Party overload and a meltdown

I put a lot on this blog about Bright Eyes' achievements, but I have to be honest and write about the meltdowns as well.

Today was my pop's 91st birthday. We got in the car and drove 2 hours and 20 minutes to my aunt's house for a birthday party for him. Also there were my cousins and their children. (Altogether my pop has 16 great grandchildren, but we were missing 6 today.)

Bright Eyes coped with lunch and even tried a chicken satay stick ("I like it!"), he coped with the new house and the big group of people. Where he came undone was in the game my dad devised for the day - basically a reasonably complicated scavenger hunt finding 91 objects around the house and yard. 

He began well, inviting his brother to work with him on the same team. They were diligent for about half an hour together and coped really well. Once they couldn't find a rock of a particular size, it all started to go pearshaped, though. He began to blame his brother and then just burst into tears.

It was time to go home, and it took him a good hour and a half to calm down. By the time the long drive home was over he was friends again with his brother and had accepted the 'medal' he got for participating in the game, instead of wanting to just 'throw it in the bin!'

I was pleased generally with the day, but I realised I should have stepped in sooner to the game and helped out with some of the harder things. A little bit more scaffolding might have saved the temper tantrum and given him a better memory of the day.