Liam turns 8

This past Friday night Liam invited roughly twenty kids from his school to a dance party (at our house) to celebrate his 8th Birthday. When I consider the major differences between Nevan and Liam this would definitely stick out: while Nevan likes choosing a small group to go and do something adventurous, Liam loves choosing large groups of friends to party with.

Liam, our social butterfly.  Dare I consider his teenage years?

With the knowledge that nineteen other kids would be rampaging through the house Jenifer set about working extremely hard in preparation for them. Games were planned for outside, games were planned for inside (see photo) while the family room was prepared for the actual dance party. DJ’s would be none other than myself and Nevan.

Can I just point out how hard it is to keep up with everyone’s names, who might be related to who and which child belongs to which parent? Crikey, you may as well give up and start labelling them willy-nilly, “Hey you, pirate hat…” or, “Hey Bethany’s sister, would you like a drink of orange juice…” or just point and say, “You’re… ah…” and wait for them to tell you.

The party was a blast, particularly for Liam; as we played games such as Celebrity Head, Freeze, Pass the Parcel and this strange game Jenifer concocted where you had to pick a partner, stand back-to-back and attempt to pop a balloon by pushing your back against your partner.

Nevan performed a Magic Show in his Magician outfit before everyone moved inside for all manner of party food; chips, lollies, cake, fairy bread, frankfurts, orange juice (ironic there were healthy drink options after all that other crap) and finally the actual birthday cake.

And then the dance party started; the kids pleasantly surprised to find a hundred balloons (literally one hundred) on the “dance floor”, there for their hyperactive amusement. The balloons were initially used as intended, kicked and slapped about the room as the music played. Someone decided to pop one and before you knew it that was the new game – pop as many balloons as you can. Twenty kids popping balloons in an enclosed space with music playing, funky iTunes Visualiser on the TV, balloons still flying about in a blur of colour; this was a sight to behold!

Thank God that birthday parties have a start and end time. Great fun for Liam but also great when it was all over. For we had a camping trip planned and left the following morning… other parents couldn’t believe we’d back up with a camping trip after having twenty kids over on a Friday night but they also pointed out we were young. Yes, yes we are…