Early Birthday Celebration

Sydney's birthday isn't until Friday, the 30th, but since we are leaving for the airport at 1pm on Friday, we were not going to have time to celebrate it with her class then. So we had the party today and there is nothing like 12 toddlers waiting for birthday cake to make you wish you were a toddler too. We have attended several birthday parties in the last month so Sydney is very familiar with birthdays so I didn't have to explain much about her big birthday. If she hears the word birthday, her next 2 sentences will include the words "Sydney/I/Me," "cake," and "presents." And when she remembers her manners, you will also hear the word "please," which quickly turns into "p-u-l-e-e-e-e-z-e" when she doesn't get cake and/or presents.

Her face lit up when I arrived at the school in the morning and told her it was her birthday and yes, there would be cake. The kids had to patiently wait on the sitting rug to wash their hands before they were able to sit at the table to have cake. I am amazed how the teachers were able to wrangle 12 kids into their chairs and they were insistent that there would be no festivities until every child was in their proper place. The kids were just mezmerized by the cake --- I have never heard the classroom so quiet.

(Pooh bear and his friends cake)

The class sang Happy Birthday to Sydney in English and Chinese. Then Miss Amy lit 2 candles for Sydney and immediately half of the class jumped up to blow them out. Miss Kang explained to the kids (in English and Chinese) that only Sydney can blow out the candles because it was Sydney's birthday party. We waited until all of the kids acknowledged that they understood the rules before lighting the candles again. And yes, again, half of the kids jumped up to blow out the candles. It took a couple of tries but Sydney finally was able to blow out her own candles.