I was just looking back through drafts of things I have written over the years that never quite made it onto the blog.  I’m not sure why I didn’t push the button on this one, because it is pretty funny.  🙂  I wrote it about a year and a half ago.

The Stages of Adulting

Before we had children, and even when the kids were babies, Jason and I had friends to our house quite often.  We loved inviting our friends over and grilling out. It was something we really enjoyed, but stopped doing as time passed.  You know, everyone was busy with their kids and jobs and just doing adult-stuff.

Plus, we start yawning around 8:00 now.

A few weeks ago we celebrated Jason’s 40th birthday.  We had lots of people over, and we had a great time celebrating him.

After most people had left, two of my friends and I were sitting in the kitchen.  These girls and I have spent many, many hours sitting in that same spot talking about who-knows-what (Because what did we talk about before we had kids, anyway?) while our husbands (or boyfriends at the time) did whatever men do in the garage. I mentioned how much our lives have changed since those days and how much we used to get together before we all had kids. Of course we all agreed that we should do this more often, because we really should do this more often.

This made me think that maybe we would start seeing each other more, because we’re now in the third stage of grown-up get-togethers: 40th birthday parties!

You are probably familiar with the other stages:

1-Weddings- Jason and I were pretty young when we got married so we were the first of our group of friends to host this get-together, and I will humbly admit that we (well, mostly my mom) set the bar pretty high.  🙂 We aren’t ones to turn down a wedding invite, so for awhile we went to a lot of weddings and those were great opportunities to see everyone.  We even got to travel for a few weddings, which was great!

2-Baby showers & kids bday parties- We’re still in this stage, and will probably be here for awhile! It’s a lot different from the wedding stage, but there is still cake involved, so it gets a thumbs-up from me.

3-40th birthday parties- This is the third circle of celebrations in adulthood, and it’s fairly new to us.  We’ve been invited to a couple, and, as I mentioned before, hosted Jason’s recently.  There’s an eclectic mix of darkness (you know, the teasing that death is looming) and celebration of life.  I’m looking forward to going to more of these, but not looking so forward to my own…..

4. You know the last round of get-togethers. I must have heard my grandma say it a million times: “The only time I ever get to see my friends anymore is at funerals.” Unfortunately, I can totally understand how this could happen! We get so tied up with life and kids and eventually grandkids, and just taking care of so much, that the only time we will see our friends anymore is when we are forced to see them at funerals.

So, I stopped writing there.  I made it a goal of mine over the summer to try to do more with my friends, but I was pretty much a failure at that.  I’m going to need some people to turn 40 this year so I can see you guys (but let’s avoid the 4th option if we can…).

So, I had to cancel all of our wonderful Saturday plans this morning when Maddie woke up with a stomach virus.  Dreams of manicures and pedicures and birthday parties out the window.  Jason was spending the day playing in a golf tournament, so a long Saturday at home stretched before me.

Needless to say, the kids and I started the day in a funk.  To get over this, we decided to have a tea party for lunch. We had little sandwiches and little muffins and blueberries and cantaloupe, and we drank water out of tea cups sitting on their own dishes.  Maddie brought 2 dolls to the tea party, and Charlie brought his stuffed shark, “Sharky,” who kept disrupting the formal affair with his pooting and burping.

I learned several things at this tea party:

1-The kids will eat lots of anything, as long as it is cut up very small and you call it “mini” whatever.

2-You MUST drink your “tea” with your pinky finger in the air.

3-There is no pooting at tea parties.

4-You must drink your tea with a loud slurping sound.

5-There is no burping at tea parties.

I learned a lot, but the most important thing I learned is that we won’t be going to the O’Henry for the Nutcracker Tea in December.  Or if we do, we won’t bring Sharky along!

A few weeks ago, I read A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving to C and M.  In the book, Charlie Brown (accidentally) has all of his friends over for Thanksgiving lunch.  Of course, C wanted to invite all of his friends over for Thanksgiving lunch, so the kids got to choose a few friends to have over today.

