Like Peanut, I too was very much looking forward to Tom's birthday party... so that life can move on and I can be asked more challenging questions by my No. 1. For the past one week, I had been asked the same question in different forms everyday, "Are we going to Tom's house today?" "Is it Tom's birthday today?" "When are we going to Tom's house?" "Are we going to Tom's birthday party?" "Mama, why are we not going to Tom's birthday party?"
It was a lovely place tucked away in a quiet part off the busy Holland Road. It was spacious, sitting atop a sloping road, with a sprawling front porch and had the old world charm of a black and white colonial bungalow (designed with lots of windows for light and ventilation) - though it was actually the ground floor apartment unit of a block comprising of 4 units. Oh, almost forgot, Tom is Peanut's classmate in pre-school. He's the Caucasian boy with a blue party hat, in the shape of a crown, on his head in the photos.
The front porch had an adult size trampolin on one side, a swing at the furthest end with a stone bench next to it and our hosts thoughtfully laid out various kiddie games - a small tub of bubble solution with all sorts of fun wands, a bigger tub filled with water for 'catching' fishes using a rod with a magnet attached, bowling pins, mini-trampolin for the toddlers. There was this huge wooden train set in the study room, all kinds of toys strewn ("nicely laid out" was the original state when we first arrived as the first guests) in the living hall and a drum set in Tom's bedroom - which turned out to be S.P's favourite. The clown was the only professional act - everything else was DIY, including the b.d. cake. This is what a birthday party should be. It takes very gracious (or very brave) hosts to open their house in this manner to kids ranging from a crawling baby to 5 y.o. - the aftermath was honestly, painful to the eyes ... but most importantly, the kids had a wonderful time.
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