The Halloween posse came over this morning for a pre-New Year's celebration, with noon standing in as midnight, and today standing in as the 31st. (One of the families is going out of town for the next few days, so it had to be today.)
If you've ever been in a house with six kids from three families, you have a sense of the decibel level. The kids were – quite literally – running circles around each other, throwing paper airplanes and screaming at pitches that operatic sopranos can't hit.
The Wife organized a round of holiday Bingo (“B-doggie” “Bingo!”), which kept the kids contained in one room for a little while. Sugary snacks were in abundance, so the level of kid-energy ramped up steadily as the party continued.
At one point, The Boy and his Evil Sidekick ran into the room brandishing a whoopee cushion. Evil Sidekick declared, “you blow it up and I'll fart it!” That sentence may be entirely new to the English language.
TB lost his first tooth during the party. It could be anywhere. I shudder to think of the possibilities.
Since we had to commemorate the occasion properly, The Wife handed out kazoos, bowler hats, and tiaras to all of the kids at the appointed time. The bowler hats were a good idea, but in retrospect, the kazoos were questionable. You've heard of power chords? Like that, but with kazoos. Scary.
TB's girlfriend was the stately one, conducting herself as quite the little lady in the midst of the chaos surrounding her. She's sort of the Sigourney Weaver to The Boy's Bill Murray and Evil Sidekick's, uh, Other Guy. I hope she can hold onto that.
When the posse left, my ears were ringing and the living room was a shadow of its former self. But it's good. Per usual, The Boy is ahead of us – he thinks it's already 2007. The Girl had a blast with the other two-year-olds, even if she had no idea what the occasion was supposed to be. I suspect that our actual New Year's celebration will pale by comparison, even if the food is better.
Still no sign of the tooth...
