Family Overseas Adventures: Sticking with Tradition

Word is, when you move overseas, you're supposed to keep as many traditions & special celebrations intact as possible. I kind of blew that one last Christmas (trying to pass 3 silver sparkly decorations off as our Christmas Tree), so for Xavier's 7th birthday today we went traditional.....3 key steps:

1) Breakfast in Bed
Started the day with breakfast & a present in bed.....

I can't remember when we started this tradition, but I am fairly certain we must have initiated this when someone's big day was NOT a weekday.

Tonight Quincy explained that it wasn't that Xavier was not excited about his present - it was just that he was still half asleep....

....after a sugary breakfast - he did perk up to build a space ship before school

(Yes - this is what you too would look like if you had 2 cinnamon twists for breakfast)

2) Celebrate at School

He celebrated in his class & brought in brownies

Just like at home except no pesky food allergies to worry about (maybe it's true about the US being over antibacterial soaped - sure don't see much of that here)

3) Home Birthday party

We had a party at home after school. One of the great things about our little school is its flexibility. The kids' school bus brought 7 extra kids to our house for the party.

We kicked off with some of Xavier's favorite snacks (watermelon, pretzels, Baby bell cheese)

While enjoying some half screw around on the grass half tag

Then moved onto a birthday party scavenger hunt.....(we've done these for the past 3 years for Quincy's birthday - think a cross between Amazing Race & Animal House)

....given I'd spent the entire day preparing, I might have been the most eager one to start

The kids enjoyed hunting for candy, tossing bean bags, swimming & painting mugs...

But, most noteworthy was the Lego station....

Not that we needed another reason to LOVE Lego in this household - but seriously - we had 12 boys aged 7-10 totally concentrating and captivated for a FULL 30 MINUTES!

It was like a weird scene from the Twilight Zone

Meanwhile, the 2 girls (Zoe and her BFF Leah) opted out & enjoyed their own girl party....

And of course we had a cake. Xavier requested a Lego cake. I said "Great - what color block do you want?"

But, no....he wanted a Lego GUY cake! I asked him to bring me some of his favorite guys that would be easy to make & we could pick the easiest among them. Here's what he considers easy to make.....