This November Angelina turned 7 and Madelyn turned 6. It is so hard to believe. One of the things that I had to contend with was the birthday party situation here in Oman. Our first party to attend was this HUGE thing...face painting, huge party gifts, elaborate gift bags, 2 pinatas, a meal for the children, a meal for the parents, activities, balloons and the list goes on and on. It was HUGE. And I'm sitting there as a mother of 2 girls in attendance thinking "wow...I can't compete with this, they are going to think their birthdays stink...even though I have all of the time in the world to coordinate something like this, I don't even know where to begin or bring myself to actually pay for it when I do find it." I was feeling like a totally terrible mom, and then I got back to my old self and thought how stupid it is to let myself get caught up in what is so clearly a competition for these mothers. The who-can-throw-the-best-birthday party competition. And I got angry. That isn't what birthdays are supposed to be about. And I would NOT get caught up in the trap. The girls were invited to a few more parties all with the same things happening. And then one was invited to Cafe Ceramique. And they just had such a wonderful time...that when they asked for their birthdays to be there...I just couldn't deny them. This wasn't about being the best mom or competing...this was having the opportunity to fulfill my little girls birthday dreams. The prices were reasonable as well. Everything was included...meals, popcorn, cookies, ice cream, hot dogs, ceramiques to paint, sand art, games, balloons, hosts and cleanup. Because trust me, you don't want to be cleaning up sand...and I didn't want pain, sand and 20 kids in my house. It worked out perfect - and even though it might have seemed like it, this was not a mom competition - this was simply loving my little girls (and not having to clean it all up when it was done!)
I did have to provide the birthday cake. I made cupcakes. My husband came home when I was decorating them and wrapped his arms around me and said "look at my wife, all domesticated." It was enough to make me feel guilty. The cupcakes were cake mixes and the icing came out of cans that I scooped into the icing bags and then put on it...nothing domestic about it. All short cuts. I did put together the goody bags myself though. I just smiled though and took credit anyway.
the chicken or duck dance...I can't remember which
the paper dance game
Angelina's birthday party
and cupcake mound
Madelyn blowing out her candles...that is a glitter butterfly on her face that she immediately started wiping off...so it is smeared. She loved it though.
Just so you know...it was really neat how they did the birthday song. They sang happy birthday in every language that was represented - this got to be very long...but put perspective on how even though we are from different places, we all experience growth and age progression in a similar fashion.
2 comments:
That looks like it was a lot of fun.
I know the chicken dance, is there really a duck dance?
Your cupcakes look really good too, very creative with the icing bag :D
Some mom's have gone crazy the way they plan their kids' parties. I'm not talking about just birthday parties because nowadays they use any excuse to throw a huge party for their kids. My 3 and a half year old son keeps getting invited to parties for the wackiest of occasions. There was a KG graduation party last year. Last month he was invited to a massive Halloween party and next week he's invited to a no-occasion party, some mom is throwing a bash for her kids and their friends for no reason at all. It's just moms trying to out do one another.
For my son's birthday which fell in the summer, we bought a bunch of blow up pools, filled them with water and invited all his friends for a swim. They had more fun than some of the other parties which had probably cost more than a couple thousand rials.
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