We celebrated Aya’s sixth birthday on Sunday, although her actual birthday is today, April 21, at 6:00 a.m. A couple of school friends were invited – both showed up late. That wasn’t particularly surprising, considering it was on a Sunday and both friends are from churchgoing families. Running late was fine, because the pavilion took longer to set up than anticipated and the wind made some things difficult. The wind kept flinging the balloons around.
So, it was sunny and bright and really, really gusty, but unfortunately the wind was not constant enough to fly a kite. I tried to get Aya’s Strawberry Shortcake kite aloft a few times, to no avail. There was another family having a party at the park too. At one point, that group was visited by a wind elemental, which picked up their loose wrapping paper and streamers, along with wood chips from the playground and whirled them into a cyclone for about 20 feet of chaos. There was screaming. I can laugh about it, since it happened to them, not us.
One of the girls invited was Aya’s best friend, Miss S. They both ran screaming at each other and literally lifted each other off the ground with huge hugs. The other girl showed up and headed straight for the playground, much to her mother’s mortified annoyance. The second girl was apparently someone Aya didn’t get along with very well — which Brian didn’t know.
Needless to say, I’ll be planning next year’s party instead of Brian.
At least Aya had a good time playing with Miss S.
The chicken-peacock-pigeon pinata went down quick. The girls aimed for the weak spots. They managed to divide the entrails between them without much squabbling.
Aya got pretty grouchy after a couple of hours and ended up in tears after some misunderstandings (probably not misunderstandings) with the other girl. I’d had enough and decided it was time to start cleaning up and did so. After we were done, and after everyone else left, I asked Aya to hold still for some photos. She graciously complied, with a sort of amused expression.
The last six years have flown by, leaving me an independent young lady with big blue eyes and a mysterious smile and a penchant for mathematics.
Full sized versions of the photos are all in The Gallery, starting around page three.
That other family having a birthday party at the park had to get a young giant to beat their pinata into submission.
I was throwing away some stuff and saw kid after kid after kid taking these hefty (but not well-placed) whacks at it. Finally this teenager stepped up to the plate, as it were, and gave it about half a dozen brutal blows to open it up.
Our young ladies obviously had a better sense of tactics, going for the neck of the pigeonickenock as they did.
Whoo! Way to kick a bird’s butt!
And party attenders should *always* be cleared by the birthday girl.