L's party

We were invited to one of Moose’s friend’s birthday party this weekend. It was held at W Park downtown.

The invitation was quite odd. It listed the party at W Park, but gave no other instructions. No RSVP, no food info, no specific place to meet. A most odd of all, a request for no gifts. I felt that was a smidgen odd.

It is a child’s birthday party after all.

And also, I found I was dying to buy a girly birthday present. A barbie? A My Little Pony? The options were endless! But the request stuck out in my head. I thought maybe there were reasons they requested no gifts. Maybe a religion thing or something? No clue.

So we went to the party with no gift. I felt odd.

I was curious how many people would be at W Park on a Saturday on a totally beautiful day. The park is actually downtown, but it doesn’t have a lot of parking, and I was sure about the playground. I knew there had to be one, but I had no clue where it was.

There was hardly anyone in the parking lot. There were a lot of cars actually parked on the street. By the time we walked to the playground, there were actually a lot of kids there. W Park has a lot of big trees, I think it is one of the oldest parks in our town. The big trees made the playground so nice and cool, it was wonderful.

We wandered around the playground, looking for friends from daycare. Nothin’.

We couldn’t find a soul. So we already had a game plan for this result, which was play for an hour, then go get lunch. Luckily we hadn’t built up “party” or “birthday” or “cake” too much for Moose.

Then we started playing and totally ran into L and her mommy. She was thrilled to see Moose, apparently we were the only ones who came. I could tell she was upset, but she actually joked about L being able to talk to her therapist about her lonely 3rd birthday party later in life.

She was hilarious actually, she had me laughing hysterically most of the party. We let the kids play, it was mostly Cory following Moose around and spotting him on equipment with me capturing their every move on film.

Finally we had some lunch, and then cupcakes. Afterward we headed back to the playground for more play time. Moose had a wonderful time and was quite ready for his nap when we got home.

I wish I had said something to the affect that I was surprised about the request for no gifts to L’s mommy, but it didn’t occur to me until I got home.