raven got invited to a kiddie party over the weekend. one of jeff’s skating buddies’ son’s 4th birthday. i rarely get to take raven to kiddie parties, partly because i have work or some other previous commitments. but mainly because i don’t really have a lot of friends over here.

now, before you start feeling sorry for me, let me just say that i don’t have a lot of friends in cebu either so you can put me anywhere around the world and i would still be the introverted loner that i am. it doesn’t really bother me at all. save for those random days once or twice a year when i suddenly feel like i want my own tribe. must be the full moon.

and, yes, i subscribe to the whole “quality vs quantity” motto. there’s nothing worse than being surrounded with a lot of people and wishing you were kicking it back home instead. like, what’s the point? which is why clubbing doesn’t interest me in the least. because the conversations do not flow as easily as the alcohol running through your system. because it’s too loud, too noisy, too… superficial.

and i’m too boring. so there you go.

i like quiet conversations. i reckon i’d fare better in a pub than in a club. you know, slap jokes with the other low-key alcoholics in the area except that these days, my choice of beverage is camomile tea or whatever herbal tea your grandma’s got.

i know, right? what the hell is wrong with me?! even my liver’s practically advising me to just #yolo it!

so, anyway, jeff and i took raven there. and i have to say i actually enjoyed it. jason’s wife, vicky, was lovely. i got good vibes from her right off the bat. aside from our husbands being what we have in common, what bonded us is the fact that unlike our husbands, we suck at skating. that alone pretty much cements our friendship.

one day, should we find ourselves learning to skate together, we said we’re gonna hold each other’s hands… falling down.

raven, on the hand, was obsessed with this — what do you call it? — thing that you blow into. sort of like a paper horn, except that she couldn’t blow enough air into it to produce any sound, but enough to be able to uncurl the paper.

omigod, she loved that thing! that was probably the highlight of her day for her. i must have pinched maybe three more from the table because in the process of blowing she spits some into it as well so then the paper bit always got wet and torn and thus, ineffective. thank god the older kids weren’t as into those party horns as she was so there were still some extras lying around for her to play with.

speaking of play, this was her very first ‘pass the parcel’ game and judging from the pictures above, i looked more excited than she was. or maybe all the kids put together. come to think of it, this was my very first ‘pass the parcel’ game too! i mean, i didn’t even know how it actually works. all i knew was that you pass that thing around when the music plays. once the music stops and it’s on your hands, i didn’t know what to do next. that was as far as my logic went.

apparently, there’s like, layers upon layers of presents wrapped inside the package. kind of like onion. so, for example, if you’re holding it and the music stops, you peel open the outermost layer and you get the goodie that’s in that layer. and then you pass it around again until everyone gets a little something.

obviously, no one goes home empty handed. every one wins.

raven got three sticks with colored powdery substance in it i could only hope was not cocaine. i must have stared at it for a good 5 seconds before jeff saw the confusion in my painted eyebrows.

“that’s sherbet,” he said, offering the information.

guess i still have a lot to learn as far as aussie games and lollies go.

*raven at 2 years old