My youngest turns 6.
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| The tea pot cake |
I'm a little behind here in publishing this post. On October 1st, my youngest daughter turned 6! Yes, my youngest is a sweet-natured, happy, friendly little lady. Her personality shines in everything she does! She's very social - has always been and enjoys coordinating everything!! I sometimes call her the "mayor" of our family, as she's very logistically oriented. She thinks about details that are often beyond her years and helps to organize all of us. She's a very special and spirited girl! (A little aside here, she reminded me each day for a week before her party, that I needed to clean off the dining room table & set up her party...she also checked with me that I had bought balloons, and decorations.)
For her celebration, she wanted a tea party. So last Saturday we hosted an afternoon of tea, crafts, games and of course, cake!! Her older sister told her that I had made a teapot cake years ago for her birthday, so of course she wanted one too. Since moving to France, I have hesitated making fancy cakes, mostly because I didn't know where to find certain special ingredients. But it's really hard to turn down, that sweet beautiful smile of my youngest, so I went on a mission to find fondant icing, and other decorations to add to her cake. All I can say is - Thank you - Cultura and Hema stores for providing just what I needed.
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| All dressed, table set...not it's time to dance and wait for friends to arrive! |
So at 2:30 in the afternoon, eight girls arrived for an afternoon tea party. Apparently, children's tea parties are a different concept for French birthdays. Yes, there are "Salons du the" or Tea rooms at cafes - and tea seems more popular here than I know it once was - but at this point, it's an adult beverage. That's okay, I love the fact that we can share new traditions or themes with friends here. All part of learning about other cultures.
I chose not to go too over the top with high tea and finger foods. We did set a very nice table, included tea choices, china cups, little cookies, candies and of course, the cake!
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| Ready for Tea |
But before all of that - there were games to play, and crafts to complete. Unfortunately it was raining this particular afternoon - so all of our games were inside.
Musical chairs...
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| Indoor musical chairs |
When the girls got "out", they got to help choose music.
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| Always fun to dance to the music |
Then there was "hot potato"...with a stuffed rabbit.
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| Hot Potato game...turned into a giant friend hug! |
and finally - the girls had fun gluing mosaic glass beads and tiles onto mini-frames.
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| Always fun to be creative |
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| I love the free-form and creativity they all showed. |
Then it was Tea time. The girls all sat down and we talked about tea and how it's an important drink to the British. We also explained that Americans enjoy it too. We shared that tea time is in the middle of the afternoon (for French kids it's the same time as "gouter" or afternoon snack) and how long time ago, women and girls use to dress up to enjoy a nice conversation and tea among family and friends. It was always a very nice and special time. One of my daughter's friends, told us that she knew that tea was the National drink of England. They all tried different kinds - mixed reviews - but they all had fun.
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| Trying tea and waiting for cake |
My husband brought the cake out for my youngest and we sang happy birthday in not one, or two but three languages! First in French, then in English and spontaneously, the girl's sang in Spanish too! Apparently, it's a bit of a tradition around here for kids to sing to other kids in all three languages!
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| Love the faces! So sweet! |
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| And we blow.... |
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She really did blow them all out the first time
...but I put magic candles on the cake...so she enjoyed blowing out several times! |
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| Enjoying tea and cake |
And of course, after tea, it was time for presents!!
Yes, my sweet wonderful 6 year old enjoyed celebrating her birthday with her friends!
It truly felt like we celebrated her birthday for a couple of weeks. Since her true birthday was October 1st. - on that day we enjoyed a small family celebration of a special dessert.
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| Creme filled Almond paste animals, eclairs and a strawberry macaroon |
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| So excited to blow out candles on her true birthday |
She also enjoyed her gift of a house for her barbies! Yes, that fun age where barbie dolls are cool! Even her sisters had lots of fun helping her set it up and they all played together! Love those sister moments!
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| Thumbs up for her gift - that was after the hugs and kisses! |
Joyeux Anniversaire to my beautiful sweet spirited young lady! She charms everyone with her contagious smile and is always in a great mood! She's learning to read this year and enjoys school, her friends and dance. She has just started tennis and is enjoying that too. My special wish for her this year is that she continues to just be herself - caring, loving and joyful! Happy 6th birthday - my darling!
