oh boy.

Last week my mom called and said that she and my dad had to go out of town AND that they were going to miss my brother’s birthday party. She needed an ‘adult’ to be there. I thought, “Sure, I can do that!” “No problem. Right?” Wrong.

I had no idea what it took to “man” a birthday party with 10 boys who were 14 and 15 years old and I found out it was not a piece of cake (ha!). I’m pretty sure I could write a book about just that one day. It was constant action – making more pizzas, cooking a hotdog for the boy who was allergic to cheese, continually mixing up lemonade (over 8 quarts), and much more including putting a smile on my face while one of the boys pounded on the table and yelled, “Servant, we want more lemonade.” I’m thinking, “are you kidding me?” This same boy had no shame when he got me wet on three separate occasions. Where was the respect?

Thankfully my grandparents and little sister were there to help. Couldn’t have done it without them. We talked and played games while the boys played outside.



One of the boys came in to use the bathroom, which is right next to the dining room where my grandparents, sister and I were playing a card game called hand and foot. I could tell the boy was already a little sheepish and he said, “Isn’t there a fan in here?” My grandma immediately responded, “Oh, are you hot?” I quickly added, “You can use the bathroom upstairs.” As he went upstairs, my grandma and I laughed for about three minutes straight. Oh, the poor boy.

I found out later that while we were hanging out in the house, the boys were actually jumping from the bridge on the road into our creek. Had my grandma known, she probably would have had a heart attack.



Then there was the bonfire. We didn’t have a garbage can outside, so I told one of the boys to throw his plastic in the fire. This definitely resulted in conflict. One of the boys informed us that plastic was not good to burn and that nobody should throw anymore plastic into the fire. Two of the boys continued arguing for a good 10 minutes.

At 6pm the parents were supposed to arrive to pick up the children. At 6:09pm my grandma told me I should call the parents and remind them that their kids were here and make sure they remembered. Oh, my grandma is really funny. My grandparents left and I decided against doing that, but probably should have because one of the parent’s did not arrive until after 8pm. Oh, well. And, to tell you the truth, the birthday party was fun and the boys were fun to get to know...and for the most part very well behaved.

But, let me tell you. When I woke up on Monday morning, I was SO tired. I can’t believe my mom and other moms do these birthday parties multiple times a year. I never knew.