The party just continues on

Birthdays in our house tend to last longer than a day. We have the family celebration with the relatives that live in the area. We have the neighborhood celebration with the neighbors. We have the birthday party which is the party with other children.

Each year I try to skip the party with the other children because that is usually expensive and time consuming, not to mention a pain in the arse. The girls take months to decide what they want to do. Darcy's plans change daily. Madison's birthday falls around Thanksgiving when everyone is busy with their own families so we have to do it after. Darcy's birthday is the beginning of summer and I can usually get away with a pool party, but she wants to invite the entire school and my pool won't hold more than ten.

This year Darcy's birthday fell the day before our summer vacation. I call it our summer vacation because family is coming to town this evening. My sister-in-law, Susan, and my niece, Gabby, are traveling to Florida for sunshine, gulf water, chatting, and mojitoes. Well, that is Susan's reason. Gabby is coming to play Barbies with Darcy. The point is that I've convinced Darcy to wait until after they have gone home to have her birthday party with school chums.

We did not, however, ignore the other parties. Sunday night we met the grandparents on both sides, and Aunt Julie and her children for a birthday meal at Arigatos Restaurant. Darcy chose the location because she loves the "goody goody sauce". We ate chicken, steak, shrimp and veggies all prepared at our table by a Japanese chef with sharp knives and plenty of flames in his fingertips. They even brought out a cake.

Cousin Brea kept Darcy on her feet by running around the restaurant to look at other diners' tables. She also sat on Darcy's lap and enjoyed sharing Darcy's meal. It was a nice evening and a nice first celebration for her tenth.

Last night on her real birthday we had the neighbor party. The neighbors from across the street, next door, and two houses over came to celebrate, along with Jyoti and Sarina and two other friends. We had punch, cookie cake and ice cream. Madison led off the celebration with music:

After the music came the food and presents. All in all a good day. The birthday girl was quite satisfied with her haul.