Josie's second birthday

We planned with some neighbors to have a real Halloween party for the kids in our building. We had to push it back a weekend so it landed by Josie's birthday on the 11th, thus the Halloween party became Josie's birthday party.

A couple days before the party we thought we may as well send out a Whatsapp message to the group of parents from Lily's class, thinking only a couple would come with it being such short notice. Many came :)

The result was a party extravaganza with over 30 kids plus parents. There are smaller weddings.

We had an owl cake made by Lisa, banana cake muffins with green slime (actually delicious cream cheese frosting colored green), a vomiting Jack-o-lantern carved by Oli minutes before the party, 100 glow bracelets, colored cellophane for kids to put over the lenses of the flashlights we told them to bring, a trick-or-treat session where the kids ran around bombarding the parents on the patio with "Trick or treat?!" to get candy off them, and after that I got talk to adults and drink mulled wine for 30 minutes before cleaning up.

The only snafu was that Josie is 2 and we threw her a Halloween party to which kids and adults came wearing hideous masks and face paint. We had to hold her for an hour, then she got over it just in time for singing happy birthday, which we only had to do twice because I realized I hadn't lit the candles the first time.

Final observation. I thought the kids would come in simple costumes, but having never gotten to do proper Halloween, these kids came decked out in cool and frightening costumes!

Happy birthday, Josie!
(Even though we don't have a photo of you at your party. Maybe there's one on Dad's phone? We were kind of busy throwing a party.)

Update: We found one...

...showing half your face.

Love ya, babe.

Lili's 6th birthday, take 2 - The snowstorm that never was

My parents were here the week of Lili's birthday and Oli's parents came out for the day of (Just for the day! A morning flight from London and night flight back from Barcelona.)

The day before her b-day we made a massive yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

On her birthday Lili went to school to celebrate with her friends and the adults all went out to lunch. At 2.20pm I got a call on my cell from Lili's teacher telling me that the Education Dept. had ordered all schools to send children home at 3pm because of the possibility of snow.

So we all finished our coffees, ran to the train station, garbage picked a cool green bamboo chair, caught the train and got the girl just in time.

It never snowed, but we had an extra hour and a half for presents.

Lili's 6th birthday, take 1

Lili seems to have multiple birthday celebrations each year.

This year party one was a get together with her best school girlfriends to make 'stained glass' candle holders from recycled glass jars and tissue paper - which I messed up by accidentally buying crepe paper...that was being sold in tissue paper shape. Boo.

Oh well, the girls didn't care and we all had fun.

After the activity, chocolate-filled croissants and juice, we headed downstairs and outside to our patio where the girls, each dressed in one of Lili's princess dresses, skated around on the in-line skates and scooters they had all brought along.

Despite some histrionics from Lili when I let her best friend wear one of Lili's favorite real dresses, which she had forgotten she owned (we were one princess dress short), and the general complications involved in managing 9 little girls and moving them from outside, to the 11th floor, and back out again, fun was had.

Lili is 5!

Today our baby is 5. Five years ago today, Oli was at London getting grilled by the US government in the embassy, I was in Oak Lawn, IL at Christ Hospital and Lili was getting born!

To recall all the gory and cute details of her first two weeks, read these blog posts.

Otherwise, today we've had a pancake breakfast and will have her favorite dinner (spaghetti!) with a special dessert of her choosing from the bakery, tomorrow Oli's parents are coming over from England, on Friday her friend Violet will go with Lili to an indoor play place, on Saturday we're staging a pirate treasure hunt birthday party with neighbors (Oli will be the pirate - what a dad!), and next Saturday there will be a co-party at her school with other classmates who are turning 5 around now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILI!

Loft bed

I've changed Lily's room...AGAIN.

This time, there's a loft bed involved.

See photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=202282&id=659342526&l=46bab63edf

Third birthday party, number three

We spent the last weekend in Milford and Godalming celebrating Lily's birthday, again.

Oli's dad rented the Masonic Hall for the party and his mum organized the cooking and transport of food and amenities for the guests. There was indoor jungle gym equipment and crash mats, Oli in a bear costume, and a bear hunt.

