Alex Attends a Birthday Party - for the First Time!

Last Sunday at First Day School, Alex had made a friend named Harry.  Harry's dad, Cal, told me that Harry would be turning 3 next week and that he'd be having a big birthday party.  Alex and I were invited.  This was great suff. It would be Alex's first ever birthday party as a guest.

We'd stopped at at a bookstore in Rye yesterday where we purchased the books "If You Give a Dog a Doughnut" and "Dinosaur vs. Bedtime" (and Alex wanted a copy of it too.)  We were all set to go to Harry's birthday party in Chelsea.   We stopped at a Hale & Hearty for some brunch and took a crosstown bus on 23rd Street to get to 8th Avenue.  We arrived at Harry's just after noon.

Alex took to Harry's toys immediately.  Yeah, "Hi Harry. Happy Birthday and all, now show me your toys."   That seemed to be the universal thought to all of the three year olds present.

Alex and Harry at the Train Table

Harry's parents (Cal and Victoria) had a great folk singer there and part of the goodie bag was a CD of his songs.  There were some great kids' songs played and I even got to turn the pages of a book being sung!

Oh, and Alex loved the cake too. 

The Hoffmans live in a brownstone and the interior is very much like the brownstone in which my family lived in Brooklyn.  At one point, Harry played a game with his parents - running in and out of the doors to the hallway to which they both exited.  It reminded me of when I once loved to play the same game of exiting one room into the hallway and entering another.  It made me smile.

The party ended at 2 and I knew I'd have a hard time getting Alex away from the toys.  So, I bribed him out of there by telling him about a park that was built on a railway.  (The High Line).  There was an entrance right on 23rd Street, so we could easily get to it. 

It ends at 30th Street, but all the way on the west side. We stopped at a hot dog stand to get some refreshments. (I'd totally forgotten to eat at the party. Grrrrr.)

This left us to get a crosstown bus on 34th and then walk back to Grand Central.  All the way home, though, Alex talked about what a great time he had at the party - playing with the toys.  Oh well.

He was most interested in Harry's subway trains.  He has the A & E trains, because he lives near Eighth Avenue.  Alex wanted A and E trains, but I told him that he had to wait.  Then he said he just wanted to "see" the trains.  Yeah-ah-ah. Sucker Mommy went into the Transit Museum store in Grand Central to "see" the A and E trains and walked out with two brand new Metro North trains.  We'll work on that bit.

It was still a great deay. Happy Birthday Harry!!