As I might have mentioned, birthdays are kind of a big deal for Katie, so this year she decided to have two.  The first one was pretty good, at least to start with, but struggled to keep up the momentum late in the off-season due to some injuries, penalties, fines, and incarcerations, primarily owing to disrupted naps and Irish heritage.  The second one was last night.  Katie had been thinking of planning her old-school bowling party, but realized that our boys were a little too young to come along, most of her friends would be as hard pressed as her to find baby sitters, and honestly a party is just more fun if someone gets naked, and we’re far too old and respectable for adults to fill that roll, so we’d might as well have some kids around.  Wait, now that I re-read that it sounds really creepy.  Let’s just move on.

So we planned the party about 3 weeks ago.  I say “we” because anyone who knows my wife knows that there was no way she was going to leave this to me.  And in case anyone decides (for the first time in the history of my relationship with Katie) to stick up for my dignity, let me assure you that I was completely happy without being responsible for making this evening go completely right.  There was little enough advanced warning that we figured not many people would be able to come, so we overbooked a bit.  After the first 3 families RSVP’d “yes” we figured, “that’s good enough – now at least we won’t be sad.”  Then all but one other family RSVP’d “yes”, and I started preparing to find a quiet corner to hide.  Fortunately we were inviting Tristine, and she’s as overwhelmed by crowds as I am, so she’s usually eager to find a quieter corner to sit down and chat.  Of course I then get accused of trying to carry on an affair, on Katie’s day no less, so there’s really no winning.

We planned a 3:30 long party, with subs from Katie’s favorite sandwich shop, pizza for the kids, some games, goodie bags, cake, and I don’t know what all else.  We’ve been running all over the place for the last few days trying to pull it all together.  Remember when I said last Christmas that we were going to try and simplify this year?  Less on the to-do list?  Yeah, about that…  Well, at least we’re trying.  On the plus side, when it came time to decorate, I barely had to mention to Malina that I wasn’t sure if I could get it done and would she maybe – and she was off and running.  She had streamers all over the place, balloons tied around the house, and pictures or sayings written over every window.  Thank God for au pairs…

People started filtering in around 5 or so, and soon the noise level grew.  The boys were in pretty good form, all other things being equal.

Katie had grand ambitions of games an activities, but with the scattered arrivals, the lack of available seats at the table (and subsequent taking of turns at having dinner), and the fact that she kind of wanted to talk to some of her friends that she hadn’t seen in months or years, we never really got to that part.  At least Karl pooped on the carpet for us, though.

We got to meet Kathy’s new addition, Zachary, a very chubby-cheeked 6 month old who spent most of the night in smiles.

We’d pulled a lot of toys out of the house and re-arranged furniture (you can see the train table gave way to a “kids table” – a picnic table that spent a week drying in our garage).  Soon the reason was apparent, as the Yates-family daycare was running full-speed ahead.

Ethan (Yeri and Mike’s son) took a little while to warm up to us, but once he did I don’t think he wanted to leave.  One plus side of abandoning your home to children is that children like it.

Later on we remembered it was Katie’s birthday, and we got ready for cake and singing.  Katie got hats for everyone, and we were all required to wear them.

Fortunately the hats didn’t detract from the true purpose of the evening – to afford the Women of Boeing (current and former) the opportunity to gossip unfettered by the restrictions of workplace etiquette.  I don’t think Amy moved from that chair the entire evening.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, oh my god my wife’s getting old, happy birthday to you!!!

And can you guess who was first in line for his piece of cake?  The boys are clever.  I never thought I’d see the day Katie would forgo her chance to be first through the food line.

Sometimes people became a little confused on how the hats were supposed to work, but at least there were no Madonna impressions.

I’m sad to say we didn’t manage to capture a cute photo of Ashlyn this time, mostly because every time she came near me I had to quickly put the camera in a safe place and defend myself.  It got so bad that I ran out of places to hide, so realized that the only potential solution was to stack the girls (Katie and Ashlyn) on the couch and sit on them, and enlist Nicky’s help in keeping them in line (i.e., tickling them).

Of course it didn’t last, and as soon as I tried to find another corner, I was beset once again by the Cheng-family horde.  Fortunately Nic rode to my rescue yet again.

All told a rather successful evening.  A few guests ended up staying long after the official 8:30pm end time, and for the first time ever we let the boys stay up late, until nearly 10:00pm.  They were being so good playing with Becca, and it was so nice just sitting down and chatting, that we figured we’d just deal with the consequences the next day.  The boys held up great, though making it upstairs and into bed afterward required some creative negotiations.

I hope it’s what Katie was looking for.  Like I said, she’s kinda awesome, and as overwhelming packed as it was it was also really cool to see how many of Katie’s friends wanted to come and see her on her special week.  Happy Birthday, Katie!