Calvin and his old commuting buddy M catch up over a construction project
The older girls created a three-act puppet show, complete with script, backdrops and lighting care of Calvin's extensive collection of flashlights (torches).
Eventually our TV-shy family declared it to be time for a movie!
If you’d said we’d ever host 18 energetic children in our apartment, and that they’d outnumber the adults by a ratio of 1:1.3 I’d have cheerfully declared you crazy and the situation impossible. Certainly, I could never imagine such an event without:
- Complete and utter chaos
- Various inanimate objects getting broken (no problem)
- Major interpersonal conflicts
- Some kind of physical injury involving our stairs, our hammock, and possibly some combination of the two (problem)
- Someone crying
- An incredible noise level
It turns out that I was right on only a few points: it was chaotic, someone cried and the noise level was deafening. But it was also awesome! Somehow I feel like we’ve passed some kind of parenting milestone :0)
Some of the highlights were:
- A melange of friends from all parts of our lives that worked well — and a huge thank you as they generously bought 65 raffle tickets!
- A lovely, mini-reunion of Calvin’s pre-school friends
- A wonderful puppet show created by some of the guests
- Jay’s awesome chicken wings — better than finger-licking good
- The train-shaped Meyer Lemon pound cake that was a hit with the children. (I admit that for once I cheated and Calvin and I used a Williams Sonoma cake mix… with a cake, a pumpkin bread and two dozen chocolate chip and fresh mint chocolate chip cookies to bake, compromises had to be made!)
It didn’t rain, thankfully, but boy was it freezing, which eventually cut short our time on the deck. Hanging out with the twinkling Christmas lights surrounded by good friends, wine and New York City made for a really special time. Our house has been warmed, christened and we’re loving being here.
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