Thumper Thinks Out Loud

Lobotomizing Winnie The Pooh

Something I haven’t done in a long time—a kiddy birthday party. The Spouse Thingy and I were invited to the little boy next door’s 2nd birthday party this afternoon, and of course we went. This kid is beyond cute, he’s so adorable it’s damn near nauseating. Since winter settled in, keeping all the neighborhood kids inside most of the time, we haven’t seen much of him or any of the other kids—we have an incredibly dense population of Kidlet Cuteness on this street—so there was no way we were going to miss it.

Now granted, you get a bunch of kids all under seven years old in one place, it’s going to be loud, but it’s a fun kind of loud. And I’d forgotten all the party games that kids like to play, like Pin The Tail On The Donkey (done with stickers, so of course I planted one on the Spouse Thingy’s forehead) and racing with hard boiled eggs balanced on spoons. One of the funniest was a game I’d never seen before—powdered donuts were strung from a line across the room, placed at the kids’ face heights, and they had to try to eat them hands-free. The older kids were blindfolded…that was truly one of the more hysterical games I’ve seen, donuts bouncing off frustrated little faces, tongues flipping all over the place as they tried to catch them in their mouths. The oldest won (she was very patient and figured out right off the bat how to get the donut to stay still, and once she got it she didn’t let go), and her little brother never gave up—he had that donut bouncing off his face for 5 minutes, and when he finally got it, he sucked it in, took a step forward, and ripped it from the line. The smaller kids…well, they eventually cheated and grabbed the donuts with their hands, but it was still funny.

And this was the first time I’ve ever seen the birthday honoree much more interested in the cake than in his presents. Mom made the most awesome Winnie The Pooh cake—not a flat sheet cake with Winnie’s face painted on it, but a 3 dimensional, head to foot cake of Pooh Bear. It was frosted to damn near perfect detail with these tiny, very delicate flowerlet-type frosting buds…and then Dad took a knife and started cutting into Pooh’s head.

He sliced right down the side of Pooh’s head, exposing his chocolate innards.

Pooh’s innards were quite tasty, too.

What was supposed to be a 2 hour birthday party ended after 5 hours—and it was fun. Loud & excited kids generally get on my nerves these days, but I didn’t leave feeling like I wanted to string the little monsters up by their toes. I left feeling like I’d had a good time, and happy that once again, we selected a fairly noisy toy as a gift. :)

I don’t mind inflicting loud on other kids’ parents.
And mine is too old for them to retaliate with even louder toys as gifts.
Life is good.