69/366
I brought the kids to a birthday party for a boy in Z's class today. Truth be told, it wasn't the most fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Az was feeling pretty under the weather. She sat in my lap for a while but was tempted by the play equipment and loud boys running everywhere. I helped her onto the play structure but she didn't  have the energy to do more than just stand and watch the other kids. It was probably just as well though, as most of the other kids were being pretty wild. Make that, really really wild. The birthday boy had gotten scooters for his birthday and the boys spent much of the party trying to push whichever boy happened to be on the scooter off. Hard. I told Z to stay away from all of the excitement but it was pretty tempting stuff for an eleven-year-old boy. He didn't take part in any of the pushing, but I had to keep reminding him to watch from a safer distance. All of the other parents felt comfortable enough with the situation to sit inside chatting while the kids played outside but it seemed like an emergency room visit waiting to happen. Even when a mom did come outside she played a very passive role in the rowdiness around her. At one point her son ran by and swatted Z's new camera out of Z's hand and she said nothing, despite sitting mere feet away. The party wasn't all bad, I did get the opportunity to compare notes with a mom whom has two kids enrolled in Z's school. One of her son's now attends the high-school and she had nothing but positive things to say about her experience, but over all it was one party I was a little relieved to leave.