Oh, the Parties

Since Joel and Kezia have been attending a local Spanish school, our family has been acquainted with the birthday party tradition for school aged kids; well the tradition here at our school.

Starting the second week of school, and each and every week, there has been an invitation in their agendas for a birthday party. How it works is the party is at school, and we send along a gift for the celebrated child. I think it's a great idea because everyone gets invited and we as parents aren't shuttling our kids all over the city to birthday parties. I'm sure the teachers are none that thrilled with losing 4 hours a week in instruction time to birthday parties. Oh well, the kids are having fun.

A few weeks ago, Laurie and I decided to stop the madness of trying to get a gift with one day's notice and stock up on some little gifts from Nueva Feria. She bought a bunch of modeling clay packs and I bought a bunch of puzzles. We were good to go, gifts on a moments notice!

We also were under the impression that it was customary not to put your child's name on the gift. It was supposed to be anonymous from whom the gift was from (which was kind of nice, because then we didn't feel pressure to get something in order to save our kids' pride in front of their classmates). Also, the goodie bags from the parties were getting more and more elaborate, and so Laurie and I had a slight tinge of guilt knowing that our gifts probably cost only half of what the goodie bag cost.

Well, last week, Joel and Kezia had THREE birthday parties...and this week was one more....so it was kind of crazy at our house trying to wrap these crazy puzzles in the morning before school. One particular morning, I pulled out an invitation at 7:30 and realized Joel had to bring a gift. I looked at the invitation and read what I thought said, Ariel. I yelled to Carl, "Get the Barbie puzzle and pink paper and wrap a present, we have to leave in 10 minutes." And Carl dashed to the closet and wrapped the gift in no time flat. He stuffed the present into Joel's bag and off we went. The thought did cross my mind that the invitation was a Ben 10 invite, but I figured that it was because Joel was a boy and the girls would have gotten Hello Kitty or something (like they've done with the goodie bags).

Once we arrived at school, I sent Joel into his classroom and off he went, excited about the party. A few days later, someone was asking Joel about all the parties in his class. He was telling them they have cake and pop, a pinata (though different from the Mexican kind), party hats, music, dancing...."It's a TON of fun, and the best part is that we get to quit working early!". He went on to tell them that they bring a gift for the kid and then the teacher writes their name on the gift, the person who is bringing the present.

Huh? I thought the names weren't on the present!

At potluck last night, Laurie got news of how the names are really printed on the gift and her and I were now feeling really embarrassed about our cheap gifts. Great, they are going to think we are some frugal North Americans! As we were talking, I told her about our crazy morning when we had to quickly pack the present for Ariel in Joel's class. Ariel? Laurie said it wasn't Ariel, it was Adiel, and Adiel is a BOY. Ahhhhh.....!

So not only did I pack a CHEAP puzzle but
I packed a BARBIE puzzle for a BOY
and if that wasn't bad enough,
POOR Joel had his name attached to this said gift!

Laurie, Lizette and I just howled at the table with laughter at this mistake and wondered what those parents and teachers thought of us. Here we are, the Spanish as a Second Language family. The family who has no clue what's going on. Oh, the S.S.L. folks will learn in time!