A Good Time Was Had by ALL!

I am very thankful for the blogging community. When I logged on Friday morning and began to read several of the encouraging comments, it really helped me to step back and not feel quite so much panic. I have to admit, Thursday evening, I couldn't even get to sleep. I have been reading another Shopaholic book (well, listening, actually), and I was being Becky Bloomwood all over the place (if you've never read one, she goes off on the most deluded scenarios in her mind).

I imagined myself driving to the school Friday morning to address each of the 6th grade homerooms and explain that the party was not going to happen. I imagined 100 kids storming our house and lawn and me, calling 9-1-1 in the background, hoping the police could contain the crowds of middle-school students expecting a romping good time. I imagined my husband losing it and going ballistic on my son for assuming he could pass out an undetermined number of invitations. I imagined injuries.

Your comments really made me step back and see this for the opportunity that it was. I knew that I would have responded differently if the same scenario had played out back in IL. For one thing, I worked in my son's school, so I knew almost every kid in his grade level. It wouldn't have been quite so daunting to contemplate. But, then, I began to think about what people were saying about looking at it as a chance to meet his friends.

My husband had the day off work on Friday, so he was able to help us get things prepared. We looked at each other and laughed when it began to rain around noon. While the little boys napped, my husband moved the cars out of our garage and cleaned it. He brought out chairs and a table and a foosball table. He laid down plastic to cover the carpeting in the room off the garage. I frosted the cake and brought up the cooler.

The bag of ice, purchased at Walmart, made me laugh. The bag read, "Healthier than Home-made!" O.K., how in the world is store-bought ice healthier than home-made ice?? Both are made with H2O!

I was thankful that my ES was gracious enough to allow my MS to wear his Spiderman suit (something I had warned MS would not be allowed if ES was uncomfortable with that). The guests began arriving at 5:20, and the total count only reached 13. They were having a great time, despite the wet ground. They jumped on the trampoline, rode skateboards and rollerblades, and talked on their cell phones. My two little ones were thrilled to have all those bigger kids around. MS talked to everyone, and settled on one girl, whom he dubbed "B----'s girlfriend," but ended up calling his own girlfriend.

I don't think my ES appreciated my desire to meet and get to know all of his friends. He kept asking, "Are you going to hang out here the whole time?" I merely said I was keeping an eye on the little guys while they played and they would go in to eat dinner soon. But, I did stay out when they went in for dinner. Finally, my ES decided to lead everyone on a walk in the woods.

I managed to get a bite and put candles on the cake, before two girls returned with an injury. Apparently, one girl was up on someone's shoulders and fell off, losing her shoe and landing on a stick. The cut wasn't too bad. We washed it and bandaged it and by then, two boys had returned to check on the girls. They hashed this plan to trick the others and say that the injured girl had to head to the hospital. The girls hid under the quarter-pipe and the boys broke the story.

By the time the larger group returned, it had started to pour. The other kids bought the story (unbelievably) and while a bunch were jumping on the trampoline, in the rain, the two girls snuck into the house. When I took out the cake, the girls headed out the front door and back into the garage, telling everyone that the mom had dropped them off.

Here is a photo of my ES blowing out his candles (MS actually blew them out the minute I had them lit, so I had to explain the process and relight them).






Then, we got a nice group shot.

My husband put the little boys to bed and I hung out talking with the kids. It was nice to get to know some of them whom I have corresponded with through instant messaging when they were trying to connect with my son before. They did break a few things (a squirt gun, the little boys' sand table and a skateboard) - the boys were definitely being hard on things - but I was pleased that they didn't break the trampoline (despite a repeated trend of crowding everyone on it after I had asked them to keep it to 5 at a time).

By 10 p.m., all the other kids had been picked-up and the sleepover began. It was a good thing that I was on party patrol and my husband took parenting patrol. He was quite exasperated by the time we were all in for the night. The little boys don't go down easily and had given him a hard time.

Then, he noticed that his wedding ring was missing. You know how I feel about him removing his wedding ring when he takes out his wallet and cell phone. He had placed them on a table in the room off the garage. I headed to the little boys' room to find MS still awake. Thankfully, our hunch was correct. MS had taken the ring off the table and put it in his Batman slipper. Praise God, it was still there! Perhaps now, my hubby will take better care of it? I'm not really counting on it, though.

Even with the frantic ring search, I would say that we ALL had a good time. The cake was delicious and the kids only consumed half of it. I didn't mind staying up a while with the sleepover, since I'm usually up late. It poured all through the night, but by today the ground was dry and ES was able to invite another friend over. They rode the go-kart and had a bon-fire. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend for my son!