2 posts tagged “birthday”

20080322BatCake

The party went well.  We had a 50% "yes" rate on the RSVP's, making a total of 6 kids, including my 3. Not too bad a turnout for Easter weekend -- and everyone there really liked Benjamin.  I didn't want to deliberately exclude anyone, but wasn't quite in the mood to invite the entire Kindergarten class. Thanks to Oriental Trading Company we had some nice "bat" party favors, stuffed beanies, key chains and rubber bats.  We played a version of Blind Man's Bluff/Marco Polo  called Bat and Moth that used echolocation for a blind bat to find a sighted moth -- the rest of the kids got to be "trees."  I hid the rubber bats in the living room -- squeeed between pillow cushions, etc.  They were dark so they hid pretty well, unlike the eggs we hid on Sunday :)

We played with balloons, had cake with a bat freehanded by me, ice cream, fruit and pizza -- and since we were a smallish group we got the good stuff: Papa John's.  They opened presents and we watched "Stellaluna" --   much less a production than I've done in the past.  I've put on some pretty elaborate themed parties before involving paper mache and stations and treasure hunts, etc.  I liked the calmer feel this time, and the smaller number of kids, even without the "wow" factor.  But, since children barely remember parties after a year or so, much nicer to just relax.

And Stanley.  If you have ever come across the book "Flat Stanley" you will recognize him as a little boy who was smooshed flat by a blackboard, who was perfectly fine after, but flat as a sheet of paper who has several adventures.  Apparently it is a stock second-grader activity these days to send out a "Flat Stanley" doll to a penpal.  Jeannine has two, a friend from Texas, and a second-cousin we met at a family reunion who lives in Tenessee --   so within a few days we had not one, but two Flat Stanley visitors that we are to give a tour of the Seattle Area and send back a picture and a note, and the flat Stanley.  We haven't made it to the Space Needle yet, but we did stop for chowder at Ivar's Seafood Bar where both Stanleys "Kept Clam" ;)

Well, the mice are gone.  David needed to get something from the pool box, so we checked to see if the baby mice were still there.  They weren't.  Apparently mama mouse decided a box where the food was removed and her babies were knocked out of the nest wasn't that great of a home after all. 

Very glad there weren't five baby mouse corpses we were responsible for, at least.

Benjamin is having a "bat" party this Saturday.  Yes, just a bat party, not Batman or anything.  The kids got interested in them because of a book on CD I chose called "Silverwing"  by a man of the last name of Oppel.  We're on the sequel now called "Sunwing" -- and it is much darker.  In it there is a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats who live under a bridge.  I can only imagine they are refering to Austin, which hosts the largest colony of Mexican free-tailed bats in a specially constructed bridge for the purpose.  Now bats are being sent to bomb places in South America, and the northern bats who were attached to bombs that didn't explode are trying to make their way North, and the families of those bats who were sent to South America are making their way South.  I don't know quite how it will end, but the kids are hooked.

Oh, and my addiction.  I watched the latest Episode of Lost --   yes, I admit I watch, but it isn't really an addiction.  I wasn't quite ready for the dead character to have died, so I was theorizing a way for him to be alive and looking for a place to post it that didn't require registration to yet another community.  Someone at a site called yahooanswers.com happened to ask the question "Is Jin Dead"  so I found a great place to post my ideas.  I am a yahoo member already so could go ahead.  And lo and behold, I found a place where people were asking reference questions  and they really wanted to know the answer.  The vast majority are not worth responding to -- either they have a political or social agenda or were kids trying you to do their homework for them, but there were some genuine fun to research questions.  I loved working at the reference desk, and would answer people's questions for free, and I got a little involved in doing it.  They have a ratings system, like Amazon, and the asker choosing you best answer gains you points.  I got up to level 2, but had better stop or it will really drain away my time.  However, it is fun, and I'm learning.  Did you know a South African ratel  (aka honey badger) is able to suffer puff adder bites with no harm, and the Ratel is also a South African military vehicle.  Anyway, I'd better get off to bed.