Happy Birthday Dear "mumble mumble" Happy Birthday to You! That Was Awkward...

We were *actually* invited to go to a birthday party yesterday. Completely random. I'm still surprised. Remember that garage sale we had back in June? Yup, I still haven't taken the "leftovers" to Goodwill...anyways, one of the items for sale was our old-but-still-good-fridge. A semi-young couple had moved in around the corner from the end of our street who own a bunch of rentals. Perry got to talking with them, sold them the fridge for one of the rentals, and then mentioned that "I'm sure my wife would love to get together with you to have play-dates or something since she's a stay-at-home mom now" or something very similar to that. I don't know exactly what he said...I was inside feeding the baby...

Needless to say I was in complete shock when the husband came over, rather drove half a block, to our house yesterday to invite the boys and I (Charlotte and I are one in the same) over later that day for their kids' joint birthday party. I immediately agreed and said we'd come over. As soon as he left, my mind kicked into gear. What was I thinking?! I didn't know his name, his wife's name, let alone their kids' names, or how old they were. All I knew was where they lived, solely because they just dug up their front yard and is now a landmark on the street. And now I'm going to a birthday party where I'm not going to know anyone! But since I'm a stay-at-home mom and I will do anything to get out of the house! Can I get an "Amen" fellow SAH moms?!

This is when I had to completely step out of my comfort zone and just go with it. The only thing the boys could talk about all morning was going to the party. They didn't know what kind of party it was, they just knew it would be fun. I couldn't just not go. It did however give them motivation to nap...which is a huge bonus. But honestly my kids don't have friends, so we don't get invited to birthday parties, let alone really have birthday parties. Yes they get their yearly birthday cake, but the only people that come are family members. A birthday party where friends come over is unheard of to them.  

The afternoon came and we took our short walk over to their house. The party was in the backyard and they had a sign out front that said to let yourself in. Super weird for me. I DIDN'T KNOW THEM! And now I'm walking, unannounced, into their home to get to the backyard. I honestly pondered turning around and going home. Twice. But we did it, and made it to the backyard. And luckily the husband recognized me. Otherwise it would have been super-duper weird. He was very nice and welcomed us to the party right away and introduced me to all the moms that were hanging around. 

They were having a joint party for their girl who was turning 8 and their son who was turning 3, who was also not embarrassed to run around naked. Doing a once-over of the backyard, it was clear that all the moms at the party belonged to the older girls running around because other than their son, my boys were the youngest ones there, by far. They had a trampoline and swing set with a slide, plus various other toys, but regardless, Hunter and JP clung to me like leaches. Honestly, I'm glad they did, because then I had an excuse to wonder around the yard with them inside of jumping in with the awkward I-don't-know-anyone socializing that was doomed to happen. I eventually met the "mom" of the party, who is also really nice, and finally made small talk with a few of the other moms. 

And then that dreaded question was asked to me, "so how do you know so-and-so?" Uhhh....I don't. My husband met them at our garage sale the other month so they invited me to the party...awkward...I felt pretty silly. Actually I just wanted to hide. But eventually the boys de-clung themselves from me and began enjoying themselves. I made a point to *try* to be super friendly and ended up swapping numbers with the boy's mom so we could get the three kids together for a play-date. Unfortunate for this mom of boys, the street we live on is occupied by girls. After a rough count there are 18 kids total on our street, and 7 of them are boys. Two are mine and the next closest in age is 7. So this little 3 year old boy is great play-date material since all the girls around here are either much older, or don't like playing zombies and digging for worms.

We'll see what the next few weeks bring. But I'm happy to say that we survived our first birthday party, even though I didn't think I would. And more surprisingly, I didn't have to fight with them to leave. Doubly awesome.