Bye Bye Winter Party

We did more than just spend money at Fenway last weekend--we also spent a fun Saturday night with fellow ultimate players (and their kids, unlike a few weekends back).

Now that I have two kids, I genuinely feel sorry for people without kids who welcome us to their house. Inevitably, their houses are nice, tidy homes featuring interesting accent pieces, tables and chairs without marker on them, and small shelving units filled with books, picture frames, and lots of glass objects. They are clearly not prepared for the uninvited unruliness that comes with extending an invitation to a family of four.

Friends Gareth and Sarah saw this first hand a few months back when they had a similar soiree. In some ways this may have been good for them, as they were expecting a new arrival of their own--so I think our crew (and their associates) did an excellent job of showing the parents-to-be the exact places where their house needed to be childproofed.

Now it was Jeff and Marie's turn to have toddler chaos visited upon them. The usual suspects (Jack, Tai, Jesse, Andres) were there, accompanied by their growing number of younger siblings and friends (Ada, Juniper, Celia, April) looking up to them for instruction.

The house didn't stand a chance. Before long, stepped-on Cheerios and Goldfish (the edible Pepperidge Farm type, not the real type) covered the floor. The boys found that the coffee table made for a perfect racing track for the matchbox cars they had brought and they used it as such. I mean, who's the idiot who thought that a coffee table would be a good place to lay out snacks? Best of all, Andres and Jack happened upon a feline car carrier which, in addition to carrying cats, also fit two toddlers perfectly. Fun stuff for the 2-3 year old set.

When not redecorating the place or spreading cat hair all around, Andres had a good time playing with his friends. He helped make a pizza and didn't annoy his sister too much.

Celia had a good time too, though she required a little more supervision--the bookshelves were too interesting, and she was tempted to dislodge book after book after book like she does at home. When not reordering books or picking up half-eaten Cheerios from under the rug, she hung out with her brother or played peekabo with the assembled adults.

At some point I noticed that the living room had been taken over by the families and all the single/married-but-not-with-kids were congregating in the kitchen. It was quieter in there, and people could carry on real conversations in consecutive sentences. I think most of my conversations sounded something like this:

"Yeah I'm pretty excited about the Celtics, though--stop; don't do that...this isn't your house--it's tough to know how Shaq and Jermaine will do in June--hey Natalia, should we feed Celia now or later? is she ok?--if they--Andres, I told you not to do that!--if they make it that far."

And that was an interesting sentence. Since we were recently done with the multiple bugs that had infested our house for a couple months, most of my sentences included "poop", "vomit", "nasal congestion" or, for my truly close friends, "enema." I pity the poor people in the kitchen who must have had nothing interesting to talk about.

Rosy cheeks...probably pleading for more Goldfish.

Partying is hard work.

Pete and the new arrival!

Fixing the headband for the 101st time.

I'm not sure which posed a bigger threat to the house: dragons or toddlers.

Enjoying "the last chip" for the 3rd time.