Day 1811. No kindergarten, no student... the perfect morning, finally a chance to sleep in, at least once Randy took the kids downstairs. At 11 am I put some lasagna into the oven, and just before noon we sat down to eat. Then I had to leave right away, as I had a student from 12:30 to 2:30 pm.
Once I was done teaching, we all got ready and left the house together. We took the subway, then had a longer walk ahead of us. It was really hot. We arrived at our destination exactly at 3 pm, which is when the party started. It was our kids' first ever invitation to a friend's birthday party, or rather their first to a friend's from kindergarten. It was actually Emmy who was invited, but his siblings were allowed to come as well. Tammy knows him as well, as they're all together at kindergarten.
We finally found the entrance to the underground party room and were warmly greeted by the birthday kid's parents. The boy was turning 5, just like our kids whose fifth birthday in two weeks. Tammy and Emmy quickly ran off to play with the other kids. There were capes to put on and princess dresses. There was a big ballpen with a slide into it and whole lot of other stuff to play with. It kept all the kids busy, and there was a good number of them. They also had a long table set up for the adults. Everyone sat around it and ate the food that was ordered for the adults. It was weird as nobody talked to any of the other parents.
We got Sammy out of the wheelchair, and he headed straight for the ballpen. He went down the slide a good number of times, even though he wasn't sliding very well on his belly. Tammy played with him for quite a long time and took really good care of him, helping him up and then down and whenever he needed any help. There was quite a few times, when Sammy was calling for his sister to come help him or play with him.
Emmy played with the boys for a while, including soccer. At one point everyone sat down at the table. The theme was Batman, so there were Batman plates, napkins and party favor bags for every child. The kids were curious to look inside them and found candy, tattooes and a little flashlight that was the most popular with the kids. They then had some chicken nuggets and fries to eat before running off to play some more.
It was getting quite late. Everyone sat down at the table, then the birtday kid's Mom carried in the 3-tier cake, and everyone sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY. The boy blew out the candle, then they cut it into pieces to distribute it to everyone. After everyone had eaten their cake, all the kids gathered in the middle of the room, and the Dad held up a pinata for the kids to hit. Each kid hit it once and then went back to the line. Emmy was the first one to hit it well, to the point that the pointed edge of the hammer stuck inside the pinata. Tammy also gave it quite a damaging blow. And then it finally fell apart, candy falling all over the ground. The kids rushed to gather up as many as possible.
There was one more item on the agenda. The birthday kid hadn't even opened his gifts yet! They put them all on the ground in the middle of the room, and he opened them one after another. Emmy's gift was one of the last ones. Emmy had even done a drawing for his friend! And he watched and commented as his friend opened the gifts - a Batman watch and stickers. Emmy told me that his was definitely the best gift of them all.
It was already nearly 6 pm, so it was time to go home. We said our good-byes and headed out the door for our long walk back to the subway. Everyone was rather tired. There was another family walking in the same direction as us. They had a good number of balloon animals that they carried, and suddenly the teenage boy turned around and gave Sammy one. That was really sweet of him!
By 6:30 pm we were back home. They'd had enough food and snacks and candy that there was no need for dinner. We just put them into the bathtub and then got them ready for bed. There was some drama, but at some point everyone was fine and ready to go to sleep. As for me, I sat down and did some work, as I was not hungry yet, and ate much later. I started working on the pictures, but there was a lot of them, and so I never got to write my report. I went to bed just after 1 am.
