But the weather was fantastic, we had a great spot with a shaded spot with a bunch of picnic tables and a bounce house with a slide and not too many meltdowns or bashed bodies (which always amazes me when there is a bounce house involved).
The morning prep was interrupted by a not very fun trip to the emergency room as my wife, in the midst of making frosting for her fabulous gluten-free cupcakes, got her finger caught on the wrong end of a Braun stick blender. It gashed her finger up pretty good and I could tell that it really, really hurt like a mofo. But, a mere $220 later, no stitches as the damage was superficial and could be repaired by butterfly closures and a good wrap. Oh and some antibiotics and pain pills.
The party itself was a good time once we got everything sorted out and set up. I wish we'd known about the parking issues as there was a soccer game being played and literally every single parking spot was occupied, people were even double parking and blocking people in!
One annoying aspect of having the party in a park, especially one where there was an adult soccer game being played is that there are scads of bored kids looking for something to do. And that big puffy bounce house looks like something fun to do. I didn't really want to have the bouncer opened up to the entire group of kids at the park before our party started. Not only was there no supervision of them, there were a bunch of them, they were older and our kids aren't very big yet. But we consented to let them play around. Then they asked for a drink and then another wanted a drink. It becomes a very slippery slope.You don't want to be a jerk and tell them to piss off but you also don't want them invading your party, eating and drinking all of your food and generally just adding to the chaos. Of course, there are no parents keeping an eye on their kids, they are on their own.
And two older brothers came over, asked to bounce, got permission, got inside and started getting wild almost immediately. I booted them out because I had no interest in one of them accidentally clocking my kids as they flipped around.
The food we'd gotten was outstanding. I mean, really, really friggin' excellent. We ordered the food from the same place that did our wedding a number of years ago and their food is every bit as awesome now as it was then. And I've been eating the leftovers all week and loving every bite. Seriously, if you're local and you want an awesome deal on an even more awesome meal then go hit up D'La Colmena on East Lake in Watsonville. They will do you up right!
It was fun but I'm glad its done though I am doubly or triply happy that our cousins were able to be here for the party. We don't get to see them enough but when we do, Grady and his cousin, Aiden, are like the absolute bestest of best friends ever. It is kind of pretty awesome.
It also makes me miss my own cousin, Davy (or Davis as he likes to be called now since we're in our 40's). We used to be the two peas in a pod pals but somewhere along the way, he went one way, I went the other and that's that. It isn't like there is any reason just that he lives in Vermont and I live in California and there's not a whole lot of contact. He's also got two wild boys of his own (and I think a third on the way) so his "free" time is pretty limited.Anyway, we survived, everyone had fun and we're still working through all of the awesome gifts the boys received.
