It looks like a dozen or so little girls buzzing and shimmering all over the park, eating pizza and cake and smacking at a piñata.
It was noisy but since we were all outside, the squealing didn’t make my ears bleed.
The occasion was Bananas’ golden birthday party. The only reason I was there (I’m not in the habit of crashing first grader’s birthday parties…although the cakes are delicious!) was that Babydoll and Babalouie had been invited and Megan and I used the event as the perfect time to swap the kids.
I had agreed to take the babies overnight so Megan and Tyler could have a grown up party with some good friends who were in from out of town. Megan and I met at the park, joined the party and the kids didn’t even notice when their mom abandoned them to the tender mercies of Nana!
After all the girls had taken turns burying each other in the sand at the playground, their mom’s picked them up and I took my grandies home with me. I also took home an extra pizza. Score!
When we got home, we put on our swimsuits and went down to the park. The wading pool was the perfect way to cool down and get frosting out of those hard to reach places. Babalouie’s neck folds can hold a lot of food.
After playing like maniacs all day, we came home and ate mac ‘n cheese, curled up together in the recliner and watched Finding Nemo.
The kids both crashed by nine o’clock and slept all night long.
Sunday morning, I popped them in the stroller and we marched around the lake together. It was hot and gorgeous. After lunch, we headed west to yet another family birthday party.
This one was out at my cousin Mary’s house, in honor of her brother Billy, who turned fifty.
Fifty is a big deal birthday for everyone but especially for Billy. Born with Down Syndrome, he wasn’t expected to live more than two or three years.
“Just think!” Billy’s proud and happy dad said, “When he was born, the doctor told us ‘the signs point to your child being a mongoloid idiot.’ That’s what they called them in those days. He told us that taking our baby home would only disrupt the family and the best thing we could do was to turn him over to the state home. They’d take care of him there for the short time these kids had. We said no thanks, we’re taking our baby home. And now here we are! Fifty years later!”
The party was a blast.
Mary and her husband Mike own a big ranch west of town. Like Megan’s family, they rodeo. One of the two large barns has an indoor arena as well as stables for their dozen or so horses. On Sunday, the horses were all corralled outside. The barn had been turned into a giant dining room/dance hall for the party.
The party began in the circular drive beneath the shade of the trees surrounding the house, where an outdoor mass had been set up. A priest, for whom Billy had served as an altar boy thirty some years ago said the mass and Billy served again. The music was provided by a cowboy with a guitar. It was beautiful.
It’s hard to ride herd on two toddlers at mass. It’s really hard when it’s an outdo mass and there are horses right over there, Nana! Let’s go say hi! Come on!
As if the horse corrals fifty yards away weren’t enough to beckon my two horse crazy grandkids, the trail that led that way was lined with enormous balloon bouquets. Big, yellow balloons, billowing in the wind, practically singing “Come on kids, let’s go say hi to all the pretty horsies!”
So we did.
After mass, they cut all the balloons free and we watched as a hundred or so yellow balloons flew over the house, the trees and off into the clouds. It was awesome!
Babydoll and Babalouie each tried to hold a balloon for about twenty seconds but it was much more fun to watch them fly away.
Then we headed into the barn for lunch.
There were tables set up, a band playing and at least three long buffet style tables of food.
The floor of the barn was an inch deep in sawdust and wood shavings. My grandkids were much more interested in throwing wood shavings at each other than eating. I was having fun seeing lots of cousins I hadn’t seen in a while and showing off my grandkids.
Eventually, I dumped the babies on my parents so I could fill up some plates for us. The food was great but all the kids wanted was watermelon. There was a lot of watermelon.
Ty and Megan made it out to Mary’s around three to pick up the kids, eat some birthday cake and dance.
The band was good; they played all sorts of music but all very danceable. When they did UpTown Funk, my Dad turned to my Mom and said “they’re playing our song!”
I was happy to introduce Mary and Mike to Megan because they have that whole horse/rodeo thing in common.
I’d been to Mary’s place before but I’d never actually been inside the house, which they’d built and had decorated by a very close friend of my Mom’s.
I’d seen Ginny’s own apartment; very contemporary, gorgeous and sophisticated yet comfortable. She went another direction with Mike and Mary. I can only describe it as Nineteenth Century Wyoming Cattle Baron with all the modern amenities. It’s breathtaking.
You want a deep porch that wraps all the way around the house? Check.
Need enough of it screened so you can have dinner parties out there? Check.
Want a soaring great room complete with giant stone fireplace? Check.
