School party

Jake enjoys the sunshine and some warmth for the first time since he was a newborn.

The worlds worst prepared picnic ever. This is what happens when it is sunny out and you come home with three kids to find the (wonderful amazing much loved) cleaning people still working on the kitchen. Driveway it is!

Luke, at his school party. This one, crappy picture was all that I got before my camera went berserk on me. Blast.

So. I grumbled a lot about this whole "school party" thing. I mean, it was annoying. Make party bags and bring in a "special i.e sugar laden non cupcake snack" for the entire class of 17 kids? Super annoying. I will be honest and say that I bear some sort of irrational grudge against the concept of party bags. The kids come home with them all the time, and they annoy the practical side of me beyond belief. Why, you ask? Because they are generally filled with random junky trinkets, and junk food. And when you tell a tired, 3 year old pre nap kid that they can't partake of that junk at a given lunchtime, said kid generally objects. Dramatically. So.Annoying.

So when I got the call that I had to make a stupid party bag, I felt tremendous annoyance and pressure. Don't want to have the crappy party bag now, do we? I mean, we are having a birthday party for the bigs this year for the first time ever, and I have staunchly refused to create favor bags for it. I.Will.Not.Succumb to peer pressure on this one! Won't! But when the preschool teachers call and tell me to make one ~ off I go with my marching orders. Nate was out of town, but my Mom and Bec came over and watched Jules and Jake while Luke and I had a special date to go to the store. We picked the bags, the ribbon, and ended up with pencils, punching balloon thingies, sports themed eggs that we filled with peanut butter M&M's, stickers, and a blow pop for each kid. Each thing was in a plastic bag, which we unwrapped, then put carefully into 17 more plastic bags. Talk about un-green! What a stupid waste this whole concept of party bag is!

Then, we made them. Julia and Luke helped me, and their excitement was contagious. I will admit that seeing my kids practically quivering with delight at the sight of these stupid 17 party bags did warm my heart towards the damn things, just a little.

The day of his party was beautiful. I dropped the kids off and came home to take a long run with Jake in the sunshine. Changed, and headed back to school, laden with my sugary-unhealthy-treat (ice cream cups as per Luke's request) and a baby strapped to my body. Luke was so excited when we got there (more excited to see Jake than me, as par the course). They headed into circle time, each sitting upon their appropriately named "situpon" of course.

Luke walked into the center of the circle, and his teachers gave him his crown. This is when it all fell apart. All of my annoyance, all of my grumbling, all of my calloused busy Mom crap simply melted away and I got tears in my eyes seeing my sweet boy standing in front of his class wearing his crown and talking all about his family and his favorite things. It was so incredibly endearing, and I could plainly see how special he felt. I got teary, and then my camera broke. It was almost nice, instead of watching any of it through my camera lense I got to just be in the moment and revel in watching my son enjoy himself. He told his classmates all about his family ~ about his favorite foods, about his favorite places to go etc etc.

His funniest moment was when the teacher asked him what his Daddy's name was ~ Luke answered "Nate". He paused. Then stated "But Mommy mostly calls him Bear". And an entire classroom of 17 heads and 2 teachers turned around to stare at me, as my cheeks got red and I had to explain to them that that was a nickname that Luke's Daddy and I had for one another.

Kids.

He blew out his candles, happily distributed his bags, and was so sweet and proud and happy that I came home just feeling overwhelmed with joy.

Party bags ~ 1. Stubborn lazy hates waste Mom? 0

For the record, there will still be no party bags at the pool party.