Tonight, one of Dan’s coworkers was throwing a housewarming party. He’s a friend of ours, and a very nice guy, so we wanted to go and celebrate with him. We were all invited, but when I found out the party didn’t start until 8, I was a little skeptical that it would really be kid-friendly, and I made Dan confirm which of us were invited.
He truly did intend for all of us to come, and he even informed us that our boys wouldn’t be the only kids at the party. We decided to go, put in a quick appearance, and head home before it got TOO late. Our plan was to arrive right at 8 and stay for an hour, getting the kids home and into bed within an hour of their bedtime — not too bad for a Saturday night on a long weekend.
But, we ran late. We didn’t even leave the house until well after 8, and we didn’t arrive until quarter after 9.
Grown up parties are a lot of fun. For grown ups. Although our hosts were very welcoming and relaxed about the kids, our evening became a blur of chasing kids, picking up dropped objects, enforcing table manners, saying “excuse me” and ” don’t touch that”, protecting the kids from the sharp corners and the delicate items from the kids and trying to provide entertainment to our kids without being antisocial to the other adults.
The first time I checked to see if it was time to go, we hadn’t even been there half an hour.
It was not an unfriendly place. Although we didn’t know anyone other than one of our two hosts, people smiled and talked to the kids, and tried to chat with us — it’s hard, though when you don’t get to stand still for more than 2 minutes at a time. We got to mingle a lot, but we didn’t get to talk to anyone for very long. The “other kids” turned out to be one 8 year old boy who was persistently irritated that we didn’t speak more German.
It was a long hour.
But, we saw the new place and talked to a few people. No one got injured and nothing got broken. We got home after 11, completely exhausted. But, by some miracle, the kids were in good spirits and didn’t fall apart. We were all giggling and smiling when we came in the front door, and now (just an hour later) the boys are sleeping peacefully, and I won’t be long behind them. Grown up parties are a lot of work.