7th Birthday Bash

Police Party!

For the boy who loves everything "police" and wants to be a police helicopter pilot when he grows up, his 7th birthday party was almost too good to be true.  This was the first year he has had a kid party, and he did a great job thinking through whom to invite and helping me create the different activities.  He even helped bake his cake.

I found a great, cheap, police party kit on Amazon, and it even had helicopters, which isn't as easy to find as one would think.  The police balloons were a special treat.  Nathanael helped make jails for the crooks and draw bad-guy faces on the crooks (Easter eggs).  He filled the crooks with the stolen chocolate coins, and he helped me come up with fun ideas for the party favor bags (sticky notes to use as tickets, a clip-on pen, a mini flashlight, and of course, a few coin-filled crooks each).

I discovered an awesome book --  Officer Buckle and Gloria -- and ordered it in time for the party.  Gregory read it to the kids while I prepared lunch.  They were enthralled with it!

The kids made police caps and colored their badges.

It was a fun day.

The best and biggest surprise for Nathanael was the gift we bought him along with both sets of his grandparents -- the police station Lego set for which he'd been saving his money for four months already!  He was almost speechless!

Easter in Neutal

We had hoped to have Opa and Oma visit us at Easter, but when it didn't work out this year, we decided to use the days we had kept free to book a last-minute family get-away.  We spent three nights and four days at a family hotel an hour away in the area of Austria called Burgenland.  Despite some rain and chilly mornings and evenings, we spent most of our days exploring and playing outdoors, relaxing, and enjoying delicious Austrian food.  It was a much needed retreat for us after a couple difficult months.

Nathanael's Theatre Workshop

As promised, though now almost two months late, below are the best pictures I managed to take from Nathanael's Theatre Workshop.  One of my favorite outcomes to these four days, other than how much he learned about theatre and the experience of performing in front of others, is that he and Eva now like to put on mini theatre shows for us in the evenings.  They come up with a story-line (which is either really basic or too complex to follow) and prepare the props and set and set up flashlights as spotlights and chairs for us and call us in to watch.  They take their bows at the end as well.  It makes me smile.

Sportfest / Field Day

Field Day in Austria is a bit different from that in the States.  They had semi-organized stations with different activities (long jump, volleyball, field hockey, running, sand play, etc.), but it was all simply open for the kids to do as they wished, when they wished, with no real competitions or ribbons.  It was a great fit for Nathanael, but it was definitely a surprise.  I had prepped him in the morning for the element of competition, helping him think through how to be a good sport.  Totally unnecessary for the day.