Come Bounce with Me

If you arrive at a house, and you're walking up the driveway, and you hear the sound of a gigantic vacuum cleaner emanating from the backyard, you know,

1. You're at a party.
2. In Southern California.
3. For a kid.
4. They've rented a bouncy house.
5. Kiernan's going to have a blast, no matter who shows up.

It's almost impossible to throw a party for a child in Southern California--and for some adults too--without renting one of these bouncy house jumper contraptions. If I still lived in Virginia and heard about this convention I would most assuredly scoff. Crazy Californians. But being here I have been to countless parties that had bouncy houses. Seeing the things work in action, packed full of kids, all day long, for under a hundred bucks...I have to say I get it. We rented one for Kiernan's third and fourth birthdays, and there's no doubt in my mind we got our money's worth. If I wasn't sure that first year during the party, I was sure after the sun went down and the kids went home and to bed and the adults all went nuts in the thing. For the kids it's de riguer. For the adults it's like capturing a tiny slice of the state fair moon walk. It's worth it.

Saturday was Diego's birthday party, Diego being one of Kiernan's buddies from school. We were pretty excited about this party, especially since there had been no school on Friday on account of Parent Teacher Conferences. So while it was probably a social faux pas, we showed up exactly on time for the party. We couldn't help it. We had to get there to see the friends. Hearing the siren song of the bouncy house as we approached the house only confirmed for us that punctuality is a virtue.

After dropping off Diego's gift Kiernan kicked off his shoes and dove into the bouncy house, elated to find that his friends Nicholas and Veronica were already inside. Kiernan went nuts until the announcement was made that pizza was available. This caused him to pause, which made perfect sense to me as he had complained about being hungry all the way to the party. The pause lasted for about a millisecond, however. Bouncing was just more important. Eventually Nicholas left the bouncy house to eat, so it was easier for me to convince Kiernan that eating was a useful thing. He took a couple of minor bites of pizza (it had slightly too much sauce...oof), ate a couple pieces of fruit, and dashed back to the bouncy house.

He would have stayed there all day if the clown guy hadn't shown up.

I don't know how this worked, but it did. When these clown/party/entertainer people show up I just want to yell "Check please!" and skeedaddle. Even [especially] when it was me being the clown/party/entertainer. I just don't get it. But the kids went nuts about this guy and gathered around to play his games. To his credit, he had a plan and was reasonably organized and got the kids excited and interested. They played his games and had a blast. First up they did a couple of parachute games. Kiernan is usually leery of these games, and indeed when this started up he backed off, saying he didn't want to do it. Then he just jumped in and totally got into it. Look at him laughing in the picture to the left there. I love it when he laughs like this. Such abandon.

Kiernan even agreed to have his face painted. Not entirely surprising, considering Nicholas was getting his done. But still, this was of his own volition. Without a hint of a suggestion from me. Nice.

Most surprising for me was the wheelbarrow race. The entertainer-dude decided to do a wheelbarrow race with the kids. The kids all paired up and lined up, and the parents all looked at each other with looks of delight and doubt. There was no way our kids were going to actually do a wheelbarrow race. Seriously. This guy had clearly bitten off more than he could chew. Wrong. The "race" did take forever to get going, and was a little chaotic, but on the whole it actually came off. Kiernan and Nicholas actually did a wheelbarrow race, and basically won! I say "basically" because they came in second to the clown doofus and his partner. And he actually had the temerity to tell them they came in second to him. The adult. Doofus.

No matter. Kiernan got it. The guy pulled the same thing in the "Shark vs. Minnows" game. He played along to help the kids get it (cool). He tagged kids out as if he were really playing the game (not). Later, on the way home, Kiernan asked me about this. "Why did the teacher tag me?" He was one of the last three, and didn't win because the "teacher" (Kiernan referred to him as the teacher) tagged him out. Hmmm. Kind of weird, but oh well.

No matter. The bouncy house was there to erase all concerns.

[I will post a couple more party pictures in the next post, including pics of the wheelbarrow race. This post is long enough.]