Thirteen!
It hardly seems possible that the boys are thirteen, but the years don't lie. The first Saturday in August, we hosted their 13th birthday party.Mikey doesn't really have friends but David does. He invited 3 kids plus one of the women who does respite. My husband's parents (Great Grandma and Great Grandpa) and my daughter and son-in-law also came.
The kids who were invited are from "park day," which is something that evolved out of the home-school parents. Some of the kids are "on the spectrum." It's important to understand that, when you invited a kid on the spectrum, you've invited the whole family. So we had over 20 people.
Our tradition is to set up the bounce house - we bought one on closeout from Costco several years ago, and it's more than paid for itself - and not have organized games. Kids on the spectrum don't take well to most organized birthday games. They do bounce, sometimes even inside the bounce house!
This year, inspired by an idea in "Family Fun," I also set up our blue E-Z-Twist screen house - it's about 8'X8'X8' - and filled it with blue helium-filled balloons - thereby creating an "ocean" to swim in. All of the kids, at one time or another, got in the "ocean" and did whatever imaginary play made sense to them.
We set out all the "leftover" party toys - plastic flutes, yo-yo's and those things you blow in and the curled paper extends out and they squeal, and some punching bags.
Given that many of the kids are teens or close to it, I wasn't sure how they would take to these things, and it turned out they were all a hit. The punching bags (the blow-up-like-a-balloon kind), ignored in prior years, turned out to be a Big Deal this year.
For food, we went "easy" - Baja Fresh takeout, some watermelon and grapes, and some home-made nachos (they're easy). A tray of shrimp and my "big" effort: deviled eggs, completed the food bill. Iced tea, lemonade, assorted waters, juices and sodas. All outside; paper and plastic that will make it to the landfill.
In years past, we've invited everyone into the house for cake, ice cream and presents. This year, the weather was just perfect - not too hot, not too windy; just sunny and warm - so we held those festivities outside. The usual chaos, with one Brilliant Preparation on my part - I took the ice cream containers, put them into freezer bags, set the bags in a plastic tub (the kind you might put in the sink to do dishes), and put that in the freezer. I then poured water around the containers.This was done 2 days in advance, of course. Then right before we started cake and presents, I got it out and set it on the outside patio. The ice cream did not melt!
So, how did the boys do? Mikey actually played in the bounce house with the kids, for a while. He foot wrestled with David. He then ran around the yard a bit, and then wanted presents before it was time (late arrivers were still eating). We set a schedule with him - play until this time; then presents, then cake and ice cream. With a little persuasion, he did pretty well. He did, however, take his own time out to play away from the chaos on the computer.
Mikey did pretty well with presents, although saying, "Thank you," is not something we've been able to get him to do on his own. A couple of the presents were hits and he ran off with them to play a bit before coming back to continue opening.
David got lots of cash and iTunes cards - he uses them up almost as quickly as he gets them. He is learning about money and had a significant amount - almost $80 - saved here. Mom took that and contributed the rest to get him Guitar Hero for the Wii.
It's really funny, when the boys were little, I could sing to them. For a while, they wanted NO music. Then Mikey started listening to symphony and opera, and would even ask for them. David then started to get into modern music - more on that in another blog.
At any rate, the party was successful and we ended it with party favors that honored the Space Program - Astronaut Ice Cream.
