Lily's 3rd birthday party

Phew! April 2nd marks the end of the kids’ birthday parties for this year. We closed it out with Lily’s birthday party at Junglerrrific, and it was great party. I was happy that we didn’t have to do much except to show up with a cake, and then pay for the event. For the kids who showed up, I believe everyone had a great time. I published the photos last night.

I’ve already expressed my frustration with the lack of responses from people. My wife and I have sworn off any major parties for the daycare classmates next year, as it’s just not worth the aggravation. We spoke to other parents in the classroom, and they’ve experienced the same lack of involvement. My favorite anecdotes from this event were:

1. The three families who said they would attend, but were then no-shows. Thanks for nothing.
2. The family who brought a sibling without asking. You know, we’re paying by the child here.
3. The folks who showed up 5 mins before the main party ended, and then their children cried because playtime was over. Good job.
4. The parent who had never responded, then after my wife saw her at the supermarket the next day, said she left a note at school on Friday that her daughter couldn’t attend. Yeah, I checked, and there was no note, liar. Also, you couldn’t respond via the phone number or email address that was provided on the invite or the reminder? Really? Too tough for you?
5. The parent who called me Saturday morning, and asked me if the party was still on. I replied, “Uh, yes, the party is still on.” Of course, they were a no-show as well.

Next year, I just want to do a party for a small group of their friends, and leave it at that. Smaller, yet higher quality. We don’t want to host any more parties, then try to twist the arms of ungrateful people to convince them to attend. The parties are not for the parents. The parties are for the kids to get together and have fun.

It was a party for our monkey.

My idea - posting a reminder on each cubby

I don’t consider that the act of actually responding to an invitation is all that difficult. If you get an invitation, call or email them back! Have we ourselves missed RSVP dates? Of course, who hasn’t? Still, we do eventually call or something. For each of the kids’ birthday parties in the past six years, it has been mind-numbing to understand why the parents of children can not RSVP to save their lives. We invite the entire class, and what do we get? Absolute silence. It’s not just us — we’ve spoken to other parents, and they’ve gotten the same type of non-response. I think we’ve had the most luck when we tackle another parent in the hallway, and point-blank ask them, “Uh, did you get our invitation?”

I remember for Josh’s 2nd birthday party, we received three actual attendees from his class, plus our friends and family. One time we were fed up, and we had Josh’s 4th birthday party in his classroom during the school hours, and hired a clown. We figured, these kids will at least have to be there at that time. This year for his 6th birthday party, my wife sent out 40 invitations, and about 25 kids showed up.

I’ll be honest that we’ve been struggling with Lily’s birthday party this year. We found a really neat place called Junglerrrific nearby that has a great facility and program. There are only 25+ kids in her class, but we’ve only received a few actual responses from her classmates’ families. Absolutely nothing from the rest. It was possible some of them forgot or lost the invites, so I had this bright idea to put reminders (or post-it notes) on the cubbies, so the parents would be reminded. Yeah, we got two more responses. Two.

What is wrong with these people? I think with friends and the handful of classmates, we’re at about 15, so we’ll be fine for Saturday, but I’m honestly shocked and appalled by the lack of effort. I mean, really, our kids are in the same classroom all year. You get an invitation, can you say something?

Last year, we had some of our friends over to celebrate the kids’ March birthdays. Since we hadn’t had folks over in a long while, we invited people over again, since both the kids still had birthdays this year.   We had the party last night, and man, good party! 

Last year, we ordered all the food from a local Indian restaurant, but this year, my wife and I decided to go with a Middle-Eastern theme on the food. She made these two great red bean and baba ganoush dips, as well as meatballs, a shrimp dish, salad, and a this semolina-based cake. We supplemented the dinner with Afghan narange rice, and two different types of chicken kebabs. It was all very delicious.

There was a lot of conversation, drinks, food, and a few rousing games of Jenga. Good times, photos to post later.

Some weekends are lazy, some have one event to keep us busy, and others are very popular. This past Saturday was one of those busy weekends. In the early afternoon, we had a birthday party for friends’ two-year old son. Afterwards, we had our traditional Christmas party for a specific circle of good friends.

In the morning, I had to run errands, and prep my entree for dinner that night. Somehow during the initial planning process, the men were drafted to do the primary cooking, while the women were taking care of some other small items. While I do simple cooking for the family, my wife is the expert when it comes to fancy food that guests eat. My dishes are easy, simple, and every-day-type cooking. I was surprised that this was really happening.

Luckily, my wife wasn’t about to let me hang out there to dry. She helped me by picking up the necessary groceries earlier that week, and then directing me that morning in how to make tandoori chicken — skin the chicken, here’s how to make the marinade/paste, etc.

Calum's 2nd Birthday Party

After the food was prepped and in the fridge, we all got ready for both parties, and hit the road. We dropped off the food with our dinner party hosts that evening, Pradeesh and Sona, and went to the birthday party. The party was very nice, and the kids had their faces painted. It was also good to converse and hang out with friends we haven’t seen in person for a long while.

In the evening, we went to pick up some champagne and other items, and went to the dinner party. All of the men’s food came out great, but so did everyone’s. My tandoori chicken was a big hit, and was finished in about 10 minutes. Nobody could believe that this was my first time making tandoori chicken, but I explained that I had a lot of help.