The party people who brought the equipment were a couple and they played with the kids on the equipment for the first hour of the party, which was great because I actually got to speak to the guests. This was also possible because Lisa handled all the food and beverages. Also helpful was the fantastic mood Lily was in all day. She's been a lot more relaxed and playful with other kids and adults lately and it showed in the good time she had at the party.







Young people without children. Very good sports.


We led the kids on a bear hunt using the equipment to recreate obstacles from the book We're Going on a Bear Hunt. At the end we draped a parachute over some ladders to make a cave where Oli hid in the bear costume. The kids were pretty thrilled with him, although there were two shock cases. After playing with the kids a few minutes, he led them out to another room where we had piled loads of teddy bears that Oli's mum had found on super offer at the supermarket.




I liked this party because it was fun planning it and working with Oli's family to make it happen. It was nice to have a party centered around a fun silly thing to do with your kid, friends and family. Lily seemed to love every moment of the party, from decorating the cake with Lisa, to helping us putting up decorations, to climbing on the equipment with her cousin and little friends, to giving everyone their party gifts as they left. Yeah.



Side note: Lately Lily shows everyone, including all kind-looking strangers on the street, her wounds. Before bedtime two nights in a row she walked Lisa through her roadmap of boo-boos. Here she is showing her cousin Baby Sam.


Lily and Hannah dancing in their dance class.


Also had a nice time seeing friends in Godalming. Thanks to James for cooking us a lovely meal, and to Cammie and Ben and Caroline for having us 'round, and to Verena, thanks for that midday, pre-flight beer.

The VW camper is ready to go. The plan is for us to fly to the UK at the beginning of Holy Week, which we have off work, and to then drive back to Spain in the VW, likely through France. More on this later.

Now comes to a close the Lily's-third-birthday-chapter of our lives.

Third birthday party, numbers one and two

We began the third celebration of Lily's birth, which will be a week-long event spanning two countries, on Sunday evening in Mantra, our friends Antony and Marta's tea house.

Bad weather made us call off the beach picnic we had originally planned, and illness and busy schedules kept the attendance small, but Lily had a very very good time, and looked nice, too.

It seemed like everyone enjoyed her antics ad playing with her. There was coloring in an anti-conformist-coloring-book that we found on the café game shelf, 

creating bases on a cushioned platform (the coolest feature of the tetería), 

decorating the house-shaped cake with raisin windows and doors, knocking Lily down and covering up with pillows, and so much more.

Good gifts were received: a piggy bank we can paint and necklaces, one of which is so cool that I want it.


Antony and Marta were so thoughtful, bringing us munchies, staying on top of the drink orders and serving Lily a Cacaolat that she was very pleased with.


We ended up singing Happy Birthday four times (English, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese) and each version received a big hooray from the hippies populating the café. (Note: the cake had a chimney, but Lily ate it just before we sang.)


Paulo was the one who introduced us to the Portuguese version, and man, it definitely beats all other birthday songs. Lots of increasingly loud chanting of the birthday person's name = good fun.

Things went so well, that Lily even put herself and her doll to bed at the end of the party.



All in all, a very good time, a party where I actually got to speak to everyone and felt like Lil had a great time.



This morning we awoke and Lily was very excited to wear a dress to school and bring a copy of one of her favorite songs "Aire de fiesta" to class for her party. On each child's birthday, his or her classroom photo goes on a big birthday poster, the class works together to decorate a paper crown and the child's dining chair, and there is singing, dancing and a balloon for each kid to take home. Although she looks a bit serious here,


she took off dancing as soon as the photo was over.


Side note: This morning after dropping Lily at school, the fog on Tibidabo was amazing:


When I got Lil from school, she was well happy, especially because of her paper crown and green balloon. She and I had a lovely afternoon together and when we got home,she got to open her presents from us (an elephant dining set), Matt (sticker book), and Oliver's Uncle Iain and Aunt Wendy (small squishy baby whose diaper you can change - a big plus in Lily's book).


After dinner, she, Oli and I meant to go on a bike ride, but the rain and a looooong game of Monster on the Bed held us up. To be honest, I think we all enjoyed that even more because it just sort of happened.

Thursday night we're off to the UK for the big Bear Hunt birthday party.