Is Zain a boy or a girl?

Getting writer's cramp from filling out invitations to Evan's birthday party, so thought I'd take a break and blog. I know, who does handwritten invitations? Quite a story...we decided to do the 'kid' party this year and stop subjecting our friends to attending our children's parties. I don't have a strong desire to have 27 kids (not a typo, 28 including Evan in his class) plus parents crammed into out house, so we checked out some local parks and found a perfect setup a few miles away...playground in the shade, pavilion you can rent for a very reasonable fee, and clean bathrooms. Not available the weekend of Evan's birthday--drat! But the next weekend is open, so we're all set. Until the little voice in my head reminds me that another classmate's birthday is that weekend and how would I feel if someone just stomped on my plans? I really need to get rid of this guilt complex...

I cal Skye's mom (who's a very nice lady and much cooler than me, I think) and explain my story. She suggests a joint party, which I was half-hoping she might. Sweet, right? Eh. She works on Saturdays, so can we do the party on Sunday (during an Eagles game)? Ok, that's not so bad, Ethan gives me a look, but agrees. Then a few days later I get the phone call that she has to be somewhere Sunday evening, so can we make it a little earlier on Sunday (like right in the middle of when Evan usually takes a nap)? I mumble that I think this isn't a problem, but in the back of my mind am thinking of calling the joint-party off. Neither kid has really warmed up to the idea of having a party with the other one, Evan wants Cars while Skye is torn between princesses and Curious George (and if she does CG, then I may as well persuade Evan to do the same thing despite the fact we have a huge box of Cars party supplies already). Losing my train of thought...oh, so a few days later I get another call and the party is clearly on. Skye has decided on Little Mermaid and they've already started the invitations. I think it will be fine (despite the time) because all the girls will get LM invitations/favors and the boys will get Cars. And if it's not, then I'll promptly call the park and reserve the pavilion for the right weekend next year ;-)

I bet you're wondering what this has to do with Zain, right? So I get the class list from Evan's daycare (all 28 of them) and quickly realize I don't know if half of these kids are boys or girls. So Evan and I go through the list, 1 by 1. Zain? Girl. Khaled? Boy. Rida? Girl. Daniel? Boy.

Ethan interrupts at this point to ask why I'm asking if Daniel is a boy or a girl when it's rather obvious it's a boy. My point was, I don't know if Evan is just making this up, so I better ask him about the obvious names too so I don't look like a fool giving a girl a Cars invitation when she's already going to get a Little Mermaid invitation. Ethan no longer interrupts, even when I ask Evan if he is a boy or a girl (ok, that was just to be funny).

So here I am, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, addressing invitations while the rest of the house sleeps. But we're headed to an O's game with friends a little later, and I am really excited to see everyone!!