Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

Today we attended two parties.  The first one was at lunch, the birthday of Tito Yam, held at their home.  Since we live next street to them, we were the very first to arrive at 12:30.  We also intended to come early since we were bringing some baked macaroni as requested by Tita May.

It was just a small gathering with about four families invited and a few bachelor friends of the couple.  It was relatively small in comparison to the other parties we’ve attended in the past.  We savored all the food most specially the “Bicol Express” which Christian really, really loved.  Then there was chit-chatting with friends who were also there.  We would have wanted to stay much longer but we had to leave at 5 pm as another party awaits us.

We arrived at McDonald’s Al Sadd where the 4th birthday party of Mela was held.  Arriving a few minutes before 6 pm which was the start of the party, we still had enough time to chat with the parents of the celebrant, our friends Mel and Marlyn.  I was also able to take photos of Xianelle with Mela.  When the McDo staff was giving out the name stickers for the children, Xiane was there to make sure that her name wasn’t misspelled by spelling it out to the lady.

Then the much awaited portion of the party began- the games!  Xiane has been to a number of birthday parties mostly at McDonald’s and Burger King since we came here two years ago.  You can say that Xiane is quite experience already when it comes to joining the games.  She always joins them and never misses a single game. 

Last night was not an exception.  When the emcee asked who could sing, Xiane instantly raised her hand.  She was asked to stay in front with Mela and sang Happy Birthday to her, for which Xiane won a prize.  Then there was the “Hokey Pokey dance contest” which Xiane took seriously (in Pinoy lingo “kinarir”).  At least her efforts paid off as she won the prize for the best dancer among the girls.  The next thing we knew was hearing her name over and over again as the emcee kept calling her.  Then it was time for the “bring me” game, which as I’ve said before, is as much a game for the parents as it is for the children.  Naturally, I was also all geared up.  I had my bag with me and was prepared to hand out to Xiane whatever item the emcee asked for.  True enough, when she asked for a mobile phone, Xiane was the first one to give the item to the emcee.  But Tian was getting a little uneasy about Xiane winning everything so we told her to rest a bit to give others a chance to play.  She did stop but not for long because she insisted in joining the “bring me” game again.  Then the most hilarious thing happened.  The emcee asked for an I.D., since we were trying to lie low, I didn’t bother to hand out an I.D. to Xiane.  But there was this dad who quickly extended his arm as he was trying to give the I.D. to his son.  Unfortunately, Xiane was standing before the boy and before you knew it there was Xianelle intercepting the I.D. as it passed by her.  It was so funny!  Everybody was laughing at what happened.

Another fun game was “the boat is sinking game”.  Xiane was so funny.  She hugged the next person beside her who was a boy, every time the emcee ordered “group yourselves into 2”.  It was amazing to see your child able to apply her counting skills in a simple game like this.  The children were grabbing other children and sometimes shoving off some just to achieve the number that was being asked.  They were so witty and smart.  But while Xiane worked her way to the top three, in the end the two boys emerged victorious.

All in all it was a very fun party.  Everyone enjoyed, even us parents.  We were so happy to watch our daughter confidently joining the games and just having fun.  Her winning prizes was just icing on the cake.  As always it’s so nice to be able to attend these gatherings for Xiane, makes being a child more colorful and much more fun.