We sent out Evites, then began planning our lunch.  We decided to make our lunch like the first Thanksgiving, and I was surprised, upon looking further into it, that the first Thanksgiving was really nothing like the Thanksgiving we celebrate today!

Here is some information about our lunch today.

When the kids got here, they decorated vests that I had cut out of paper grocery bags.  You just cut up the middle of the bag, cutting a hole in the bottom of the bag for the head, then turn the bag inside out so the writing is on the inside, then add arm holes on each side for their arms. Then the kids colored their vests.  Here’s Charlie modeling for you!!

The kids also made headdresses using construction paper, feathers, and tape.  We dug out the Halloween makeup to paint their faces.

Maddie, of course, had to be an Indian princess!

The kids sat on the floor to have their lunch, just like the pilgrims and Indians sat on the ground, or on a stump.

And our lunch was really strange, but simple!  We had fish sticks, rice pudding, carrots, and plain cranberries (like the first Thanksgiving), plus some pizza (which the pilgrims did not have:)).

While the kids were eating, I gave them a little info about the first Thanksgiving.  It was really interesting to learn that they actually ate eel, cabbage, carrots, and spice pudding.  There was no sugar (so no pumpkin pie or cranberry salad), and possibly no turkey at the first Thanksgiving!

This was a really fun day for us, and required very little preparation or work on my end. It would be good for a group of kids, or a fun lunch for you and your kids one day before Thanksgiving.  And who doesn’t love fish sticks?

If you do decide to do it, you should check out Scholastic’s website  or Mother Hubbard’s website for some great information on the first Thanksgiving!

Even though we haven’t officially started school yet in our family, we still love to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation.  Technically, my life right now is just one long summer vacation, but summer vacation still means something to us-enjoying being outside, going to the beach and the pool, and seeing friends who have been in school all year. The library in Goldston where we go to story time every week has a huge party to celebrate the end of the school year and kick off the summer reading program.  

Even though it was absolutely sweltering-over 90 degrees by 12:00- we had fun playing in the shade.  Around 130 people came to have hotdogs and ice cream and listen to good music.  There was a cake walk, face painting, and a park ranger who gave the kids some interesting info about animals in our area.  

Maddie checking out the bubble machine.

Ladderball! This game is a bit nerve-wracking when pre-schoolers are involved!

Charlie got a snake painted on his leg-he just loves it. When Jason got home, he said, “Daddy, there is a snake on my leg.  Don’t worry, it isn’t real.”  

Maddie chose a sun for her cheek. She doesn’t look too happy in this picture, but she really loved it. When I showed it to her in the mirror she just smiled and smiled.

My friend La’eeqa and her boys.

And another friend Nanzetta with part of her brood.

Some of the kids enjoying their hotdogs while they listen to the music.

Cakewalk!

This is one of Charlie’s prizes from the cakewalk. When he puts it on, he really thinks that we don’t recognize him!

I just love my story time group so much.  I have made some great friends through it and the kids have, too.  Today was a great start to our summer!

Am I the only one who just cannot believe that Charlie is 4?  His birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but yesterday we finally got around to celebrating with a superhero party!  We had such a great time with our family and our friends.  We are so blessed to be surrounded by people who love us!  When I woke up yesterday morning and started stressing about the party, I just asked Jesus to help make this a special time for Charlie, for everyone to come and just celebrate his little life, and that’s what happened!

The party was themed around Charlie’s latest obsession: superheroes!

Batman and Superman on their favorite form of transportation! The Batmobile!

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Supermaddie! Maddie was really upset when I had to explain to her that she couldn’t literally fly.

Emma and Casey

Batman and Iron Man

Aaron with a Nerf gun-they had some sort of complicated game they were playing!

Sam shooting down Aaron and Nick.

Superman (John) whacking the pinata

Noah getting the final hit!

And Charlie getting in one more for good measure!

We had a great afternoon!  Charlie has been busy playing with all of his new goodies.  Thank you to everyone!