How My Daughter and Her Friends Created Such Joy for her Birthday Party

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Transcript:

I'd rather be writing. How my daughter and her friends created such joy for her birthday party. It's a magical kind of chaos when the kids come rolling in they end up thundering up and down the stairs like elephants even though they're only twelve

0:16

or eleven or ten i know most of the girls have been a coach with their various teams basketball and soccer i know them all by name First thing they settle in, there's the nervousness of a party. Some of them don't know each other all that well. But by the end of the day, they'll all be fast friends.

0:36

A shared experience. I'm outside working the grill. Gotta feed those kids. They eat so much. And every time I see them, they're bigger than the last. On Friday, when I picked my daughter up from school, she looked not like a grade schooler, but like a senior in high school, ready to graduate.

0:55

I felt fortunate that I'll have her here for so many more years, so tall and capable and confident and happy, and the energy of all these kids fills my house with joy. They play the dancing game first, challenging one another, my daughter winning because she's had practice, but the others were catching up to her by the end.

1:16

And then we ate and sang and ate the cake, and it was time for volleyball in the front yard. ball repeatedly went into the road and the cars would stop and i'd be there to stop them from running out after it and then we went to the park to run and play on the

1:30

slides and the games they play are ones i don't know it started with hide and seek and then there was something called reverse hide and seek where one person hid everybody had to find that person then there was ghosts in the darkness no ghosts in the graveyard which they said normally you're supposed to play at night.

1:49

But since we're free, we can do whatever we want. Could bend the rules just this once. We walked back home. No, they played on the roundabout, which is dangerous, the spinny thing that's like the concussion machine, but we survived that. They tried to flip each other off the swings, and then... Mira found a gigantic stick,

2:07

twice as tall as she was. My big stick, she called it, affecting a southern accent. My big stick... She carried it all the way to the park and all the way back, and when it was time to take her home, she insisted on putting her big stick in the car, and my wife obliged her.

2:26

Gotta bring that stick home. And I watched it all with a smirk, because I realized that's the type of thing I would have done. The last game, as the kids started going away, we were playing volleyball again in the yard. My daughter and one of her friends.

2:41

And this friend turned to me and said, Why don't you play with us too? And it was such a moment of joy to be invited. So I went and we played until it was time for them to go. And it was just a delight.

2:54

We had one there who has moved far enough away that she's not on the team this year. But she's still close enough to be seen. Every now and then. And she hopes to return. And I hope they maintain contact because she's a sweet girl.

3:08

She used to come up to me as I picked up my daughter at school. She would come and stand beside me and say hi and just hang out. And I'd find things to talk to her about. I guess it's nice when they start to trust you after they know you for a while.

3:22

This is the first time I've realized that people, they send their kids to your house with a gift. And it's sort of like in exchange for babysitting them. Gosh, they don't have to bring a gift. I'll take these kids anytime. They're free.

3:35

And it's so neat to have a team of kids where you can go out and play in the park. Go play ultimate frisbee or soccer. Anything you want to play. I'm getting to the age where I'm having trouble walking now. I have a bit of a limp. I think I'll get better.

3:50

but these things linger more often than not. It's just a joy to have them around. Our dog, too, found a way to get into the mix every chance he could, flopping down and having seven girls climb all over him, cooing, calling his name, poor baby, and they took care of him. What a sweet day it was.

4:15

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4:31

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