Big Ben's Big Day Part II (aka the Non-Pinterest Party)

Big Ben was not supposed to have a party this year. We do that every other year. This was the year to invite just a friend over. But he wanted twins. Then for various reasons, CC and I added 3 more special friends. Then another boy who came to the 'big party' last year cried because he wasn't coming. I found out about it through my daughter who is friends with his sister. It broke CC's heart, so we added him. Then after school, the darling African you see below (who I have tried to adopt, but his bodyguard/driver...yes, he has one...clearly told me he was not up for adoption) went home and told his mama that he just knew he was invited, but the invitation had been lost. He would not stop crying, she called the school, CC's heart was broken..again...so we added him. So, by the end our 'non-party' had 7 first graders.

On top of that, I reminded Big Ben in the morning that we would just have some play time in the afternoon, then go out for pizza and cake. He said, "But when do we play games?" I said, "We are not really doing games this year, buddy." Silence. "No games?" he said. And then my rascal of a husband said, "No games, mama?" I rolled my eyes and said, "This isn't a party!" Well, he decided we needed games. And at that point, I felt like a Pinterest-fail mom. I went on the Internet and saw the most amazing Lego party themes. But I didn't have time to pull anything together. It was the day of! And this was a non-party. CC then called me and said he would be fully in charge of the games.

So, we loaded up our 5 kids, plus the 7 non-party kids, plus the 2 of us in our 8 seater van, which is technically by law a 7 seater van, but that's another blog post. We drove them to a neighborhood park, then CC pulled out 2 massive trash bags of balloons. And then he proceeded to play balloon games with them, in a graffiti decorated city park. And it was about as non-Pinterest as you could get. And they loved every minute of it.

The 3 older girls served as helpers. And viewing objects. I think every Turkish boy in the neighborhood decided to walk by that park that day on the way home from school to see the 7 United Nations kids playing balloon games, along with the 3 beautiful American teenage girls.

CC was awesome. He saved the day with good ol' 1970's balloon games. Who needs Pinterest?

And when we weren't needed, we passed the time by hanging upside down.

And taking photos of each other.

Hurray for last minute non-parties! Tomorrow: how the UN delegates (aka non-party goers) got to the mall and ate pizza.