Birthday parties

Charlotte has been to 2 birthday parties so far.  For whatever reason, it seems like about half her class has a birthday in either August or September (including her).  It seemed like every other day she was coming home with a birthday invitation or a goody bag to celebrate someone's birthday.   

I RSVPed for the first party and she asked me how many people were coming and told me siblings were welcome.  A friend had told me that is a cultural thing that when you invite a child to a birthday party, usually the whole family shows up.  I told her I would bring Tommy as well.  I thought Tommy would enjoy the party and there was a chance Tom would have to be go out of town that weekend, so it would be easier to bring him. The party was for twins, one in Charlotte's class and the other in the other Reception class.  They invited everyone in both classes so I knew it would be a lot of people.  They had rented a large outdoor facility with beautiful gardens.  They had many decorations including a nylon banner with "Happy Birthday" and life size pictures of the kids on it.  The theme was Frozen and superheros for the boy/girl twins.  My friend had warned me that some of the families here have quite elaborate birthday parties.  I am used to parties in the US where the parents might have an outside party and rent a bouncy house, hire a magician or fancy face painter, have a pinata, or have animals to pet.  This one had ALL of those.

Charlotte with her princess face paint

Charlotte loved the magician

The magician also did balloon animals and swords

Petting the goat

Then it was time to eat.  Instead of just pizza like I am used to, this party had a full buffet of at least 30 items.  They had things like mini sandwiches, lots of desserts, fruit kebabs, and, of course, croissants filled with smoked salmon and caviar.  The food was really good.  Then, they brought out the cakes.  They were amazing, a Frozen castle and superhero cake.  

When it was time to leave the party, each child (including siblings) got a goody bag with their name on it.  They had already gotten a full bag of candy from the 2 pinatas.  The goody bags each had several nice sized toys, including a mini (knock-off) Lego set (Iron Man for Tommy and Frozen for Charlotte).  The kids had a great time.

The next weekend, Charlotte had another party.  This one was very nice, but not as elaborate.  They sent an email telling everyone to dress up like a princess or superhero if they wanted.  Charlotte was excited to wear her Sleeping Beauty costume from last Halloween. 

She had a great time at the party.  I only took Charlotte and I had several people ask me where my son was.  The party was a Frozen theme and the parents did a great job.  They labeled all the snacks with new names, for example, potato chips were Hans' ice chips.  They also made cute Frozen labels for the bottled water and renamed it melted snow.  The kids played pin the nose on Olaf as well as some other Frozen games.  She had a lot of fun.