Party Time!
We had our annual year-end MOMS Club bash yesterday and it went really well. I said I absolutely was not planning the party and suggested we ask for volunteers for a party committee. We had a couple of volunteers, but they completely disappeared. Guess who planned the party? Me and my friend, of course. Honestly, though? I like being in control.
Our chapter has grown so much this year that we couldn’t host it in someone’s backyard. Our president lives next door to her community pool and worked out a deal where we could use the pool for $100, so we decided to charge each family a set fee and supply everything. That worked out so much better than counting on potluck. So much better. No worries that the person who was bringing the plates wasn’t going to show or that we’d have four pasta salads and no main dish. In the end, the pool only charged us $15, so we are issuing partial refunds to those who paid. The pool was super unorganized in regards to the party, obviously. However, it was basically like having a private pool party so that was a big plus. There are two pools in my friend’s community and we were at the small one. It was a hot Saturday afternoon and there were only six other people at the pool! Crazy!
I guess I am really and truly a grown-up now. I’ll be 40 next year, so it shouldn’t surprise me that I have the tools and knowledge to handle the food at the party. My mother and grandmother were not party throwers and never developed any skills for packing up a bunch of food and taking it to a park/pool/kiddie party place so it all seems kind of foreign to me, but these days I’ve got it down to a science. The only thing I will do differently at my next party: take along several disposable tupperware containers and load up the left over cake in containers and encourage people to take home a container. We had a ton of cake left, which is kind of funny because I thought we wouldn’t have enough. One of the other moms served as cake cutter and gave out super tiny slices.
We even had a bit of excitement when the lifeguard had to get in the pool! Unfortunately, it was my kid he had to save. Except I had already saved him, so the point was moot.
I was in the pool, but had turned to talk to my friend. Big mistake! The kids had been doing so well and everyone was so happy that I didn’t have my usual water anxiety.
Elsa swam over to Erik (she was in a puddle jumper, he had a kickboard) and started wrestling with him, climbing up on his back and pushing him under water. His kickboard got away from him and he was out of his depth. She thought she was just having some fun with her bro-ey, but she was about to kill him. Mike yelled out, “Elsa get off him!” and I turned around to see what was happening. I made it to Erik very quickly, lifting him up just seconds before the lifeguard splashed down beside us. Erik was totally ok, but they had to shut the pool down when the supervisor arrived, and we all had to stand around while the lifeguard shakily filled out an incident report. He was very, very young and that was his first “rescue.”
I was afraid Erik would never get in the water again, but we convinced him to come back in a little later. He is asking for swimming lessons, so I think that’s a good sign that he isn’t totally scarred for life. I’ve been meaning to get both kids into lessons, but haven’t gotten around to it. This is the impetus that I needed. I’ll go get them signed up on Monday, I guess.
In other news, Mike has been working his butt off on getting Elsa’s new bed put together. Several weeks ago and LJ friend posted a link to a loft bed on Amazon. Amazon! Who knew? I found Elsa a loft bed with a slide for about 1/3 of the price as the local baby furniture store. It’s metal and seems sturdy. Most importantly: it has a slide! If I was a kid, it would totally be my dream bed.
I also bought a big castle wall cling, so once we get some of the other stuff out of there I can work on making her room appropriate for a little girl, not just a storage area with a bed. I want to put a big mirror in there and some hooks on the wall for all her dress up clothes. I think that would be really fun!
If Mike gets the bed finished today, I guess we’ll have to run over to the mattress store and pick up a mattress and box springs. It is so nice to have the van and be able to cart things like that home without paying for and arranging for delivery. Have I mentioned how much I love my van? I could write an ode to my van, but who would want to read it?