The things memories are made of

Yesterday Lovely Friend's daughter turned three, and they threw a joint birthday party/end of sumer bash in their backyard. C and A were beyond excited, and spent all afternoon hanging around the front door asking if it was time to go yet. We finally departed and were, of course, the first to arrive.

Lovely Friend, who is much more creative than I, had set up 12 "carnival" stations around the yard. There was fishing in the kiddie pool, bobbing for apples, a bean bag toss, and my personal favorite, pin the tail on the Nemo. If only she had told me that Nemo was the theme ahead of time, I still have a closet full of Nemo party supplies from C's third birthday that I would have been happy to donate to the cause...

The kids raced through the games and I thought "Here we go, it is 4:45 and they are done with the entertainment. THIS will be a fun evening." But the they happily played the games over and over again. And when the fishing pole finally broke, and the last of the bean bags ended up over the neighbors fence the kids began to play elaborate games on Lovely Friend's new swing set.

As I stood there and watched C pushing A and his best friend M on the glider with everyone giggling, and then A chasing Lovely Friend's older daughter down the slide, and then C organizing a game of pin the fish on the mommy, I was struck by how these are the things the kids will remember some day. C may have a hard time remembering his kindergarten teacher's name (I know I don't have a blessed clue who mine was) but I will bet that he will always remember the carnival in Lovely Friend's backyard.