August 7: The Big Play Date

Shortly after school ended in June, my daughter commented that she wanted to have a big backyard party with all of her friends before summer came to an end. Of course, being the clever parents we are we smiled, said "we'll see", and went along with life figuring that our little angel would simply forget about the whole thing in a month or so when school had pretty much worn off. Today, I can tell you that my daughter is much more persistent than the credit we gave her, as she never once swayed from this party notion. So, we compromised. And, today, she had what we affectionately termed a "big play date" at our house. Being August, many of her friends were on vacation with their families, and as luck would have it, only two of her gal pals were able to attend. I say "luck" because the thought of a dozen little girls running around the yard gave me nightmares. In addition to my daughter's friends, we turned the play date into a non-gender-specific platform, and allowed my son to invite some of his daycare buddies. Again, the family vacation bug came into play and only one of his buds was able to come. So, for the first time in our experience, we had a group play date. And, it actually worked out really well. We set up the water slide, got out the squirt guns, grilled some hot dogs, and served up some watermelon, too! We also set a start and end time so as to give it some structure. And, at 3 pm, when the party ended and the friends had departed, we had two very happy children...tired, but happy. And that, after all, was the whole point of the play date.