Mia is 11 years old! Unbelievable! We had a nice family celebration on her actual birthday with cake and presents. Bailey and Camden put together a really cute scavenger hunt for her, and she absolutely loved it. The next week, we celebrated with 7 of her friends by doing a "city scavenger hunt" and then coming back home to play games. Bryan took the day off (because of course the Germans get off at 11:30 AM before each of their 2 week vacations and being that this is the 2 week Pentacost vacation, all 8 of them were ringing the doorbell by 11:45 (so cute)). Anyway...they were truly a fun bunch to host and while we know all of the girls in her class very well (there are only 3), we don't know the boys at all, so it was fun to get to know 4 of them. Oh My ... can you spot the difference between boys and girls in 5th grade right away! Luckily, Bryan and I laughed at how we have changed as parents over the years. We are much more layed back now and we laughed at the sillinees of the kids in the city (especially the boys). Germans really respect the idea of "let kids be kids". They are also quick to let them know if they are getting too out of hand. They came back with a few stories of how they had been "hushed" in certain stores. It made us laugh! It is the way things work here though :-). Picture the craziness of 8 - 11 year olds running around; getting autographs of strangers, taking pictures in front of certain landmarks, finding Chinese takeout Menus, buying nail polish at the dollar store and painting nails, finding the ISBN code of a book in the book store, taking a picture of one of them in a grocery cart, returning bottles to get money to buy Frank (our bunny ) food etc., It was so funny! They had about 20 things on their list and they came back to us in the end, having accomplished every single task. They had a blast! (As they ran around, we waited for them in the city center, and they came back every once in a while to drop off jackets or to get drinks). It was really a nice birthday with such a fun group of kids. Happy, Happy Birthday Mia! We absolutely adore you - you make us so happy!!!
*A couple of funny side notes... The German kids are responsible for RSVP-ing to the birthday person. No parental involvement at all. Just faith that they will all show up like they said they would (and they all did). Another funny thing is that all of the kids ask the Birthday Person what they would like for their birthday, and they truly expect a detailed answer. It is very normal to request a gift card to a particular store (again so funny!). Also, no thank you notes. From our experience, Germans do not do thank you notes. Mia loves this part of it. I think a "thank you" that is spoken, is truly meant, and so that is enough for them.
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| Silly Mia - loving her scavenger hunt :-) |
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| Love these nutty 4! |
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| Happy Birthday Xuey!!! We adore you!!! |
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| And for the "friends" birthday celebration, the kids all showed up at our door after school :-) |
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| We had lunch ready for them. |
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| Bryan had grilled Hamburgers |
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| And then they headed off for their "city scavenger hunt" |
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| These 4 have become great friends! |
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| One of the "tasks", was to get a stranger to take a photo of the group in front of a statue (the picture actually came out quite nice :-)) |
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| And this one, not so much. Funny, nonetheless though. The task was to take a picture of one of them in a grocery cart |
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| the boys loved this one :-) |
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| 10 and 11 years olds! |
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| crazy! |
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| but gotta love em! |
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| The surprise after the hunt, was ice cream |
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| yummy Gelato! |
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| Then, at the very end, Mia had to stand on a bench in the market square, and everyone sang "Happy Birthday". Definitely a bit embarasssing: -) The cute thing is that they all (including Mia), sing "Happy Birthday" like a German speaking English with a British accent. It is so cute! |
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| Then we came home for games. This is one of the funnest games (for both adults and kids). In German, it is called "chocolate essen". The object is to open a gift wrapped chocolate bar with a fork and knife. Before you have a chance do it though, you must roll a 6 with the dice and then put on a scarf, hat, and mittens. It is hillarious! |
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| it's a fast moving game |
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| with a fork and knife (sometimes a bit dangerous :-)) |
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| hillarious!! |
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| The "inner Gambler" in all of them came out in the "Right, Left, Center" Game |
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| And this was a hit - our German friends introduced this to us - it is called Jakkolo.... |
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| lots of fun! And promptly at the time of pick-up, all parents came and picked them up - so German to be punctual :-) |
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