The Messy Party

Do you see that glint in her eye? She was NOT to be messed with. "What are these adults THINKING?!" [Note the chocolate pudding being hurled through the air by Anthony in the background.

And the man who inspired it all...

The Aftermath

If you are thinking that I should now have a picture entitled the "Afterbath" then you are right. But John deleted it before I got to make that clever blog-move.

For those of you who know Thomas "Gus Gus" Lovelette our choice of revelry for his 2nd birthday will not be a surprise to you. He entertains all comers with his remarkably coordinated abundance of energy, joy and mischievousness. He moves like a flash. He is also endearing. He is an extrovert who is easily bored. When bored (or tired, or hungry) he will start throwing himself at people or things or just throwing people or things.

He makes doing school...hmmm...impossible. Simply impossible. He needs to be directly in the center of the activity. Not just holding his own marker and drawing but holding YOUR marker and drawing on YOUR math book, or YOU if you get in his way. When you are reading he prefers to not simply sit next to you, or on your lap but directly on your book.

He moves through the house at a cyclone's pace grabbing and dumping things as he goes. He climbs onto all of the counter tops and can reach the top of the refrigerator and recently has discovered how to gain freedom from his crib. He is quickly angered, quickly crushed. But he is quick to recover too.

As he has neared the age of two I have twice witnessed him lining things up, not just destroying all order. He has started to sit in the reading corner and turn pages of books, not just rip them out. So...I don't ever count chickens but he may be turning a corner.

As a way to honor and commemorate Thomas' Epic 2nd year of life we decided to host a "Messy Party". We provided the supplies. Bins of: chocolate pudding, powdered sugar, ice, oats, marshmallows, cornflakes, and 8 lbs or cooked spaghetti and bottles of whipped creme and chocolate syrup. And we just let them at it. What a blast. It was a relief to not have to chase them around telling them to leave this or that alone. I was more relaxed at this party then I have been at a party since having kids. And the clean up was not so bad. We started cleaning at 6:30 and we were done, with the kids bathed and in bed by 8. No worse then a normal party. Here are a few pictures but you can't really KNOW the level of awesomeness unless you happened to have attended and stepped - barefoot - on a pile of cooked spaghetti covered in chocolate pudding and marshmallows. That is where it's at. C'mon - you know you're jealous.