Pump It Up

C-bao attended a friend's party the other weekend at Pump It Up of San Francisco.

PIU is filled with jumpy houses of all kinds. The company promises to make private birthday parties "epic," and the kids did have a blast bouncing from one air-filled apparatus to the next. The business model is of course all about volume and utilization, and the employees knew the drill, ushering our party on a tight schedule from room to room.

Now, some of the balloon houses did look fun. In the above picture C-bao is trying to reach little plastic strips stuck by Velcro to a slippery slope. After a number of failed attempts C-Pop tries to give C-bao a hand, with, um, limited success.

After a solid 90 minutes of non-stop bouncing, everyone was ready for pizza and cake, which was in the final room. An enjoyable party, and, C-Pop had to admit, an admirable business model!

Holiday in NY

C-bao took her first trip to New York over the holidays. On one of the days, she stopped by C-Pop's office during its annual family holiday party.

"Daddy, why are his arms short?"

Replete with scarf decorating, magic shows, men on stilts and most importantly lots of snacks and desserts, C-bao had herself a good time.

"I want at least two snowflakes on my scarf!"

Below C-bao hammed it up with the resident snowman, after first picking up some balloon hats and other paraphernalia.

Chilling with Frosty

Party Crasher

One of the great perks of being a younger sister is having access to a ton of parties that you aren't even formally invited to, but get to attend by virtue of association.

Just this past weekend, for example, C-bao found herself stuffing her face with ice cream...

...splashing around at a pool party in Napa...

...running around crazily on a trampoline at said pool party in Napa...



...mixing it up with the older kids to "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift...



...all at birthday parties of her sister K-bao's various friends.

Furthermore, at each such party, she typically gets a ton of attention from the older girls (and their moms), who all recognize her now and treat her like a little cute puppy.

As if that were not enough, C-bao generally walks away from these parties with plenty of swag. Today, for example, she snagged both a balloon and a sizeable bag of candy (which included candies given to her by older girls who felt sorry for the fact that she wasn't quite big enough to snatch up candies when they were scattered from the pinata).

Pretty good life, we'd say!

Potty Joke

"It's hard for anyone to make me laugh," said sister K-bao last night in the car, with a serious but proud face.

A few seconds later the following conversation took place.

C-bao: "Where are we going?"
C-Mum: "To a party, C-bao. Remember I told you? Sister K-bao's friend is having a party."
C-bao: "Pah-tee?"
C-Mum: Yes.
C-bao: (Pause)..."Why are we going to the bathroom?"
K-bao: HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Seriously, you couldn't make this stuff up.