At least the kids seemed to enjoy most of it

Whatever you do, do not have a three hour birthday party for about a thousand five and six year olds. I only invited about ten, but that didn't include my own kids, and then I forgot some children, and then some brought siblings, and Jack's cousin was unexpectedly able to come. I ended up with seventeen kids there! Seventeen! 17! Aaaargh!

Luckily, I had been smart enough not to invite them to our house. There's this place in our street, right next to Jack's school, which has an indoor play contraption. They do pancakes and ice creams, and I am so grateful they exist I'm considering lobbying for a national holiday in their honour. And this being Belgium, they even serve beer! (I only had a couple of small ones - I didn't think the parents would appreciate it if I was legless when they came to collect their children, even though it would have made the whole process more bearable for me.)

There were tears. There were bodily fluids. There was fighting. I had to interfere when the boys complained that the girls wouldn't stop kissing them (yes, still that old problem) and when the girls complained that the boys wouldn't stop trying to pull down their underpants (that's a new one to me). I'd like to say my children were good as gold, but I caught Jack pinning a girl to the wall and Marie hit a kid three years older than her over the head.

All the kids got sticky and disgusting, and they ALL wanted to sit next to Jack. Three girls cried because they couldn't sit next to him, so they had to take turns sitting opposite him. What saved me were the mothers and my lovely sister who stayed, and Babes who was there most of the time.

When I got home, I was completely wiped out. I came in, sat down on the sofa, and promptly fell asleep. Luckily I have a star for a husband. Babes cooked dinner and put the kids to bed. I only had energy left to eat some of the delicious macaroni and then lie on the sofa to watch a movie I'd seen before (Imagine Me & You* - very sweet movie indeed).

I have a renewed respect for nursery school teachers, mingled with a hint of fear, because you must be at least slightly deranged to do this job. And if you weren't to start with, it's only a matter of time once you're in the job.

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*I was looking up this movie to put a link to it, and typed into Google "about you and me", and the first answer it gave was the correct link for "Imagine Me & You". I didn't know Google came with mind reading capabilities these days. Too freaky!