Josh's party

Josh is becoming your typical teen. He's still a good kid, but every now and then the teenage attitude pokes his nasty little horns out! I saw more of his teenageness show thru when it came time for his end of the year school party mid-June. Unfortunately, the weather was predicting no cooperation. Josh decided no one would have any fun if we had the party indoors due to the weather, and he would look completely uncool, so he wanted to cancel. I told him it would be just fine, and the party should go on. Being the good kid, he listened to his mother, and didn't call it off.

Thus I knew I had to make sure my son didn't have a failure for a party. So I called my single, cute college brother for some party activity suggestions just in case. (Everyone knows that Andy is the fun one in the family... the rest of us are married and boring.) Anyway, I went over suggestions with Josh for his approval, and he was still skeptical, but agreed to give it a shot.

The night of the party came and 10-15 of his friends -- boys and girls -- showed up (I forget the exact count). The weather held out while Mike grilled dogs and burgers and the kids mingled outside. It started drizzling, so we moved indoors to eat. After dinner, kids moved to the livingroom to play the borrowed X-box and socialize, while Carolynn entertained a handful of girls with her antics. I scanned faces occasionally looking for signs of boredom, and when I saw the first hint, suggested trying the "candy bar" game. The kids not absorbed by the X-box, willingly filed back to the tables to try their hand eating large chocolate bars with butter knives while wearing hat, gloves and scarf. They made enough racket and sounded like they were having enough fun that the X-box was forgotten and 4 giant candy bars ended up eaten. My baking pan still shows the scars from frustrated teens trying to get a taste of chocolate before having it ripped away by the next contender! The weather then cleared and some kids moved back outside. The small fire had survived the rain somehow, and the teens chatted and roasted marshmallows, jumped on the soggy trampoline, and even played a night game or two. As the last friend left after 10 or 11, Josh had a big grin on his face... he had had fun, and his popularity had remained intact.

Until the next time!...

End of the year party

Last year, we had a party at the end of the school year for the kids. We wanted to help Michael and Devon make new friends since they transferred at the end of the school year and all, but we couldn't not have a party for the other kids, either, so we had 2 parties... one for the 3 younger boys, and one for the 3 older boys. This year, we wanted to do the same thing. Unfortunately, due to Michael and Devon's mom causing some headache with summer visitation schedule (as usual), we changed the date on their party a couple of times, finally planning to just have a back to school party at the end of summer for them.

Anyway, Rhett, Austin, and Trev had their party tonite. Unfortunately, I never once got the camera out. There were at least 30 kids here. They started the night by chasing chickens ( I still don't understand the fun in that, but it kept them entertained for about an hour!). It was good they enjoyed that... right as Mike fired up the grill we ran out of propane, so he made a quick run for more. Dinner ended up being at 7:30 instead of 6:30. While one group of kids chased chickens (you can tell who the suburbians are), some played on the water slide, others jumped on the tampoline, and still others wore poor Triple T out by riding him all over the yard. The poor little horse is about 16 years old and still gets run all over the place! Just before dinner, Devon, Josh, and Dev's friend Zadrien (sp?) brought a good sized snapping turtle the kids found in the creek up to the house for all to see. After dinner, the kids had a massive waterballon fight. It pretty much ended up being about 20 or so younger kids agains the 3 afore mentioned older boys (Michael was at work all day so missed the fun). Needless to say, several kids got dumped in the pond, and most everyone was pretty wet by the end of the night. They never really settled down, either, and most didn't want to leave when parents began arriving around 9:30. The last of the kids left about 10:30. And, believe it or not, the only 2 kids to get hurt with all the running and carrying on were Trev (he slipped and fell) and Austin (he fell off the horse when some kids spooked him making him rear up... they were riding bareback with only a lead-rope -- no bridle). The boys all said they thought it was the best party ever!

Times like these, I have a happy moment!