We celebrated Franz's birthday in his school, the Poblacion Daycare Center. It is more of a school than a daycare actually, unlike what people from other country would imagine when they hear the word daycare. Classes there starts on 8:00 AM in the morning, if there are enough students present, and ends at 10:00 PM. At some point of the school year, the DSWD Officer suggested that we make it up to 11:00 AM but it was implemented for a week or so. Parents stay outside the classroom, gossiping and browsing on Avon,Natasha, or Marikina Ex brochures and catalogs, during the class. It's funny now to think that the school year is about to end in a couple of weeks.

On Franz's birthday, mama bought a cake for him, we bought chickenjoys from Jollibee and held some games. It was fun. Franz enjoyed the party and from the smiles on his classmates' faces, I'm sure that they had fun too.

Now, for the lessons learned in this party:

1. Before you start with the games, make it clear that the parents are NOT allowed to join. Or you might want to end up having the biggest bullies going against the other children and your lucky enough if the bullies themselves, fight. You might want to alert the police and the paramedics if you're hosting a children's party and their parents are going too.

2. If you're expecting thirty guests, make sure that you have food enough for sixty. Expect at least one company for each guest and do not forget about the Filipinos' love for "take home".

3. Do not worry about the teachers' restriction about junk foods. Every rule is forgotten during a party.

4. Keep an eye on the cake. I'd recommend taking a picture of it if you want to, right after taking out from the box. If possible, assign one person to stand guard. A scary looking one, if there's any available.

5. Fill the cake with those candy flowers on stick, those like hardened icing, or have lots of extras. Or don't put any at all.

6. Lastly, have all the ballons just in one color. Or end up getting frowns and rolling eyes from the bratty ones if you gave the pink one to another.

*Posted on March 4, 2008