Let's Party

Hank's birthday party yesterday went off without a hitch. The weather was perfect, 74 degrees and party cloudy, just as I had prayed for the night before when I had a brief chat with God that went something like this: Please, God, let it not rain tomorrow, because otherwise I'll have 15 children running through my house for 2 hours, plus 6 parents, and I'm not sure I have the strength to handle that, plus the house is already sold which means that we will have to promptly deal with any property damage that may occur in the mayhem.

So we were able to have the party outside, which was awesome. We set everything up in the garage - we had a Play-Doh center and snack table and chairs for the adults. I set up our bouncy house and my neighbor brought over her bouncy house as well, so we had two of them going in the backyard which was perfect. I had been so worried that the older kids (Hank's friends' siblings) would be bored silly but I think they had as much (if not more) fun than the little kids. The big sisters made an elaborate village out of playdoh and the older brothers set up soccer practice in the side yard. I didn't even have them play Pin the Tail on the Donkey because they were all having so much fun running between the bouncy houses and playing with the Play-Doh. The two hours zipped by in a flash and everyone had a great time. One of the other moms remarked that it was so nice just to go to a low-key birthday party, without all the craziness of some of the parties we had all been to recently. (Example: we went to a huge bash for one of Hank's classmates in June, a "My Little Pony" themed party complete with face-painting, clown, mini-carnival, etc., where the birthday girl did not crack a smile the entire time). Another mom also said how refreshing it was to see her 8-year-old daughter playing with Play-Doh and "being a kid, not trying to be a mini-adult." Apparently, with the current Hannah Montana/High School Musical/Disney Princess culture, it's a fast sprint to be 16 for the little girls these days. Which is sad.

Hank had an especially good time, he was so happy the entire day and has been playing with his presents all day today. Georgie had fun at the party as well, although he basically walked around the garage trying to drink out of half-empty drink boxes. He did venture out to the yard and enjoyed some of the action with the other kids. He wanted to be right in the middle of it all. I drew the line at letting him in the bouncy house with the other kids though. He would have been bounced right up and out of that thing.

My sister Meg arrives on Saturday for a two-week visit, and we are all excited!