. So why the fixation on them now?

I never thought I'd feel this way - but thank the Great Being (if there is one) for Disney. After our trip to Disney in Florida this summer, I've come to hate the entity with more fierceness than ever. On a tangent - my two overpowering single memories of Disney are from when I was five years old - I was scared to death in the haunted house ride. And from when I was about 14 and bored out of my mind at Epcot (except for the cute boys). I don't think those are quite the memories that ol' Walt was going for with these theme parks. Observing other kids of those ages, I imagine they will have similar memories of their experiences. Disney is a gigantic way for a corporation to extract obscene amounts of money out of parents for making memories on their own behalf - not the kids. The best memory I took away from this summer - my daughter's face when she got to go to Cinderella's castle and have lunch with the princesses. My husband and I were not in attendance for the actual lunch part (grandparents did it) - but since it was all on my parent's dime, that was just fine by me. So far, Disney has not extracted more than $50 in souveniers from me! I WIN!

Anyway - thank goodness for the evil empire of Disney, for "High School Musical 2" debuts tonight!!! Hopefully we won't make it past "pin the tail on the donkey" and the girls will be engrossed in the shallow and rediculous world of Sharpey (isn't that a dog breed? Am I the only one who has thought to ask? see below for a picture comparison), Gabriella and Troy.

Enough for now - I need a drink so that I can get ready for this party!

Sharpay vs. Sharpei - you decide