Even though it's raining again, I am still basking in the sunshine of Hailey's birthday party on Sunday.
Purcell was such a realistic leatherback sea turtle that the guests didn't even recognize him. It was such a warm, bright afternoon that he was able to crawl around on the back lawn while the girls played tag. I'm sure glad I attached those gardening knee pads to his grey flannel pants!
Everything went just as planned, until the very end, when Hailey was opening the presents. Many of the girls had brought a donation to STRP and a gift. I was using one hand to write a list of all the gifts and the other to get a piece of chewing gum out of Conner Wheelbeck's long blond hair. Fortunately, I used my special peanut butter and ice poultice, which can take the stickiness out of anything!
Bronson was in the kitchen on time out. (Against the rules, he had stuck some gum on the end of a fishing pole and caught Conner and several other girls with it during the "longline fisherman" tag game.)
Everyone else was crammed into the living room, and the girls were all making so much noise that at first I did not pay any attention to Amber standing at the bay window shrieking "bub-bub!" I finally looked up from Conner's hair to see a blue minivan parked out front, with tiny soap bubbles pouring from its windows. The bubbles were floating over the yard and down the street and had already attracted the attention of several passers-by. As I watched, the large sliding door of the van opened, and out stepped three Mariachi musicians in full costume. They struck up a lively tune and began sauntering towards us across the front lawn! Having no idea what was going on, I motioned Purcell to the front door.
Purcell got there as quick as he could with the turtle shell beanbag on his back and opened the door just as the lead musician rang the bell. "How'd you get here?" accused the leader, and then announced in a much louder, friendlier voice "Dovecote Family, your Prize Parade has arrived!"
All the party-goers, including Hailey, jumped up and charged toward the band. While Purcell and I stood in shock, the band marched off the porch and headed off down the block, with all our guests following them. Purcell and I followed, and fortunately the parade turned back after passing just a few houses. But by then parents were arriving to pick up their children.
Purcell tried to rouse someone from the van, which was still spewing more bubbles than the old Lawrence Welk show. No one heeded his knocking, however, until finally the big sliding door swung open and four costumed sea creatures jumped out, almost knocking him over.
"Where's Leila Dovecote? She gets the first dance" the sea urchin said. Leila had come outside with the rest of us, but was cowering on the front porch.
"She doesn't like to dance," said Hailey, "but I do."
Before we knew it, Hailey was dancing with the purple sea urchin, who was almost keeping up with her Irish tap-dance style steps. An anemone joined hands with a bunch of the girls, and they danced around Hailey and the sea urchin in a ring. A fat clown fish circled around outside the ring, mingling with the onlookers.
Purcell tried again to talk to the Mariachi band leader, but could not make himself heard over the loud guitar strumming and lively, vaguely mournful Spanish singing. All the band leader would do was motion Purcell to join the dancing. Still wearing his leatherback turtle costume, at least Purcell finally looked like he belonged.
By now about a dozen parents stood tentatively on the driveway and sidewalk, all wearing the genial, slightly frozen expression you see on adults waiting to extract their children from a party gone into overtime.
Trish Vaux stood across the street in front of her dormant vegetable garden with a bemused smile on her face, and even her carrot-haired teenage son had come out to watch. Stefano, who must have been passing by on his bike, had stopped, his hair spiking out almost as wild as the sea urchin's. Zinnia, who must have heard the noise from her house, arrived and rocked out briefly with the clown fish before retrieving her little daughters, Mirabell and Perugina, from wandering in the street.
By then I had the presence of mind of look for Amber, who I was relieved to see dancing ecstatically, her green eyes as big as saucers, with Hailey and the sea urchin. And then it dawned on me. This had all been foretold by the Easter egg in Jellyfish Roundup.
The sea urchin, sea anemone and clown fish that had been up on the screen were all here. The only thing that was missing was the sea turtle. So that was why the band leader kept trying to make Purcell dance!
Finally girls started coming up with their parents to thank us for inviting them, and to take their leatherback posters, and the paper sea turtles they had made. Fortunately, I already had a bag made for each girl with her crafts and some extra goodies inside. But as they left all anyone could talk about was how exciting it was to have a band and "live" sea creatures. I told several parents how surprised we were by the prize parade, but I don't think anyone really understood how much I really meant it! I overheard one dad telling his daughter not to expect such a production on her birthday.
After posing for pictures with the few remaining guests and neighbors, the sea creatures returned to the van, and the leader brought out two more prizes: two cases of organic baby food and a family pass to Wetwipes Bay Land, a new eco-friendly toddler water park. He explained that everything was part of the prize parade for Jellyfish Roundup, which Leila had won by opening the Easter egg. They didn't believe us when we said Leila was a dog, even though Purcell tried to explain how he registered her as a player to help her learn to take turns. Even though Leila won the prize parade, I think Hailey will always think of it as her prize--better even than the $300 she raised for the leatherback turtles!
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