Birthday party time! Aidan's day started with a party at his buddy Charlie's house (the only kid older than Aidan in his class - he turned 9 last month - many of his classmates are just turning 8). We picked him up at 1:30, ran into icky traffic and arrived late for Aidan's party - at Cayuga Park at the south end of the city. Oops. 3 kids were already there hanging out at the playground. Never fear, party was quickly under way. Today was one of the saddest weather days in a while - Friday was (as one attendee noted) possibly the nicest day all year. What a difference a couple days makes! At least it wasn't windy but it was gray and maybe 60 out (compared to sunny and 80 Friday). The park has a large green playing field bounded by some cool hills with secret paths and stick forts. I had nicely scheduled the party so I only had to provide snack - not a real meal. I had made up a large number of sushi rolls last night (with some help from the kids). Carrot, cucumber, imitation crab, and tuna. Pretty tasty. I also melted some chocolate and dipped dried apricots in it (the only way Quincy will bother eating apricots). Also provided some cashews, popcorn, pretzels etc. and some fizzy lemonade and juices. For games it was rocket balloons to start. A knock down the sticks with balls game. Snacks. Capture the Flag (which surprisingly resulted in at least 3 boys in tears altho not either of my boys). Time for "cake" - or in this case - Krispy Kreme donuts. Aidan sang very loud and obnoxiously to himself. Then time for stomp rockets while waiting for parents to come and kids to be willing to leave. Pete orchestrated all games for which I am ever thankful! He does a great job. All the parents who had stayed (about 5 of us) hung out at the snack table chatting.

So this eve as we nosh on leftover sushi Aidan is opening presents - he can only blow through 3 presents before he has to write thank you cards. Remarkably (to us compared to past year) he is whipping out nice cards in legible handwriting with good spelling. Wow! Remarkable also to me are some of the presents he is receiving. A $50 gift card to Target (what?! I am excusing them as they recently moved to the country and maybe don't realize that is a NICE gift for a random friend). An MP3 player. What?! It is quite cool and also plays out loud (and 2 pairs of headphones) and came with 512 MB SD card (what I use for my camera - I might abscond with it). Also came with Aidan's first "mixed tape" (or ripped disk) of MP3 songs from his friend (on another 512 card). And a whole BOOK on disk as well (I'm assuming pirated). Jeeze. A large dump truck lego set. 2 large Star Wars jet fighter toy things. Star Wars lego kit. A glow in the dark soccer ball (huh? needs light to glow so won't really be useful after dark). A bird house (huh?). OK so some of these gifts seem a bit much to me - or strange. He got James and the Giant Peach book and audio CD and we have a couple more presents to go.