My Tandoori chicken

The highlight of the dinner party was the Secret Santa Gift exchange. This year, Vijay handed over the mantle of “Christmas Santa”, and Pradeesh was now “Christmas Pappa.” All that actually entails is setting up the participants in Elfster, and ensuring that everyone gets matched up appropriately. Interestingly enough, Nums was my secret santa, and got me a classy black winter coat and a nice dressy sweater to match. I’ve been waiting to get a nice coat for work, so this was great.

Great party, and we got home around 1am. Phew, it was a long day. I didn’t take too many photos, so the ones published online are courtesy of Master Photographer Sunil.

Our friends Pradeesh and Sona invited us (and other friends & family) to their house to celebrate their son Ethan’s 3rd birthday party. A lot of the gang attended, which was nice. Do you know what else was nice? All the kids (including ours) stayed in the basement playing with each other and all the toys, and left the adults alone. It was fun. What a great way to spend a Saturday night.

Ethan's 3rd birthday party

This year, Lily turned two years old. Gosh, that went fast.  She’s out of the toddler room, and has moved into the preschool prep classroom. It feels so recent that Josh himself was in that room. Time flies. Now Josh is in Kindergarten Prep, and Lily is drinking from a cup. In another year, I think she’ll be out of diapers. Two kids and no diapers? One can only dream.  

On Saturday, we celebrated Lily’s second birthday with a party at Josh’s gym, which was the same place we celebrated his 3rd birthday (March 2008.) We invited her classmates from her class, and kids from among our circle of family and friends. As usual, a lot of the parents were very late with the RSVPs. What I found ironic was that we received an RSVP for a child we didn’t remember inviting, but we figured the more the merrier.

Lily's 2nd birthday party

The party went well. As usual, my sister and my BIL showed up early to (again) help us with running errands before a party, which included picking up the birthday cake and balloons today. If they didn’t keep swooping in to help us, I think we’d be even later for every major Ipe event. We arrived about 10 mins late to our own party, but since it was at a fully-staffed gym, parents and children were occupied with activities.

Everything went well, and Lily had a very good time. We had Papa John’s (again), because hey, you can’t beat that “$10 per pie with any toppings you want” deal. Nope, you can’t beat it. I think we’re officially done with parties for another year, which is a relief. I’m not a fan of throwing lavish birthday parties any more. Especially with young children, going overboard is pointless. The children themselves enjoy running around, eating their pizza, and drinking from their juice box. They don’t need much more than that.

So to bring this story to a close, remember that family that we didn’t invite, but left a voicemail that they would attend the party? Yeah, they didn’t show up to the party after all. We’re still confused about that one.

Josh's 5th Birthday Party

This year for Josh’s birthday party, my wife was looking for something different. Each time his classmates have a birthday party, it’s at one of these kid gyms. My wife found an interesting option with the Plainsboro Preserve. A one hour educational nature program plus an additional hour to exchange gifts, eat, and check out the other animals. Neat!

The morning of, my sister and her husband came over to help us get all the supplies and decorations over to the Preserve. The weather was atrocious, as a powerful nor’easter hit the Northeast. What is it with the weather in the past few months this winter? A blizzard or two, heavy rainfalls, high winds — we’ve had some fun times. This nor’easter was the usual heavy rain and winds, and plenty of flooding. I’m glad my sister and her husband were there with helping hands to get stuff in order. It’s always nice to have an extra set of hands

Josh's snake-themed birthday cake

We started a little late, due to parents/kids arriving late due to the rain, but it wasn’t an issue. Kids played in an indoor treehouse and checked out animals until we started. The instructor brought out a snake, salamander, a turtle, some other animals, and other science-related stuff for an hour, then we broke out the Papa John’s pizza, sodas, and juice boxes. My wife made a custom cake in the shape of a snake, which was pretty cool, and people had to take pictures.

After the party was over, we loaded everything back up, opened presents at home, and stayed home nice and dry while the nor’easter continued to rage outside. It’s going to be a crazy, windy, rainy weekend.

Pictures are posted within the March 2010 photo gallery.

Weekends are no fun if you don’t have a life.  I mean, what are you going to do with your free time?  Study? Practice configuring a network router?  No no no, that’s a waste of a weekend, unless configuring a router is fun for you, then knock yourself out.

I’m rambling.  Ok, I have a life, and I had a decent weekend.  Saturday, we attended a birthday party for one of Josh’s schoolmates, who turned 4 years old.  The party was at their actual school.  In the afternoon, the kids (and my wife) took a quick nap, then we were on our way to North Jersey to hang out with friends.

Half the dinner table @ Saturday night

We had a few birthdays to celebrate, namely our friends Pradeep, Reeba, and Sona.  We were supposed to go bowling, but that did not work out.  We hung out at Pradeep & Heidi’s house, then we all met up at the Garden State Plaza mall, and ate dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe, which is no cafe — it’s a huge restaurant.  It was very reminiscent of The Cheesecake Factory, and the About Us page states that David Overton, Founder of The Cheesecake Factory brand restaurants, developed the restaurant, theme, and cuisine. I thought the food selection was large, but the food was okay.  I’d still rather go to a steakhouse for a good steak, an italian restaurant for good italian, a mexican restaurant for good mexican cuisine, etc.

On Sunday, we went to church, then went shopping for housewares.

I like the relaxing weekends.  Not stressful, no work to try to catch up on (yet), no events to attend.  Just relax, and do what you want. I published pictures from the weekend.  Enjoy.