Brooke & Bailey

Last weekend- not this one past, but the one before that- was Brooke & Bailey's birthday party. Their birthday is at Christmas & they are now at the age where they want to have their friends over for a party. Unfortunately Christmas is a very busy time & the feasibility of that is probably pretty tough. So, their mom planned a birthday party well in advance of their actual "day". I personally think this is a great idea. People who have their birthdays at Christmas or around Christmas must have years that they really feel they get the short end of the stick. I think last Sunday provided Brooke & Bailey the appropriate time to take centre stage.

Bailey

It was really neat to watch them interact with their friends. They are in different classes this year, so it appears that they have completely separate friends. Since they live north of Barrie, I don't get to see them very often & when I do see them they often stick pretty tight together. It was great to see them in an environment focused on them where they laughed & joked with their friends.

Brooke

The other part of the day that I really enjoyed was seeing Matthew & Brianna. I have not seen them since Craig & Lisa split up & it was amazing to see how they have grown up. It is amazing what 3 or 4 years will do in a young person's life. Matthew no longer has the little boy voice & Brianna is growing into a beautiful young lady.


The party was at a games/arcade type centre. I took the kids & Brad stayed behind to do some Christmas shopping. Given the fact that Jason couldn't play any of the games, he did really well at being 'entertained'. At lunch he got to sit at the table like a 'big kid' and he seemed pretty impressed by that. The boy beside him asked me to move him because he was scaring him. I told him that if a 'baby' scared him, then he had a pretty tough life ahead of him. Not sure if he appreciated that or not, but Brooke laughed. Sydney did pretty good at some of the carnival games. At one game she hit the bonus line so she got all these extra tickets- meaning she could at least pick a decent prize & not just junk that would be added to the landfill upon leaving. The rest of the time she usually got the maximum amount of tickets because of her timing. By the time she put the token in, stood up, and hit the button the line was almost always at the 9 or 10. She had the timing down. Me on the other hand, in trying to 'help' her only managed to score the maximum a couple of times. Most of the other times, I would only get 2 or 3. However, if I am honest with myself I wasn't trying to help her but to get rid of the tokens so that we could count up our tickets, collect our prize, and head home.