Disorganization Land

Facebook makes me feel like I blog all the time.

I upload many photos at a time,

add a little caption

and so many people can see it at once.

I am fooled.

And then I come back to my senses

and give in to the extra time it takes to really capture the memory.

So here I am,

having to make up for not writing about

Cam's fifth birthday

at Liberty Land.

In June.

Have you been to this place?

Read any reviews online??

Because I read all the negative reviews

and still gave them the benefit of the doubt

and booked a party there!!

You know how when you justify paying lots of money

that you don't have

for a birthday party thinking -

It only comes once a year!

He's our firstborn!

He's been such a good boy!

We want him to have fun!

He's only five once!

So with a little anxiety

coursing through my fingers

and the thought of our first month's mortgage payment creeping up on us,

I gingerly placed my "only for emergencies" credit card

in my wallet and headed out to Liberty Land for the festivities.

(I have SO MANY pictures but blogger won't load them for some reason!)

Cam was allowed to invite a few of his friends

(as many as we could "afford")

and we all met in the party room.

Guests trickled in and to make a looooong story short -

the room wasn't ready

the young lady helping us said she'd be back with balloons three separate times

they asked if we would like the pizza in the oven about 10 min after we had arrived

(uh...YEAH! shouldn't it have been ready when we got there??)

waiting for things to begin is NOT what young kids like to do

we had to ask someone to come help us with the rock wall so we'd have SOMETHING to do

but the kids loved it

and even Brenden and Rhett got in on it

they scheduled our laser tag for 5:30

and the pizza came about 5 min before we had to go

(an HOUR after we had arrived)

when the pizza finally came, it was burnt

By this point, I was pretty frustrated and asked to speak with a manager

she practically begged me not to be upset

(although I was very calm and matter-of-fact)

and offered us half-off the price of each kid!

(hallelujah!)

she even offered each child a hot dog for free

or said she would order dominos for us

we declined and rushed off to our laser tag game

although not one child fit the suits, it was awesome!!

And then...

every ride we went on had a waiting line - for someone to come open the ride!

there were no rules for riding anything, seat belts seemed optional

some of the rides didn't even function properly

cam's 4 yr old cousin clung to the outer edge of the merry-go-round

FOR HER LIFE

because the probably-16-yr-old-operator

hadn't bothered to check if everyone was on and ready to go

and started it turning while 3 other kids scrambled to get on

I had to leap onto the moving merry-go-round to save her

even though we had wristbands, none were ever checked

we were told that adults might have to pay to ride with their kids

but not one adult with us ever was stopped or questioned or checked for a wristband

Actually, those last two were one benefit

because most adults rode with their kids and had such a great time

the kids were oblivious of any disorganization or incompetence and had a blast

the roller coaster was a hit and i think Cam went 5-6 times

they rode the train, the roller coaster, the merry-go-round, bumper boats, bumper cars, airplanes, frog hopper, went down slides over and over, traveled through the maze tunnels, jumped, ran, giggled and had the best times of their lives

All in all, it was such a fun time and the best part -

IT WAS HALF-OFF!