As I’ve blogged before, Kelly and Shiaw-Ling share the same birthdate, exactly 21 years apart. And Shiaw-Ling always throws great parties, in the vein of great party givers, who know a great party requires a theme. This year’s theme was “poverty.” Very kindly, Shiaw-Ling held off on the fashion portion of her party until we…
Category: Parties
World’s Worst Mom Redeems Herself
Today I pulled Kelly out of hell kindergarten. After seeing the class, I was a bucket of nerves every time she was in class. How lost and ignored was she that day? When will scissors boy lurch at her? Peter went in to see the classroom on Tuesday. He merely saw it as extremely mediocre,…
Tying Up Loose Ends
Next week, we’re leaving on a grand adventure: a driving trip across the United States. In one month, we plan to see Yellowstone Park; South Dakota’s Black Hills; Chicago; Niagara Falls; Boston with MIT; New York City; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Washington, DC; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Disney World; New Orleans; Austin, Texas; Roswell, New…
Old World Spanish at a Latino Party
Last Saturday, the boys from across the street invited us to a birthday party for a friend of theirs. The party was being held at their place, and the kids have been good company for Neil and Kelly. I went over with them since it was a pool party, and while Kelly loves being in…
Earth Day Buddhist Birthday Party
On Tuesday evenings, a Buddhist couple who live not far from my home host a Buddhist “toso” meeting so we local Buddhists can get our evening chant on together. A few weeks ago, Neil was away at science camp and Peter was working late, so Kelly and I stayed on after the chanting was over….
Easter Weekend Fun
On Saturday, we went to Morgan Hill. The occasion was a birthday party for their four-year-old daughter, but more than that, it was an excuse to invite friends (parents as well as children) to hang out and have fun together. The “let ’em just play” approach works just great, BTW: the children have more fun…
Loretta’s Birthday Luau
Last evening we went to a luau at Loretta’s place to celebrate her birthday. We felt like quite the popular family, because Neil had one of his own friends having a sleepover birthday celebration himself, so technically the Bickfords had 2 parties to attend that night. It was quite a rainy night, so the outdoor…
Christmas Crackers
This year, I thought I’d reached the heights of Christmas crafting by making our own Christmas crackers. For most of my life, I’d been intrigued by this peculiar British Christmas delight, and I’d read many a story in which children pulled their crackers on Christmas day. But I’d never seen one, so when Michael’s (the…
Our Partying Ways Keep Light of Doom on Playing
Although we’re avid The Next Great American Band fans, for the last month we haven’t really had a chance to put our votes in. Despite my banal lifestyle, we’ve always had something better to do on Friday night, whether that was rocking out ourselves with Rock Band, or having an actual party to go to….
Kelly is 4!
It really doesn’t seem all that long ago that I was grumpily waddling around in pregnancy. But yesterday, we celebrated 4 years of Kellyhood. All of Neil’s birthdays have been a big occasion. I think I celebrated his fourth birthday with a room full of park-met toddlers following an elaborately planned home party that involved…