Sunday, March 27, 2011

First Birthday Party/Housewarming

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We threw a big first birthday party/housewarming on Saturday

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There was a great turnout of new friends, lots of kids and tons of food

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We rented a bouncy house at a friend's suggestion. An excellent decision; it was where the kids were 90% of the time

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The best part was, the bouncy house rental cost $300 Botswana pula for the whole day, which is the equivalent of U.S. $45 dollars! I told you things were cheap, cheap, cheap here!

We also bought a bubble machine from Target.com which was a complete hit with the kids. My ears are still ringing from the shrieks of laughter

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I have been planning this party since before we came to Botswana. Kind of funny to plan a party where you haven't yet met your guests. But it went really well, especially thanks to the built-in community I have through my workplace.

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One thing I'm glad we did: We took an evening after work and walked around hand-delivering invitations to our neighbors.

Well, mostly we handed invitations to their domestic staff who answered our buzz at their gate.

But several of the neighbors came, which was really fun to get to meet them and for them to mingle with a wider range of folks. I really regret not getting to know our neighbors better in BsAs, so here's to forming friendships with our Gaborone neighbors.

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I found the idea for the decorations online and relayed my vision to a co-worker's teen daughter, who spent the past week making all the beautiful tissue paper flowers.

She is incredibly artistic and came up with all kinds of creative ways to hang them, including adding little crystals I provided her.

I was actually running errands (including locating the ONE store in Gaborone that has helium for the balloons!) while she set everything up and I could not have done it better myself! She received many rave reviews during the party, and with her tissue paper flower-making skills, she is going to start making them to sell! (Don't worry, I paid her, too!)

Team Creative Genius: Mom made the cupcakes and daughter did the decorations
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I wish I could post some pics of all the adorable kiddos, but you will have to settle for a bunch of pics of my kiddo, the birthday girl!

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We opened this gift from Team Creative Genius after the other kids had left -- didn't want to start any fights!

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It's a bear!

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Hmmm ...

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She likes it!

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All in all a great dual-purpose party, birthday and housewarming.

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4 comments:

Daniela Swider said...

What a fun party. Happy birthday to Nile!

Love, love, love the decorations. Do you mind sharing the website where you saw instructions on how to make them?

Rosie Posie said...

Happy birthday, sweet Nile.

Melissa said...

The party looked awesome! I may have to do a half-birthday party for Adele some year. Indoor parties are lame.

modestmuse said...

Daniela, hope you are still interested in the site for the decoration ideas, I will post it in a separate post. And perhaps send it directly to you, just in case!

Thanks, Rosemay :) Miss you!

Melissa, I had a half-birthday party when I turned 8, it was great (I, too, am a Dec. birthday). We had it in July actually and I will always remember it. Definitely do that for Adele and for yourselves at least once!