The theme for Caleb and Daniel's birthday was "Save Money for Your Land." I have to explain a little first, give some history behind this theme. I was really struggling with what to do this time for them, was almost desperate to do a "happy birthday!" Then......it came, but it goes back to Dave. Remember me telling you how he always challenges them to "save" their money? Dave found out two things about them! They like to drink Cokes and they go to the barber to get their haircut. Up until a year ago, I have done all the hair cutting, but I guess manhood moves you to do a few things differently and thats fine with me:) So one evening Dave calculated how much money they could save if they did not buy a Coke a day at $1.50. They could save $390. Then he calculated how much land a dollar would buy based on price around here and he came up with about the size of our dinner table, 8 foot by almost 4 foot. So when he hears they got a Coke, he looks at the table and says " you could have bought this much land!!" And the same with the haircuts, they could save about $75 a year to put towards their land!! So there is where the theme was "born" from. Its always very "lively" talk when these two subjects are addressed, and I don't think Dave is gong to give up in endeavoring to convince them, although they have cut back on the Cokes and Dave has to remember these are construction guys working out in 100* plus weather, sweat dripping and sometimes a Coke is all that will do!! Ok....on with the party!!!! I think Dave came back and "topped" even us off after the chicken adventure we did on him last week!!!! The pictures are soooo great of him!!! Since the theme was Saving Money, the colors were of course "green!!" At first I had no idea where I was going to get decorations but then I went to the party store and went on the row that had casino stuff, (don't tell anyone) and found several things, also Dollar Tree had these giant coins and then I found paper money at an educational store, so it all came together.
Menu
$ Budget Brisket
$ Moola Mashed Potatoes
$ Ten Cent Corn
$ "Green" Beans
$ Real Estate Rolls
$ Broke on Coke
Debt Free Desserts
$ Millionaires
$ 250, 0000 Cookie
$ Build Your House Cookies
$ Market Value Bars (Caleb's choice)
$ Bars of Gold (Daniel's choice)
We played some games after VB! With the giant coins, I had taped a Tic-Tac- "Dough" board on the floor, then another one was "Bag-O-Money," guessing how many pennies were in the bag. And one more was questions I had ran off and passed out,"Fun Facts about Money." Do you know what time the clock says on back of a $100 bill? Who is the only woman that has been printed on a bill? I guess we can count that as school!!!! :) The evening was soooo fun!! Later on Terry challenged them and gave them a birthday blessing in reading a letter he writes to each child on their BD. Then it got crazy, as it always seems to do and Dave began reading books to the little children, but it was was not as the story goes, he was adding and subtracting from the story and had us rolling with laughter!!! Well....one more party down, it was great!!!!
$ Budget Brisket
$ Moola Mashed Potatoes
$ Ten Cent Corn
$ "Green" Beans
$ Real Estate Rolls
$ Broke on Coke
Debt Free Desserts
$ Millionaires
$ 250, 0000 Cookie
$ Build Your House Cookies
$ Market Value Bars (Caleb's choice)
$ Bars of Gold (Daniel's choice)
We played some games after VB! With the giant coins, I had taped a Tic-Tac- "Dough" board on the floor, then another one was "Bag-O-Money," guessing how many pennies were in the bag. And one more was questions I had ran off and passed out,"Fun Facts about Money." Do you know what time the clock says on back of a $100 bill? Who is the only woman that has been printed on a bill? I guess we can count that as school!!!! :) The evening was soooo fun!! Later on Terry challenged them and gave them a birthday blessing in reading a letter he writes to each child on their BD. Then it got crazy, as it always seems to do and Dave began reading books to the little children, but it was was not as the story goes, he was adding and subtracting from the story and had us rolling with laughter!!! Well....one more party down, it was great!!!!
I made a money safe and if they ban cokes they can save some money...the money bags are full of chocolate candy
Build Your House cookies and Millionaires
Market Value Bars
11 comments:
Oh, wow!!! what a creative theme! That looks like sooo much fun! I woke up sick this morning and I got on your blog and those pictures just made me laugh and laugh!!! :) Happy birthday again, guys!
And Dave...well, what can you say? :)
Happy Birthday Caleb and Daniel,
There's nothing too much more pleasurable than a good, cold coke! Go ahead and DRINK YOUR COKES! Three hundred dollars a year isn't THAT much to help buy land anyway. I'm 62 years old, and I don't regret one coke I've ever wasted my money on. Bah humbug, Dave.
I love the whole Morris family.
Same ole,
Ann Parker
Dave cracks me up and I think it is so... cute that you have them on your main page now!!! Too cute!!!
