Preston's Birthday Party

Another weekend, another birthday party.  Last weekend Nicky was actually invited to two.  One was for a little girl (a "princess party" on Saturday) and the other was Preston's ("cooking party" on Sunday).  I had a hair appointment and had already asked Gina to come hang out with Nicky for a bit, and didn't want to subject her to the birthday party torture, so we skipped Camelot.  We arrived at the Young Chef's Academy about 5-10 minutes before the party started, along with the birthday boy himself.  Once again, I'm amazed that parents can just be that calm and breezy about things such as this.  Maybe I've got too much Martha Stewart in me for this, or I'm just too much of a planner and OCD, but I've been thinking about all  the details of Nicky's upcoming birthday party for weeks!  I've even lost countless hours of sleep over it and have a spreadsheet with 5 tabs detailing the in's and out's of the party.  Oh how I wish I could be more laid-back with these things.  But I digress...

So, we show up, and another boy (Noah) along with the birthday boy (Preston) are there.  We go inside the small waiting/observation area and these 3 little animals go completely bezerk!  I've never seen Nicky so wound up and outgoing.  They ran around, shouted, climbed on all the chairs, opened doors they shouldn't...you name it!  It was complete pandemonium!  What surprised me even more was that the other parents weren't trying to dissuade their kids whatsoever.  The poor lady that runs the place was trying to control the wild banshees, bless her heart, but they wouldn't listen.  I finally snatched up my little monster and made him stand by me...which, you can imagine, didn't go over so well with Nicky.  By this time, more kids had arrived and the lady was lining all the kids up to go into the "kitchen", all donning aprons, so he got over it pretty quickly since the spot I had him perched on was right at the door by the front of the line.  As you can see below, Nicky's silliness followed him into the kitchen... 

At this point, we were told that the parents could not come into the kitchen to help; we had to stay out in the observation/waiting area.  We could, however, come in once they had made their snacks (pizza and cupcakes) for pictures, etc.  One little boy was pretty shy, and didn't want to stay in the room without his mom, and since they wouldn't let her stay, they ended up leaving the party.  I felt so badly for her.  Kind of a stupid rule - there's plenty of room in there for the parents to stand behind the kids - what's one extra person?!  I guess they were worried that if one parent came in, then the other kids would want their parents in the room too.  The parents (mostly all moms) stood around half watching the kids make their treats, half gabbing about their respective kids and what kooky things they do.  Quite entertaining!

We also learned that Preston's mom is from the Ukraine.  I overheard her speaking to a few other moms in Russian and the we started up a conversation about Russia, the adoption process, and whether or not we will take Nicky there someday...which of course, we plan to at some point.  There was even mention about a possible playdate!  Here's Nicky sitting next to the birthday boy...a little dark, but you get the picture... 

After gobbling up the pizza and cupcake, it was time to head out.  We said our thank-you's and and good-bye's.  Nicky seemed to really enjoy the party - he loves to help in the kitchen, so I see us having a party there in the future.  This weekend there are 3 more parties, with the same motley crew.  We'll be attending only one (I think one is a girls only party), thankfully.  As hectic as the parties can be, at least they get us out of the house and help Nicky's social skills!  And, Momma gets some much-needed time with other Moms to boot!