My mini-"vacation"

I'm sitting at my sister's dining room table, my nephew playing quietly with playdough and my niece taking her morning nap upstairs. DH just took our kids out to drop stuff off at home and then go to his parents' for the day. We figured two days and two nights of togetherness was about all the kids could take before major meltdowns happened. I await my sister and brother-in-laws "speedy" return (a.k.a. sometime tonight). They had a wedding to attend in Boston (a decent distance from here) - DS has been there since Thursday, BIL left after giving me DN-J at camp on Friday after he dropped DN-A off there for the kids' last day.

The house is SOOOO quiet now that we're down to only two kids!

I did my best this last week to finish planning for preschool, but I'm not totally finished. I managed to get everything written out until about December and a list of materials I need to make. I'm going to attempt to get some more typed out this morning while DN-A plays and DN-J sleeps. I'm sure I will be adjusting the plans, revising as the year goes, but it will make me feel great to have a solid framework in place. PLUS it's all on the computer so I can easily make changes as I need.

I did a princess party yesterday out in Quakertown (took me almost an hour to get there, but they paid a $25 travel fee so I was fine with it). The kids (and the moms) all loved it, and the woman offered me a reference unsolicited if I ever needed it. I HAVE to take her up on that! My goals at this point for the business:

• Write form "thank you" letter to send to all parties within a week, thanking them for hiring me, asking them to fill out a basic feedback form (which would include a place for them to write quotes that I could use on my website), and telling them about some kind of incentive plan/thank you gift they could receive if someone hires me based on their recommendation
• Decide on an incentive plan/thank you gift
• Revise my website (Hear that, Mommy Brain?) to include face painting, an additional half hour of interactive entertainment, memorable and unique invitations, and procurring a birthday cake (and remove the info about the Deluxe Package, or at least revise it to include the basic package and all of these additional things)
• Buy professional quality face paints
• Buy more princess dresses to offer more sizes and selection
• Order merchandise with my name and info on it (i.e. a toy to send each kid at the party home with, a "to do" list with a magnet to leave for every mom)
• Order two magnetic signs for both sides of my car
• Now that I've done several princess and pirate parties (clearly the most popular choices) I have to write up (on the computer) the crafts, songs, stories, costumes, and activities that have worked well as well as the specifics on what needs to be ordered for each party and how much it costs per child.

I think that's it for now.

Okay, while DN-A is still content to play independently (and considering how much independent play he does, it's no wonder he ends up getting so frustrated while playing with my children), I better try to get some work done.