Saturday, August 10, 2002
There was a party last weekend, when it was really her birthday (on the Friday) up at my in-law's place up in Deloro. Erika wanted to head up there as it would be the last chance she'd get for a long while to head up north, and I wanted to stay because I have a rule about heading up there during the height of summer when there's bugs aplenty. So we agreed to have subsequent party for her the following weekend at home, and invite a few friends and neighbours along. That was this weekend.
Things started early. Vanessa was very happy to have her mother home after being away working on the film in Cambridge. Annie, who after all is only one, seems to have adjusted to the change better than either of us initially expected -- it's been Vanessa who's shed the tears about missing her Mom.
The house needed cleaning -- or at least the first floor, as the party wasn't expected to extend beyond that. I did that. Then I readjusted one of the two new outdoor speakers so to increase the separation, and to set it up so that it could swivel out into the garden. Check. Erika went and got a mini-keg of Sleemans, to accompany the four litres of Painkiller I made on Friday evening. By early afternoon all of the neighbourhood kids knew something was going on, and Erika assisted in the making three small cakes, as we had plenty of helpers in the kitchen who wanted to help out. This of course entailed me having to clean up the kitchen again. ;-)
People started arriving around 6-ish. They got corralled into blowing up balloons. Then we brought out the drinks and food and soon all further pretence of organizing anything further went out the window. Erika wisely announced the party to be a potluck, and soon everybody was feasting a drinking on other people's food.
When the birthday girl was beginning to get tired, I held her in my lap while she was given some birthday cake. She smiled, she guzzled half of it down and then proceeded to spread the rest of it over herself and myself. I gave subsequently gave her a bath, put her to bed, changed my own clothes and rejoined the party. ;-)
The party probably peaked at about 9am. The kids inside watched Labyrinth. What's interesting is that initially there was a roughly equal mix of boys and girls, but near the end of it only the girls remained, all seemingly transfixed about the story of the goblin King (played by David Bowie) who steals away a baby brother at the misspoken request of a big sister (I have to wonder what thoughts were whirling around in their minds at that one. ;-) When the movie finished, the kids went back top their respective parents who then promptly put them all to bed. A fairly typical ending to these types of parties.
Things did go on for a little while longer, up until the point the neighbourhood raccoons started appearing around the buffet table, looking for an all-you-can-eat meal. Then we were forced to move things inside, and so the party ended.
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