The Best Birthday Party Ever

With apologies to Barbara Robinson...or compliments, since I really mean my title as a compliment...her book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1972) is one of the best takes on misunderstandings and holidays in all of history and I like to reference it on occasion....the title really says a lot.

It did not start out as a birthday party. It actually started as a family barbecue. Deb, Gabe and Paralee were flying into town Saturday. The initial plan had been for Kenneth to help me do some flower planting. Since he would be there I figured Stanica would come along as well. Okay, well maybe we could talk Phillip into helping with the gardening stuff then so we might as well ask Tracy> Then we thought, hey, since Deb & Gabe are coming into town, why not have the gardening crew hang out until they arrived, then we would have dinner. Then Jr. Woodchuckette asked what I was doing for my birthday and shazam...it all coalesced into a b-day bbq.

Next thing I knew we had expanded the guest list to 15 or so of our closest friends. Now, normally when someone says "X of our closest friends" it is meant sracastically...like a political fundraiser with "2000 of Dean's closest friends" where 1997 of those people have never met him but are paying to be there. In this case it really was about 13 of my closest friends and then Emily's (and soon to be my) neighbors whom I think will soon be close friends. They seem like good peeps.

Preparations kept getting more and more elaborate. We purchased a BBQ grill, propane tank, Tracy and Emily went to grab a couple packages of buns and maybe some burgers...and came back with a pinata and fixings, among other things.

I started assembling the bbq grill. This is always a sketchy proposition as I am far from mechanically inclined. Example A: I ended up removing and reattaching legs about 6 times because I kept figuring out they were backwards...I do not know how the same leg can need flipped 5 times to get it the right way but I managed that. Without Phillip's help I might have just given up. It was fruistrating. Finally, however, we got it built. Ken was up pretty late the night before so he still had not shown up.

Phillip and I ended up being the only two doing gardening. That morning Emily & I purchased flowers, choosing them together. I turned over a lot of dirt in redoing the little corner by the mail-box while he planted along the long section in front of the house, then I turned over more dirt and lengthened that section. By the time we were done there were flowers essentially the entire front of the house. It looks SO much better!

Well, by the time I went to pick up Deb & Gabe we had Eric, Kenneth & Stanica, Kevin & Cassie, and their respective kids there. When I got back with Deb & Gabe Sean & Michelle had arrived, and shortly thereafter Brooke and....Jamie? arrived with their daughter Olivia.

I am always nervous when I bbq. I am not good at it, have no clue how to tell when stuff is ready to flip and completely forgot that normal people like BBQ sauce...so I used no spices. Oops. Still, it seemed to turn out okay and I think everyone got enough to eat.

There was one "cute" moment when Kayla and Olivia (the daughters of Kevin & Cassie and Brooke & Jamie, respectively) were walking around holding hands as if they had been friends forever.

Later we had some fun with a pinata. Still later we had a couple games of 500. Overall, quite diverting. It was great having so many friends just hanging out having fun. Hope to have a few more days like that this summer.

********* Thanks to Jr. Woodchuckette for the photos ***************