Constance had all kinds of birthday parties. One of my favorites was the year I rented a blow-up water slide. Constance was a water baby. When she was little, her shyness meant that she would play at her birthday parties but also want to have breaks to hide and be isolated. When the waterside was delivered and set up, Constance immediately started playing in the pool at the end. When her friends arrived, she stood at the bottom of the pool cheering them on as they slid down the waterslide. She was jubilantly jumping, cheering, and splashing with abandon.
We cooked out and I made ribs. My kitchen was not kosher but I had two ovens so we had both types of ribs. Constance preferred the hot dogs off the grill. I’ve always been a vegetarian or vegan so I made lots of things for myself and my guests who were vegetarian to enjoy too. My mom staffed the margarita machine, which seemed to be many of the adults’ favorite part of the meal.
I overheard one of our guests comment on the cost of the party. He was put off by the garishness of the expense for a child. His comment did inspire me to make one change to my future parties for Constance. He was no longer on the guest list.
When you are a parent, you have very few opportunities to get pictures of you with your kids doing activities. Typically, you are taking them to an activity that you watch them do. As a result, I tried to take photos of all of our guests at the party in addition to pictures of Constance playing. I made an album of all of the pictures for Constance. She would look through it from time to time and giggle with joy at the memories. Now I look back on that memory with gladness and with the warmth of a fire in my heart.
From https://www.facebook.com/arachellejervis.com:
Day 166 is at https://www.wantmybabyback.com/blog/day-166.