Tristans birthday

I went for the luxury solution to Tristans birthday today. Bowling AND swimming AND french fries AND icecream. A houseful of kids is something I find unbelievably exhausting, especially boys! Put two together and it feels like you have six. Never mind if you have six in the house.... I don't know how moms do it! Since 4 years I go for the easy solution of organizing every birthday party of his outside the house. Swimming pools and indoor playgrounds are heavily featured.
It's different with Marinda. With her we had a lot of sleepovers. Make-up, games, a soppy movie, lots of candy and chips and there's not much hassle.
I remember once Marinda had two boys and two girls over to sleep. Herman and I slept in the attic but heard the boys roughhousing downstairs until deep in the night. I then made a vow never to have more than one boy over to sleep at any time. So far I've managed to keep it.
Tristan has one friend over right now. They probably won't get much sleep, but that's the way it's supposed to be I guess. I felt a slight pang of guilt though, when the boys mother called to tell me when she was coming to pick him up and then assumed they were already in bed. Meanwhile, they were outside jumping on the trampoline. There goes my reputation as a good mom (ha!).