Earlier this week, a teen we know asked if she could throw my daughter a surprise sixteenth birthday party.
At my house.
You realize I’ve been deathly ill, that I work twelve to sixteen hours a day, and I’m going to school more than double full time.
I said “Sure! That would be so awesome! She won’t let me throw her one! What day?”
Thursday. (No school Friday.)
That’s cool. I can con somebody into cleaning up the living room, right? They don’t need to see the rest of the messy house. I mention to my kids that some classmates are coming over Thursday night. (I didn’t say whose classmates.) And offer monetary rewards for a little housecleaning help. They roll their eyes and shudder. Mom’s having friends over? Ewww.
Teen friend calls back Wednesday to let me in on what they are planning. About the only thing I catch is that they want to do a whole house scavenger hunt. After that, I pretty much went into whole body shock. I think my husband could sense this. I can’t think of another explanation for his sudden ability to maneuver a vacuum cleaner and dust counter tops.
My sister-in-law says she’ll make caramel corn. My father-in-law volunteers his homemade rootbeer. My sister-in-law of the amazing cake skills thinks she can whip out a cake. Not to mention edible markers, so that the teens can all sign it. The teens are bringing toppings for an ice cream bar. All I have to do is make up thirty two clues for the scavenger hunt.
On Wednesday night it occurs to me that I should probably buy the ice cream. NOW. I let my oldest son in on the secret, and he goes with me to pick out snacks. (Which was a really good move–he hit it, dead on.)
On Thursday, I have eleven babies and toddlers show up for twelve hours. Husband cleans the house. Oldest son cleans the bathroom. Daughter does the laundry. (Well, she always does the laundry–something about the teen need for clean aparel, I don’t know. You quit doing it, long enough–they’ll take over.) Husband takes children out to dinner.
I throw out some table cloths and bowl the snacks, and the teens begin arriving.
Sixteen of them. A fortuitous number, for a sixteenth birthday, really.
Daughter comes home, sees the lights and hunkers down in the garage loft with her brothers to wait out Mom’s party.
Nice try.
ANYWAY. Point being: It was amazing. Those kids–eight boys and nine girls, counting my daughter–were the most well-mannered, articulate, intelligent group of people I’ve ever associated with. Unbelievable. They’d come up my stairs in groups of three and four, smiling, laughing, talking, all over the room. There was caramel corn, three kinds of ice cream, hot fudge, nuts, toppings galore, chex mix, potato chips, cake, root beer, candy corn, chocolate everything you can name–and not one kernal or wrapper or drip on my floor. Not one.
Not one argument broke out; not one youth left to themselves. They divided themselves into eight co-operative teams for one game and two teams for another game–which they came up with, organized and directed themselves. I didn’t have to do a thing. I had to point out the ice cream scooper and look for some matches. That’s it. The volume was incredible, but it was a joyful noise–and we’re not talking eleven shrieking toddlers joyful, either. Just healthy, harmonious noise. I’ve never, ever, seen anything like it. After all their game ideas were exhausted, they asked my nine-year-old (who’d come up to see what the ruckus was about earlier, and had been corralled into one of their games) what movie he wanted to watch. And by eleven thirty, they were all gone, of their own accord. My house might have been cleaner when they left than when they came. I kid you not.
If these youth are the future of our nation and our planet, it is in amazing hands:
October 8th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
cute i love it:)))
Felicia
October 11th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Hi Felicia! You be good to that Grandma of yours–she’s a good lady!
October 8th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
I let the girls read this so Felicia, my 11 year old, left you the comment above!
October 8th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Wow, great story! How lucky for you that it all went so smoothly.
October 11th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Yes, it was a really great evening!
October 8th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
amazing. Love it!
October 8th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
and you can see close ups of the cake on your amazing sister-in-laws blog at
http://amestrain.blogspot.com/2010/10/birthday-cake.html
October 8th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Wow! I wish I had friends like THAT! 😀 😀 😀 It’s amazing isn’t it? I’ve met a lot people like that, but in one group? Amazing.
AKA: My name means of noble birth.. Mmm… 😉
October 11th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Cool! I didn’t know that—and yes, it’s a really amazing group of youth, all the same age group, same town. Not a common occurrence!
October 9th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
I did not know that you had been sick and I am so sorry. I hope that you are feeling better. I shudder when you recount all that you have on your plate right now. I am not sure how you are doing it all.
I am thrilled that the party turned out to be a success! What a blessing. Your daughter will never forget it! It is wonderful that some people chipped in and helped you clean and such. The whole house? I would keel over on the floor and die!
My guess is that someday, the 16 year old will look back and think, OMG, what did I do to that poor mother? LOL. That will be about the time she gets a call from one of her children’s friends wanting to use HER house for a party.
Good job, Kimber! You get an Attt. Super picture too. Your daughter and her guests look so happy!
October 11th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
I feel much better this morning, thank goodness! I haven’t been out running for a week and a half now, so I’m really looking forward to getting out there today after work. And yeah, I’m totally going to throw a whole house party at her place when she has teenagers.
October 11th, 2010 at 1:59 am
I’m glad everything went so well. We quite often judge teenagers unfairly. Quite often my sons and their friends looked like a group of juvenile delinquents but were all incredibly polite and well behaved.
October 11th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
We do, don’t we? The more I work with youth this age, the more I’m leaning toward teaching the older age group, rather than K-8. Everyone in the teaching program says, NO! Don’t teach highschool, they’ll eat you alive!!! But I might venture….