Celebrating

Yesterday Cameron had his birthday party.

26 kids! He invited his whole class (all but 5 came), plus some neighborhood kids and a couple other friends.

Several of the parents looked at me like I was crazy, amazed that I had a party with so many kids. But 26 kids wasn't that difficult because:

a. It wasn't at my house. It was at one of those inflatable jumping places.

b. I had some help. The place provided a couple people to help keep an eye on the kids. Plus Sara was there to keep track of Max and Ella, and my husband came toward the end.

c. Since I've worked in Cameron's class a couple times a month throughout the school year, I know all the kids...and all their names.

d. I'm a teacher. I'm used to being around a lot of kids...granted I taught teenagers...but kids don't intimidate me. While some parents smile politely while they see kids under their guise misbehaving (which drives me crazy!), I don't hesitate to use my authority as an adult to let them know if they're doing something wrong. I have that teacher "look" and that teacher "voice" and that teacher discipline to separate kids who are feeding off each other. Don't get me wrong, I think Cameron's teacher is a saint, because I would not want to teach 6 and 7 year olds every day. But for a couple hours, it was fine.

Overall, things went very well. Only a couple small altercations and injuries. I only had to separate 2 boys.

The kids seemed to have a blast, and most importantly, Cameron thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Max's birthday isn't until July, but considering his constant concern about when his own birthday was going to happen this past month, I think I'll be hearing about it quite often.