Birthday Party 2018
Greetings to you all.
Though last Sunday marked Xavier's fifth birthday, and we celebrated a little, today we had his party. This year was difficult to organize; Rebecca had been in Alabama for two months prior, so she did not have much time to plan. We even out-sourced the cake this year.
With no real theme this year (Xavier had several ideas, but nothing definitive), and so short a time to "pull it together," we kept things as simple as possible. In this theme-less planning, Rebecca decided upon a cake decorated with some of Xavier's interests: construction equipment and giant ants. With these ideas, she let the baker come up with a design: a hill under development where the equipment disturbed a giant ant nest.
Two weeks ago we invited his entire Frog class from school. The first RSVP came as a question. The invitation said Saturday, but the date on the invitation was a Tuesday. We had put June instead of May. We sent out corrections the next day.
Still, few RSVPs came in. Rebecca and I took to asking parents directly at school. We learned some things which never occurred to us. Many of Xavier's classmates had sporting activities, and these were all in the 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM time frame of Xavier's party.
Well, we thought, four or five of the fourteen in his class were going to make it, plus two other friends outside his class. That will be OK, and Xavier will still have fun.
Xavier grew excited as today arrived. Friends were coming over to play at his house. That alone is a wonderful present for Xavier. But as Xavier's anticipation grew, so did the threat of rain from the building storm clouds. And rain it did. Drenching, rain that poured down all morning. By 11:00 o'clock, the rain still fell.
We had hoped to host the party outside. Oh well, our house is big enough to entertain a handful of Xavier's friends.
The doorbell rang just at 11:00 and kept ringing for the next twenty or so minutes. The sporting events his classmates had were all cancelled due to the rain. Nearly the whole class showed up!
Most of the boys played out back under the cover of the patio. When the rain fizzled to drizzle and then to the occasional drip from the sky, they moved into the yard.
Some of the girls joined the boys and raced around the wet grass, strewing toys where ever they ran. They all made games and had tremendous fun.
Rebecca had planned on having the whole class and their parents, so we had the food and drink covered.
All in all, it turned out to be a wonderful party for Xavier. He scored more gifts, including another Lego set, even though the invitations said "No gifts, please."
For Xavier, the best gift was having so many friends over to play at his house.