This weekend is all about the parties!

My third son is having a party here right now as I write this. Oh man! I have never had this many kids in my house at one time before. And we have had lots of big parties... but this takes the cake! There must be 50 or 60 kids here right now. And there have been many that have already come and gone. Our street is literally lined with cars. At least 25 up and down the street and in the driveway. Some even down the other street! The kids have now started to move outside...some in front and some in back. But still a lot in the basement and pretty much everywhere else they can find to go! His good friend Ben asked if he could have his party here when he turned 17. Actually he told me that I owed it to him to let him have his party here because of some long ago thing he did for me. I did owe him, and so I was great with it. Ben is the kind of kid that you HAVE to like. It is impossible to NOT like him. He has that kind of personality and way about him. He could get anyone to do anything for him. He is just a great kid. When I heard he was sending out invitations I got a little concerned knowing that meant there would be a lot of people here, but I didn't expect quite this many! Then when I realized it fell on the night before my parent's 50th Anniversary party, which I knew would be the day I was making and decorating the cake for the open house, I was a little more -stressed - shall we say? Thankfully I was able to get the cake done about two hours before the party and so the stress was mostly relieved. At least until I heard someone say, "Hey, cake! Is this for us?" Aaaa!!!!

Bryce said something about me taking pictures (knowing my habit of that!) informing me that it was NOT cool to do that at a party and so of course I got out my camera and took a few shots! But then I decided he was right and felt awkward taking photos because it is dark and I had to have a flash and so I stopped. Someday I will be sorry I didn't take more, but I decided I better not embarrass him (or me!) anymore. I am upstairs in my room writing this and I can still hear lots of music, lots of noise, lots of laughing, and a couple of fireworks I heard just go off. Hmm... I keep going down and checking things out but I'm kind of not sure what to do with myself. I like all his friends and I love talking to them but I know they don't really want me in the middle of things at a party. That's better done in a smaller group! lol I love having his friends hang out here and so I am not complaining. It's always more fun to have them all here than somewhere else. Plus I get to learn lots of things about these kids just by listening from afar!

When I asked Bryce what he wanted to do about food for this, he informed me to not worry about that. What? Not worry about food at a party!? You kiddn' me? I am a mom, that's my job! I told him we had to have some food. He told me that they were only going to need drinks. Just drinks? Hmm.... I still did the Bagel Bites, pretzels, chips, candy bars etc. That worked great at first when there was only about 25 here. Now I can see WHY he told me to not worry about it. It would be impossible to keep this many mouths happy! Tomorrow is a big day with my parent's big open house and so I am going to have to send them all on their way in about an hour. Fun, fun! I do love parties! I am just glad this one is happening at our house when we are HOME and not gone! Could always be worse!!! Party on...!!! Another BIG one for us tomorrow!!!

The few photos I did take...

That is Ben on the left....

Working on the anniversary cake
Finishing touches....

I will tier it and add flowers tomorrow