Get The Party Started

Paige planned a Tim Burton movie night for her 14th birthday.

Movie nights are hard, because not everyone knows the rules.

Yes, if you talk during movies, you go to the special hell.

It seemed like a cool idea, a Tim Burton movie night. What actually happened is the people who wanted to watch the movie sat down to watch it. The people who talk during movies sat down on the same sofa and drove the other people crazy. Those people got up and abandoned the movie because they hate trying to watch a movie with others talking through it. And the people who were left were all talking and not watching the movie.

In short, no one was watching the movie!

When that movie ended, the movie watchers tried again, repeatedly.

Shushing the talkers doesn't work because the talkers respond with,

"I was just saying I have that exact same hoodie as the girl that was in that car, and that I got it while I was staying with my cousins in New York over spring break. God! What is your problem?"

"Shhhhh!!"

"Ohmygod! One time, at 4-H Camp, they played that song at the dance, ohmygod, Tyler was so funny! Do you remember? Did you go to camp that year? No, no that was the year that I took my green blanket, remember?"

"SHHHHHH!!!!!"

If you do not get invited to the next movie night, try to work out why.

Paige's cake was Tim Burton-inspired.

See how many Tim Burton references you can find.

Some folks brought guitars. Tiffany crept into Arden's room late at night and smuggled out her keyboard and they had a jam session in the kitchen. That was really cool.

Round Two:

Sadie's and Joe's party was a surprise party. The key to pulling off a surprise party is having the birthday boy and/ or girl actually show up.

Several people offered to come early and help set up. All bailed at the last minute.

Sadie and Joe were supposed to show up around 4pm and they managed to get here around 6pm. By then the food was gone, and folks were eying the cake. Some people got tired of waiting and left!

But arrive they eventually did, and they plowed right into the crowd of party guests:

Half-assed Watchmen cake.

Opening gifts.

I made a huge pot of chili that was devoured rapidly. One of the guests made hot cocoa from scratch. We brought out the video game systems, and the younger set enjoyed those.

The older kids went outside.

A lot.

Ron, Lord of the Flame

We had a large bonfire, which none of the party-goers would go near. They stayed up in the woods, and girls in flip-flops froze their toes off.

Half the invited folks did not bother to rsvp or show up. Of the half that did attended, many seemed to want only to get drunk or high. When it became obvious that I was not supplying, the party broke up rather rapidly.

And thus begins a new stage in parenting.

The "you don't have to get drunk to have a good time" stage.

I hear it lasts the second eighteen years.