And the Celebration Continues...

ZBoy's birthday was back in April, and on the day, we went out to dinner. Then the following weekend, we had a family party with the grandparents. But we couldn't do a "friends" party yet... the pool wasn't ready and Darling Man was working every weekend and it just wasn't a good time.

Finally, yesterday, we had the friends over. We kept it small (only three friends) and asked for no presents - all we wanted was for them to come over. After a brief panic that no one would show up - apparently no one RSVPs anymore - I called all the moms on Saturday morning and asked straight out if their child was planning to come. Happily, all of them said yes. So around 1pm, kids started arriving. JB came, hauling musical stuff, which I thought was odd, but we left it in the livingroom and the boys all went outside to swim.

Darling Man cooked out hamburgers and hotdogs and the hungry mob gathered 'round and devoured almost everything. I'd forgotten how much a group of little boys could eat - and I still wonder how my parents managed to feed FIVE of them on a daily basis.

Afterwards, there were noises about swimming, but DH was worried that they'd all get cramps and drown, so they came inside and set up JB's musical stuff. Turns out it's ROCK BAND, a video game which I'd heard of but never seen. ZBoy was in the same boat as me, but the other three got him caught up pretty quickly.

Z's first attempt was on the drums. DH (B&W flowered suit) did vocals, JB (in the middle) played guitar, and NP gave "helpful" pointers to everyone.

This is NP's "rockstar" pose.

I took video of their first attempt. Pretty funny - and they were SO serious.

Darling Man was fascinated by all this. Having been in a band before that used to play in bars and had groupies and everything, he had to give it a try too. I have video, but I won't post it because he would not be happy with me if I did.... The boys were suitably impressed as Darling Man rocked out "Should I Stay or Should I Go", and did their best to imitate him. I think that kind of rockin' finesse come with age and experience though...

After this video, ZBoy tried playing the drums with a drumstick and a duck-head umbrella. The other drumstick was apparently lost some time ago, so there was a bit of casting about for a substitute. The umbrella was not very satisfactory, but they did find something that worked a little better...

The cat toy was actaully perfect. A nice sized wand that was the right shape and made the right kind of contact. The downside of it was that the mouse attached to the end would fly around a bit and get hung up on things like the chair supports. It flew around enough that it took me several tries to actually get a picture of it.

This was the requested cake. Z drew me a picture of a Mandolorian helmet (from Star Wars, where else?) and asked if I could put that on his cake. I did my best. He loved it - and the cake was pretty good too - they ate half of it!

After more Rock Band and some video games, they went back outside to jump in the pool again - and shortly thereafter, the moms started showing up to collect their children.

Darling Man took Kida for a ride so they could both shake out the company jitters, and ZBoy went home with NP for a few hours (and dinner, hurray!) - and I had a couple of hours to sit back in front of the fan, put my feet up, and thank God that it's over for another year.

It was a lot of fun, actually. I know my limits before I become an ogre when dealing with other people's children and I worked this one out very well. ZBoy was happy, Darling Man was happy and I was happy. And no one's kids got yelled at. Win-win!