I Wanna Fight for the Right to Paaaaaaaaaaaaaar-ty!

Okay, so this weekend was one of those weekends. Four kids that we've known since they were born all had birthday parties within 24 hours of one another. I think BuilderMama and I lived in a parallel universe this weekend!

While I was painting Saturday morning G-man took PDQ to skating lessons and on the way picked up the party girl of the day, B. Then B came back to our house for a playdate and some lunch so that her folks could get things done at their house with one less kid. B's Mom had been out of town for three days to go to an out of town funeral and had gotten in at 11PM on Friday night and was expecting 16 kids Saturday afternoon. When we arrived she looked at me and asked if I was going to stay, I told her if she wanted I'd be happy to. The gleam in her eye told me I wasn't going to the mall to shop for new workout shoes. So I stayed and helped stick little tiny stickers on the top of treasure boxes, string wooden beads onto ribbon for cute necklaces, and worked out my biceps scooping ice cream. I promised another Mom that I'd cart her daughter home--she thanked me profusely as this was her third birthday party of the day and she had another daughter to get to basketball about the time this party ended.

Since I was out and giddy with the fact that we weren't having PDQs party at our house this year, we stopped at the swim center to plunk down the deposit at the indoor pool. Of course the woman who couldn't make up her mind to save her life was in front of me in line. Holding what should have been her internal dialogue outloud for the rest of us to hear. So, I reserved 4, is noon open? Okay, lets switch it to noon. Oh wait, is that Saturday, hmmmmmmm Saturday is sports day no one will come. And on and on and on. Thankfully the guy waiting on her stopped to ask me when my party was and when he discovered it was another month he got someone else to help me. Thanks pool guy! Of course we couldn't leave the 100 degree smelly pool without a trip through the wet halls to the bathroom.

Sunday morning we woke bright and early to a panicked Esmerelda on her way to her triathlon class (you go girl!). After prying myself from my warm bed I managed to get the girls breakfast, my clothes together and head to the gym before church. I was tired, I was grumpy, and they needed me to work some of it off if I were to live through the coming Chuck E. Cheese experience. G-man promised to take pictures of the gymnastics party for Karateboy and N while I headed to the germ infested home of the mouse to attend the party which PDQ declared she must go to because S needed her there! (No drama there) I had committed to Karateboy's party but Esmerelda let me off the hook and we agreed to do dinner after the parties. B & her Mom accompanied us to the party, thank goodness--someone to commiserate with and catch up on the gossip. It was as disgusting as I remembered, there were kids everywhere running amok, it was HOT, and the party hostess kept disappearing leaving the kids hanging with nothing to do. Once they finally got some tokens it was off to earn tickets. PDQs favorite game was broken and she was bummed. The game next to it was one where you throw balls into a rotating cylinder that covers up the holes as it spins. Someone had their preschooler up in the game putting the balls directly into the holes--there is fair play at its best. Unlike me, PDQ is all about doing what she wants and not about getting the tickets, she was happy to ride the bus, bike that goes up in the air and didn't pout when three of the games ate her tokens.

So, having survived C.E.C. we took B & her Mom home and hooked up with the Esmerelda's for dinner at Red Robin. Where we waited for 45 minutes at 4:30 on a Sunday night. By the time they found us a seat Tippy Tornado and Boobah were laying on the floor watching the TV mounted underneath a piece of plexiglass, I even heard G-man yell "don't lick that!" but I counldn't bear to look and see who the offender was. Poor Es was beside herself thinking about Wayne whom she didn't know had passed yet. After dinner we sent her on her way to be with his family. G-man took the rest of the family home and I went to the grocery store. Never did the mega-mart seem like such an oasis.