The Road to 40 Day 43/365: Double birthday Saturday

by | Jun 22, 2025 | Strawberry-Filled Donuts

It was a busy Saturday for Vino, as he had his first Singapore birthday party and was supposed to attend a friend’s birthday party earlier in the day.

With the school break fast approaching, the weekends are filled with playdates and birthday parties. We had a 10AM party near the east side so we had to move early.

It was a laser tag party, and when Vino went to his friends, he left his water bottle with me. I was waiting for the organizers to finish giving the kids instructions about what was going to happen so I can give it to him.

Then I realized the parents are not asking me to leave. I’ve been aorund the area, and I know there’s practically nothing there. Plus, it was damn hot and the party was in an airconditioned room, so I decided to just stay.

I had a good time chatting with the parents while the kids were being rowdy playing around.

After the party, Vino and I got takeout lunch to bring home for Che. We needed to prep some things for Vino’s own party later on.

Vino has always celebrated his birthday parties in the Philippines, but he said he wanted to have a party with his friends this year.

We booked this escape room for kids and invited his classmates over. Kids can bring their parents along to do the escape rooms, and we tried to get them to stay. However, everyone was just eager to let the kids do their thing.

The kids were grouped to do two rooms each. It was then I learned that three kids work ok, but four kids might be too much kids in one room.

A lot of the kids were acting out, and I would often lose my cool with them, using a big voice and a lot of claps to get them to shut up. Che told me that I needed to try and control myself with the kids, but I said a simple loud voice wasn’t going to get them to keep quiet.

I underdstand that they’re kids, but they get a bit unruly at some point. One of the kids has been a bit of a problem in the first two parties that Vino attended. Vino likes him as a friend, but the little dude can be difficult to handle in big groups.

For the first two parties, the kid asked to go home right at the start of the party. The parent always tried to pacify him with options he could do so that he would stay.

When he did it to me, I said he can go home. Wait by a chair as I will tell his mom to pick him up already. I guess he felt left out and surprised that he might actually go home, so he went back to the group and tried to integrate himself again.

Vino was a bit uncomfortable at first because the difficult boy kept arguing with one of his good friends. I tried to ask the boy if we were going to have a problem or if we were going to have a party. Since he chose party, I said he should cooperate.

The kids all tried to solve the myteries, and a lot of them were getting frustrated because of the time limit. But since we had the place to ourselves, the staff did away with the time limit.

I realized 20 kids is a bit too much to handle. We had about six girls, and they were just as loud as the boys.

Overall though, it was a fun experience. The kids all loved it, and Vino really enjoyed it and he was super excited opening all the gifts that he got.

After I reheated some food for Che and Vino’s dinner, I headed over to my basketball guys because one of them was leaving for the Philippines for good. I brought an old ball and asked the guys to write something for him.

I was supposed to drink a bit with the guys and head straight home. But an old friend came to visit and I ended up staying later than I should.

It was a super long day, but got a lot of things go down, so it was very fulfilling at least.

Winding down to Vino’s last week of school next week!

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