Birthday Party

Nine kids hyped up on excitement and iced cake played through our house and backyard for two hours. It actually all went pretty well. No one got an eye put out, no one vomited on the carpet, no one set fire to the sofa, and no one peed on the kitchen floor. They were all a pretty good bunch of kids; we’d have them back anytime.

The now 3 year old has been talking about his birthday for several weeks, and we asked him how he wanted everything. He wanted (and got) dinosaur plates and napkins, a dinosaur cake (sheet cake with toy dinos on it), and blue balloons. I think he was quite pleased with his birthday, and he was very tired at the end of the day.

For organized activity, we hid small pumpkins around the backyard and let the kids search for them. Once they each had a pumpkin, they decorated them with markers and stickers. Kids love that kind of thing.

The birthday-boy did pretty well with opening his gifts. He mostly sat still to open everything, and thanked each guest (after being prompted by me, every time). He’s getting to the age where his toys are stuff I find interesting and fun. I loved it when his big brother reached three years old, and he started getting cool toys: action figures, Hot Wheels cars, and such.

One of the moms asked me if I liked assembling kids’ toys. She said her husband is never real thrilled about having to put their kids’ toys together. I pointed out that they have two girls—that’s a whole different set of toys. I like putting together my boys’ toys: castles, fire stations, spaceships, and such stuff.

We got some pretty cool stuff. . . . Oops, did I say, “we”? I mean, the 3 year old got some cool stuff. My favorite gift was the Hot Wheels cars. I remember liking them when I was a kid, and I can still find a “happy place” when I hold them and look at them. But if I want to play with them, in my own way, I have to do it when I’m not playing with the little guy. He wants me to play how he wants me to play, and that’s usually to just sit there and hold a single car, of his choice.

Tonight before bed, I played with him while he played with some of his new toys. We played with some Hot Wheels (I was designated a single, particular car) and a small city play set. When he left the room to drink some milk before brushing his teeth, I got to zoom around a bit with the cool cars I wanted to play with, for about five minutes. I’ll have to sneak me another chance, sometime, to drive around the little city in my choice of tricked-out hot rod. Vroom.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com