My 30th birthday is in two and a half months. Weird, right? Set aside that lately I feel like I’m Benjamin Buttoning through life, and it’s still odd.

This year, my birthday is on a Sunday. This is good because I am incapable of making decisions. I know, I know. I can be quite authoritative (some would say bossy) when I need to be. I also have the tendency to know what I want/like and go after it. However, when presented with multiple delightful possibilities, my favorite choice (if at all possible) is all of the above. I’m the girl that orders the sampler platter, makes mixed playlists, and packs 3 extra outfits because I don’t like to limit my options. Seriously friends, my commitment issues know no bounds.

Having a birthday on a Sunday means infinite party potential. Yippee!! Set your calendars now for Lonipalooza – November 20-22, 2009. The schedule is still tentative, but events so far include a night out on the town complete with drinks/dinner/jazz, and a 3rd…er…30th birthday party which brings us to the real reason for this post.

The 3rd…er…30th birthday party will include games, movies, toys, & food all targeted to our younger selves. In light of all that, my birthday wish is to fill my living room with ball pit balls. Can you imagine what it would be like to play in a ball pit as an adult? Without having to worry about the disgustingness normally associated with the public variety? I’m getting giddy just thinking about it.

It’s going to take about 25,000 balls to make my ball pit dream a reality – which means I need your help. I’m starting my ball pit ball collection now. If you’d like to be a part of this, or you just think it sounds awesome and would like to help, I’ll be accepting contributions of the brightly colored plastic orbs for the next several months.

Suggestions for acquiring ball pit balls:
1) toy stores – who knew?
2) stealing 1 ball at a time from public ball pits (note: I don’t condone this and you’re likely to contract some sort of childhood disease)
3) the internet has balls for sale in quantities ranging from 25 – 5000; get some friends to chip in and save some coin, but unless you’re using craigslist, you’ll have to pay for shipping
4) friends – parents of toddlers are DYING to rid their own homes of these balls; be the hero and take them off their hands
5) contribute funds – maybe you don’t want to go searching for balls on your own, but you find this hilarious; skip a latte or two and help a sister out HERE; just $5 provides 25 balls for a ball pit in need.

I’m happy to meet you somewhere to pick up your acquisitions, or find a college student or other friend to schlep them back to DFW from parts unknown. If you’d rather, though, feel free to ship them straight to me. (Email me for my address – posting it on the world wide web seems less than safe).

Some of you have asked what I’ll be doing with the balls after the party. I’m still working out those details, but current possibilities include ebay, craigslist, donating them to churches who could use them, and returning them to their original order. If you want your contribution returned to you – just let me know! 🙂 I’ll be storing the balls in my garage until the party. We share our double garage with our next door neighbors. How many balls do you think I’ll have to store back there before they start to ask questions?

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR HELPING TO MAKE LONIPALOOZA A REALITY!!!

OH!! I did my own calculations (volume = length x width x height…thank you 9th grade geometry) to figure out how many balls I’ll need after researching that it takes about 500 balls for every 8 cubic feet. It wasn’t until after I got home that I found this site online. If you’d like to follow my lead and build your own ball pit – here’s a site you may find helpful.