A Party Before a Party- Hooray!

via http://www.higreetings.com/birthday/family/card_ktf7bcd38da9.html

Dear Mom and Dad, 

Happy Tuesday! Do you know why? Because we had a birthday party to go with it! 

First, we had our morning free play, of course. The most interesting part was, when we got to clean out the pumpkin with Kiki! We watched as she carefully used a knife to carve out the top of the pumpkin, then we helped her take out the pulp and the seeds. We couldn’t help but make a face while doing it– it felt so….so….squishy and slimy! “It’s yucky,” we heard X comment. But we did such a good job of cleaning it out, and it’s ready to be turned into a Mr. Jack– o’- Lantern! 

On the other table, Sayaka made sure that all of us were finished making our squiggle monsters and silly pumpkins for to-morrow. On the carpet, some of our friends tried to play Twister by themselves, while some took out Lego blocks. 

We cleaned up a bit early because it was finally time for the BIRTHDAY PARTY! Yippee! Z’s mom, B; and his dad, N; together with D, arrived. We sat together with them, and we sang “Happy Birthday” to Z, both in English and Japanese. Pauline asked how do they sing it India; B, N, and Kiki told us that they also sing it in English over there. 

We also asked Z how old he is– he’s 5 years old! So we gave him 5 big claps, 5 winks, and blew him 5 kisses. Z looked pretty happy, but Pauline said there’s something that’s still missing. 

“Birthday card!” C piped up. N volunteered to give the card to Z, with a big birthday hug to match! But Pauline said something was still missing….. 

“A crown!” we all chorused. M helped put on a cute birth-day hat on Z, to which Rafael remarked, “Guapo!”,which means “handsome” in Spanish. 

We got grouped into two then, and group 1 got to do the “Feed the Mon-key” game with Z’s dad first. Daddy N brought out a big drawing of a monkey, with a big hole for a mouth, and he explained that our friend the monkey was hungry, so we had some fruits (Which were actually rubber balls) that we had to shoot inside the monkey’s mouth. It was so much fun! Whenever the ball would accidentally hit the eyes or ears, Z’s dad would make an “Ouchie” sound for the monkey, which made us laugh. 

On the table, Mommy B helped us decorate our cup-cakes with whipped cream, M&M’s, and sprinkles (Sprinkles!). It was also a lot of fun! The smell of the cupcakes made us go re-ally hungry! 

The 2 groups swapped when they were done, so everyone was able to experience feeding the monkey, and decorating the cupcakes. We said a big heartfelt “THANK YOU!” to Z’s mom and dad, and to Z, most especially. 

We had our snacks afterwards, and we enjoyed this part, too, thanks to some yummy cupcakes and some Indian potato “tempura” that Z’s mom cooked especially for us. YUMMY! 

We headed to the park when we were done eating, and along the way, we discussed about the big event tomorrow– our Halloween Party! We discussed some rules for the party– like we shouldn’t forget our listening ears, gentle hands, gentle sounds, and looking eyes. We can have fun, but we shouldn’t be too silly, that we end up disrespecting people around us. 

So that sums up our Tuesday– how was your day? 

Love, 

All the Halloween– ready children in Petals Class