House Warmed

We hosted a barbecue at our house on Saturday afternoon for 19 adults and 13 kids (including ourselves). What is the aftermath of such revelry? It's 10 am on Monday and Maggie is up in her room singing and reading and playing by herself. She normally gets up around 7 or 8, so by 9 am I was starting to worry that I hadn't heard one peep out of her. I went up there and found her sitting quietly in bed humming and reading an alphabet book. She told me to go away! An hour later she's still up there, and although the humming has escalated to singing, she's still sitting in her bed. No breakfast even! Yesterday she fell asleep on the couch right before dinner and we could hardly wake her up to eat and take her bath. I'm starting to think that it's going to be Wednesday before she returns to her normal self! Kate, on the other hand, hasn't missed a beat. She had a blast, skipped a nap, rejected one feeding and then ate tons with both hands shovelling in food, smiled her face off, and then slept like a log. They're a couple of party animals, I tell ya.

Even though we've only lived here from a couple of months and there was tons of work to be done to get the house and yard ready and the food prepped, we really wanted to finally throw a party for our friends at our house instead of always being the guests. Everything turned out very well I think. We wanted to do real BBQ, not just burgers and dogs, so I made a brisket, Mike grilled barbecue chicken, and we bought some ribs from a good nearby BBQ restaurant (and we did have hot dogs for the kids anyway). I also made macaroni and cheese, my great-grandmother Ruby's coleslaw, and pecan pie. Jane and Dale brought freshly shucked corn on the cob from a local farm stand, green salad, fruit pizza, and peaches and cream pie. Friends brought some buffalo chicken dip and tons of desserts, too much of which is left in our fridge. I confess that I had pie for breakfast! We also have way too much beer left over. What do the parents of two very young children do with tubs of beer sadly getting warm and skunky in our basement? Too bad we don't know any local college kids. There should be a charitable place where old folks can drop off their excess party liquor for needy young college kids. A beer pantry. I'm sure there are adverse legal ramifications keeping such a brilliant idea from becoming reality. The world is simply awash in unjust inequality.

We also got (somewhat) lucky with the weather. It was supposed to be both hot and raining - how is that fair? - but the sun came out and stayed, so it was merely hot and humid and sunny and we would have been dry if not for the sweating. The kids all piled into our kiddie pool and had a ball. Additionally, there was sidewalk chalk drawing, tricycle derby, whiffle ball, and some light gardening. Maggie drank at least part of what appeared to be about ten juice boxes (she says it was "forty") and then suffered the worst diaper rash ever. Well, you live and learn, even at the age of two. She also thieved a baker's dozen of brownies and cookies. I'm kind of shocked that she didn't throw up!

A special shout out to Amy and Lee and Jared, those brave childfree souls who knew in advance that there would be a mess of kids and came anyway! I hope you at least ate well. Come over and I'll give you a bunch of beer as a reward!

Yesterday as we continued to clean up, we found a juice box behind the toilet, a small stack of stones in the corner of the kitchen near the table, a fork in the garden, a beer hidden behind the deck railing, a pair of kid's Crocs (Charlie's), and several indoor toys left out in the yard to get rained on. All telltale signs of a good time been had. Hopefully there will be many more parties to come - although I think our next one will be pot luck!