sLOVEnka: The Big Four (Times Three)

One of Lily's doctors scheduled an appointment on her birthday, so we decided to make a day of it. By that I mean we took her to Hoplaland in one of the malls in the nearby city of Trenčín. On our way there we happened upon a little play area they had set up, advertising for a handful of businesses. A shoe store where you could make a purse with a little piece of leather and color a picture of a shoe, a dairy where you could put together a giant puzzle and pretend to make yogurt, but by far Lily's favorite was a drug store where you could pretend to be a sales clerk, with a real working (and beeping) cash register and empty products. She could scan the items and hit a button on the screen and the drawer, filled with fake Euros, popped open. She could have played there all day. When we arrived at Hoplaland, (on a Tuesday morning) not surprisingly, there were only a couple of kids there, and only one of them was even sort of old enough to play with Lily. All the kids left within about 45 minutes and it was crickets around there the rest of the time. So Tomáš and I took turns climbing through Hoplaland on our hands and knees, jumping on the trampoline (me), playing in the ball pit (him), and going down the slide. It was a double-decker and it was so fun! When we left Hoplaland, Tomáš spotted a Slovak celebrity, Branko Radivojevič (a member of the National Hockey Team) (is that capitalized?). Not certain it was him, he said ''if I could hear his voice I'd know for sure.'' He has an uncanny ability to be able to recognize voices (and song intros) within nanoseconds. It's like a photographic memory, except with sound. A phonographic memory, if you will (credit for that joke goes to my friend Rachael, who said it about herself many, many years ago. I wouldn't have remembered it, but I have it written down in a quote book. And speaking of her, she wins the prize for making me laugh the most this week. Well...can I just...Can I copy and paste some excerpts from our Skype conversation?)

Rachael: I'm thinking pizza and Murder She Wrote this evening. Care to join me??

jessica: oh...OH how i wish i could!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jessica: that sounds soooooo niiiiiiiiiice

Rachael: That Jessica Fletcher is such a busy body!

jessica: hahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaha

Rachael: Skype you when I'm home? I can give up the MSW for an evening with you if you've got time. Not the pizza though. I'm still getting pizza.

jessica: hahhahaha

...

Rachael: I'll keep it on if you have time you can ring me. It's just me and Jessica tonight. One or the other.... Or both.

jessica: hahahaha ok

jessica: miss you (both) so much

jessica: seriously, msw sounds sooooo nice :)

jessica: haha

Rachael: Id never seen it before. I remember it coming on and changing the channel as a kid.

jessica: hahahahahhahaha

jessica: hilarious

jessica: my mom loved it

jessica: she and cody still watch marathons

Rachael: The whole thing is on netflix now! I've been having my own little marathon. I have the board game in America and it's surprisingly fun. Wish I had it here. I want to have a MSW party and game night.

Rachael: Come as your favorite female 50 something super sleuth (in the game everyone is Jessica fletcher) and we could watch a few episodes and have some kind of (clean) drinking game centered around when ever we see Jessica jogging.

Rachael: Double points if she has a towel around her neck. Half a point for some other form of exercise.

jessica: oh my WORD stop making me laugh!!!!! i have to work!!!!!!!!!

jessica: hahahaha

...

Rachael:

Oh. Some guy just hit on her. Take a shot!

Rachael: It makes me want to text Cody.

Rachael: Maybe we could roll dice to see what episode to watch.

Rachael: Okay I'll stop again.

Rachael: Is "you've got pretty good wind for an old broad." A come on？these are the kind of questions I want answered.

jessica: oh my word you are making me laugh so much

jessica: !!!

Rachael: Has Angela Lansbury ever NOT been a grandma??? Also I hope the party is amazing!

Rachael: You'd think people would stop inviting her out.).

Ok, now back to the birthday...

Next came the food court, and then the ice cream cone. Then it was back home to her sister.

On Saturday, we threw her a kids' party. It sounded maybe a little pitiful that only two friends were invited, but with one little brother and Rosy added to the mix, there was plenty enough chaos to constitute a good party. I settled on doing a polka dot theme, just because having a theme helps me tie things all together. Polka dots were relatively accessible in terms of decorations/cups and plates and I think they're super cute. (Not just cute. Super cute). We had all round food, a round banner, round-ish balloons, round sticker prizes for the games etc. etc. I wanted a polka-dot cake, but believe it or not, our grocery store doesn't carry food coloring and I didn't want to use chocolate, so it ended up a little plain jane. But sometimes plain jane is good. This cake, I'm told, was good, but very sweet. ''It must be an American recipe.'' It was indeed. I will be halving the sugar content next time. If not thirding it, haha. But the kids had a good time, I think. We played a game my mom made up for my birthday when I was little. You kneel on a chair and put a clothes pin in your mouth and try to drop it into a wide-mouth jar. Then we played one where one kid is blindfolded and they use a wooden spoon to feel another person and try to guess who it is. I gave it a try and failed miserably. To be fair, though, Tomáš did kneel down to kid size. Who has hair that thick? Aaanyhoo, a fun time was had by all, I do believe, and to me that makes a party a success. Lily will be having Birthday Party Part III in November when we have a combined family party for her and Rosy.