It went well, aside from the birthday girl receiving a bloody nose…

We’ve just had a kid’s party at our house. The two-year-old turned three during the week and on Sunday, family and friends with kids were invited to celebrate the blowing out of candles.

 

All week I was on weather watch, compulsively page-hopping from Met Eireann to Accuweather, my mood rising and falling with the isobars. On Sunday morning I checked once more, trying to ignore the very real rain pelting at the window and sea of dark clouds blotting out the horizon. The forecast predicted another thundery downpour to arrive at the same time as the guests.

 

Hosting a children’s birthday party is a daunting and stressful proposition, but hosting an indoor children’s birthday party is what Dante forgot to include as one of his seven circles of hell. Perhaps the thought was too frightening for him to set down on paper.

 

However, weather forecasts in Ireland being as accurate as horoscopes, meant that by 2pm the sun had broken through, blue sky reigned supreme, and thank all that is good in this world, the children could spend their time destroying the garden instead of the house.

 

It went well, aside from the birthday girl receiving a bloody nose from too many children on a trampoline, an extended and tearful fight over a toy car and the horror of trying to evenly divide birthday cake into fifteen slices while a posse of small children snarl in packs at your ankles demanding the piece with the biggest strawberry.

 

The newly minted three-year-old eventually went to sleep, in tremors of joy over the happy day, full of anticipation for her ‘another birthday’ when she would be four. My tremors took place over a glass of wine, the blasting sound of the whistle one child had found and enjoyed for hours still ringing in my ears.

 

At least it didn’t rain.

 

 

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