Drinking coke in WA,
Maureen
That is hilarious! You all are SO good at the parties! Maybe you all should tease David about HOW MUCH HE SPENT on that GREEN SUIT!!! Maybe he should sell it on Ebay and give the proceeds to Caleb and Daniel! I love how Katelyn gets into the spirit of it all with her GREEN and white skirt! Blessings to Caleb and Daniel!
Wow!! Cindy you are so creative with your themed parties!
Love the green suit Dave is wearing, I am still laughing!!
Happy Birthday Caleb & Dan!
Blessings,
The Chatham's
I want to know why Dave has a Green suit? Or did he spend money on it that could have gone for cokes?
He's had the green suit for a few years. It was purchased from ebay and was used during the "Keep (the town we lived in) Green" campaign which was a grass roots effort to prevent the wrongful re-zoning of land due to corrupt political dealings destroying the land value of the elderly in a community. (It's been proven that it was a corrupt deal that some high ranking town politicians and some select businessmen were trying to finagle.) The suit had a good purpose and served its purpose well, and it continues to serve a purpose unlike a soda which just gets peed out. ;) “A merry heart doeth good like medicine” but a coke is proven to be toxic to the body. :)
...to be continued on next post...
And to clarify a few things, David is by no means trying to sound like "Mr. Goodie...", he simply has a burden on his heart to edify and admonish his brothers in Christ to not heedlessly throw away the tools (i.e. money, time etc) that The Lord has entrusted to them! He very often sites his own choices as the way to avoid! And also, praise God, the Lord has led him to make wiser choices, sacrifices, and to be a better steward of resources, and the Lord has honored his humble efforts and has blessed him with a business, a debt free working farm etc. Part of the point is to not be engulfed with the present and the temporal pleasures of now, but to plan, prepare and make ready for the future; and not just for our future, but for our children's children's future! Prov 13:22 “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children, and the wealth of the sinner in laid up for the just.” Also, when you live wisely, frugally, and simply the excess that the Lord provides can be used to bless and assist others: family, brothers in Christ, and the rest of the world. Just because we have money doesn’t mean we need to spend it (Prov 6:6-8 “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gatherest her food in the harvest.”), and just because we’re gonna spend it doesn’t mean we need to spend it on ourselves. We need not just think of our life as the little span of time allotted us, but we must keep in mind the whole of our existence, the reason we’re here, and that when we die our children remain and go on. Life’s not about “my pleasures now”, that’s pagan if an idea ever was! Life is about dying to self. Understand that we’re not proposing the theology of total self abasement and an absolute denial of all pleasure, no indeed, God created us to know great pleasure, but the point is that we can deny ourselves, forget the purposeless and frivolous things, and store up treasures in heaven, or at least more meaningful, fruitful, and productive treasures here on earth! Titus 2:11-13 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”
... to be continued on next post...
Yes, indeed, a dollar fifty may not be much by itself, but it adds up whether you like it or not. And, if you have dreams and goals and a vision and they happen to require a little capitol, then why not sacrifice the frivolous little things that add up (like cokes that aren’t good for you anyways) and put that money to a good and meaningful use, make it work for you, use it for something of tangible value, or just hold onto it for a moment. Think of the parable in Matthew 25; what would have been that master’s response if one servant had said, “I took one talent that you gave me and bought some new wine and drank it, but here is the other talent lord.” ????? Sure it’s only perhaps $1.25 for one coke, and sometimes you can find land for $1500 an acre, that’s 1200 cokes for one acre. Sounds like a bunch but if you drank one coke a day (and it averages to at least that for some) it’d take roughly 3 years to save enough money for one acre (start young!). Some of you are probably scoffing at those numbers, but this is how much you can save by denying yourself ONE frivolous item, now try to think of how many small simple things you can do without in order to be one step closer to accomplishing your vision. Luke 14:28-30 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Some people may not like math and may hate to put their minds that direction, but surly we can all handle some simple addition and open our eyes to see how easily things add up. Maybe $300 (or $1.25/coke x 1coke/day x 365 days = $456.25) doesn’t seem like that much, but it’s THAT much MORE than you would have had, and you didn’t have to work for it (in manner of speaking) all you did was not spend it! And this can apply for land or for anything!
Now, we definitely indulge in frivolous things ourselves, but we try to cut down on them and we pray for the Lord to help us make wise decisions and we labor to prepare for the future, ours and our children’s children. And may God’s grace cover our errors and let others see His hands at work and our hearts wanting to encourage and simply to hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou in the joy of thy Lord.”
Oh man - how I love to see your BD photographs! Your themes are so original! Way to go Cindy - another fun post, from a fun family! :)
Your children are blessed with such a creative mom!
I also think it is wonderful that they have the Ahlgren's godly example in their lives!
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