Poppin' Fresh.

Wolfie turned five on April 6 and I honestly can’t believe it. It seems like only yesterday he was my lil wolf cub in diapers. The poor boy got screwed last year when it came to his birthday (to recap, we had planned a family trip to Hawaii and were going to bebasking in the sun on the lovely island of Kauai for his birthday. Literally a day before our trip, Aloha Air went out of business, leaving us without a flight. Waaah! We had a tiny gathering of friends at our pad, but didn’t invite his schoolmates or anything.) Sooooo to make up for last year we had a big bash a few weeks ago. We decided to bust out and rent a bouncy house, which I must say is a GENIUS invention….not too expensive and all the kids are corralled in one convenient spot, so parents could actually chat, drink and enjoy themselves!



In a flash of brilliance (and decadence) we decided to also rent a popcorn machine. Unlike most kids, Wolfie doesn’t really like sweets (I mean seriously, it almost makes me question how we could be related. Chocolate? “Yucky.”). His big vice, however is salty stuff. Pretzels. Chips. Popcorn. So I thought a popcorn machine would be a really fun surprise. I wasn't sure if it would be weird but I have to tell you:

It
Was
Awesome.

Kids and grownups couldn’t get enough of it! For some reason it just cranked the entire party up to another level….the smell of yummy buttery popcorn can’t help but make you smile.

I also had a personal triumph because I was FINALLY able to bust out my vintage popcorn baggies. I found a huge stash of them for a steal at a thrift store years ago and Greg completely made fun of me and my obsessive collecting tendancies. “Seriously Alex, do you really need 100 little pop corn baggies?” “But they’re only a quarter!!! And they’re so cuttte! Besides, someday we might really need them.” (it was a stretch, but truly you never do know….over the years I occasionally used them to wrap little gifts, but truth be told I barely made a dent in my little stash.) You know I was insanely triumphant to whip these babies out. I’m pleased to report that not only were the bags a hit, but some people even thought it was our own personal vintage popcorn machine (hah!).

I was torn over the goody bags. They have become such a “thing” lately, and I find so often they're a spendy waste of money. At the same time the kids really do love them....soooo, I ended up buying plain brown lunch bags and snazzed 'em up with a ribbon and a sweet lil birdie rubber stamp. They looked super cute and were really cheap and easy to make! I didn't load the bags up with too much because we literally had a zillion kids and that can get a weeee bit pricey, but I found these awesome whirly gigs at the dollar store (they fly through the air amazingly well), a lollipop ring (huge hit) and some simple dum dums lollies to round things out.




All in all it was a really fun day. Smiles all around, super sunshiney, and yes….the “big people” got to bounce in the bouncy when it was all over. As we sat surveying the popcorn and balloon carnage, my friend Denise and I plotted how next year a margharita machine might be in order as well…