Party Days

The party days started with the comedy night for Marzia’s birthday. The headliner was very funny although the layout of the venue was terrible. Anyway, it was a fun evening and nine of us made it out to celebrate on a school night – unbelievable!

On Saturday we had a Kung Fu Panda party for Ethan’s sixth birthday and it was a big success.
12 crazy 6-yr-olds doing kung fu chops through balsa wood and slurping away in the noodle-eating contest. Great fun for all! Here was the cake – I made it myself. Do I rock or what?

And although we were exhausted after, we still had dinner at Mike’s Gram’s with that whole side of the family. Hoo boy. I thought she was crotchety 15 years ago when I first met her, but at the ripe old age of 95 she censors nothing. She has zero tolerance for the boys, and she is quite vocal about it! And I almost lit her on fire when I brought her the cake – I forgot about the whole oxygen tank / potential explosion thing. If there is a next year, no candles.

I had to put my mom off until Monday – three parties in one day might have killed me. But we had a very nice afternoon at the bird sanctuary out on an island in Delta, and still had time for a coffee and presents.

Jack wanted to get her a mouth for her birthday. So that when he isn’t there to kiss her, she could kiss the mouth. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a suitable mouth, so he and Ethan got her a stuffed bird from the Audubon society that gives a very realistic bird call when you squeeze it. She said her cat Misti was VERY interested in it when she got home.

And in other extremely exciting news, Ethan lost his first tooth today.
It’s been wiggly for a week or so, which is utterly disgusting to me. Ethan’s friends first noticed my squeamishness about a year ago, when they started losing their teeth. It’s kind of the joke around school, go wiggle your tooth to Ethan’s mom, and watch her choke on her own puke. So Ethan has been wiggling away, which is ironic since he HATES talking about the human body. Don’t mention blood or bones to him. Jack wanted to be a skeleton for Halloween, but Ethan panicked and shakily blurted out that it makes him feel like he’s “cracking apart inside” to think of those things. Awww poor kid.

Anyway, it fell out at soccer tonight while he was practicing drop kicks, and it was probably the best place for it to happen. He was with guys his age, the coach thought it was cool, his friends picked up the tooth off the gym floor, and I couldn’t cry about it because I was the only mom there; the rest were dads.
I also couldn’t puke or I would have completely lost face. But I’m glad I’m writing about it now because the tooth fairy better remember to do her thing tonight. E tried to say that teeth go for about $20 each these days, but I’ve done a little research on the playground this week and it’s $1 in these parts. He may well be disappointed tomorrow! Stingy fairy.

Jack also started his soccer class and is loving it.
There are two boys and one parent in his class that I want to deal with, though. One of the boys obviously has a behavioural problem of some sort and the other speaks no English, which makes it hard for him to do what the coach says. And because those two boys aren’t listening, the other 5 or 6 (including Jack) get distracted more easily. I feel bad for the poor coach. And the parent I have an issue with keeps letting her 1-yr-old run into the practice area and kick balls around. I have no problem with giving the little one a ball and letting her play elsewhere, but it’s totally disruptive to the ones who paid $80 for these 8 weeks, and it’s also unsafe for the 1-yr-old. She’s going to get creamed by the ball sooner rather than later. Hmpf. I was very proud of Jack and his behaviour. You know he gives me grief, but he was listening very well to his coach. He totally got a treat when we got home.

It was a far cry from the other day when we heard the door beep. Uh-oh, a child has left the premises – unauthorized! We went out to the driveway and there was Jack, dressed only in Spiderman underwear and sandals. He was dancing and singing something about “Captain Underpants” while the neighbours laughed. That’s my sensible boy; he paused long enough in his escape to put on sensible footwear. Kind of forgot the clothes part, though...

Now we’re looking forward to Ethan’s real birthday this weekend. Like we haven’t already had enough cake!