Blue Doggy and Pink Bunny: Last Night

We went to a pumpkin painting, dinner eating kind of a party last night. It was so nice. Like, so nice, guys.
Monica is a friend of a friend and my friend Jessica ... who is the friend of Monica... was co-hosting, so we got an invite.

Monica is super sweet and we met her husband last night and he's super nice. They have a nice house and a good sized yard and had rented a bouncy house for the kids to go crazy in. We all sat outside and she had made baked potatoes with everything, a fruit tray, and there was KFC and pizza for all. We ended up staying an hour and a half longer than we originally intended because everyone was having such a nice time.

One thing about having a little introvert kid is: he likes to stick close to me. Not like, right by my side, but fairly close. He gathered all the cars he could find from the toy room and brought them outside to a bench to play with that was right by the food table that the adults were congregating by. All the other kids were laughing and having fun over at the bouncy house and running around, and then there was my sweet, quiet Joey, kneeling by the bench vrooming cars. I will admit, a big part of me wished he was over with the other kids socializing and running around laughing and having fun, but that's just not how Joey has fun.

A little boy came over and started to play cars next to Joey. Before long, they were playing together. I still wished I could watch Joey be in the bouncy house with all the other kids. Because I think I would have been a bouncy house kid. And I want to see him full of joy like those kids.

I wondered what the other parents thought of my quiet, keep-to-himself kid. Frankie just stayed close by my side because Joey was close by my side and she adores Joey. So, Frankie was sitting on my lap while we were eating and one of the other parents said, "Wow. Your children are so well behaved! Are they easy kids?" I had to laugh to myself. Here I was thinking that they were wondering what was wrong with my children for not running wild, and one of them makes a comment about how well tempered they are. That thought hadn't even entered my mind. It was nice to hear.

When all the other kids had left the bouncy house to paint pumpkins (something Joey could not care less about), Joey and Frankie finally took a stab at the bouncy house... and loved it. We had tried to put Joey in the bouncy house when there were a bunch of kids in there and he freaked out and wanted to get out, but now that it was just him and Frankie, he got a chance to get used to it and was having lots of fun. Frankie. went. bananas in the bounce house. She didn't care that she was getting flailed around. She loved every minute of it.

Other kids started coming in one by one until there were around 6 of them in there including Joey and Frankie and Joey continued to have lots of fun. I think he just needed to ease into it. :)

After lots of fun, at 7:45, it was time for us to call it a night. Here are a few pictures I took as the night was wrapping up.