June 28

The day began with a ball game, for everyone but Joe and Rose. Despite the fact that the game would have been forfeited on account of Frances’ team having only seven players, the other team sent over two of their boys in orange and they had a practice game. After Frances had two shots at bat, they split three ways; Mom, Collette, and Carrie-Bri headed for the grocery store.
It was the day of Rose’s surprise 18th birthday party. Goods were needed. And they had to be strategic.
“Rose will know something’s up if we bring all this loot inside.”
Twenty bottles of Gatorade and energy water, eight packs of cheese, four bags of deli meat, five bags of deli rolls, four bags of chips, eleven bottles of soda, two giant bags of ice, two jars of pickles, and chocolate chip cookie ingredients.
Upon return to the house, bags were stowed in various places. Naturally, Rose immediately noticed that something was unusual.
“Why did you get two jars of pickles?”
“What’s with all the cheese?”
Later, when Collette and Carrie-Bri told her that they were going to Walgreens for hair dye for Carrie (though they were actually making a visit to the fireworks stand for prizes for the party game), they returned without the hair dye.
“So what hair dye did you get?” Rose asked.
“They didn’t have the right kind.”
“So you couldn’t find the right color at Walgreens – the store that has all the hair color in the world?”
Then, when Dad had to lure Rose downstairs away from where she might see the guests arriving, he asked her to look for possible ant trails in the ceiling tiles.
“Does that have to happen now?” she asked.
Then, when everyone had arrived and stuffed themselves, hiding, in the big green van, Carrie called Rose:
“Rose, it’s time to leave for the Elvis concert!”
Rose came hurrying out to the van, opened the door, and…
“Surprise!”
Rose jumped.
“Whoa – was not expecting that!”
And so, they drove down to the boathouse: OLeif, Collette, Carrie-Bri, Joe, Ben-Hur, Wally, Augustus, Rose, Lolli, and Juliet, to be joined later by Magnus, Erasmus, and Curly, back at the house.
The lake was warm and bright from the last hours of sunshine. Wally wasn’t feeling great. He had pulled a muscle in his back. So instead of boating, he and Lolli were taken for a police car ride around the area by Wilbur (who was on duty at the time). Wally was hurting badly enough that Collette noted to herself that she had never seen him so quiet before, ever. Except for the first time she had met him when he was a tiny stickly kid with glasses playing violin at solo/ensemble years before, and she had thought he was a quiet little guy.
Everyone else piled into four boats and paddled or rowed at their own rates.
Joe immediately decided on a one-seater kayak and took off around the various channels of the lake, through the fountains until he was soaked, and hopped off at a tiny island for a little while to observe the white necked cranes and the smug mallards. Next came Collette and Carrie in the paddle boat, which, though slow as anything, proved to keep them in second place as they churned around the early evening lake. Followed by them were Rose and Juliet in the row boat. After rowing backward for awhile, they figured out how to correctly use the oars, and went exploring. In dead last, for the most part, were OLeif, Ben-Hur, and Augustus in the second paddle boat. Augustus reclined in the back as they inched across the shining waters.
When all had been reunited, Joe squeezed water out of his shorts before joining Wally and Lolli in the police car for an escort back to the big green slug.
Once back at the house, they cracked into the chili pepper piñata, spinning candy, Spongebob stickers, and tiny toys into the grass and ants while Collette set out sandwiches for dinner.
After a humiliating round of Rose Jeopardy and sparkler candles on a giant chocolate chip cookie, they congregated in the basement for The Bad Seed.
Magnus had brought the little black dog, whom he was looking after, which he had called “Wrinkles”. The little thing whimpered and followed him around while Rose tried to entice him with a bowl of water and dog treats. Magnus also sang into his Tootsie Pop for a microphone.
Curly sat around and made comments about how Wally and Lolli were officially the “boring couple who was always conveniently sleepy”, and fought for the win at Jeopardy, which was eventually lost to the Magnus/Ben-Hur/Wally/Erasmus team.
Questions ranged from mildly embarrassing:
“Name one of the many foods that Rose eats raw.”
Answer: pasta, powdered sugar, oatmeal, etc.
To highly embarrassing:
“Name one of Rose’s many former crushes.”
“At one point,” OLeif told the family later, “Ben-Hur stood up to look over at Rose and said, ‘I want to see how red Rose is… Yup, pretty red.’”
The winning team was handed out bags of fireworks and silly string, while the losing team was given bags of fireworks and glow sticks. After a brief dance party with the glow sticks, the boys were distracted by the announcement of “cake”, and gathered in the kitchen to sing Rose a happy birthday.