Paint ball, part deaux

Happy Birthday! Today is The Boy's birthday, and despite the fact that it's president's day and half the nation is on holiday, our kids are in school. Go figure, they have next Monday off instead (b/c that makes so much sense). At any rate, the cupcakes, cookies, and capri sun juice boxes he took to school were apparently quite a hit. According to his friends, Drew had the "best classroom treats" and the "best birthday party," so he was bouncing off the walls when I picked him up from school. (I'm sure said classroom treats had nothing to do with his elevated energy level). All things considered, I'd say this was a pretty darn good birthday for the kid. (We went halves with his mom to get him an electric guitar. He also got Guitar Hero 3 with birthday money, and the coveted, rather questionable Call to Duty from one of the kids at his party).

So yes, The Boy -- ever the creature of habit (wore the same Halloween costume 3 out of the last 4 years) -- had another paint ball birthday party over the weekend. It was 42 degrees outside and pouring down rain, not that the kids seemed to notice or care ;) They had a blast. Because of the weather, the only other people at the park were a group of adults. With 4 areas of play, the referees were able to keep the kids in a game of their own the entire time. So I guess the wind and the rain were actually a good thing? The Boy actually ventured out of his hiding spots a bit more this year too. Though none of the kids really ventured out much unless the ref encouraged them to -- with the exception of Travis, who snuck up behind Drew's team at one point and took them all out in one fell swoop! (Party pics are posted at kodakgallery.com)

That was "the good." Here's "the bad and the ugly" ... we planned The Boy's party last year, so his mom planned the party this year. Rather than actually filling us in on any of the details herself (though she did manage to get information out to all the other parents and make multiple phone calls to them), she relied on Drew to let us know when and where to be. The results, as you can imagine, were quite disastrous. Granted, we should have known better and called to ask, but thinking that the party was a day after it actually was, we also thought we had an extra day to get things straightened out. Mind you the party had also been scheduled, canceled due to low attendance (hard to compete with little league basketball and boy scouts), and then with 24 hrs notice "rescheduled" for the original date/time. Phone call:

Hey Dad, can you bring a jacket for me.

A jacket for what?
For my party.
Your party is tomorrow.
No, my party is today. We're on our way right now. You're supposed to pick up the other kids at noon.

We weren't even dressed yet (it was a cold and rainy Saturday morning, after all). Somehow Kyle manage to get showered and out to the meeting spot in just 10 minutes flat to cart kids off to the paint ball field. I, on the other hand, was by no means ready for public consumption. I left about 3o minutes later and stopped to pick up the pizzas on my way (we were in charge of lunch, with no idea how many kids had RSVP'd). Needless to say, neither one of us were too pleased. It all worked out in the end, but man, can I just say how utterly disappointing I find the whole scenario? Regardless of how Cherie feels about Kyle, his attendance was obviously important to Drew (and Kyle too). Not to mention the fact that she herself was depending on Kyle to get the pizzas. A little common courtesy and some freaking communication would have gone a long way.