This month Elijah turned three, while Aidan turned ten-times-three. Because their birthdays fall within one week of each other, I am presented each year with an excuse to REALLY throw a party. This year was no exception:
Guests: 50 lawnchair-carrying-folk. . .
Arriving at: Our mess-of-a-house-- partly drywalled and littered with building scraps. . .
Eating : BBQ, six or seven incredible salads, along with delicious appetizers. . .
Followed by: Scones topped with fresh berries, peaches and whipped cream. (And double chocolate brownies on the side). . .
Lounging in: Lantern lit coziness.
Throwing a big party at a construction sight could have gone very badly. When I pulled up on Wednesday morning the front porch floor had gaping holes in it, while the back porch had no floor at all. And the house was a tangle of extension cords and piles of drywall. The weather seemed to be against us, threatening rain and lightning, and I had no space, and only half a plan. I began to feel a rising panic, which was magnified when people began arriving hours early.
But then, as always, my crew pulled through, and somehow got it done. The guys cleared the house out in ten minutes and made it sparkle. My girls and I hammered together a back porch and set up tables, draping them in colourful clothes. Our tall men strung lanterns, while candles were being placed and lit. Many hands carried many platters and bowls of food back and forth, until all was ready.
I'm a big party kind of girl. They are harder to plan and prepare for. But once begun, they throw themselves. People organically settled into groups, forming and than disbanding, only to regroup elsewhere. We had some who congregated on the porches, others around the food. The little ones got into some face paint, and then began tumbling down our sand pile out back. Aidan seemed to be giving constant tours of the house, and could not have been happier doing so. While some of the boys began to set up our volleyball net, with some difficulty, in the yard. Meanwhile, as hostess, I got to float. I drifted from group to group, until the night was a blur of different conversations and shared laughter.
The darker it got, the more people began to slowly trickle home. A group of us managed to squeeze in a game of volleyball before the light completely faded. That may have been the highlight of the night for me. Playing my favourite sport in bare feet and a skirt in my own backyard as the sun slowly set. We only drove home ourselves around midnight in a happy haze. Tired, but in a good kind of way. We were completely spent, but completely satisfied.
