Sunday, May 2, 2004

Party Time

Today we went to our granddaughter's birthday party.  She turned four earlier this week but her mom planned the party for Sunday, my weekend day off from work.  Little Kid Parties are not my thing at all and I was rather dreading the whole affair but it turned out to be a most pleasant and entertaining time.

My daughter is very good at organizing parties, any kind of party, (doesn't get it from me) and my son-in-law has a natural knack with small children.  This is something you either have or you don't.  I don't; never did and never will.  These two are missing their calling.  She could be a professional party planner and he could be a professional party director--they could make millions!

The festivities were held at one of the newer parks in town, fully loaded with lots of neat play equipment and (its claim to fame) a separate, fenced-in dog park.  She and I arrived early to claim a picnic table and found a perfect spot under a huge oak tree.  This turned out to be most forturnate because the temperature climbed to around 90 degrees.

A nice mixture of adults and small children was present.  My daughter wisely stipulated that all parents would stay and partake please, thereby not turning the party into a drop-off, day-care affair.  Let's see, if I remember correctly, aside from the birthday girl, there were around seven other children and all were amazingly well behaved.  No major crises, a bumped knee here and there but that's a given when you let small children (any children) loose in the world! 

We did the pinata thing which was not too gruesome to behold, lots of nice gifts were opened and admired,  a short, easy kid game with prizes for everyone, pizza, party favors and ta da!  The birthday cake aglow with four candles, the birthday song heartily sung and after sampling the cake, made by my thrifty daughter and very good, children were gathered up and thank-yous and goodbyes were said and it was over.  A perfect birthday party for our dear little grandchild, most beautifully accomplished by my most beautiful daughter.

I can only hope that neither of my children will suffer from some sort of deep-seated, life-long trauma because I never threw them a party like this when they were anywhere under the age of eight!  From what I've seen so far, I think they'll be okay.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I always invite the parents to stay, as well, sometimes rather strongly encourage them to stay ROFL