On Saturday afternoon at about four thirty Jo told Vivian that she and I needed to go pick up pizza for dinner. Since the Marco's just up the street from us closed, we have to drive several miles to the next nearest one. Vivian didn't bat an eyelid when I picked up three large pizzas. Then I stopped at a Randall's where we have never shopped before and Vivian and I bought three Ben & Jerry ice creams and a bag of chicharrónes. Having wasted enough time I headed back towards home. At the last minute I turned into Ramsey and drove by Grandpa's house to "check on it". Some more time wasted while I glanced down at text statuses that Jo had been sending me. Finally I turned into our street and saw that I needed a quick distraction. "Vivian - look over there and tell me if Jonathan is working on his front porch please".
It was a surprise sleepover for Vivian. She isn't going to be in town for her birthday and didn't expect us to do anything the week prior to her birthday so it was a full and complete surprise. How Jo managed to pull it off I don't know. How Vivian didn't smell about a dozen rats and an equal number of fish from my behavior in the prior half an hour is a testament to her trust, gullibility, and a perfectly Vivian centric world where the actions of others have little meaning.
The parents left after a glass of wine and Jo and I resigned ourselves to an evening of constant chatter. All six of them - the four guests, Vivian and Evan, spoke at the top of their voices the whole time. We took them to Ramsey hoping to tire them and their jaws out. Didn't help a tiny bit. As this group invaded the park, younger girls stared at them in wonder and thought "Wow - I'm going to be old enough to do this someday"
Pizza for dinner. Puppy chow for snack. A movie for a couple of hours. Then time to chill. They had beds for five set up upstairs. At about 10pm Jo and Evan retreated to our bedroom, threw Crazy out and shut the door. Crazy and I worked on my computer quietly till about midnight, the silence punctuated by occasional but more often frequent squeals and giggles from upstairs. I yelled a couple of times for them to quieten down and turn off the lights.
At about 1:30am most of the girls with Vivian in the lead trooped downstairs and said:
"We can't go to sleep. We have tried for many hours. What should we do?"
"Turn off the lights, shut up, and see what happens" I said.
"What if we still don't fall asleep?"
"It isn't that hard. You do it every night."
They did fall asleep finally. And awoke slightly before 7am looking like shit. I bought two dozen tacos from the Shack and the kids parked themselves in a dazed state in front of the TV till their parents arrived to take their zombies home.
I don't know what they were watching when I came in to take this photo at about 9am. Whatever it was, it was quite disturbing by the looks.
"Yes - both he and Amy are outside working"
"Thanks"
"Dad - you drove past our house!"
"Duh - silly me. I'll turn around at the end of the block"
And I drove as slowly as I could till everything looked clear in the rear view mirror and then I turned back and drove home. Vivian walked in with a pizza box on her head. The front of the house was empty. I followed her in. "Hmmm - where did Mommy and Evan go?"
At which point Jo, a few other parents, Evan, and four girls from Vivian's school jumped out from behind the kitchen island and yelled "Surprise!" Jo managed to somehow capture the moment on the camera.
It was a surprise sleepover for Vivian. She isn't going to be in town for her birthday and didn't expect us to do anything the week prior to her birthday so it was a full and complete surprise. How Jo managed to pull it off I don't know. How Vivian didn't smell about a dozen rats and an equal number of fish from my behavior in the prior half an hour is a testament to her trust, gullibility, and a perfectly Vivian centric world where the actions of others have little meaning.
The parents left after a glass of wine and Jo and I resigned ourselves to an evening of constant chatter. All six of them - the four guests, Vivian and Evan, spoke at the top of their voices the whole time. We took them to Ramsey hoping to tire them and their jaws out. Didn't help a tiny bit. As this group invaded the park, younger girls stared at them in wonder and thought "Wow - I'm going to be old enough to do this someday"
Pizza for dinner. Puppy chow for snack. A movie for a couple of hours. Then time to chill. They had beds for five set up upstairs. At about 10pm Jo and Evan retreated to our bedroom, threw Crazy out and shut the door. Crazy and I worked on my computer quietly till about midnight, the silence punctuated by occasional but more often frequent squeals and giggles from upstairs. I yelled a couple of times for them to quieten down and turn off the lights.
At about 1:30am most of the girls with Vivian in the lead trooped downstairs and said:
"We can't go to sleep. We have tried for many hours. What should we do?"
"Turn off the lights, shut up, and see what happens" I said.
"What if we still don't fall asleep?"
"It isn't that hard. You do it every night."
They did fall asleep finally. And awoke slightly before 7am looking like shit. I bought two dozen tacos from the Shack and the kids parked themselves in a dazed state in front of the TV till their parents arrived to take their zombies home.
I don't know what they were watching when I came in to take this photo at about 9am. Whatever it was, it was quite disturbing by the looks.
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