Bouncy birthday

With spring just about here, the first of the 5 year old birthday parties got under way this past weekend. Five. A small but meaningful number for these kids that will be off to Kindergarten soon. Mason, a classmate of Carolina's, was the first up and he rang in #5 with gusto at Astoria Sports Complex. Nacho was working that day so I had both girls in tow, but Elisa didn't mind one bit. The location offers lots of chances to work all that party energy out and I actually love that they eat and then get to play again. So many times at bouncy house parties, the kids play first and only get shuttled off to eat pizza and cake right before dismissal. But this place has the routine down pat and they make sure the kids get plenty of time to do it all. It's also really fun to see how these preschoolers are growing up lately. Little friendships have formed after a couple of years together and you can tell they really have fun together. Carolina was so excited to be there and sometimes that meant getting a little too worked up when her sister went off to tend to Valentina. But in the end, she found Kira and Alice and managed to get back into her bouncy groove.

Five is such a fun age for so many reasons. The personalities are really developed and engaging.  They love what they love and they have such despair when things go wrong. But somehow that pure joy is just so intoxicating. I can see it already with Carolina at 4 and a half. You see how much they are growing mentally and physically and how independent they are becoming--all in preparation of going off into the world come September. It's been such a pleasure to watch it unfold for Carolina this second time around and to have some new friends and families come into our lives. Being in Sunnyside now almost 11 years, we really are fortunate to have this network of people we enjoy hanging out with. The spring air means we're also catching up with many of them outdoors for a change. But for this day at least, the fun of the bouncy house trumped all. The kids partied a few hours away and we got to relax knowing they were having a great time. Five, you are looking good.