Jenna was so excited to be going to
Melody’s dragon themed birthday party. We both
wished we lived closer so that the girls could spend more time together –
though my cousin is ALWAYS connected to a schedule – or it seems, wanting to
make plans and have get togethers but rarely ever finding the time.
She and her husband seem to spring for
more elaborate parties than Roland and I could ever give – though we have
attempted a few times – there was always a restriction on how many friends
could be invited. Always less than
ten. I’m guessing Melody’s invites have
always been 30 – 50.
Michelle and John started out with
Gymboree, MusicTogether, and other
playful invites. Michelle didn’t want to
deal with the mess at her own house – though I don’t think this is actually the
first year it has been at their house. One
year they held it at the Leonardo . Jenna was unable to attend.
In the past, Michelle had always given a definite time
with instructions to PLEASE be on time.
I always felt that was awfully nervy of her as (for as long as I’ve
known her) she has never been on time for a celebration event – unless she is
hosting. But even with that, she was not
as organized as she should have been – and though she had left instructions for
her guests as they arrived – the party did not really start on time in my
opinion. But then not everybody showed
up on time. In fact, most seemed to drag
in on Michelle Standard Time.
They were blessed with such awesome
weather this year – awesome for all those invited and had to drive the hills to
get to John and Michelle’s house – and driving there in bad weather is less
than awesome. I was happy that only the
first day of November (thus far) was the only November looking day we’ve had
thus far. And I hope that this Indian
Summer will linger forever for it is truly my favorite season (take away the
politics)
I wish she would have done name
tags. I have in previous years. Jenna’s friends all go to different schools
and not everybody knows everybody else – which is how it has been at each of
Melody’s parties. When Jenna turned 7 I had
passed out tags with a colored shape in one corner. That way I could mix up the children into
teams without them saying: “Oh, I want to be on so and so’s team” “Why can’t I be with so and so?”
Each game I would scramble up the
children. “I need red and blue on one
team and orange and green on the other.”
“I need triangles and circles over here and squares and rectangles over
there.” I think it worked out pretty
well. But that’s me. Michelle is usually not as organized. Although she appeared to have put a lot of
thought into the activities this year – some of it just didn’t come together
until the last minute.
The kids were on a dragon hunt. Jenna said she misplaced her paper. She didn’t appear to be having fun. She said it was because Melody wasn’t having
fun. I truthfully hadn’t noticed – but
did hear from both mom and dad that she was being a brat. Why are so many birthday children like
that? Enjoy the day. Enjoy your friends. Have gratitude to mom and dad for giving you
a party. I’m blessed that Jenna has not acted bratty at any of her parties thus
far.
At one point I guess Michelle told
Melody that if she didn’t behave, she would have to go inside and her friends
would have her party without her. Maybe
Jenna heard that and misplaced her paper out of fear. She didn’t finish the dragon hunt. She actually didn’t seem to participate as
much as she normally does.
When it came time for cake, Melody said
she had picked out specific dragons for specific guests and would be in charge
of passing them out. And I think she
probably really had picked certain dragons out for some of her guests – but not
all 18 of them or 22 or how many ever there were. Michelle kept on saying who needed cupcakes
still, and Melody practically threw a fit.
As Michelle continued to pass out
cupcakes as Melody pretended to put thought into them, I heard some of the
children ask one another if they would like to trade dragons. One guest, aware of Melody’s feelings and
behavior said, “You can’t trade dragons” which came out more like, “If I’m
getting stuck with this dragon, than everybody has to keep the dragon that they
were given.”
Michelle’s sister, Rosa, had asked me
about mom – and I started bawling as I spilled off my descriptions of her. Mom had actually called me while I was at
Michelle’s house. She sounded normal –
like had been two Saturdays ago. That’s
when I like to visit. When she knows I’m
her daughter and isn’t oblivious to my being there even – like she was on Thursday,
for example. She (her mind) wasn’t even
there for the most part. I am having a very hard time with it. I think possibly worse than Corey.
After the party had ended, Jenna asked
if we could continue to stay so that she could play with Melody. I had told her okay, and tried to get a hold
of Roland to find out his plans. He didn’t
answer the phone.
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