Five Years with Kezia - Part I

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Kezia had her 5th birthday yesterday. This year, she really wanted to have a class birthday party, so before school let out in mid-November, we did a school party.

It happened to be when Eric and Michelle were visiting, so Michelle helped me buy all the stuff for the party. Carl was feeling a bit under the weather the day of the party, but I had him come along anyways to help. I knew that 19 5 year olds, yelling at me in Spanish, would be a tad overwhelming. I give a high five to all you elementary school teachers. Those kids are crazy and full of energy!!!

Kezia wanted to do a craft, so we made masks as the activity. Usually parents hire a clown or have some sort of entertainment, but we decided to do something different. We had a craft, and instead of a cake, I made trifle. I explained to the teachers it was a Canadian (European) thing and that it's red and white like our flag. They thought it was the neatest thing after sliced bread. I was quite pleased that it was such a hit - pudding, cake, and whipped cream.

Kezia felt so honored, with all the gifts and attention. The teachers had each of the kids pose with Kezia after she opened the gift. It was quite sweet and so I printed pictures and gave them to the kids a few days later as a thank-you from Kezia. She had quite the haul of Barbies and make-up. Yikes!

The piñata was of course the highlight and I made sure to fill it with plenty of hard-to-get-out-of-the-hair confetti. I'm sure the dye also runs, but I found it in a bag of left-over party stuff in my house, so it wasn't really all on me. :)

I have to admit, the thought of doing some class party was a bit intimidating. I wondered, since we were doing things different, how it would turn out. But I was pleasantly pleased how everything to the teachers and classmates was a novelty, from the foreign family! 5 year olds are definitely rambunctious, but in the end, it was all worth doing the party for Kezia. She couldn't stop smiling all day and talked about it for weeks.