Not much of a swimming party

The plan for Evan's birthday was a pool party.

I had seen the forecast earlier in the week predicting thunderstorms, but I resolved not to get all worked up about it. Then, apparently I went into denial mode. Until Corin called this morning when we were walking home from swim team and said that the front page of the paper was screaming about severe storms rolling in.

Still, I resolved not to panic, but began talking to Evan about what we would do if we couldn't go to the pool. Not rock climbing. Maybe bowling. We'd see.

Then, as the sun continued to shine, I felt silly for having called the bowling alley in Midtown to check availabilty. It was going to be just fine.

Ahem. Until we stepped outside at 4:40 to grab towels and head up the street for the 5:00 party. That is when I notice the ominous clouds. And that was when the phone started ringing.

One of the moms up the street (between our house and the pool) had just stepped out and heard the thunder and was wondering what the plan was. And then the phone rang again. And again.

What happened after that is a little blurry. It was all a flurry of making phone calls to the Decatur bowling alley, parents of boys who were coming to the party, etc.

Ultimately, we made the decision to have the parents bring the kids to our house and have my parents and my sister help us ferry them over to the bowling alley. It was a little tricky to get the word out, and Corin ended up going to the pool to hang out to wait for the two kids whose parents we couldn't reach. But all in all, the party was a huge success. Who knew 7 year old boys were such big fans of bowling?

I'm choosing to block the part that happened after the goody bags containing the beyblades were handed out and the beyblade trading had begun and one of the trades went horribly wrong. I could tell you that there was literally much wailing and gnashing of teeth, leaving the birthday boy and one of his sweetest friends in tears... but, I'm choosing to block that part. (I had just finished patting myself on the back for giving out such awesome party favors when it all began to unravel.)

Otherwise, the boys (and Pressley and Abby) had a fantastic time.

Now, if you'll excuse me... I need a glass of wine.

That's the Poison Serpant beyblade, thank-you-very-much. Had never heard of it two weeks agao and now I've made it into a cake. The boys all thought it was way cool, so it was worth the few new gray hairs it caused.