Birthday Bunny

My little girl turned 8 years old last week. Wow! Joe and I watched our video footage of her birth in 2004… our first child. Now she is a strong young girl who speaks 2 languages, bosses her two brothers around, reads chapter books, and does division. When did that happen!?

As we mentioned, she spent her actual birthday in Sorrento, Italy. But the real celebration was on Saturday when her friends from school came to our house for a 2 1/2 hour long party.

Now, let me just say that my history with birthday parties is mixed, at best. There was the time I planned a swimsuit/water-play party in July, and then it turned out to be 60 degrees. There was the time I spent several hours building an obstacle course as the primary party activity, which took the kids only 5 minutes to conquer and demolish. And there have been several times when I have burned through all my party activities only to look at the clock and find at least half the party time still remaining. Over the years I have done a lot of improvising, and learned that it’s really just better to hire professionals. Some of my prior successes include a rented bouncy castle and an expert face-painting artist.

But in Switzerland, birthday parties are “simple.” There is no birthday party industry like there is in America, no destinations, no bouncy castles. You can buy balloons, candles, and “Happy Birthday” garlands at the store, and that is about it. So, I was on my own. Plus, none of Emily’s friends speak any English. I knew the only way to pull this off was to be really well prepared.

Thank goodness for the internet! Emily had decided on a “bunny” theme, and I quickly found several blogs by moms who are way better at this than me. I picked bunny crafts, decorations, food, and activities. Two days before the party, I hit the stores (at least the ones I can reach on my bike) and came home mostly empty handed, failing to find most of the things I needed. Back in America I would know where to go to find tagboard and puff balls.

And I’m proud to report that the party was a smashing success! The girls had a lot of fun with the crafts and activities. By some stroke of luck, we had a few hours of blue sky during the party, so we were able to go  But here, I don’t know where to find those things, and even if I did, I probably couldn’t getthere on my bike. This is where my improvisation skills came in handy, using what we had in the house to make what we needed. And this year, Emily was old enough and interested enough to help with the preparations. She and I spent most of Friday afternoon sitting at the table cutting, glueing and tying.

outside for a hoppin’ gunny sack race, to make beanbag bunnies out of socks and rice, and to teach the girls the Bunny Hop dance, which they performed for their parents at the end of the party.

I knew we had done it when I looked at the clock and there was only 15 minutes left, and we still had one activity to do. We played Bunny Bingo (with the letters “HASEN” at the top – German for “rabbits”) using Swiss M&M candies for markers until all the parents arrived. The girls all had fun, and Emily only had to translate for me a handful of times.

Given the challenges of living, making friends and communicating here, throwing this party was a huge accomplishment. After her friends had all left, Emily ran over to me with a glowing smile, wrapped her arms around me and thanked me for such a great party. Her smile alone was worth it all!