birthday party gone awry

Friday was J's 5th birthday. His mother had called the week before and asked if she could bring cupcakes for the class. I said of course, told her what time snack was, and didn't think more about it. I didn't think J's mom would forget, but I didn't think it would be a big deal. The kids would eat the cupcakes with their snack, sing happy birthday to J, and head home. Well, J's mom did bring in the cupcakes - and ice cream, and the whole works. She had brought enough for both pre-K classrooms, so the other class came in with us, and all the adults were running around pulling up tables and chairs and putting down special birthday napkins and bowls for the ice cream and everything. J had a special HUGE cupcake, with candles in it, so all 34 kids had to wait until J had made a wish and blown out the candles (I'm not sure candles are allowed in a school) before they could eat their cupcake and ice cream. The waiting, I think, was pure torture for them. We had finally gotten everything settled (by now normally we'd be cleaning up snack) and the fire alarm went off. We rushed both classes outside and waited, and waited, and waited. Someone must have pulled the fire alarm, cause it took forever for the janitors to ring the bell to let us back in. By the time we got back in, it was time to go home, and the kids still hadn't eaten their cupcake and melting ice cream. The adults again scurried around, yelling EAT! EAT! to disgruntled children and rushed them through the cleaning-up-and-getting-backpacks-on process and ran them out the door as the buses were getting ready to leave. All in all, I'm not sure that J's birthday went quite the way either his mother or I had thought it would. But I think it will be one of the most memorable birthday parties I've hosted. The best part about it, I think, was that J and his mom had made the cupcakes from scratch, including the icing. They had put so much food coloring into the icing that it stained the kids' skin. And of course, none of them could eat a cupcake without getting it all over their faces. So no matter how we tried, nearly all students had blue, red, orange, or green stains covering their nose, mouth, cheeks, and chin. It looked like we had put muzzles on the children and sent them home. The provoked teacher strikes again.