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Mar. 18th, 2002 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiSo Elayna's birthday was on Friday, and the party was Saturday. On Friday, after her Karate lesson (in which the instructor had them doing everything in iterations of seven, to celebrate the bday), we went to Edo, and we had the best chef we've had yet -- her totally played up to the birthday girl, making a smiley face "cake" out of rice and sesame seeds before the fried rice, and then having us sing Happy Birthday to her during the volcano. Needless to say, she had a blast, although neither 'song nor I ate much, since we were both still recovering from the virus.
We then came home, and she opened the rest of her presents. My mom won the prize for the gift that occupied her time -- the Barbie cash register She also got a lot of clothes, the Harry Potter potions kit, lots of books, and the hamster cage, as well as the gifts I mentioned previously.
On Saturday, she had one more karate lesson, and then we went and bought her gerbils. We called three pet stores until we found one (the Pet Supermarket on N. Decatur) that had two in stock. We all drove over there, only to be told that the two in stock weren't really for sale. Apparently, one of the employees had adopted them and was planning on taking them home, and the person who told us they were available didn't know this. Needless to say, we were not happy. And we were armed with a seven-year-old girl and grandparents. We walked away with the two gerbils. Elayna decided to name them Woody and Freddy. We think they're both boy gerbils. If we're wrong, Woody's being renamed to Daphne.
Then we were off to the K-Mart for the party. It was very, very, very pink. As I may have mentioned, she won a Barbie birthday from Mattel. Which was a relief in a lot of ways (no setup, cleanup, cost), but frustrating, as we had to have it at a K-Mart, not our ideal location.
So we got to the K-Mart about half an hour early, and the woman from Mattel was setting things up. She was real nice, and really did have everything planned out -- coloring activity sheets for boys and girls, an activity, the cake, goody bags, etc. 1PM hit, and no one was there, though. We'd had nine people respond, but there's just a sinking feeling when there's no one actually showing up. At about 1:10, Patrick, Elayna's boyfriend from her aftercare program, showed up, and we breathed a sigh of relief. Between the location and the fact that there was a St. Patrick's day parade holding up some traffic (insert whatever joke you want about people being too drunk to hold the parade on Sunday), folks were delayed, but they came in slowly, and we soon had the room full, at which point the Barbie model came out. No, she wasn't to proportion (if she were, she'd have been Wheelchair Barbie). But she was great with the kids, and they had a great time, eating pizza, making picture frames, playing all sorts of games, and eating the pinkest cake I've ever seen. Elayna's loot included a Birthday Barbie (from Barbie herself -- it was part of the prize package), a couple of other Barbies, a Barbie car (her fourth one -- we'll be taking it back), and lots of other loot. All in all, a good day for her.
Afterwards, the grandparents took her out to Ice Age, and we saw Rent. I enjoyed it, and I can tell that it is probably a great musical, but the cast really didn't do it justice. I'm a theatre snob -- I expect a $50 ticket in any town to be the equivalent, at worst, of the replacement Broadway or off-Broadway cast for the show. This clearly wasn't. It was still powerful and moving. But given the general quality of the cast, I'd rather have paid $30 at Savoyards than $50 at the fox. I'd love to see it with a top-notch cast, though. Listening to the original B'way cast recording right now, it's clear that this was the cast I needed to see.
Alas, Sunday was spent being sick, as the virus took its revenge for my having fun at the party. Ick. So I'm out today as well. Ah well.
We then came home, and she opened the rest of her presents. My mom won the prize for the gift that occupied her time -- the Barbie cash register She also got a lot of clothes, the Harry Potter potions kit, lots of books, and the hamster cage, as well as the gifts I mentioned previously.
On Saturday, she had one more karate lesson, and then we went and bought her gerbils. We called three pet stores until we found one (the Pet Supermarket on N. Decatur) that had two in stock. We all drove over there, only to be told that the two in stock weren't really for sale. Apparently, one of the employees had adopted them and was planning on taking them home, and the person who told us they were available didn't know this. Needless to say, we were not happy. And we were armed with a seven-year-old girl and grandparents. We walked away with the two gerbils. Elayna decided to name them Woody and Freddy. We think they're both boy gerbils. If we're wrong, Woody's being renamed to Daphne.
Then we were off to the K-Mart for the party. It was very, very, very pink. As I may have mentioned, she won a Barbie birthday from Mattel. Which was a relief in a lot of ways (no setup, cleanup, cost), but frustrating, as we had to have it at a K-Mart, not our ideal location.
So we got to the K-Mart about half an hour early, and the woman from Mattel was setting things up. She was real nice, and really did have everything planned out -- coloring activity sheets for boys and girls, an activity, the cake, goody bags, etc. 1PM hit, and no one was there, though. We'd had nine people respond, but there's just a sinking feeling when there's no one actually showing up. At about 1:10, Patrick, Elayna's boyfriend from her aftercare program, showed up, and we breathed a sigh of relief. Between the location and the fact that there was a St. Patrick's day parade holding up some traffic (insert whatever joke you want about people being too drunk to hold the parade on Sunday), folks were delayed, but they came in slowly, and we soon had the room full, at which point the Barbie model came out. No, she wasn't to proportion (if she were, she'd have been Wheelchair Barbie). But she was great with the kids, and they had a great time, eating pizza, making picture frames, playing all sorts of games, and eating the pinkest cake I've ever seen. Elayna's loot included a Birthday Barbie (from Barbie herself -- it was part of the prize package), a couple of other Barbies, a Barbie car (her fourth one -- we'll be taking it back), and lots of other loot. All in all, a good day for her.
Afterwards, the grandparents took her out to Ice Age, and we saw Rent. I enjoyed it, and I can tell that it is probably a great musical, but the cast really didn't do it justice. I'm a theatre snob -- I expect a $50 ticket in any town to be the equivalent, at worst, of the replacement Broadway or off-Broadway cast for the show. This clearly wasn't. It was still powerful and moving. But given the general quality of the cast, I'd rather have paid $30 at Savoyards than $50 at the fox. I'd love to see it with a top-notch cast, though. Listening to the original B'way cast recording right now, it's clear that this was the cast I needed to see.
Alas, Sunday was spent being sick, as the virus took its revenge for my having fun at the party. Ick. So I'm out today as well. Ah well.