By far the biggest hit was air hockey. It was in use the entire evening by rotating kids. The great thing is that only 2-4 people can play at a time, so over the 3 hours there were always new kids at the table.
We had Sparky's cater and had cleaned out the toy room as the main hanging out zone. With the double doors open to the outside (and mosquito coils positioned around), tables and chairs set up around the patio, a bar with ice cream punch, a karaoke corner, disco ball globe things, Christmas lights strung up, music pounding through massive borrowed speakers from the neighbors, and these little lovelies on the tables, it really did feel festive.
She had a great time and was exhausted by the end of it. I was torn in several directions last night, when our neighbor fell ill with her husband out of station, her eldest down with a fever, and her little ones needing to have some dinner and get off to bed. Ian was left with 13-year-old-party duty while I went back and forth between the houses trying to get my neighbor hydrated and settled. By 9 p.m. her house was quiet, and by 10:30 our house was too. Katherine had a friend sleep over so we didn't get to sleep until well after midnight.
Actually, it's been a couple of exhausting days overall. Yesterday was the final day of India Week at AISC, and with that comes the elementary school India Week assembly. Every class through 5th grade sings and/or dances their way across the stage.
It was fun. I cried. I cry at every performance. Heck, I cry at TV shows. I really should have cried when the preschoolers sang... oh my, I don't miss that at all.
This morning, because my neighbor who is also the Madras Kids director was laid up, I was at the school from 9-12, doing rehearsal. We ran through the show from beginning to end and found all the little holes that need to get plugged up. There are a lot of holes, but I'm hoping they'll be easily patched. At one of our breaks, a hush fell on the school courtyard. See what was spotted...
There's a lot of wonderful bird life in India. In our backyard alone we have 2 kinds of crow, kingfishers, herons, green parakeets, woodpeckers, and assorted other critters, but I'd never seen an owl before.
We had lunch at Sparky's. Again. We want the camaraderie more than the food nowadays, and bonus, we dropped off our Christmas tree. The tree we've been carting around the world was a hand-me-down from after about 10 years of use by my parents, so it'll make nice decor in the restaurant but won't be loading us down anymore. Next year... a live tree for us!
The kids wanted to swim, Rebecca and I had tennis lessons. Truthfully, I did far better than my norm which isn't actually good or anything, but not as many balls went wild so I was happy. After a quick shower, we went back to the neighbor's house to help out with the baby and send her kids to our house to get something to eat.
We're catching up on Lost and Battlestar tonight. I'm off for some much needed rest and vegging.
No comments:
Post a Comment