Birthday Party At Last
Noah turned six last month. February 24th, to be exact. But on February 24th, Noah had a blue plaster cast on his left arm. We thought it was better to wait to hold his party. He was a good sport about the cast on his arm and he has been a good sport about waiting to have a party. He is a good sport of a kid. The day finally came. Today, Sunday. This morning I tried to convince him to water the Peace Patch garden with me, but he didn't want to. He and his mother decorated the carport instead. We rolled out the linoleum, covered the new bureau in party paper, and tied another piece of paper over the plastic table. Balloons tied to rafters and other party favors hanging from the ceiling. Marcela made a list of games and I made an ice cream cake.
We had to make a second run for the pinata. At 2:00 pm all the kids showed up. We played red-light/green-light, which provokes an unusually high level of competition among 6-8 year olds. The kids ruthlessly sent back the flinchers and the fallers. Everyone tried their hardest to win. I called the game one time and have to admit to being a little bit afraid as all the kids began tearing in my direction. After the fifth round I had them stop for fear that someone might get hurt. We ate snacks (sandwiches and fruit) and then played a game where you get to unwrap a present being passed around a circle if (and only if) you are holding it when the music stops. I took control of the stereo and Marcela passed them a pre-wrapped box of gift pencils, with seven or eight layers of wrapping paper. The kids had fun with that game and everyone got a pencil. For each of the games, marcela had the kids go to the bureau where baskets of prizes were available. The kids got to build their gift bags. In between all the games, everyone got a turn on the tire swing. Truth be told, we could have had the kids in line waiting for turns on the tire swing for the full two hours. They liked it. But I might not have survived that much tire swing pushing. I might have gotten (ahem) tired. We had the parents drop the kids, which made everyone happy. Two of our friends stayed and enjoyed the warm afternoon.
Noah seemed to have a good time and was sufficently grumpy near bedtime just to prove his exhaustion.
Maxim's birthday is next.