John hosted his friends again for the Super Bowl. Man Day has become more like Teen Day around here, much to Honey’s dismay. :-)
I decided to do a nacho bar this year since it is easy, tasty and can be prepared mostly in advance. Rather than doing it downstairs, I set it up in the kitchen so they would be forced to surface for food. Ha! I learned this little tip from my neighbor who didn’t put a bathroom in her basement so that her teens would have to come upstairs at least every now and then.
I pulled out all of my old football entertaining pieces from the years when we tailgated religiously every weekend from September through January. The napkins and paper cups were from Party City.
As I was shopping this morning I think I patted myself on the back 47 times…. EVERYTHING you could need for a nacho bar was on sale at Publix. Ha! It’s the little things, right?! I did beef and chicken, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cilantro, black beans, jalapeno, sour cream, guacamole, salsa and rotel dip.
As always, our door is open and I encouraged him to “invite whoever you like”. Well, I almost fell out of my chair this morning when a friend texted me “The girl moms are bringing dessert tonight. Thank you for having them!”
O.
M.
G.
He failed to mention my standing offer to invite whoever was going to include girls!
This set off a frenzy of work with all hands on deck. I told John that his bros may feel at home in his man cave, but no girl would be impressed. Things went kinda like this… I need all of the underwear and socks upstairs… STAT. Broken pencils, nurf darts, xbox batteries and candy wrappers shoved in the sofa cushions MUST BE TRASHED. Used cutlery and cups need to be upstairs in the dishwasher in TWO MINUTES. Take these clorox wipe and use them on ALL SURFACES… faucets, light switches, tables, door handles. FEBREZE EVERYTHING IN SIGHT. It was pretty hysterical, to be honest, and my basement has not been this clean since 5th grade.
Downstairs we had soft drinks, waters, gummy worms (always a hit), popcorn, a table set up for the girl mom desserts, and a game I picked up at Party City.
At the end of the night, I’m sitting here will a full heart. I’m delighted that he did invite the girls in their friend group, and I was thrilled to see that his circle has grown larger than the group of boys on his lacrosse team. We opened the front door to familiar faces and new faces, and every single one of these teens was friendly, polite and extremely well mannered. I wish I could hug each one of their moms and tell them what a great job they are doing… but, you know, I don’t actually know them! Isn’t this such a funny place to be? It is almost surreal to reach the point in parenting when your kids have their own friends that they made on their own accord, as opposed to the carefully curated (and utterly exhausting) play groups of toddlerhood. I pray that our home will always be inclusive and safe and fun and open to all. <3
I hope your team won tonight… I didn’t watch a lick of the game but tonight goes down as a W in my book. :-)
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Loving the ever-present black sharpie!! Isn’t key to everything? including writing names on cups…and last week’s party, had names on the plates due to food allergies!!!!!!!!!!!! I keep one in my work bag, one in my purse and one in my church bag…people borrow them all the time!
Such a great set up and I love the growing group of friends!
Yes, what would we do without the sharpie?! Thank you <3
I love the posts about making fun for the gang of boys.
I have 2 boys (13, 11 this month) and try to make fun opportunities for my guys to hang with their friends. Asamatteroffact, I was on decorating committee for MS dance – DS would not go – and made alternate “fun” plans. His friends had a blast. He totally missed out. I hope 8th grade he’ll go