Back-to-School!

School starts again tomorrow. You know how after a long vacation, you feel lazy to go back to school or to work? I think everybody does.

Well, what to do when you're not yet ready to go to bed and wake up early? When you're not ready yet to give up the remote control or put down the book that you've been reading? When you're not yet done with your list of places to visit?

Here are some tips to help you prepare to go back to school.

1. Adjust your body clock. Try to sleep early again. It's most effective if you start at least five days before school starts again.

2. Spend two whole days doing what you want or spend the day with people you want to be with and hope that you'll get sick of them (joke!) and just give space for you to miss them again when school starts.

3. Text or call your classmates and ask them about their vacation. I'm sure they have something to share and that you do too so it will give you something to look forward to.

Franz's Fifth Birthday

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 at 8:00 AM and ends at 10:00 PM. At some point of the school year, the DSWD Officer suggested that classes be made longer, up to 11:00 AM but it was implemented just for a week or so. Parents stay outside the classroom during classes, gossiping and browsing through Avon,Natasha, or Marikina Ex brochures and catalogs. 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 facilitated some games. It was fun. Franz enjoyed the party and judging 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 end up having the biggest bullies going against the children and you're lucky enough if the bullies fight among themselves, with the children kept safe. 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" or "take away".

3. Do not worry about the teachers' restriction about junk food. 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 the cake out of 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 balloons in just one color. Or, you will end up getting frowns and eyerolls from the bratty ones if you gave the pink one to another kid.