Boise Living & Style

Not surprisingly, I managed to fit in a trip to Spokane last weekend for a hockey tournament. My team, the Black Widows, were massacred by various Canadian teams but that didn’t matter because the main focus of the tournament centered around a very special exhibition game by the women’s USA Olympic hockey team against team Canada. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, my seats were literally front row directly across the USA team’s bench! What a thrill to see that level of women’s hockey! Being a hockey player, this truly was the opportunity of a lifetime! To cap it off, I believe I made an appearance on the jumbotron during that game as it was televised, so if you happened to be watching- yes, that was me.

So, back to these antiques. I am trying to think of a way to combine the job and blogging and think I will create a blog following the process of researching these fascinating pieces. Not sure about the details exactly, but the more I research, I am finding a lot of my information on other people’s blog sites regarding historical facts, manufacturing, the materials, etc. It has been so helpful and interesting that I would like to do the same for the next helpless researcher. It truly is the opportunity of a lifetime, and I want to document it as much as possible. In fact, just yesterday we completed a sale for a cast-iron stove manufactured by Cribben & Sexton in the late 1800’s. The purchaser is a writer for the NY Times and actually bought the original building that Cribben & Sexton manufactured from. Essentially, this stove is going back to its “home.” How cool is that?

Wow!  This fall is proving to be a very busy one!  Last Sunday, we celebrated little Sam's 1st birthday with a carnival themed event.  As I was trying to think about what would be fun, I really wanted to give back to all the friends who have invited us to great parties in the past and make it a real bash for mass quantity of kiddos that would be in attendance.  "A carnival!" I thought. 

When my two older girls were one, none of our close friends had kids yet and there really wasn't any plan other than having the family over, ordering pizza, watching them dig into their cake, presents and a "thanks for coming!"  Now, things are different, I have more experience planning these parties plus I just wanted to take advantage of an outside birthday (both older kids have winter ones!)

Because of this, I knew we needed a big backyard and was able to talk our friends into letting us borrow theirs. (M, you are the best!) Next, add in bounce house, balloons, a few fun carnival games, face painting and food and waaaalaaaah... instant carnival!  Luckily, a few years ago I had the privilege of planning my kids school carnival and had thought of some easy, fun, make-yourself games that were big hits with the children. 

Basically, as long as they got a prize...it was the funnest game in the world.  They could have been folding socks for all they cared!  For Sam's we had fun doing the following games; lollipop stop, knock the can, going fishing, make a basket, bean-bag toss, and two games we rented- duck hammer and plinko.  My husband did draw the line at renting a cotton candy machine and dunk tank, but I would have added them to mix if I had know I could get away with it!  The kids went crazy and they each had a goody bag to put all their fun prizes. 

Food was super casual (Chili, hot dogs, taco dips, chips, drinks) and the bounce house filled in the gap for something the kids could go crazy with.  All in all, the party was a great success and a great way to kiss summer goodbye!  Even though Sam will never remember this little event, the other 23 kids will!  Too much fun!  You're only 1 once, my suggestion is to start out with a bang!  What a cutie!