6 October 2010

As the weather was favourable, Lydia held Mia's 3rd birthday party at Arisugawa Park. It was an exclusive affair, with Emily and Camille the only guests.

We hung out in the sandpit for some time, making sand birthday cakes and collecting acorns, then moved on to the playground. Emily refused to use the toilet once or twice, because she wanted to wee in the bushes, which is all very well but results in drips. I was very pleased with her when I asked her to count out the acorns and she accurately counted to the total of seven. Usually, she double-counts an item or loses interest and starts looking around even while she is saying the numbers.


We adjourned for a picnic when Emily said she was hungry at 11.30 (which surprised me after her large breakfast). It took a lot of encouragement to get her to eat her sandwiches; the usual story when eating with other children and in a place full of distractions. I had to resort to threatening no birthday cake in the end, which did the trick. After the food, we made some funky egg-box spiders, then with Mia becoming a bit tetchy, it was time to pack up.



Once the party broke up we went over to Julia's. The girls are playing more nicely these days and getting along very well most of the time, though what they like doing most together is squealing. As it was such a pleasant day we finished up at Amishiro park. The two of them got filthy, and loved it when I buried their hands and feet in the mud that passes for sand there. Emily got involved in a 'sandwich' of about seven kids of varying ages on the rollerslide, to her delight.

Emily was worn out after such a full-on day and it took so long to get her to eat her tea that I had to cancel the bath and give her a brief shower instead. Even so, when I tried to tuck her into bed she got upset that I wouldn't let her get out and look at Tokyo Tower's lights.