Sunday Dinner – birthday barbeque style

Mom and Carl were busy (the nerve) and Emma was invited to a birthday party, so we had to forgo our usual Sunday Dinner plans.

“But Mooooom,” I moaned, chanelling my 14 year old self, “our audience needs us,”

“Have patience, my dear,” she reminded me. “Carl’s birthday is next week and it’s my turn, so there’s bound to be something blog-worthy.”

Emma and I went over to my girlfriend Micheliene’s for her daughter Asa’s 5th birthday party. They had a jumpy castle! And food! And every kid in the neighbourhood! You could tell which of the adults were moms, because if there was a kid nearby who needed food/drink/directions to the bathroom/to be told to get out of something, any one of us moms handled it, regardless of whose kid it was.

I like that.

Since the jumpy castle was rented, and Emma couldn’t quite wrap her head around the whole rental/borrowing of something that big, she asked every adult there to explain the concept at least once. Also, on the way over, about halfway across the bridge, Emma started *crying* and insisting we turn around because she forgot to give Daddy a good-bye kiss. I called him when we got there and by that time, she didn’t need to talk to him so much. Not with a big ol’ bouncy castle in sight. It took her forever, but she first got in when no other kids were. I had to remind her of her coping mechanism for when she’s scared of bigger kids (even friendly ones). She RAWRS back at them, real quietly Emma-like. It makes her feel better and in control. Later, she was bouncing around in there with kids AND grown-ups.

Naturally, when it was time to leave, I had to drag her home. “I love you!” she told everyone. Mich had been explaining to her friends, while introducing me, that I was a “big time blogger” and an “internet celebrity” (yeah, I have her fooled ) which goes over about as well as you think if you have to explain what a blog is first.

At one point, sitting around the front steps, some guy was talking about how his roomate needed help and he spotted her a fifty on the rent and then she went and left him a note saying HE owed HER a fifty, and he looked over at me and asked, “Are you getting this down?” and I said, “Talk slower!”

But the best part was the end, when Robert fired off the trebuchet.

( I am not making this up, they really do have a trebuchet in their yard. He fired off a pop bottle full of water, into the empty lot behind them. FOUR TIMES! Once, it almost landed on his head. They’re all crazy at that end of town. But I got caught up on all the good gossip. And? I bet right now Micheliene is popping her head up out of her cubicle at work, yelling, “I got a whole entry in the blog! YES!” )