Life: Idiotropic

Caxton College is an International school and boarding school, so they offer everything from dentist appointments to haircuts, communion ceremonies to birthday parties.  Most of the parties that Elise has attended have been here at Caxton, so when asked where she'd like to have hers, the answer was simple.

It's really quite easy for the "mum."  Just call, arrange an available time, and show up.  One week ahead the invitations go out:  little Caxton party postcards with a sheet attached for the RSVP.  Parents fill out the forms with their child's name and class and the day before the party, the mum gets an email list of all the RSVPs so she is aware of numbers.  Mum does the math.  Winces.  There are drawbacks to having a popular child. 


Party day is here.  The school day ends and two young coordinators, easily in their early 20's, work together to pick up all the party attendees from their classrooms and take them directly to the large gymnasium above the cafeteria to play, color, and paint faces.

The mum is instructed to show up at 5.  When she shows up just before 5 with armloads of extras (which is so not normal), the cafeteria is silent and every child is upstairs playing in the gym.  Crazy mum hands out leis and hula skirts taking time to help the girls tie them on, then untie for a new color, then tie again...

It starts to rain and suddenly the gym is partitioned so that the tennis club can play.  The volume increases a hundredfold.  A boy hits a girl in the nose.  The coordinator does nothing.  The kitchen won't give this mum ice because it's the coordinator's job.  Mum goes to talk to the coordinators again.

There are two long rows of tables already set.  The one above is for the adults with coffee, milk, and a really delicious lemon pound cake that they always serve.  The bottom is set with nuts, chips, tuna sandwiches, ham sandwiches, coca cola and fanta.  At 5:40, the kids come downstairs to "merendar."  They eat like they haven't eaten in a year.


The birthday girl sits at the head of the table.   The kids eat, talk, then run off in small groups to play.  The sun has come out and tennis is over, so they play upstairs and outside and run pretty much wherever they want to.


Parents trickle in.  Mum spends her time greeting parents as they arrive and saying goodbye when they go and sometimes greeting again when they come back.  It takes a long time with a lot of kissing. 

The adults sit at the long tables.  Mum's friend, Elisa, brings a nice icy bucket of horchata to try and lemon granizado which mum loves.  Mum made tiramisu at Elisa's request that the parents hadn't previously tried.  Now Enrique serves up horchata and granizado de limon and becomes a "pusher" for the tiramisu.  Soon it's half gone and the Spanish parents love it.  Mum tries horchata.  It's slightly chalky and a bit too sweet, but not horrible.  She prefers the lemon to the local horchata, but half the parents drink it.  It's a Valencian thing - the "milk" of a plant here.  The parents continue to sit and talk and drink cafe solo.

6:42.  The children gather at the snack table for cake.  The chocolate cake is from the school.  Elise likes it, but her sisters don't, so mum makes cupcakes too which are a big hit with all the kids.  They light the candles.  Several boys "help" Elise blow them out.  They sing happy birthday in Spanish. 













6:45.  The candles are relit and they sing Happy Birthday in Spanish.

The party coordinators cut the cake while Elise's sister leads the group in Happy Birthday auf deutch.
Children mob Elise shoving gifts at her in all directions.  Mum never sees the chocolate cake or when the kids eat it.  The coordinators usher Elise to the other side of the room to a little chair.








6:47.  The guests form a line behind the birthday girl.  They each have their gift.  Elise opens them one by one, smiling, posing, and thankful.














As a gift is opened, the giver of the gift stays around to watch.  Some run off to play, but most stay around.









6:53  The mob around Elise gets so thick that mum can't get photos anymore.  It takes Elise just 12 minutes to open over 19 gifts.  Pablo brings her flowers.









7:08.  Elise pulls the string on the pinata and a bunch of candy and cheap toys fall out.  It's a mob scene of sugar hyped kids.









7:25.  The sun is out and all the children are playing a version of duck, duck goose except there's a cute little rhyme in Spanish about a shoe.  They are supposed to cover their eyes.  Elise peeks.




Elise gets picked and runs around the circle.  Then it's her turn with the shoe.

It's 7:28.  The weather is nice.  The adults are relaxed.  The kids are happy.  No one is in a rush to leave.

7:45.  A slow trickle begins.  One family says thank you and goodbye.  We hand out goody bags and tell them to keep the leis and skirts.

Elisa and Enrique help us gather out things together and go.  They are rewarded with what is left of the tiramisu.

8:30.  Home.