Small town birthdays

Amy was a guest at a birthday party this evening. It was for one of the girls that is part of our choir. It's also the first one that either of our girls had been invited to.

What I find interesting isn't the party itself -- the party itself is just like any one might encounter. What I do find interesting is first of all, the toy store that we have here. It's a small, one-room store. I'm pretty sure it's smaller than the living/dining area that we used to have. Anyway, the owner/storekeep keeps track of the kids in town, their birthdays, and what gifts were purchased for each child. Not just for one birthday or occasion, but purchases going back for years. So the chances of a child receiving duplicate gifts is greatly diminished. This is something that can occur only in a small, isolated town where it's highly impractical to purchase birthday gifts elsewhere. And with someone interested in keeping track of all this, why would anyone shop elsewhere?

The other interesting thing was that after the birthday party, the girl's mom drove all the little guests back home. Again, this is something that can only be done in a town where most everyone lives within a 3-mile or so radius. We were imagining how long it would take if we happened to do this in the Portland area: From Tigard, go to Beaverton, then to Hillsboro, and then down to Tualatin, and maybe West Linn and Oregon City, and then back. This would take a lot longer than a half an hour.

Shelley spent the afternoon at the Boys' and Girls' Club where she decorated a ceilling tile to be used to redecorate the building that is used for the Club. After that she made faux-Olive Garden Minestrone soup which we had for dinner tonight.

Spring is trying to make a comeback. We had rain for much of the day. The weather forecast says we might see snow again tonight, however.