With Kuri's birthday so close to Halloween, the two events tend to run together. As their mother and father spent a frantic week putting together Kuri's 4th birthday party, Mimi and Kuri took the opportunity to practice casting spells in their Harry Potter and Hermione costumes.
Unfortunately, unlike our Hogwarts heroes, they quickly turned on each other.
Even Mari got into the act with her little bumble bee costume.
On the 26th, we had a very small but insanely rich cake to celebrate what Kuri enjoyed calling his "actual" birthday. As I said, this cake was rich. The five of us only managed to eat half of it.
He did a great job blowing out the number 4 candle. No toddler here.
Unlike most sensible parents, we decided to host Kuri's birthday party here at our home. That meant a serious clean-up and lots and lots of prep work. Given that Kuri loves Lego, Sumie researched a Lego theme and I, knowing how much the boy loves cars, added a Hot Wheels element. We designed our welcome poster from a sketch of a Lego mini figure that Sumie found online. I then scaled it, printed it out, and assembled it. You can see the actual mini figure next to it for a sense of scale.
We then handed it over to Mimi, who conducted the final design work.
Sumie did an amazing job crafting the Lego gift bags. Each face was just a little different from the last (with a few looking just a little sinister for Lego). In the bag each kid received a set of Lego block erasers and a pencil. We also set out a selection of Lego kits and Hot Wheels cars that the kids could take home (one of each).
We planned to let the kids choose their party gifts at the beginning of the party primarily because of Kuri's new race track.
Each kid would be able to sprint his or her car down the six lane raceway. It was a fantastic success. So much so, that no pictures were able to be taken during the party of the high-stakes racing action.
Kuri's party was set for Sunday at noon, but we had a very busy weekend to get through before the festivities could begin. As usual, Saturday morning meant running Mimi down to Japanese school. On the way home, I ordered two massive sushi platters for the following day. By the time I got back, Sumie had already decorated the table with all the place settings for the kids.
Shortly after I got back, Sumie had to head down to SF to watch Mimi's Japanese class (it was a parent observation day). I followed her an hour or so later with Kuri and Mari so I could watch Mimi while Sumie attended the parent conference. That done, we then went our separate ways. Sumie and the kids headed out to Dublin in the East Bay to attend a friend's Halloween party, complete with cousins, and I went off to pick up the cake and put the house in order.
That wasn't all, though. As soon as Sumie and the kids got back from Dublin, we had everyone go potty and then piled into the Pilot to attend another Halloween party, this time with a bunch of Mimi's school friends. We'd had plans to work on the house and party-prep when we got home that night, but by the time the kids were all tucked in, we were too.
Sunday morning came way, way too soon. And so the manic rush began. Sumie set to additional cleaning and I made my first shopping run of the day for fruit to make fruit salad. I then came home and began marinating the chicken (6 lbs worth) for Karaage (Japanese fried chicken, my party specialty). Around ten I set out to pick up the sushi order, balloons, ice, pizza, and (so glad we checked in time) toilet paper.
With a few mishaps at the balloon store, I finally returned home at 11:40 and began frying. Mimi and Sumie had done a wonderful job putting the final Lego touches on the cake. Thankfully, Sumie intercepted Mimi before placing everything on the cake without washing it.
I was still frying when the first guests began to arrive, and when the last guests began to arrive. That didn't stop the kids from digging in.
It was a wonderful feast, and the kids ended up playing inside with the race track, outside with the trampoline and bikes, and pretty much all over the house for hours. The party was originally scheduled from 12:00 - 2:00. We ended up closing it out around 3:30. I think everyone had a good time, parents included.
I wish there were more pictures of the party to share, but it was just one of those events - the kind where you lose yourself in playing with the kids, talking with parents, and just enjoying the 78 lbs of food prepared. The effort had been well worth it. By the time the last guest left, the gift bag table looked like this...
...and the our living room like this (which, to be honest, is not much worse than Mimi, Kuri, and Mari might do in a single afternoon by themselves).
Kuri got a ton of great gifts (lucky guy). He particularly likes the lantern his grandma and grandpa got him. He'd been fascinated by the lantern Sumie borrowed for camping, so Grandma and Grandpa decided to get him a smaller version of his own.
It definitely makes playing in the bedroom tent at night a lot more fun.
He has also taken a shine to the Lego airplane he got (something he's been dreaming about for a while now). His Papa built it for him last night and he took it right to bed with him. It was the first thing he greeted us with this morning as well. He even took it with him on our morning walk to Mimi's school. Yeah, he's smitten.
We're very proud of our little four year old and glad we could make his big day a special one. Over the past few months we've watched our little guy graduate from a relatively cautious, quiet toddler into a curious, engaged, and earnest little boy. He's entering into a new phase in his life. We can't wait to see where he goes next.
