Sunday, April 27, 2008

Birthday Competition

We celebrated Marissa's birthday today with a party at a local park for her and ten of her closest friends. Angie took care of all the details, and booked a local community park that had a covered pavilion, volleyball courts, and small soccer field. She made cupcakes (yummy chocolate ones and nasty lemon ones). She bought the snacks and drinks and took care of all of the other details.


Then of all the cools things, Angie planned all the activities. We planned six "events" for the girls to do that we would time (putting a golf ball, soccer kick, volleyball shot, dress up, wheelbarrow race, and some wacky race involving a spray bottle and water. The girls were split up into two teams and did all of the events as quickly as they could. Then, the team in the lead got a head start toward a scavenger hunt. They had to find trash, green things and stuff around the park. Lastly, they had to make up a poem for Marissa.

The winning team won "I won" license plate necklaces and the team won a toilet seat...yes, a toilet seat - which is proudly displayed around Marissa's neck. The backup plan (it looked like rain most of the day) was a scavenger hunt at Target. Either I missed where that became popular or we live a low rent neighborhood, but it seems that scavenger hunts at large department stores are the fun, cheap way to party with the kids now.


Marissa opened presents, then the girls dances some weird circle dance. Not sure what that was all about, but it looked fun, so I joined in. That made the girls laugh, so it was worth it. I like being the goofy one and I know the kids like it. Dylan and his friends helped with the activities. They were bored out of their skulls even with all of those girls around. I guess macking on your sister's friends isn't cool at 13. A couple of more years, I bet that'll change in a big way.

Other than the fact that we had a cold front come through and made it very cold and windy, everyone had a great time. I don't know how we'll top it. Oh, wait, yes I do. Marissa and I leave for a weekend in NY in less than two weeks.

SL

1 comment:

James W. Pharo said...

I like to hit the "next blog" button on blogger and see what I get. Tonight I got yours. You seem like a good guy.

Don't know your politics, but I hope you'll go into the political season in the fall with a truly open mind. I believe our society is headed in a disturbing direction, and that we need to start demanding more from ourselves and each other if we are going to meet the challenges ahead.

I think your astute observation about not winning if your wife loses is sage advice not only for a community of two -- a marriage -- but for any community, no matter how large or small.

Good luck at school. Keep those planes flying!