The Invitations

I decided to hand-deliver invitations for the Harry Potter Halloween Party this year. I was a little stressed because I didn't have the time to do it but I organized an efficient driving route and thought Ethan and I could get them all delivered within an hour. It was Ethan's short day at school and he had two friends, Niko and Matthew come home with him. I broke the news to them all that we had to go and deliver invitations but that I would take them to McDonald's for ice-cream when we were done. They thought that was a pretty fair trade so I loaded them all into the car.

My planned one-hour delivery trip turned into three hours of crazy fun!  First they asked me if we could drive around delivering invitations with the van's sliding doors open. When I said "yes" they were so excited you would have thought I told them we were all going to Disneyland! They loved yelling out to everyone that passed us. Then at each house we stopped at, they would all get out of the car to deliver the invitation and they would invite that friend to ride around to deliver the rest of the invitations and go to McDonald's with us. Surprisingly, by the end of our delivery we ended up with another four boys!  They organized a seating plan so they would each get equal time riding in the two seats next to the open sliding doors. They laughed and laughed and had so much fun together. We drove under a freeway overpass and they begged me to stop and let them climb up the cement slopes. They spent twenty minutes yelling, screaming, rolling, sliding and tripping down the cement. It made me smile to think that something so simple could make them all so happy. One time when I looked in the back of the van, they were laying on the seats with their legs up in the air against the seat backs. I started laughing and asked what they were doing. They said they were astronauts flying to the moon. I wished I had a camera. When we finally made it to McDonald's, they asked if we could go inside so they could play in the Play Area. I was surprised they wanted to do that but I'm so glad I said yes. They were hysterically funny in the play area and spent an hour there.

On the way back to our house, one of the boys said it was the best play date he had ever had. Another one told the boys he loved them and they would all be best friends for life. I never would have thought that driving around in a car delivering invitations could have been so fun. I can still hear those boys giggling and screaming and think how I could have easily missed that amazing afternoon if I had said no to all of their requests because I didn't feel like having the van doors open or that I didn't have the time to let them play under the freeway or at McDonald's. I loved that day.