Birthday Party

Today was Ethan and Emily's birthday party. But before I talk about that, I want to talk more about what we did for the kids' birthday yesterday. Ethan spent all morning playing with his Star Wars vehicles he got from us. He LOVED them. I don't think we could have gotten him anything better. And Emily absolutely adores her big girl room. She also had her new Littlest Pet Shop stuff set up in her room all day long and loved playing with it. We went to their school carnival and it was HOT outside. They still enjoyed it and I think they loved getting a little special attention from some teachers who knew it was their birthday. I did spend a little while talking to Ethan's teacher while we were there and I'm glad that I did. First of all, she was telling me how well he is doing and how smart he is, but she had some concerns for me as a parent and wanted to make sure that I am okay with the fact that Ethan and Emily aren't always doing the exact same things at the exact same time. I assured her that I am totally fine with how everything is going with their classes so far and that we have only had a time or two where the kids have made a comment about showing some kind of jealousy about not doing something that the other is doing. I assured her, though, that I have no problem with it and that they have many years of dealing with this and they will have to just get over this. The other thing she was worried about was this thing called Word Club (or something like that). Emily is one of the select few that is pulled out of class to be a part of Word Club. There are only five students in all of 1st Grade that are pulled out for it. These are the best of the best readers who are reading chapter books above a second grade level. They have this little group and they pull them out and allow them to take tests on their books and earn AR points. Well, Ethan's teacher was concerned that I might be upset that Ethan wasn't one that was in the group. I said, "Well, he isn't on that reading level." I'm not upset about it because I understand why he isn't in the group, BUT I did let her know that Ethan is VERY upset about it. The part he is upset about isn't that he isn't in the Word Club because he knows that he isn't reading chapter books. He is upset that Emily is allowed to start taking AR tests on books already when nobody else is allowed to do it. That was one of the things that had been held off on because of the stupid funding crisis. Ethan didn't think it was fair that he can't be earning points, too, for his books he's reading while Emily is getting a huge head start in her points. Ethan's teacher understood and she told me that all of that is now changing because it is after Oct 1. All of the kids will be taking AR tests now. So hopefully Ethan will be okay with all of that.

Later in the evening, we let the kids choose where they wanted to go out and eat dinner. They ended up choosing Mexican food. They both love it and Ethan can eat his weight in chips and salsa. We literally have to stop the kid from eating anymore or he is like a little puppy that just gorges himself on too much food. As we are sitting there waiting for our food to arrive, Ethan said, "Thank you so much for dinner." I thought that was so sweet of him to be thanking us for taking him out to dinner for his birthday. Ethan is just so caring and considerate. And Emily, in her true form of being 7 going on 17, she replied with, "Why are you thanking them? We should be thanking ourselves since we are the ones that chose to come here!" Seriously, I don't know how those two kids can be so different! They really are being raised exactly alike. I calmly looked at my sweet and innocent little daughter sitting next to me and I told her that she should be thanking us since we were the ones paying for her meal. She just kind of laughed and then said, "Oh, I guess you're right." After the meal was over, the waiter brought out dessert for the kids and they sang to them while they made them wear sombreros. We were laughing and thinking it was cute and then all of a sudden...they brought out a bowl of whipped cream and shoved it in the kids faces. Okay, I did not see it coming and it seemed to happen in slow motion and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was like sitting there and witnessing an accident about to happen and not being able to stop it. Shoving whipped cream on the face of a child with sensory issues is NOT what I call a good idea. Ethan, however, handled it well and even smiled. Phew! That could have gone really bad! Overall, the day was a good one yesterday.

They woke up this morning ready for their party. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so good. It rained and it rained and it rained. I was not a very happy mommy since I had no contingency plans for the party. The moonwalk had to be canceled. We had a house full of kids and adults. It went from raining buckets to just sprinkling. The kids just played out in the wet back yard, the playhouse, and the bedrooms. I think they all had a good time. Ethan's best friend from school came and I was so happy about that. And Emily's two best friends from school came and those three girls just crack me up when they are together. I think it made Emily feel good, too, because one of her little friends made a comment about AWESOME her bedroom is. I'm not quite sure what exactly made it "awesome", but I know that Emily liked hearing that, especially since we just changed her bedroom decorations. I enjoyed seeing all of the kids playing together and having fun. It always amazes me how much fun kids can have without even having anything planned. Because of the rain, the party today was nothing more than a glorified playgroup and I think everybody seemed to enjoy it. The other thing that I noticed was how this was really the first year that when it was time to open gifts, the girls all sat around the girls, and the boys all sat around the boys. Usually, they would all be mixed together, but not anymore. I just wonder how much longer I can even have a combined party.

Despite the bad weather, it was a fun day, but I am glad now that it is all behind us. Right now I am looking forward to getting my MRI on Tuesday and finding out the root of my severe pain in my back, neck, shoulders, and arms.