Birthday Girl

Gaëlle is now 6.  She has been planning her birthday for a year now. We actually forbid the birthday talk because she was constantly telling us who was coming and who wasn’t going to be invited. So shortly before the big day, we allowed birthday talk and guess what?  She could not decide what she wanted to do and who she really wanted to invite. It’s easy to plan. Much tougher to commit.

So, I basically planned it without much input from her. Last year we went old school and just had an old fashioned at home party. It went so well, and with a few logistic issues, I decided to do the same thing thing year.

 

We started with some easy crafts; door hangers and we put their names on their treat bags. Gaëlle and Peter love love love crafts. So this was good.

Next, onto some party games. 2 teams battling it out over water.

This was break the balloon game which was a huge hit with the boys but not so much with the girls. Emily jumped in to show them what to do.

Pass the multi wrapped present. Notice mom’s hands gently redirecting Gaëlle who was more than ready to help anybody unwrap their present.

   Spend a little time outside playing on the zip line. This is a huge hit with all the kids.

Time for pizza, but it was hard to say bye to the zipline.

 

Big smiles all around. Cause now it’s time for cake and then it’s time for presents.

It’s interesting to see Gaëlle’s reaction to presents. Most people assume the younger kids are going to be ecstatic with gifts and with stuff. I mean, they’re from Haiti and all.  They should be so grateful. But they really don’t know how to react to “stuff” and so they can be a little underwhelmed and not quite as excited as one might expect to see.

However, Gaëlle received a couple of craft kits and she really was pleased with them. That afternoon, she and Peter broke out the first one and they made a couple of pom pom critters.