This Monkey's Gone to Heaven

Today Sweeney and I hosted a party at our little house. I hope everyone had a good time. I really appreciate all the help I got from far and wide with getting food together, and Joe turning up unexpectedly to take Sweeney for a hot chocolate and a fitting for his bike helmet was most welcome - left the house free for pre-party vacuuming.

The impact of parenting mostly alone smacks me in the face from time to time. I didn't get much chance to take photos of the party. In fact, the best shots from yesterday and today were taken by other people using my camera while I scrambled around doing Party Admin stuff like finding drinks or counselling Sweeney to share.

Highlights as follows:

Breakout Performance - Arthur looking left, looking right, looking left again, clocking that his usually eagle-eyed mum was engaged in chat for a moment, giving me a wink and hightailing up the stairs at breakneck speed;

Best Ensemble Performance - or should that be Assemble Performance? Dom and Emma's 1-trillion-piece Construction Set, complete with battery-operated, remote-controlled crane. The preschoolers pulled every piece out on the sunroom floor, and later on, the ten- and eight-year-olds replaced every single piece back in the packaging;

Best Fight Sequence - Sweeney and Frank disagreeing over whose turn it was with the Thomas wagon; Sweeney and Cohen tussling over whose turn it was with the Godzilla toy that Sweeney's never noticed before; Sweeney and me bickering over why he couldn't have any more rice crackles ... a three-way tie;

Best Love Scene - Sweeney and the battery-operated, remote-controlled crane;

Best Supporting Actor - Cohen blew the candle out for Sweeney. See yesterday's post for why Sweeney was a bit hesitant about going anywhere near the flame;

Best Photography - Geoff-next-door for capturing some lovely shots around the cake;

Best Special Effects - the cake - "not-itchy" and festooned with candles, Pebbles and actual words. Glorious, thanks Kimberley;

Best Costume Design - the Spiderman shirt in the parcel from Dunedin was such a hit, it had to be laundered overnight so it could be worn today as well. Special mention goes to Bella for her stylish black and red ensemble.

Followed by a quick trip to visit Martin with cake and leftovers, then home so that Sweeney could take his new tow truck, filled with all his new Hot Wheels and his new Deke, to bed with him.
Thanks, everybody!! Happy birthday, Sweeney!!