Party on, Mickey

Two of the boys in Milo’s kindergarten class celebrated their birthdays, and the entire class was invited, along with parents and children. Once a kid turns 4 in New York City, the parents tend to view birthday parties as free child care. We drop our kids at the party, and dash out to grocery shop or get a quick workout in at the gym, and return just in time for pickup. Not so here. This party had an open bar for the parents, and at least one parent from each family attended.

For the kids, there were inflatable jumpy houses (the kind you can go in and bounce around in), a DJ, two clowns, face painting and Mickey Mouse! The father of one of the birthday boys is a doctor whose office has a big plaza, and the party took place there.

C.C. stood in line to get her face painted, following several girls who got princess tiaras painted on their foreheads. When she asked to be painted like a dinosaur, the face paint lady said no one had ever asked her that. “Dragon?” C.C. asked. “Lion?” “Tiger?” “Cheetah?” She ended up as a dog with a blue sparkly nose.

It’s truly an international school, and we met families with parents from Greece, the Netherlands, Italy, and of course Spain. Even a British family who lived in Park Slope, 3 blocks from our house, before coming to BCN last February. Many of the parents don’t speak Spanish, so English often ends up being the least common denominator.

After the piñata, an activity for which our kids were well prepared-- (Milo: “Mama, you know how to get lots of stuff when it’s not your turn at the piñata? … Sit right underneath it and grab everything that falls”)—and hearing the Black Eyed Peas