Party for Alex and Isabel

Maia was invited to celebrate a classmate's 3rd birthday this week. Alex and his sister Isabel have birthdays scarily close together (they are 3 and 2 respectively - gasp!) so it was a joint operation. Held at Gymboree on the Ecclesall Road (the In place to be for Sheffield under 5's) there were probably 30 kids there - most bringing along a parent or two. Quite a gathering.

As an aside...Gymboree is a lesson in Getting Branding In Early and Parting Parents From Their Cash. All the songs somehow shoehorn the brand name in there, and oh look! You can buy the CD! They play bubble games, and oh look! Branded bubbles! They do clothes, shoes, games, toys, parties, activity centres. They are the Tesco of the Toddlers. And of course, we will be returning.

Anyway, Maia started off in her Mellow Yellow dress. Very soon, she realised that the dress, pretty as it was, was not letting her run about and climb and jump in the way she wanted to. After a few unsuccessful trials at tucking it into her knickers, we decided to change into the other party clothes I had brought. (Check me out! Talk about preparation. Think I might be getting the hang of this parenthood thing.)

Part of the joy of the day was to see just how much in demand Miss Maia was with her peers. She spent most of the time running about with New Bestest Friend Kassy. Three sets of parents came up to me to say how much their child talked about Maia. I wittered something about her being a very sociable girl and really liking the school and her class. Well, I couldn't very well tell them that she only really talked about IsabelVerginty and Kassy, could I?

We ate sandwiches shaped like hearts, managed to avoid too many e-numbers and I made friends with Kassy's mum, Tammy. All in all, a pretty good party. And for one that doesn't involve champagne, that is good going.