Bouncing, Kicking, & Eating

This pretty much sums up Saturday! The morning started with a birthday party at Monkey Joe’s for one of Liam’s friends from school. I had to laugh at how different a party there for a 2-year-old is from a party for a 4-year-old. By 4, they know who their friends are, and they stick to little groups as they run from thing to thing. But at 2, everyone’s a “friend” and it’s all about what YOU want to do. Liam was very scatterbrained in the place – he’d play with the toys for 5 minutes, then get in one of the toddler bouncys, then he’d go to another toddler bouncy, then he’d go to one of the bigger ones, then back to the toys…And then more kids started showing up, including this little girls in his class, CeCe. Due to the way hos new school is set up, you really don’t get to meet the other kids & parents at the school. We drop off before most other kids get there, and we pick up later than most kids. I had exchanged a couple of emails with CeCe’s mom on another topic, and she had told me that CeCe talks about Liam all the time – anytime she asks CeCe what she did that day, CeCe will tell her everything that Liam did. Apparently she is quite taken with him, because when she spotted him at the party, she followed him around like she was his shadow. Liam couldn’t have cared less. It was cute watching her chase him around the place.

Liam got to stay at the party long enough for pizza (but not for cake) because we had to head back home to get Zachary to take him to a birthday party. This was a party for a neighbor boy, who also goes to the same school that my boys went to last year – he’s in pre-K this year, so a year behind Zachary. They take karate at the same place too, which is actually where the party was – at the karate studio. I have to give so much credit to the karate teacher, Mr. JP. He’s a young guy – just graduating from college – but he’s so good with the kids, yet he doesn’t put up with crap. The party was a mix of fun & games, and a mini karate lesson. I think this is where Zachary wants to have his next birthday party, so it was fun to get a preview of what a party there is like.

After the birthday parties were over, it was time to clean up for the dinner party. For about 7 or 8 years now, my group of girls from UGA/DG have gotten together either just before or just after Christmas for our annual get-together with spouses & kids. It is neat seeing how at our first gathering, most of us weren’t married yet, and Sophie was just a baby. Now we are a group of 22 – we are 2 kids away from parents no longer outnumbering kids (right now it’s 12 parents to 10 kids). It was great having everyone over – total chaos, but in a fun way! The men watched football, while we girls caught up on each other’s lives, while the kids played their little hearts out. Oh – and there was food! Since we ended up going out of town for Thanksgiving, we weren’t able to cook the turkey we had bought. So we fried up our turkey, and each family brought different things to go with it (appetizers, sides, desserts, etc.). It is fun because after all these years there are some things you can count on – Erin & Kimberly will probably volunteer to bring a dessert (their specialties!), and Merri will probably volunteer to bring the cheese ring (which we all love!). And Natalie will show up with some super-cute tray or platter to display her food on (which she did!), and Amanda will always act like whatever she brought probably isn’t any good, but it always is (it really was – LOVED the sweet potatoes! Amanda, if you’re reading this, I might need the recipe!) We also do a Secret Santa as part of the dinner (we each buy for one other girl & her kids) – this year’s gift-opening was kind of like a feeding frenzy in the shark tank. It was over in about 3 minutes, and I have no idea what happened because it was so fast & chaotic! But everyone seemed happy, especially the kids (I think that’s the part they were all most looking forward to!) I don’t think we’ve taken a picture every year, but here are a few we have taken over the years – you can see how our group has grown over the years!

2005 – it was just Sophie, Zachary,and Jackson

2008 – we had Zachary, Liam, Jackson, Sophie, McLean, Luke, Owen, and Case (not in picture)

2010 – we could not get them all looking at the camera at the same time, but we have Owen (Amanda), Sophie (Merri), McLean (Kimberly), Luke (Merri), Zachary (me), Liam (me), Evan (Amanda), Alden (Natalie), and Jackson (Erin) - not in picture