Friends Party

Milly’s first sixth birthday party was on Friday afternoon at Amanda’s.  It was a water party with slides and a kiddie pool and water balloons.

It was scaled back a bit in number from years past, part of which might have had to do with it starting at 3 in the afternoon on a weekday, but some of her oldest and best friends were there.  Her teachers, whom she was mourning not being with anymore the day before (the last day of school) showed up too, which was really cool of them to do.

As far as family goes, Anna and Barry were the only ones there from Amanda’s side.  Amanda told me that Michael and Jenn might be there, but they weren’t.  Yes, it was a little awkward for me to walk through the house to the backyard and see them, but I didn’t feel awkward for long, and that’s thanks to the way they interacted with me.

I spent some time talking to Nick and Kevin.  I chatted with Mrs. Beasley, Milly’s teacher, when I heard her say she wished she had gone to the Mumford & Sons show last night, so I had to tell her that it was awesome.  She told me that a kid she knew from her church was in Arcade Fire so she’d been to see them before.  File that under conversations you don’t expect to have with your kid’s kindergarten teacher.

I spent a good bit of time petting Harvey.

Andra, Jackson and Addy were there.  Josh had to work, but his family gets a place at Oak Island every year and my sister and her kids came early to hang out and go to Milly’s birthday party.  I’m sure it was a great surprise for Milly.

Milly was, of course, pretty occupied with having fun with her friends and opening presents and such, so I didn’t get much out of her, but that was expected.  She did take some pictures with me before we left, but Jackson’s not used to an SLR camera and I don’t think the autofocus ever focused, so I missed out on those pics.

[prompt type=”left” title=”Members only” message=”This section of this post contains content that is only available to members. Log in or subscribe for access.” button_text=”Subscribe” href=”/account/”]

Mercer Party

Milly’s second birthday party was a dance party on Saturday with Amanda’s side of the family.  I don’t know too much about that one and I obviously don’t have pictures of it.  She said it was fun though, and I don’t doubt that at all.

Dotsey Party

I picked Milly up at 2:00 on Sunday at Costco, which is about halfway between my place and Amanda’s.  I took her back to my place to open up a few presents.  When we opened the door, Tristen blew a noisemaker and threw some confetti at the door and gave her a cheerful “Happy birthday!”  She had also set out the boxes of Milly’s presents, which included a snorkeling set with a kickboard, several outfits she and Milly had picked out last week and a Barbie and Ken I picked up to supplement the Zippy Sack I ordered, which shipped days ago but didn’t get here on time.  (Note: It showed up Monday.  I opened it and put it on the bed to wait for her.)

We loaded up the car and headed down to Oak Island, which is only about 40 minutes away.  We played lots of music on the way.  Apparently I hadn’t introduced Milly to Bohemian Rhapsody yet, and she really enjoyed that, especially my headbanging.  I mean, these curls hide a good bit of length and it really comes out when I’m whipping it around.

[prompt type=”left” title=”Members only” message=”This section of this post contains content that is only available to members. Log in or subscribe for access.” button_text=”Subscribe” href=”/account/”]

As I said before, Andra, Jackson and Addy were in town to head to Oak Island.  My parents and Erin joined them, so it really was more of a Terry (not Sawyer, it being Josh’s mom and step-dad)-Dotsey weekend than just a “Josh’s family” weekend.  Actually, now that I think of it, if you count Jackson and Addy as “shared”, there were more Dotseys there.  Huh.

Anyway, we were very soon out on the beach where Milly and Addy were catching wake (with varying success) on their boards.  Andra and Tristen were pulling them along the shallow water by the leashes for a bit.

All of us but Milly, Addy and Tristen went out in the deep water for a bit.  We later found out that there were two very serious shark attacks not too far from where we were around that time.  Pretty scary to think about in retrospect.

We all packed it in after a bit.  Just in time, too, because it started raining almost immediately after we got back in the beach house.

There was a lot of random singing.  Tom Petty, a good bit of Randy Travis, more Queen.  Lots of dancing too.  Milly and Addy really got into it after the cake, cupcakes and presents.  Maybe it was the sugar.

Obviously the situation isn’t optimal, right?  And I don’t think Milly will have three birthday parties every year, but I think she really enjoyed it this year.  I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy having a fun birthday party with friends on Friday, another fun party with loved ones on Saturday and yet another birthday party with more loved ones on Sunday?  A whole weekend of fun!

I can’t believe I’ve got a six-year-old now.  And really, she’s such a great kid.  I’m sure people think that of their kids all the time, and I know Milly isn’t perfect.  But she really is smart, she’s outgoing and friendly and kind and such a pretty little thing.  I hate that she has to grow up, but, as she has said when asked why she won’t just stay little forever, she has to.

Happy sixth birthday, Bugaboo.  I love you even more than you can possibly realize.