How ‘bout a cutting edge kitchen designed to blend into the woodwork? Check.
A ‘man cave’ that looks like someplace Wyatt Earp would feel at home? Check.
Five bedrooms big enough for king-sized beds, armoires, sitting areas, walk in closets and wall sized views of the woods behind the house? Check.
Beautifully appointed bathrooms artfully tucked into corners often enough so no one ever has to wait? Check.
I loved it.
I don’t want to live in a house like that but OH I like knowing people who do!
The gardens surrounding the house were as spectacular as everything else. The hosta were flowering and Babydoll was disappointed when I wouldn’t let her snap all the flowers. I told her that she gets to snap my flowers but we had to let other people snap their own.
I left the party around five because Jay was due to land. He’d been in Montana, speaking at a coach’s clinic and enjoying a Northern Lights reunion. He spent five days golfing, laughing and visiting with guys who played for him twenty five to thirty years ago. He had a blast! The clinic wasn’t in Havre, where we’d lived and he’d coached, but in Great Falls, where one of our former players is now practically the mayor.
They’d all been kids back in the eighties when Jay was the brash young hot headed coach, whose antics were such that the boosters liked to sit right behind the bench and bet on how far into the game Jay would rip off his jacket and throw it at someone.
I used to sit up in the balcony with the kids because I didn’t want Tyler and Katie to hear their dad using that kind of language.
Now all those kids are grown up and successful and Jay has won so many games (by such big margins) that for the last fifteen years or so he’s been able to sit through a game without raising his voice or standing up. Now JT does all the yelling and pacing.
When I left the party, Babydoll and Babalouie were dancing like maniacs and kicking up a cloud of wood shavings.
Monday, I worked all day long to make up for taking off the entire weekend.
Tuesday, I dropped off my orders and Ginny (a different Ginny) told me that the sale would be this weekend. She gave me a list of things that it would be great if they had them in the shop for the sale.
I love painting the little things like Christmas ornaments and Bears. It’s not very often I get an opportunity to paint $400 worth of Christmas ornaments. All I had to do was get them all painted in 48 hours.
And I’d already promised Megan that I’d come watch the kids on Wednesday so she could go set up her classroom.
No biggie, I’d paint at night!
I usually take Tuesday and Wednesday off, since I work through the weekends. This week I came home from the shop and set to work. I painted until Jay came home and made me dinner. He opened a bottle of wine so I didn’t go back upstairs after dinner. I painted for an hour Wednesday morning before heading out to the ranch.
Then I spent the whole day playing with the kids.
Even though Babalouie took a three hour nap during the afternoon, I was completely exhausted by the time Megan came home. No wonder I was so skinny when my kids were little. If I got that much exercise every day now, I’d still be a size 4.
Oh hell, if I got that kind of exercise every day now, I’d be dead in a week.
It would be worth it.
Last week, Dennis Prager did an ultimate issues hour about doing things you don’t necessarily want to do, because they make others feel good. For instance, do you make your kids hug their grandparents, even if they don’t want to, because it makes grand ma and grand pa happy?
As the Grandma, I feel it’s my job to make sure my grandkids not only want to hug me, but launch themselves at me when they see me coming.
So far, so good.
I got home Wednesday evening and went straight back to work.
(Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m also in the middle of refinishing our deck. I had to do it this week; it’s the first time all summer where the forecast predicted six days with no rain. Our deck is huge so I did it in three separate stages; beyond the porch, in front of the porch and from the porch to the driveway. Zack helped me move the furniture and flower pots from the bit I worked on and I did one coat in the morning and the second coat in midafternoon. That way it was dry enough to walk on by dinner time. I did the far end and middle last week. Couldn’t work on it while the kids were here. Had to do the last bit on Monday and Tuesday because rain was predicted for Thursday. So in between filling orders, I was out back, rolling stain onto my big ass deck. I used Deck Correct by Cobalt and I must say; it really does look like new! I just hope it holds up through the winter. I don’t want to have to do this every year.)
I came down from my office when Jay got home and we replaced all the furniture and flower pots on to the finished deck. Then he mowed the lawn and we made dinner. No wine, I had to get back upstairs. After dinner I cranked out another bunch of ornaments.
This morning dawned rainy. I’m so glad I finished the deck!
I got to work early. I painted for three hours and brought my stack of ornaments up to the shop at lunch time. The place was closed today so Ginny and Merry could get things ready for the sale tomorrow and Saturday.
I came home and hit the wall. I just got up from a two hour nap.
I can’t run at this pace very long.