Invisapeeps 2.0

I have one from like this weekend. The kids were invited to a birthday party for a boy they know from school. They also do karate with him and I am friends with his mom. Since it was a laser tag birthday party I left Merida at home as it was mostly a boy type party. All the kids were so excited because what little boy does not love laser tag?! So we show up and she tells me the guy that is supposed to come set up the laser tag is not there yet. Well we hang out a bit and then the dude never shows up!!!

I asked her if she called the day before to confirm with him and she said she did not. You always have to do that with stuff like this just to make sure. So there is about 10 boys standing around with nothing to do. She had no back up plan. There were a couple random toy guns or swords and they were running around trying to play with those but not enough for all the kids to have one so some kids were crying they did not get one. My kids were crying. The birthday boy kept going into the house and crying. It was hot. There were not a lot of places for the adults to sit down. It started raining toward the end and that is when we just left. I had to call DH to come get Robot because he starting having a meltdown because the other kids were not sharing the toys with him and he was too upset about no laser tag.

We go to birthday parties all the time and this was the worst hosted. I do feel bad for the mom and birthday boy. The laser tag guy should have showed up. But she also should have confirmed with him because when you book something two months ago you need to touch base again the day before the party. You also should have some back up plans just in case. even just a cheap water gun for each guest would have solved the not enough toys for everyone problem.

I wish I had thought to tell DH to bring some party games or more toy swords and guns but I was just like get here now because Robot was losing it. She did not even call him until 20 minutes into the party start time.

she would have been better off probably just leaving it vegetarian.

there is nothing wrong with regular lasagna. I am not even a vegetarian but I prefer the reg lasagna with the pasta sauce and lots and lots of cheese or one with spinach or broccoli. Cheese is good no matter what yum.

Asking a vegetarian to cook meat is rude. Some are okay with doing so, but some are not and it would be rude to expect them to.

Preacher Man usually prefers meatless lasagna, although I made it once with pepperoni and he loved it! I myself like beef in it, although sometimes I get fancy and put chicken and spinach in it.

Generally, I think it's a bad idea to feed fake meat products to people who aren't used to them.

I make a stuffed shell and use beans instead of meat. Beans would probably be good in lasagna.

I find strict vegetarian cooking difficult. Vegetable broth isn't a good substitute for chicken broth in many recipes. And a spoonful of bacon grease does wonders for a pot of beans.

Have another bad hosting story:

In my family, my aunt and uncle host Thanksgiving and my mom hosts Christmas. There are usually 15-20 guests at these events. Aunt learned to cook from her mother - which is to say, she didn't. Over the years, Thanksgiving degraded until it was a cold, dry turkey platter from her church's fundraiser, jarred gravy, instant mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese made the day before and reheated, etc, all on paper plates with plastic utensils. The cups were those little paper cups with turkeys on them that dissolved if they held water for too long.

When I was in college, I had two friends from China. They were not able to travel home over Tgiving break, so I invited them to join my family. My mom called my aunt and tried to graciously switch the event to her house, offering to let my aunt do Christmas in exchange. Aunt refused, until Mom finally said, "These girls are guests in our country, and I won't have their first and maybe only American thanksgiving be dried-out turkey and instant mashed potatoes on paper plates." Aunt was (understandably) offended, but since then she serves mostly fresh, hot food on real plates with real silverware.