Munchkin Mommy

Howdy, world! :)  I hope y’all had a wonderful weekend.  Ours was packed as usual.  Let me tell you all about it.  But first, a 2-paragraph long intro… 

I got one of my biggest culture shocks here in the US when we attended a children’s party for the first time.  It was at Pump It Up.  It was a no-nonsense party: no magicians, no party hosts and no bubble show.  It was enough that the kids got more than an hour of play time while the parents observed from a distance while chatting with one another.  And the food?  Just 2-pcs of pizza for the kids and a slice of cake.  There was pizza and soda for the parents, too (but this, I would find out later on, was optional!  No apparent need to feed the moms and dads!).  Coming from a country where basic party food consists of spaghetti or pancit, chicken, hamburger french fries, hot fudge sundae and a cake, I was shocked at the utter simplicity of American children’s parties.  After I got over the food shock, I found the simplicity quite appealing. :D  Does that make me a traitor of sorts?  Hee hee.

I loved that when you invite your child’s classmate, for example, you don’t have to invite all the other siblings.  Whereas back home, you can expect to be asked, “Can I bring the yaya along?” and when you invite one child, the rest of the clan ends up being invited.  Di ba?  Aminin!  That’s why the head count always gets waaaaay out of hand!  Hee hee.  Here, It is understood that at least one parent will accompany the child, although it’s all right for both parents to come.  It is entirely the party host’s prerogative whether to invite the entire family or not!  And so, to celebrate Abby’s 4th birthday, we did as the Romans, este, Americans. ;)  We made sure though that the parents are fed pizza and cake as well!  Hee hee.  Hubby and I have found ourselves starving at parties and we didn’t want our guests to go through the same experience.

Finally, here’s the party story…

Abby had her “real” birthday party last Saturday at Pump It Up (Round Rock).  It was attended by her classmates and their parents (mostly moms) and our dear friends.  We’ve been to a couple of parties at Pump It Up before and although we considered two other possible venues for the party, we decided to go with Pump It Up because one, we get to have a private party and two, they take care of the set/clean-up. They provide the disposable plates, cups and utensils, as well as the invitations.   We practically just have to get there and bring whatever it is we’re not availing from them, like the party loot bags and the Disney princess balloon. :)  But I did bring Disney Princess plates for the kids.

As much as I can and as per Abby’s request, I tried to keep a Disney princess theme going.  I put the loot bags together myself on Thursday and Friday.  I ordered the cake from Wal-Mart on Thursday morning.  Gosh, I miss Goldilocks’ party cakes!  The cake I chose from the catalog looked too simple in real life.  Hee hee.  And I was the one who had to put the Disney princesses on the cake!  What’s the deal with that?!  Oh well.

We were also lucky that we were the only ones having a party at the 10:30am time slot.  We got to use two rooms for 40 minutes each instead of just one bounce-house-filled room.  The kids had a blast!  I got to go down the slide 3 times, too!  Weeee!

It was a wonder we have any pictures at all.  It was a bit difficult entertaining guests and watching the kids.  The photo quality suffered a bit.  That or we really don’t know how to take pictures!  Hee hee!

Birthday family at the Jumping Area

Abby’s Princess Cake

The party area

Us at the party (eating) area

Here’s a slideshow so it’s not too obvious that this is a picture heavy post. :D

 We had fun but our hearts were silently aching for and missing the company of family and friends.  It’s just not quite the same.

For the nth time, Happy Birthday, Abby!  We love you and we hope you had fun…enough to last you several birthdays…so we won’t have to have another party next year. :D

Have a great week, y’all!