The birthdays have been rolling in hot and heavy here lately, and Saturday was the 17th for Bonita. I set up the fire pit on the back patio where the kids could hang out and The Reverend Mother baked the Cafe Latte chocolate and pecan layer cake. We had some of our family over while Bonita invited her friends from the youth group at the church where she has grown up. These youth were all Hispanic and spoke mostly in Spanish. I know a little Spanish, but this can be disconcerting. At one point I think they were mocking our curtains, but I can’t be sure.
The kids were a good group, each was gracious and respectful when they arrived and they all thanked us for having them over when they left. In between they were a pretty exuberant group without the sulky faces and attitude you sometimes get with teenagers when they have to be around adults (yeah, yeah, I know adults can put on some pretty strange faces and attitudes when they have to be around teen-agers, too). We pretty much left them alone and they hung out outside near the fire for awhile but the Mall Diva and Tiger Lilly eventually lured everyone into our basement for the infamous “Dance-Dance Revolution” game. Sometimes I think these two sit around trying to think of ways to get people to come over so they can stomp them into the game’s vinyl dance pads.
Well, it wasn’t long before the young men in the group had to call for reinforcements, and five more gentlemen soon arrived. These were introduced with names such as Israel and Rueben (Gad and Napthali apparently couldn’t make it) They were soon flung into battle, but Bonita and the girls had reinforcements of their own: the Reverend Mother was summoned to the basement and she continued the humiliation. Her domination of one of the young men greatly amused his comrades, one of whom called out, “She’s whipping you like your mother!” No wonder these guys have learned to be respectful!
The place was definitely rocking, whether from the loud music and loud voices, or all the youthful exuberance (or hormones) bouncing off the walls. The next generation certainly has some advantages over us older types, however; for instance, no matter how loud it got, you could always see at least two of the youngsters talking on their cellphones as well. I can barely operate my cell phone when I’ve got 50 feet of air space around me.
It was a really fun night and Bonita was thrilled. We were delighted to meet her friends and we’ll be happy to see more of them in the future. We don’t have too many photos from the party because the room was so full there wasn’t room to squeeze a digital camera in there, but I may post a few in the updates later.
It’s amazing that they can hear what the person on the other end of the phone is saying, yet only hours later will pretend they didn’t hear you when you tell them to do something.