dianaschnuth

Aaron and I attended a surprise 30th birthday party for Aaron’s friend Jesse last night. Jesse’s wife Kelly made sure to let us know that it would be a kid-friendly party — and, true to her word, there were about a dozen kids there. Four belonged to Kelly and Jesse, at least one belonged to Jesse’s sister Sandy, I think two belonged to Jesse’s friend Eric, and Kris Fries brought Sam. Lots of kids, at any rate.

I wasn’t sure how I would deal with being in a kid-filled environment. I mean, it’s been years since I babysat, and I don’t regularly find myself amongst kids in my daily life. Truth be told, though, I kind of liked it. Jesse’s stepdaughter asked me to dish her up some sweet potatoes, one of his younger two (I forget if it was Olivia or Jessica) showed me her boo-boo, and I got hugs and kisses from Jessica, the youngest, before we left.

Having so many kids in a relatively small space made for a very festive atmosphere. The inevitable balloon games were underway — “Don’t let it touch the ground!” — and the adults were talking about various subjects, like concerts we attended in the 90’s, and weird stuff that happens at work, and geeky gamer stuff like Warhammer and Magic the Gathering. There was tons of food, like Jed’s wings and potato salad and sweet potatoes and deviled eggs and green bean casserole, but obviously no alcohol.

And I had a really freaking good time.

This gives me hope for the future. Maybe, once we have kids, we’ll still be able to have fun. Maybe we won’t be stuck in the house all the time, watching Junior. Maybe we can get together with other people with kids and let them watch themselves for a while, intervening when we hear a loud noise or when our spidey sense is tingling.

Yeah… it might not be too bad.