We went by McDonalds after preschool to scope it out for the kids' birthday.

Anyway, at one point we walked to the bathroom and as we passed the register, a patron dropped a quarter. I had barely heard the ping of it drop when BM dived for it. I Started to say I hope he was going to give it back (probably) when the guy waved his hand and said, "Keep it." BM couldn't have been happier. HE asked me as we entered the bathroom how much it was worth. HE was quite pleased at his 25 cent find.

The kids are on a roll. I think they found a dollar between the 2 of them, last month. Which is a large percentage of return on their $8 or so piggy banks.

OF course, later, as we were wrapping up at the play land, BM insisted he had to go #2 IMMEDIATELY and dashed for the bathroom. I have been letting him go in his own stall as long as I can see his feet. So LM & I went into the next stall. It had been a good half hour or so, but there was that shiny quarter sitting on the toilet paper dispenser.

I asked BM if he was missing something.

He eventually caught on, but I had LM and pretty much told him, "Finders Keepers." He needs to learn to watch his money a little better. I asked LM if he would be so nice to give it back to BM (his choice), and of course he said no. !!

We were in there a while and as we walked out of the building, LM handed the quarter back over very nicely. I think BM and & had both forgotten about it.

That was my proud mommy moment of the day.

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I did ask the McDonalds about their parties and they weren't very helpful. The "manager" on duty wasn't very helpful and said he thought it was $80. Not getting anywhere, I asked the point at hand. If they minded if we brought in cake on our own and skipped their party. I think he said something like, "It's a free country." & looked at me insanely why I would ask. I said, well, I want to make sure you don't have a policy about no outside food. The guy says, "I eat Taco Bell here all the time."

Well, okay then!

LOL.

I'll take that as a green light.

The funny thing is I didn't even choose this route out of frugalness. I chose it for simplicity and it really seemed like the most fun (admittedly at the best deal). The simpleness is just showing up with cupcakes, maybe balloons, and ordering HAppy MEals for the kids. The best part is no time limits. We can stay all day if we fancy.

We've settled on 2 parties. The kid party on Sunday between their birthdays. The big family party Saturday. That one will be an all day affair with lots of food, but mostly hanging out.

Our parents always slip us cash for groceries on these events, and the kids will be spoiled with clothes and toys. We usually come out WAY ahead, so my budget is about $0. !!

We'll ask for no gifts at the kid party. No one ever listens, but we'll try. I just want it to be a really casual affair.

I am sick of crappy party favors, but I still feel weird about skipping them altogether. Maybe we should just do balloons... Kids love balloons!

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Beyond all that, some guy from Comcast came by trying to sell a package and told my dh that our current local cable company is closing shop in a month.

He gave dh his card and dh is pretty convinced the guy is full of crap. maybe. IT does sound rather odd. But I think one would have to be pretty brazen to leave their card if they were just brazenly lying. My gut tells me it's probably true.

For now our cable/internet package is $70/month. Which may or may not be a great deal, but so far we see it as the best/cheapest (some preliminary searches). Whatever the setup is requires no box rentals or anything like that. All that stuff is over my head, but dh is peeved. He has spent the evening looking at other options and hates them all.

Oh boy. I guess we could face a major price increase to keep dh happy. Or maybe just to keep what I have. I just don't know. Overall we felt we were getting a pretty good deal with the small guys. We were paying $80 until they lowered our bill out of the blue by 15%.

When was the last time Comcast or Dish did that?

Dh and I in general avoid business with the BIG guys. So it will be a shame if we have to join the big corporate giants of cable/satellite. We certainly do not look forward to it. We've been REALLY pleased with our small guys. Their customer service is impeccable and though they have had their issues, we'd take them any day.

We will both be rather bummed if this rings true.

I almost hope the guy was just a shyster. BUT he messed with the wrong guy if he was. Believe me. If he is full of hot air he will rue the day he tried to pull one over dh.

Hell, Comcast will rue the day.

You just don't mess with that man's TV set up. !!!

Do you think they would really do that? Would a salesperson be that desperate?

Well dh is going to call our company tomorrow. They were closed at 5 so he couldn't get through to a person to see if there was any truth to this rumor. We shall see!