Friday afternoon, ten of Edie’s girlfriends came home on the bus with her to attend her birthday party, which had been postponed from last Saturday afternoon, due to the weather.  Unfortunately, the change meant a few friends couldn’t make it, as neither could her father.  That left me solo, refereeing  eleven teen girls.

Edie’s original idea for her party was inspired by the cabin olympics at her summer camp. She had a whole roster of races, competitions and games planned. The girls started with a round of ‘capture the flag’ in the woods behind that run behind the school and the park.  It ran long and as the breeze picked up and the sun starting slowly sliding down in the sky, there was a forfeit in order to head back to the house for refreshments. (And heat.)

Back at the house, the girls dug into Edie’s planned refreshments – chips (salt & vinegar flavor), pretzels, M&M’s, sour gummy worms, birthday cake flavored Oreos, and chocolate cupcakes (Mast Brothers recipe).  On my way home from work that afternoon, I realized we had forgotten drinks, so I stopped in at Reid’s and grabbed ingredients to make my Halloween fruit punch*, which is always a big hit with kids.

Our dining room most certainly does not have the seating capacity nor the room for such a gang of girls, but they happily made due kneeling around the table after oohing and aahing over the set-up.  There were a few remarks about the room smelling like sugar, which I totally chalk up to the birthday cake oreos (which are really good).  They also all thought the room looked beautiful –  I love to pull out the china and my various trays, cake stands and punchbowls for these parties – why have it if you can’t use it, right?  On that table were tablecloths from my Granny as well as her punchbowl. There were serving bowls from my Aunt Loretta and Pat’s Grandma’s Fostoria cake stand, our wedding china and crystal as well as thrifted pieces and gifts over the years, including a tray holding the goodie bags that came from Allison’s mother when they downsized.

I mostly kept to the background as is a mother’s role when your child hits the grand age of 14 and doesn’t require you to be as hands on. I did catch a girl as she fell out of a tree during ‘capture the flag’  (which I later overheard whispered that I’m sort of a badass ‘supermom’ but we all know, any parent watching the girl climb up that tree would have anticipated the same thing and caught her). I really only made my presence known when I waltzed into the room as gifts were starting to be opened wearing my warm and toasty Uggs. I heard one of the girls declare them ‘so fetch’ upon which I asked Edie, ‘So fetch is happening?’. Apparently so.

Also, I earned points for knowing that. Score two for me – I can catch falling girls with a single hand AND I recognize fetch is finally happening.

My dear husband happened to walk in at just the right time (with a half hour of party left to go) and immediately began to clean up the aftermath in the dining room. His timing really could not have been better.  By the time the last girl left, all that was left to clean up was the punchbowl.

Which just so happened to have just enough punch left that Pat and I could have a proper glass of my infamous punch.

(*My Halloween Punch is actually my bourbon punch, minus the bourbon. It contains cranberry, pineapple, orange and lemon juice as well as ginger ale, so it easily mixes up to serve crowds of all ages. I served it for years at the neighborhood Halloween party, where I had been designated beverage chairwoman although no one thought I could actually pull off a family friendly punch. I just serve the bourbon on the side. )