Birthday Party Weekend - Part Two

Finally, it was Party Time! Our first guests were Elsie, 7.5 and Christopher,6, who always seem to simply fit themselves into our lives...and they come with the added bonus of their Very Cool Mom, Mary, who always offers to help, and is great company, besides...

My parents followed soon after, and Annalise showed Didda (my Dad) her prowess at name-writing while Jeremiah and Elsie explored retro video games and Christopher discovered new uses for a lawn mower box...



Soon enough, the party was going full-swing. We'd billed it as a Messy Art party, but none of the kids seemed inclined to be creative in predicted ways. There was a lot of play with the box, with video and computer games, and with Legos... but one of my favorite moments was when my 3 year old niece, Carlee, brought me the Othello box, and asked, "Can I play with this?" Instead of saying, as I would have a year ago, that she was too small, I said, "Sure!" Off she went, with a happy smile, to scatter Othello chips across the doorway to the art room...




Going places....Jeremiah (almost 8) and best cousin buddy Cameron, 9... on the couch is almost grown cousin Charles, 18.

Annalise, 5, and cousin Pirate Sam, 4.75 get messily creative with Legos and a mastodon...


Top... Didda, Aunt BeeBee, Nate, 2, and Miss Mary...

Bottom...Lovely Carlee


A birthday party isn't a birthday party without cake and ice cream (or is it?)....I found a banana split ice cream cake, and both pink and yellow candles. Annalise had her 5 on one side, and Jeremiah his 8 on the other. Mary offered to take the pictures, and so, for maybe the first time, I was able to sit back and enjoy sharing the moment with my children...


Here I am, in one of my favorite states....hangin' out, surrounded by young people I love!




"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you...happy birthday, Miah and Lisie...happy birthday to you!" So what if one was in July, the other in September? We met in the middle!



After the candles were blown out, Jeremiah turned and threw himself into my arms, to give me an enormous hug and a sloppy kiss. "There! Now my wish came true!" he said into my ear...I love being his Mom! =)

I like this random snapshot, which I'm guessing Mary took. I don't think I've looked nearly this happy and calm at any of their previous parties! Letting go of worrying about the comfort of the adults, or what they would think of my dusty bookshelf, my rumpled children, or the general state of chaos, and attending instead to the joy of the children, clearly agrees with me. Something to remember...and next year's party will be even more kid-oriented! I'm thinking of a McDonald's playplace...

I'm opted against posting the flurry of gift-opening. Small space, rainy day, lots of moving around....the pictures aren't really clear. It is enough to say that they received some very nice gifts, and they are gratefully enjoying them.

And so we move on to what I call The Aftermath...


Analise's room, freshly decorated with ponies, Legos, pattern blocks, a Little Toot video, and a giant stuffed gorilla named Koko, among other things...clearly, fun happened here!


There was a time - like last year - when this sight alone would have discouraged and angered me. How dare anyone leave my home looking like this? I guess I didn't realize that no one was doing it to me.....

This year, I found a plate under the computer chair. The fork and remains of ice cream cake were undisturbed upon it. I marveled that they could be...at least five children had been packed into that very small room! Later, Jeremiah told me it had been his. Rather than fury, or punishment, I realized that the cake left on the plate was a sign of a child who no longer needs to fear there not being any more cake. He could leave it because he knows that if he asks, we will get another. Besides, there was fruit and cookies, veggies, crackers, cheese, and juice readily available.

Jeremiah, who'd been up late and got up early for the two days leading up to the party, finally surrendered to the need for sleep. Again, this would've been a huge problem for me, before. After all, he'd just had a party. I had worked really hard, and money had been spent, to provide him with a good time, and now he needed to help clean up...

But this year, I just let him sleep. I worked around him as much as I could without waking him, and left the vacuuming until after he woke. It felt good to release the children from the cleanup duties I used to insist upon, to just give them the joy of their party without any strings attached, and to cheerfully put things back to rights in a gradual way that didn't erase all their fun too soon...besides, he was sleeping so comfortably on his terrific new birthday pillow!



One of Annalise's gifts was the Magilla Gorilla cartoon series...she likes Magilla, for his gorillaness, but is not a fan of the accompanying Hanna Barbera series, Punkin Puss and Mush Mouse, and one about a droopy dog...Jeremiah, however, is proving to be very much a fan of cartoon series older than his parents, and loves them all!



Both kids were immediately intrigued by the Frigits magnetic marble run - and, to be honest, so are Mom and Dad. We've had quite a bit of fun exploring physics while experimenting with assorted combinations of chutes, spinners, funnels, and cups...and once, even a grape!





Jeremiah clearly was pleased with his first success!


Annalise, on the other hand, took her turns, and her efforts, very seriously as she worked out a pattern in her analytical style...


When I was a child, and for my own children before this first unschooling birthday, the day after the party was always very deflating. No gifts to anticipate, no sweet treats, no more feeling special and treasured. Just another day, back to the old grind...




This is Annalise, literally inflating the morning after her birthday party. She is often up first. She brought a goodie-bag punching balloon to our bed to share in our waking-up ritual of coffee, snuggling, and conversation. She was excited, because she had our full attention, and she knew we would soon be heading to the horse races. She loves horses, and had never yet been to the track.






And another physics lesson slips by in the simple living of life, unremarked-upon, but memorable...


Annalise reflecting....


No translation needed! *BWG*!






The balloon was inflated, deflated, reinflated, dangerously inflated, and exploded....but Annalise was bouyant, throughout, and soaked up all the marrow of the experience.....to me, that is what our best attention to honoring and respecting our children each and every day can accomplish....a young child who can enjoy the balloon, even after it is broken, and find the value in it....