Egyptian Birthday – Asiya, 5 years

How was it?

Well, at first it was so strange, because firstly my husband and I argued about the fact that I wanted to invite some of my Egyptian friends to the party. However my husband was against it, because he told me not to mix it. We are supposed to have only a purely family party and we can invite our friends another time. So I didn’t invite anyone, but after that he eventually invited our mutual friends, but he didn’t tell me about it at all. He didn’t tell me until the morning, when we were getting ready for the party. Honestly I was very angry.

However, in the morning we found out that we didn’t have enough balloons. Thank God in front of our house new stationery store opened. So we quickly went to buy some more balloons and decorations. In the end Asiya had quite enough of all. I was glad for it and for all the decorations we paid about 100 LE, which is not much.

We were supposed to arrive at the party at 10 a.m., but we all overslept. I don’t even know why we were so tired that we didn’t get up. Maybe we got it from the fact that the night before, Asiya and I finally found a muffin mould in the store, so we had to bake them right away at night. Asiya was so happy about it that she ate almost all the muffins right after they were baked.

In the end instead of 1O, we went to the party at 12. In front of my house we met my mother-in-law and Fatma and her daughter Aseel. We ordered Kareem (taxi) and went to the Zoo.

We were supposed to meet the rest of my husband’s family at the zoo, but they were far more late than we were. Somaia was still getting us a cake for Asiyaa, and I believe that’s why everything was delayed. They didn’t arrive until 2 p.m. Meanwhile, we walked for two hours at the zoo, looked at everything, fed the animals, and Asiya took a picture with Monkey. Fortunately, Asiya loves animals as much as I do.

When we finally got together with the rest of the family, we wanted to go from the Zoo to the Antoniades Botanical Garden, which is right next to the Zoo. There’s a lot of places for the kids to play and it’s a really beautiful environment. However, when we got there, there were huge swarms of mosquitoes. We were all bitten and it was really unbearable. Of course, my mother-in-law started to say it didn’t matter but me and her sister said it did matter because we had little kids here with us. While we were arguing, one of the mosquitoes bit Asiya. So I grabbed her hand and told everyone that I wouldn’t be here and I just left with her. Luckily, everyone followed me and we went back to the Zoo. It was already quite late because it was half past two and the Zoo is closing at four. So we quickly found a vacancy, and we were quite lucky that we had just found a vacancy with benches and we started the party.

Somaia brought the birthday cake, she even had a portable table with her so it was really good. I have to say, she took good care of everything. We hung balloons on a tree and started to celebrate. It was a really nice celebration because as my husband’s sisters have a lot of children, so all the children really enjoyed it. I also gave the children artificial snow, which they sprayed on each other and they were in the seventh heaven. Khadiga also gave them bubblegum and chips, juice etc. And of course the cake, which was absolutely delicious. It was so huge, it wouldn’t even fit in my fridge. Especially really and honestly the best cake I’ve ever eaten in Egypt. It only cost 800 LE and they printed a picture of Asiya right on the cake.

After that, all started taking pictures with Asiya. Asiya had a problem with Fatma as always. Which is quite funny, and I don’t know why it is. I never said anything bad about Fatma to Asiya, but even so she doesn’t like her and she didn’t want to take pictures with her. I even tried to convinced her that Fatma is her aunt and so she has to respect her and treat her well, but Asiya doesn’t like her at all.

When the party was already going on for a while, our mutual friends Nour and Abdel Nasser suddenly appeared. Right after their arrival, they made me very angry. I had an injured leg and it was very difficult for me to walk, and just standing in the Zoo for a while didn’t really make me feel better. So Abdel Nasser asked me to go for Noor. She was sitting about a kilometer away from us and that she was ashamed to come to the party. So I tried to explain to him that I had an injured leg. I wanted him to bring her closer and that I would introduce her to our family. He replied only that he cannot do that and that I should forget about her. So I didn’t care but she still didn’t come and I started to feel bad for her. Her husband would have really left her there alone. So I limped over to her, we said hello and I told her to come with me quickly because my leg hurts and I need to sit down.

Nour, however, started making a scene saying no, that she can’t go with me, that she was sick. By then she had really pissed me off and I told her that she was here for me and Asiya and not for my husband’s family. However she was still saying the same words, that she is so ashamed and cannot go with me.

Luckily, she had her two kids with her, so I just grabbed the younger one in my arms and left with him. It was the only way to get her to the party. She, of course, immediately ran after me and tried to stop me from going to the party, but eventually I got her there. I called Fatma right away and made them friends. Thank God Fatma is really very sociable. So Fatma took her in and then they talked until we left again.

After that, the celebration went smoothly. Asiya got a lot of gifts and as she ran all day she was really exhausted. I have to say that in the end it was a beautiful celebration and everyone loved it…and Who loved it the most? Of course Asiya!