The teens filled the backyard patio area, played basketball in the pool and talked while in the hot tub. There was a lot of talking and laughing and happy sounds going on. No drama or problems occured, which in and of itself was a blessing. Calmness and "just having a good time" is common with the kids on this team, so I should not have been surprised that it all went so smoothly.
The adults stayed indoors. My husband and I really enjoyed putting on the party for people who really wanted to visit us and spend time with us. Together we cooked and baked all day to provide nearly all from-scratch food for the party. It also felt great to have multiple rooms in the house unpacked and looking fantastic and usable.
As I talked and laughed with new friends, I sometimes looked out the windows, and I was in disbelief. I have never had girls in itty bitty bikinis strutting around my home mingling with young men. These girls are not girls, they are young women, let me correct my language. There were hormones flying around, you could sense it in the air. There were two couples exuding happy vibes. This is not at all the typical birthday party I've been throwing for my sons.
Last year my son's birthday was just days after we moved to Texas, but before our stuff on the moving truck arrived. We were staying in a friend's guest home an hour away from where we were to move into the temporary rental house. My son knew no one to invite to a party, so he didn't have one. It was pretty pathetic to be honest. It was such a stressful week the events are fuzzy in my memory but I am certain we went out to dinner as a family.
In Connecticut for the 13th birthday and previous years, at my son's request he had sleepover parties with his closest friends. Those parties were boy-only affairs. They involved either a trip to the movies or playing video games and prior to that, water fights with super soakers and water balloons from the big swingset's forts, or battles with light sabers. Those parties were pretty simple, and consisted of good clean boy fun.
The last co-ed party was when my son turned six and we held a big party, it turned out to be a big mistake, to combine the large family party with entire homeschool families. We had 75 present, ranging from infants to teens and their parents. Well, one set of parents snuck out and their boisterous son took an old metal lunchbox from the playroom and bashed my niece across the face with it. She was in pain but was not cut, still it was harsh and I wasn't used to kids being wild and violent like that. He was a new-to-the-area homeschooler who we were trying to make feel welcome. So much for that. The party was chaos. Have you ever tried cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for 75 on a small grill? It's a nightmare. And it was August, hot, sunny and humid.
Things are changing. My sons are growing up. This is how it should be, I know, but it still feels strange sometimes. Is that young man really my son? I look at my son, a young man, and I remember him as little boy, and how back then I could not imagine what he would look like at age 10 let alone at 15 or 20. That used to drive me crazy. I would stare at his face and try to imagine how it would change as he grew, and I couldn't see it in the mind's eye. I wondered what he would act like and what kind of a young man he would someday become. I see how it is unfolding now, and I am happy and proud.
