The Party’s Over

     Thanks to Mother Nature, we had to change our 4th of July BBQ to a 5th of July BBQ.  Postponing the festivities turned out to be a very smart move, because the weather yesterday could not have been more gorgeous — not too hot and not too chilly.  Although there were a few families who couldn’t make the new date, we had a really good turnout overall with at least 75 or more people here at different times throughout the afternoon. Everyone seemed to have a blast, particularly the kids, as was evidenced by their filthy, dirty feet and scraped up knees and elbows by the end of the day — the true sign of a good party.  

     The party started with just a few families hanging around talking in our backyard, when I noticed that my husband had suddenly disappeared. Come to find out, one of my son’s friends had completely stopped up and totally overflowed the powder room toilet. It took his dad and my husband a good twenty minutes to clean up the mess.  And this was just the beginning of all the fun!  

     I was pretty adamant in the fact that I didn’t want a bunch of kids wandering around unsupervised in our house.  So, in an attempt to thwart that scenario, my husband and I positioned the long food table in front of the deck stairs that lead to the back door.  But, kids will be kids, and as the day went on, I kept noticing different groups of kids coming and going from the inside of the house. When I went to check on the situation, I found lights on throughout the entire house. Apparently, they had been snooping around in our master bedroom and even in our closets.  They had also dragged out a bunch of old bathtub toys from under the kids’ bathroom sinks.  I have no clue who was responsible for all the snooping, and luckily, it seemed to have stopped at just snooping.  Nothing appeared to be damaged or broken.

     At another point during the afternoon, my daughter decided to bring out her savings account book to show all of her friends how much money she has in the bank from her allowance.  It is a complete mystery to me what possessed her to bust this out!  Did I mention that she is only six??!! She really doesn’t have a ton of money in there, but to her, anything over a dollar means a lot.  I’m glad the child is proud of her earnings, but I really don’t think it’s appropriate to be whipping out her financial portfolio at the holiday BBQ!  

     And my poor son now looks like he went to battle after spending more time making full-on contact with the concrete than standing upright.  He must’ve come up to me three different times throughout the day with blood streaming down from some appendage on his body.  He finished the day off with a direct blow to the eye from an oversized frisbee, resulting in a big reddish, blueish scrape under his right eye.  I should’ve dressed him in red, white and blue body armor, given how horribly accident-prone the little guy seems to be.

     Overall, though, the party was a huge success.  We have some super nice neighbors who even stayed after to help us clean up the mess.  The squirrels and other neighborhood varmints will be in seventh heaven over the next couple of days as they work to clean up the remaining crumbs and food chunks that fell to the ground.  As my husband and I sat with our feet propped up eating a Dominos pizza last night, we felt a huge sigh of relief that the party was over.  Now we only have 363 days to decide if we can muster up the strength to do it all over again….

Patriotic Partying

    

     Every year for the past ten years, we have had a big 4th of July bash in our backyard.  It started off on the smaller side with a few neighbors and friends, but it has gotten bigger and bigger with each passing year.  This year will by far be the biggest of them all.  Now, we’ve got all the kindergarten families we’ve become friends with to consider.  So, somehow or another, I have gotten myself into hosting approximately one hundred people here at our house tomorrow! Just the mere thought of that makes me a little sick to my stomach, and I pray to God that it doesn’t rain.  

     Planning for a party of this magnitude is a little tricky, because you never know if people are actually going to eat when they stop by. Many people like to party hop on the 4th, so they’ve already eaten by the time they get to our place. However, I am a firm believer in having too much, rather than not enough.  I’d rather have a zillion leftover hot dogs than a bunch of hungry people.  The amount of drinks is another tough thing to try to pre-determine.  We usually end up with enough beer and wine AFTER the party to have a whole other party! But, just as sure as we’d cut back on how much alcohol we buy, everyone would show up ready to throw back and do keg stands.  You just never know.

        I also like to have some kind of little fireworks display of some kind for the kids.  The problem is that they are illegal in the state where we live.  In the past, we’ve bought them in my parents’ town, where they are more than willing to sell festive explosives.  My husband and his friends get all fired up (no pun intended) about lighting something on fire and watching it explode in the sky.  It’s that whole pyromania fascination that guys seem to have, I guess. One year they were shooting off bottle rockets in the alley and nearly caught the giant evergreen in my neighbor’s yard on fire.  And another time, they actually even alerted the police with all their explosive alley activity.  Luckily, the teenagers next door were also out setting off fireworks, so my husband and all his “responsible” adult friends blamed it on them.  This year, I was only able to buy some sparklers and some of those popper things, so I think it’s pretty safe to say we won’t be having any blue-uniformed visitors to the party.

     I’m sure it’ll be a great time when it’s all said and done, but right now, it just seems like so much work.  I ask myself every year why it is that we do this.  The kids sure LOVE it, because they get to stay up WAY past their bedtime and run around and get filthy dirty with their friends all afternoon and night.  I usually end up enjoying it as well, right up until the point where everyone has gone home and we’re left with an enormous wreck of a mess in the backyard.  That’s when I want someone else to take over and let me wash that party right out of my hair.