The party

If I had been smart, today could have been Andrew's birthday. My OB offered to induce me on the 22nd, but I was all, "Oh, noooo. I want the baby to come naturally, on his own schedule, and weigh 9 1/2 pounds...". Frickin' know-it-all first time mom.

Today, we celebrated Andrew's birthday because his actual birthday is on Thanksgiving. I decided to buck the local norm and just have 5 little boys over for an old-fashioned party.

Ugh. I hate parties. But Andrew was sooooo excited. He jumped around all morning, driving Jeff and I INSANE. Lily was whiny and needy...which didn't speed up the party prep. But everything was ready for the boys when 11:00 came around.

I had everything planned out. Down to the minute almost. And it all went well until the last half-hour or so. Present opening lasted about 14 minutes shorter than I had planned (I had planned about 15 minutes for it). The boys had a blast trashing our house, making their individual Boboli pizzas, playing "Pin the Football in the Goalpost", and trashing our house. Andrew spent half the time enjoying his friends and the other half crying in a chair. He just can't handle it when things don't go exactly as he wants. All his friends started playing with the Matchbox cars, and they just started...without even asking Andrew if he wanted to join in. Scandal!

Some other highlights:

Thomas put everything on his pizza...sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, and olives. I was so impressed that he liked all those things and felt a little sheepish about my own parenting which has resulted in such a picky eater. When the pizzas were done cooking and served up, Thomas politely asked Jeff to please pick off all the toppings on his pizza...except for the cheese and pepperoni. Apparently he appreciates the appearance of the toppings, just not the flavor.

Lily's pizza had to be cooked after the boys, since we could only fit 6 in the oven at a time. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, "PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE", for the entire 10 minute cooking time. Somehow it doesn't see as polite when yelled.

We played duck duck goose (in an attempt to pass the last 30 minutes without injury). Lily quickly got into it, and followed the boys around patting their heads saying "Duck duck". To the boys' credit, they humored her and didn't get bothered.

Andrew was crying as the parents started arriving to pick up their kids. I think he cried about 3 times during the 2 hour party. I reassured the parents that nothing was wrong...it was just sensitive Andrew coping with a crowd of people. When the last boy left, I asked Andrew how his party was. He got a big smile on his face and said, "It was the best party ever!"

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