Happy Birthday dear S... Happy Birthday to you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, S!

S is 11! She started the day as she likes to start every birthday - with breakfast in bed. I remember one year she requested bacon and a slice of cake. This year is was crepes. If we were in America she would have had a nice day off with her grandparents visiting. Instead she rushed off to school. Having her birthday on a school day turned out to be good luck, though. S was allowed to bring in treats for her class. She brought her specialty, homemade brownies from scratch. They were a hit.

She had a few of her friends over for a birthday lunch. (Thanks to R! She had the day off and was an enormous help getting everything ready.) They had fruit, pizza, luxembugerli macarons , and ice cream then went outside to play on the apartment complex swings until it was time to go back to school. They were all very nice girls and I think everyone had a good time. They all knew the Happy Birthday song in English, which made S happy.

S wasn't back home very long before it was time for R to head into the city for her mandatory party. S really wanted to relax so while I watched the little ones she watched a Christmas show, played computer games, and read. You won't guess what she's been reading. The Help.  She has read all the other English books in the house and it's the last one (excluding a couple murder mysteries and some gruesome graphic novels.) E came home with a birthday cake and dinner for most of us. He made cous cous salad for S. The macaroni and cheese she had asked for originally was a disaster. The cheese was just not right at all.

After dinner we had cake (S blew out all the candles) and S opened her presents, including one sent by her friend L all the way from Pennsylvania via E. S is lucky to have such good friends! S is looking forward to lots of duct tape projects. The grand finale of the day was a nice skype talk with her friend L, who she misses horribly.



Now it's past ten and I am trying to get S to go to bed so she won't be too tired tomorrow. I don't know what E and I will do. R was going to find out how early she might be allowed to leave the party so she is not taking the train home at 1 a.m. No news yet. The later it gets the more I am in favor of going to pick her up. E thinks she will be fine walking a couple of blocks from the school to the station, we agree that the train is probably safe (R has instructions on who to sit near, etc.), and E volunteers to meet her at the station here. It's the walk from school to the station that worries me. It's a busy station and I think I have written before about the off duty vendors and drunks who hang out on the upper level she has to pass through.

Well, R just called. She is scheduled to dance at 12:30! If she misses the 1:00 she will have to hang out in the station until the 2:00 train. I'm not willing to risk that. I hope that her friends aren't angry with her for messing up the formation, but really, that's crazy. It's no big deal for the older high school kids, but what were they thinking scheduling the eighth graders so late? Do they really not have a problem with a twelve year old crawling around the city in the wee hours of the morning? R is coming home now, walking via the street not the dimly lit path to drunk alley, and E is meeting her at our station. I'll be on pins and needles until she texts us from the train.