Party on the Lake
Friday, October 15, 2010
Three hours up with Puck in the night with growing pains… less from the pain, more from the disinterest in going back to sleep again. 1:30-4:45.
Meanwhile… the day had arrived for Linnea-Irish’s 13th birthday party with friends.
First things first — bake another rainbow cake. This time, a double batch — one that Francis nearly destroyed in transferring to its proper destination.
Then while Mom peeled potatoes for the mashed potatoes and grilled the hot dogs, Collette sliced up a fruit salad of cantaloupe, strawberries, green grapes, and mandarin oranges, and Linnea taught Puck more catechism.
Early in the afternoon, a small package arrived in the mail, a gift from Carrie to Mom: a necklace of polished coconut beads, which Mom, of course, loved.
By 1:30, they had left for Forest Park, where, by three o’clock, they had split themselves into two paddle boats for an hour of exercise around the lake. And this time, there was no enormous deluge of water drowning out anyone’s electronic equipment in the process.
In fact, no one fell in or became even slightly drenched at all. This was rather good success. There was not even a pretense of falling in. And for a gaggle of young girls, there was a surprising lack of screaming and yelling. Giggling, yes. But as to anything very dramatic, that department was quiet.
However… on the way home, for nearly an hour, the van-load of girls giggled and gasped and screamed over every Mini Cooper that passed, sighing in wonderment at the various paint jobs on their respective rearview mirrors, etc. Joe’s digital camera was passed back and forth so many times to whomever was nearest the window by which the current Mini was passing, that Collette was surprised… well, for that matter, she was surprised that it had not already fallen in the lake… But no matter. It seemed to survive the afternoon well enough.
As Collette was dropped off with Puck once again, a yellow spider crawled across her hand. Collette was not a screamer. She could not recall ever having conscientiously screamed when surprised. But she did shiver as she shook it off. Spiders, ticks, and snakes always made her shiver.
The evening was to continue forward for the girls where they would meet three more of their clan at church, who had been at school during the day, where they would play badminton, ride in the go-carts before the Chinese church began meeting after seven o’clock, and watch Pirates of the Caribbean, returning to the house later for a bonfire and s’mores, before a slumber party commenced in the travel-trailer.
The following morning would be breakfast casserole and party favor bags with: orange gloves, Reeses peanut butter cups, Kit-Kat bars, silly bands, and little candles.
And Collette had heard a number of them mention how they intended to stay up all the night.
Back at the house, Dad had returned, and they all discussed NASA and astronauts and one-way tickets to Mars, while Dad and Carrie argued the current possibilities of two-way tickets to Mars in the near future.
They also discussed Hallowe’en costumes, including Rose dressing up as a teenage version of Great-Grandma Jewel at the Hallowe’en party she would be attending in two weeks: an honest-to-goodness flapper.
“Well, I am going to dress up as a naughty firefighter!” Joe declared.
Then to comedy night with Joe and Rose and pizzas. Some things never changed…