Five Alive

When we realized that we had five staff birthdays this month, we decided that we needed to celebrate them all together, so we chose May 10th as the special day. The birthday five included, from oldest to youngest: Wes, Carolyn, Diana, Abby and Hildah.

Darbi and I did some brainstorming while riding bikes one morning, and came up with a plan. We would make one face cake for each staff member. It was a lot of hard work on Darbi's part--all I had to do was draw their faces on paper and she did the rest.



Wes on the left and teacher Hildah on the right, two of the birthday cakes made by Darbi.

 Meanwhile, Blu was using his creative juices to figure out a way to pour water on the birthday five (the tradition here at New Day),in a way that would totally surprise them. Of course, knowing Blu, they were all a little cautious as they entered the dining room for the birthday celebration.



Teacher Abby is a little leery of walking into the dining room because she knows very well about the "water pouring tradition," since she helped to bring it to New Day.

 And truly, Blu came up with a creative plan. He hooked up a water hose to PVC pipe that he attached to the rafter in the dining room.  The pipe had five spouts, one for each of the birthday five. 

The children had planned a little birthday skit,  which worked perfectly for Blu's scheme. Below the five spouts he placed five chairs, with Wes' chair being below the one that would release the most water.

The children came marching in; several carrying baby dolls representing the birthday five.



Muchoni on the right was carrying the baby doll representing Papa Wes.

 The birthday five were a little hesitant to sit in the chairs, but once the children started doing their skit, they relaxed a bit. But when the water came on the five came alive, jumping out of their chairs so quickly that I couldn't get a good picture.

Hildah on the left, wearing a shower cap, was prepared for getting wet, but I don't think any of them suspected that the water would come from above.

After a few minutes of laughter, Wes and Hildah went back over to their chairs, and Diana  told me, "We should have Blu turn it on again." We got Blu's attention, and this time he left it on while everyone who wanted to get wet, did so.

The children decided to join in the fun when Blu turned on the water the second time!

It was a fun-filled birthday--one I'm sure we will never forget!