My son, Ryan, is fourteen years old. We have always called him a "social butterfly." From the time he was old enough to ask, he’s always had friends or cousins (or anyone that was willing) come over as much as possible. If he couldn’t get someone to come to our house and play, or even better spend the night, then he would hit them up to go to their house. You know the drill, "Hey, why don’t you call your Mom and ask her if I can come over?"When Ryan was four and five years old, it would take me an extra hour to go to the grocery store. Where most kids would get a little shy when people stopped to say, "Oh, he’s so cute," Ryan would start a conversation. He would talk to them like a little adult for as long as they were willing to listen. I’m proud to say that at 14, when a lot kids are willing to talk to their friends, but don’t seek-out conversations with adults, Ryan will still sit and have a conversation with you. He’ll even talk to his dear-old Mom sometimes.
So, social butterfly that he is, Ryan has had a party for the last two years. It has now become "Ryan’s Annual End of the School Year Party." This year’s party was this past Saturday. I really never know what to expect as far as how many kids will come. But, so far, we’ve averaged between 40 and 45 kids both years. "Forty!" my friends say, "You must be brave."
"Actually," I brag, "I didn’t have one second of trouble and nothing was broken." It’s the truth. Out of all those kids, we had absolutely no arguments or fights. We have a bed upstairs (from the 1800s!) and someone hopped on it causing the slats to come out, but technically it wasn’t broken. The next day, Ryan’s friend Daniel told me that someone was throwing oreo cookies upstairs, but Ryan is in charge of clean up. The front door slammed at least 6 million times, but Roger and I eventually got used to that. I had to turn the music down a time or two, but I’m thinking that’s not much trouble for 40 teenagers. Heck, I’ve had that kind of trouble from just four!
The best part was getting to meet all the kids Ryan talks about and being able to put a face with the name. Most of the kids made a point to search me out sometime during the night to have a quick chat. A few that I know better than others would sit and have a longer conversation. Teenagers are interesting people if you give them room to talk.
But did you know they travel in packs? I guess I should have remembered that from my own teens, but this time I had the opportunity to just sit back and watch. For awhile, Roger and I sat at the kitchen table playing Gin Rummy. A pack of kids would come down from upstairs to grab some food. Next thing you know, another pack was down until eventually just about all the kids were downstairs. By then, a pack had moved outside so that, eventually, they had all moved outside. When a group decided they would go upstairs, they would soon be all upstairs dancing and playing pool again. I’m guessing this is similar to how the buffalo roam.
So, what do you feed 40 teenagers? The first year, we went all out and they didn’t eat half the food. My little family, my in-laws at the bottom of the hill, and our neighbors were eating chicken nuggets, french fries, and onion rings for days. This year, Ryan said, "Mom, let’s just do some chips and dip this year." Sounded good to me so we had Hot Tamale Dip served with corn chips and tortillas, Homemade French Onion Dip served with plain potato chips, and Avocado Dip served with purple tortilla chips. I did cook four of those "It’s not delivery" pizzas and a few chicken strips. It’s a good thing, too, because this year, they actually ate most of what I cooked. Go figure... Who can predict teenagers? And where are they when you need them? 
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