The Sweetest Thing: why my kids should appreciate me more

Giant bag of movie theatre popcorn hidden under table

The chocolate is splattered a bit in this picture because the door was left open and the wind got it!

When we first told the kids we were moving I quickly told them that they could have a big end of the year/ going away party to say goodbye to their friends. I obviously made that promise to lessen the blow of the move. And of course they held me to it, even though they are mostly fine with moving now.

So Thursday, the last day of school, we had the party. I knew I was in over my head when I let them each invite 10 kids and then we invited a few family friends too... and then everyone started rsvp'ing with YES. Like, almost every single person came. We ended up with 35 kids total.

I enlisted the help of Bremily and if it weren't for them, and the two dads that ended up staying, Mack may have gone missing and the house may have burned down, or a child may have died- I don't know. But it was crazy and loud and wild and my kids owe me big time!

So, this was the plan of attack (and Dave even made a spreadsheet for it):

6:00- 6:45- kids are arriving, have pizza and drinks in the backyard

6:45- explain each station, divide into groups and begin the rotations (each station was approx. 15 min.)

Station 1. Relay races in the front yard

Station 2. Photo booth in the garage

Station 3. Games in the backyard

Station 4. Chocolate fountain in the kitchen

7:45- fill candy bags and popcorn cups, get blankets and settle on the back lawn

8:00pm- begin the outdoor movie

9:30- party over, kids leave

How hard could it be?

The Photo Booth was FUN!

So that was the plan... and it mostly went as anticipated. The kids were extremely hyper and the bottom line is that 35 kids together in one house/yard is just going to be crazy. I think it went as well as it could have gone. They did love the stations and when broken into groups they were more manageable.

My main mistake was the movie choice. I was looking for something that would hold the attention of 7 year olds and 11 year olds. So we got, "We Bought a Zoo." Lots of the kids were excited to see it but some of the kids were loud and that made it hard to hear. Looking back I think a more action packed film would have been better.

Now some info on the stations- The chocolate fountain was a hit (thanks mom!) and the dipping items included strawberries, rice crispies, pretzels, marshmallows, oreos, pineapple and nilla wafers. Also, I called our local movie theatre and got them to donate a bag of popcorn for the movie! It was awesome except that my house smelled of movie theatre popcorn the whole day and it was difficult to refrain.

We did really simple games and relays but who doesn't love those? They were easy but fun- egg race, shoe tangle, "clean your room," and tennis ball toss.

For the photo booth I downloaded free mustache and lips etc. templates from "Oh Happy Day" and cut them out. I also threw some of our own dress ups in the mix. I wanted to print the pictures that night and send them with the kids but that was asking too much of myself.

Dave borrowed a projector from work but because of a breeze we ended up just taping a large carstock paper to the fence to show the movie on- it worked so well! I can't wait to do it again (the outdoor movie thing, not the 35 kid party).

After about 30 minutes of the movie we lost them all and it was mass chaos on the trampoline, popcorn everywhere, kids running about. I'm surprised we managed to keep most of them in the backyard! They are all really good kids so that helped- no one was being naughty, just excited and having fun. Another small issue was that Lexi and Logan are only 17 months apart and in 4th and 5th grade so there were some boy/girl teasing/flirting/chasing going on (mostly instigated by the boys and a couple of boy-crazy girls) that added to the madness but we managed it ok. It gave me a small, scary glimpse into our future teen years though!

My only regret is the amount of pictures. I never got a large group photo and did not have a second to get any pictures of the games/relays. Or any kids enjoying the fountain. Or one of Mack wandering aimlessly, alone, eating popcorn and pizza off the ground. Oh well.

I've said it once and I'll say it again- my kids owe me big time! I've already gotten lots of big thanks from them and even a thank you note from Lexi so that's good.

And I owe Bremily huge time! Between Dave and I and Brett and Emily, we each managed a station (and Emily managed the babies too!) and we did it. I couldn't have done it without them!