Garden Party Birthday
Well, it happened after all. The longed-for resumption of an old friendship. Angie's girlfriend was destined, after all, to attend her little garden party. And since Stephanie lives but a five-minute walk from our house it was we who drove her over to the party. And she was just as excited as our granddaughter. She had bought a lovely mother-of-pearl-inlaid brass cuff for Angie, knowing how she loves jewellery. She was eager to go, happy to see us again, hug-hug. And she talked incessantly throughout that hour-long drive to get there. Never did we suspect that this child had such a lively and thoughful intelligence. She was bubbly company, happy at everything she saw, eager to introduce one subject after another, for full discussion.
When we arrived at the garden party, the other children were all in the pool, splashing about, raising their voices to the pines above. I felt pretty good about having thought to bring along Angie's bathing suit from last summer that we'd had at our house, yet another relic of our long years of looking after her. For although Stephanie is a year older than Angie, the suit fit her exactly and she soon joined the other girls in the pool. Eden had slept over with Angie, and Jade and her sister Faith had arrived in the early afternoon. A bit of a social dance ensued as the girls became acquainted.
It wasn't long before all were comfortably ensconced once again in the pool, flopping about, splashing one another, and engaging in gossip. Bringing Angie all up to date on the antics and tales surrounding the other children in her grade four class whom she had left behind, four months ago when she moved to this new house, this new environment, her new school, and new chums. And that was a perfect opportunity for all the others to chime in, claiming their turn to talk about others of their acquaintances whose behaviours, characteristics, eccentricities and appearance elicited comical comment and mild derision to be shared by all. Tch-tch.
Well before they were in danger of becoming water-logged, they exited the pool to dry up and change, then begin playing soccer (at least their version of it) and volleyball (ditto). Then it was time to play with the dogs, all eight of them. Then into the house to reveal the contents of their loot bags, compare the colours of the plush toy sheep (all the same animals to avoid jealousy, but they traded on the basis of colour anyway), compare the attributes of the little writing sets in each bag, then the hair ornaments, and finally the chocolate bars, which demanded to be eaten forthwith.
That done, they all sat around the dining table to watch as the birthday girl hauled out the clothing gifts she had received from Bubbe and Zayde, and they pursed their lips in oohs and ahhs, for the unfolding of each offering. The birthday girl offered to try each garment on, and she concluded the performance by selecting a red ruched top to wear then and there, matching her short red skort.
Cookies! Who wants fresh-baked cookies just out of the oven! Then it was large, warm, redolent cookies all around, the dogs frantically searching the floor below the laughing children for errant crumbs. Back out to the pool! Last one in is a poo-head! (Oh, really!) Wait, first some orange soda. Wait, let's have some strawberries. All right, everyone over to the guest cottage to change. Get your towels and suits off the line, they're dry by now.
Have I yet mentioned the pluperfect weather, especially ordered up for this auspicious day? Having not yet, I shall describe it as wonderfully sunny, dry, with a gentle breeze, hot enough, but not unbearably so. This little girl has everything going just right for this day in recognition of the signal event of her birth.
There's more, much more, but why go on, perfection can be so impossibly difficult to convey. Suffice it to say that the girls were in and out of the pool continually, between eating jags. They ran amok on the grounds, managing miraculously to avoid the flower beds and the ambient animals. They helped the lady of the house clean out the rabbit pens. They had their dinner out on the deck, sitting at little tables on little benches; well, adult tables, adult benches.
They had birthday cake, a rather disgusting-looking concoction of white/chocolate cake, festooned with icing and chocolate-sandwich cookies. Ugh.
Happy day.
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, June 25, 2006
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