With these three, we partied like it was 2009

We partied with all three of our grandsons Saturday night — and lived to tell about it.

It was a double birthday celebration — Ty’s birthday was the previous Wednesday and his brother Nolan’s was two days later.

Since it was a Reserve drill weekend, we were babysitting our other grandson, Aiden, for the weekend, which was how we got to party with all three of them.

The party was even bigger, as it was also a surprise 50th birthday party for Ty and Nolan’s other grandfather, something he didn’t know about until he got to the party.

Fortunately, their other grandparents are far enough past the big five-oh that the statute of limitations is up for anybody throwing either of us a surprise party. I can’t speak for Terry, but I probably couldn’t stand that kind of surprise.

Then again, we did survive the night with Ty, Aiden and Nolan — although there were several dozen other family, friends and others at the party to (almost) balance out the nearly dozen or so kids running around.

Ty alone would have been enough for all of the adults in the room to keep up with. He pretty much assumed it was his party and he was just sharing the spotlight with his baby brother and his grandfather out of the kindness of his heart.

Being that it was his fifth birthday, that’s probably understandable. His grandfather, being 10 times Ty’s age, is that much less excited about such milestones.

And for Nolan, it was his first birthday, it was all a new experience for his, so his interest and enthusiasm was naturally dwarfed by his older brother’s.

All three of the birthday boys had a pile of gifts, enough combined to fill a good-sized table.

It took all of the parental — and grandparental — powers of persuasion available to dissuade Ty from making opening all of the presents the first order of the night’s business. After all, it’s not Ty’s fault that his priorities run in an entirely different direction than a roomful of hungry adults with several tables full of food and drinks in front of them.

After what probably seemed like an eternity to Ty — and admit it, in terms of a five-year-old lifespan, half an hour can equate to an eternity — it was finally time to open presents.

Naturally, Ty went first. At least, that seemed natural to Ty, although it seemed more practical to the rest of us and more certain to maintain at least a bit of peace.

It took Ty very little time to get through his pile of presents, not surprisingly. He pretty much left it to his mother to read the cards while he got to the more important part of the matter. He did take time, at his mother’s insistence, to thank everyone for each present as he opened up, but suffice it to say that his thankyous were not long-winded flights of grand rhetoric.

Nolan was next up for the present opening and Ty, being a helpful big brother, was more than willing to pitch in and help his little brother out with that task.

Nolan has apparently learned his place in the natural order of things, as he raised no objection to his big brother’s aid.

The two of them together got through Nolan’s pile in even faster time, thanks in part to the fact that Nolan isn’t talking all that much yet and didn’t have to stop to give the requisite thank-yous.

With only his grandfather’s pile left to go, Ty was still on a roll. But that soon petered out when he discovered that all those “you’re 50 now” and “over-the-hill” gag gifts weren’t nearly as much fun as all the toys he and Nolan got.

It wasn’t long before grandfather was left to open his own gifts without any help, needed or not, from grandson Ty.

In the meantime, we had our own version of the Balloon Boy on our hands, but without the chase by law enforcement officials and the non-stop cable news coverage.

It seems that Aiden has a huge fascination for balloons. When we take him to the grocery store with us, it’s all we can do to get him past the floral department and all the gift and special occasion balloons that are hanging there.

We have to steer the shopping cart more than an Aiden’s-arm distance away from them or he’d have our cart — and his hands — filled with balloons.

Naturally, there were plenty of balloons all around at the birthday party and that had Aiden entertained for almost the entire evening. He was no competition for Ty or Nolan in the gift-opening department — his focus was entirely on grabbing whatever balloon was closest at hand.

We managed to convince him that one balloon was all he needed to take home with him, but we had a major battle on our hands to keep him from taking it to bed with him.

By the next morning, when he reclaimed his prize as soon as he work up, his balloon was no longer floating, it was just lying limp on the floor, but that didn’t matter to Aiden.

By the time his parents got back from drill, it was a deflated piece of rubber attached to a long ribbon, but that didn’t matter — it was still Balloon Boy’s prize. We figure he’ll still be hanging on to it when he comes back next month during drill weekend.