Cory and Addy's School Party

During Yaya's lovely, wonderful, fantastic, moving visit to Barcelona (she has promised she will provide her own blog entry about it soon), we received last minute notice that Cory and Addy's school was having a big party. Last minute notice meant that as Eryn (our au pair) was picking them up, one of the teachers said "oh yeah, we're having a party today, will Rob and Matt be coming?"

One phone call and a frenetic subway ride later, Rob, Matt, Jill and Jill's friend Ginny showed up at the school's entrance, proudly on time (6pm, when else?). 6pm, as we should have known, actually meant about 7pm, which wouldn't have been a big deal, except that we passed the time crammed together with a screaming group of toddlers on the sweltering second floor of the school. Besides a great deal of perspiration (Rob hates the heat, by the way, so he was whimpering even more than I was), it facilitated some quality time with some other parents as well as the teacher.

The program, when it finally began, consisted of essentially re-enacting for us (and of course asking us to participate in) many of the songs and dances that the kids regularly engage in when we're not there. All in Spanish. This included, among other things, slithering like snakes on the floor, acting out the role of a deflating baloon, and hopping around like wild monkeys. Most unusually for non-Spanish readers, part of the program involved one of the teachers dressing up as what I believe was a snake (sorry, my language skills failed me as she explained her character at about 80 words a second - another quintessentially Spanish thing) and serving the kids small portions of very strong coffee. Call me just a silly gringo, but I just can't get my head around serving kids strong coffee at, oh, 8pm, no matter how culturally open minded I try to be. The kids loved it of course. The party was supposed to end with a performance of a saxophone player (one of the dads) outside on the patio at about 8:30 or 9pm, something we reluctantly forewent given our commitment to keeping our kids on a non-Spain (read: bedtime before 10:30pm) schedule.

In short, the whole thing was fabulous and we were really happy to be there. You can see more pics here. I am likewise proud to report (without bias, of course) that our kids - who speak nary a word of the Castellano that is the sole language of their instruction - were among the best and most enthusiastic at following the teachers' instructions. More importantly, they seemed to see our attendance at the party, and participation in all the activities as a sort of welcome endorsement of what they do every afternoon. They watched us constantly and laughed hysterically when they saw us doing the sorts of things they have become accustomed to doing without us.