Colin turns Seven

Colin turned 7 this week and with a bang!



Hello. I am 7! (he wanted to wear the tie)



We had 21 of his friends at Antwerp Bowling for an afternoon of bowling and play in their indoor playground. When I planned this, I really wasn't sure how long the kids would be interested in bowling, so I only booked the lanes for an hour. I expected only some of the kids to bowl for a while and then wander off into the indoor play area. I was completely wrong. EVERY kid bowled (except Chloe) for just about the entire time we had the lanes. It was a bit chaotic at times (think, fitting 21 kids in bowling shoes with European sizes), but thankfully many of the parents stayed and lended a hand. It was fun and there were definitely a few star bowlers in the group.

On Monday, to celebrate his birthday, be brought a batch of cupcakes to school and later that afternoon, a batch of cupcakes to basketball. Luckily, I am armed with several boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix because the cakes and cupcakes that we are used to are not a normal thing around here. I did not bring any tubs of frosting over with me, so I have to make several batches by hand. Frosting is one of those items that I would have never thought of making from scratch. That is just one example of some of the regular conveniences that I have become so accustomed to that I needed to figure out since living here.[Insert stupid American joke here].

In my opinion, one of the best things about bithday parties at this age, is the hand drawn and written birthday cards. Just about all of this kids write out a birthday message or at least sign there names. Some were even nice enough to drawn Colin pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Lillianne's card was written backwards.

So cute. From Edie.

The Front, in the bowling theme.

The Back, not sure if that is Colin or Dracula. From Veer.

A nice dinosaur from Sofie.

Rockin' out. From Martta.

My favorite. Lauren claims that Colin is the coolest kid in the class from America. I am not sure if that is really saying a lot since there are only 3 kids from America in the class and Lauren is one of them.

Happy Birthday Colin!