Blondechick's 18th Birthday Party

Let it never be said that I am an uptight mother.  Or an obsessive-compulsive house-cleaner.  Or that I never let my kids do anything. 

I now have proof-positive to the contrary.

Last night, I allowed Blondechick and B15 to host about 20 friends for a dance party in our basement, in honor of Blondechick's 18th birthday.  And not just your regular dance party.  Of course, we had loud music, kids yelling even louder and lots of groovin' and jumping around.  But to make our dance party extra-fun and extra-cool...we had glow juice.

Glow juice is what comes out of a glow stick--or glow necklace, bracelet or wand; you know, the kind they sell at amusement parks after dark?--when you bend it in half and then break it open.

You can sprinkle it all over your clothes and rub it in your hair.  You can splash it on the walls and the carpet. And when you turn out the lights, it looks REALLY cool.

I know.  My basement walls and carpet are covered with it.

When we discussed this idea, we knew, anecdotally, that the stuff disappears after a few hours.  Like the necklaces that you put in the freezer to try to keep them glowing for another day?  They never work again.

And we knew that the t-shirt that Blondechick wore when they did this at Honey Rock, the Christian camp she went to over a year ago, was fine afterward.  No stains were visible even before it was washed, and it sat around for days while she finished out the time at camp.

So I guess that's why I agreed.  Not to mention that we were at a loss for other 18th birthday party ideas we both liked.  And it sounded like good, clean (or not-so-clean) fun.

I had expected that most of the juice would go on clothes and hair, but when I peeked in the basement and saw how someone had decorated the walls and floor with it...I began to have misgivings.

But at that point, there was nothing to say but "Cool!"

Later when the kids came upstairs, hot and thirsty, for soda and some fresh air, they gave me more reasons to be nervous.  The yellow glow juice barely showed up on their white t-shirts, but the pink...and the orange...looked definitely stained.  Like, it would still be a stain, even after it stopped glowing; although it would probably come out in the wash, judging from how easily the stuff washed off hands.

Two kids told me that if we needed a cleaning crew afterwards, they could help.  I was grateful for their offer, but it did nothing to allay my growing fears about the state of my carpet.

At least we were already planning to paint the basement walls.

Well, it's Saturday morning and Blondechick and her friends are cleaning up streamers and broken glow sticks in the basement.  The regular light bulbs are screwed in again--we had only a blacklight bulb screwed in last night--and incredibly, the carpet looks stain-free.  (Feels a little sticky in places, though.)

The only evidence of the party that the carpet reveals this morning is tiny glitters of glass.  We didn't realize that inside the plastic, there is a glass tube that you break when you bend the glow stick.  Sometimes, as you pour out the juice, some glass splinters fall out too. 

Fortunately none of the kids were seriously cut, but we did stop and vacuum halfway through the evening, after someone realized it was glass that was crunching underfoot.  Ouch.

We also discovered that large quantities of activated glow juice in an enclosed space create fumes which get a little hard to breathe after awhile.  (Non-toxic, I was assured by a quick check on the internet.)

They liked the taco bar and the ice cream sundae bar--more conventional party fare.  The boys left by 11 or so, and the girls slept over.

I think Blondechick was pretty happy with her party.

Even if I had a few nervous moments, myself.