It was Small’s party day, as no doubt you’ve gathered by now 🙂 Big and I tootled up to the school early to make food and set up, and Ailsa’s two daughters were there, and got stuck right in with us. Accordingly we were well and truly ready and prepared when the first guests arrived (slightly before the party boy, but that was due to a toilet refusal incident apparently 😉 ) I’d set up a making masks activity with some kits from yellow moon, and that broke the ice nicely – we soon had a whole roomful of wild animals and butterflies, with the occasional ladybird just to spice things up. Unfortunately I kind of had my hands full at this point, so there aren’t any pictures.
From the mask making we went on to a garden treasure hunt – paired all the children up and sent them off to find various things, from purples flowers, to strawberries to things that swim. When they found whatever it was, they got to come back and get a prize from my big blue bowl. That went down pretty well and took another 10 or 15 minutes up, as well as getting them running around outside for a bit. From there it was pretty natural for them all to end up in the playground with more running around.
Tea time next, and as anticipated, they ate next to none of the loving prepared sandwiches 😉 Even the little girl who was dairy free and therefore had sandwiches of her own seemed unimpressed. The room was getting a bit raucous so it was definitely time for the birthday cake by then, Scooby Dooby Doo! And after that, the ridiculously oversized pass the parcel 😀 Big and one of the K’s had finished wrapping it for me – there wasn’t much left of the parcel paper by the time they’d done!
And that was pretty much that. Small was kind of overwhelmed by the time everyone had gone, he opened up a couple of presents and then pottered about a bit. Jan and co helped with what was left of the tidying – several of the other parents had mucked in and cleared the tables which was very much appreciated. Eventually we cleared everything out and came home to a massive present opening fest in the middle of the living room floor. Small got some great stuff and some not quite so great stuff, more than anything though he got loads. Some serious decluttering required tomorrow in order to be able to fit everything in. Fortunately, tomorrow is a late shift for me, so I should be able to do that.
The thing that surprised me the most about today was how much I enjoyed it. I didn’t feel completely out of my depth with all these other parents as I often do – many of them had attended the montessori course I’d been on, so there were lots of familiar faces. It felt like a community – having Jan and Kirsty there seemed to fit too, and their children certainly slotted right in. All in all, it was the most comfortable I’ve felt in a group environment for quite some time. Great day.
Leave a Reply