C’s 3rd Birthday Party

We had a little get together of our friends to celebrate C’s birthday. The food was inspired by our trip to Spain: paella, tortilla, pan amb tamoquet, olives and pepinillos we brought back with us, a nice salad, and of course sangria (normal and virgin varieties).

C had a lot of fun playing with his adult friends. He played with the car that Chris and Anne Lise gave him, and everyone had fun with the cranked music box thing. We juggled and played catch, also. Anything is a fun party game with sangria!

Chris M. (aka Chris Beer) and Anne Lise also got a present for Ruby, the book Tassen på Ferie. For those familiar with children’s books, that’s Spot.

That box is a big car that has a gear stick (a little plastic stick with teeth, or grooves, that you put into a special part in the car, then pull it out to wind up the motor of the car) to make it go. The second present is a Norwegian children’s book, apparently a classic: Karl og Baktus about two bacteria growing in a boy’s mouth, and their struggle to survive a dentist visit, among other adventures.

Johannes’s gift was a little device which plays music when you turn a crank. The crank turns a cylinder that has little bumps on it, and the bumps pluck metal rods that make the tones. The tune was “Singing in the Rain”. C loved it immediately. Then Johannes showed him that half of the fun is putting the music box on different surfaces (tables, floors, doors, etc) to see how the sound resonates.

Johannes is trying to see how the music box resonates on his forehead.

C seems mesmerized by the cake and candles while we sing Happy Birthday.

This will be a fine birthday-party-Sunday-Picture. Johannes, Ruby, and C are played catch with a bouncy ball (it was out of frame at that moment). We spent this last week settling back into our home routines, and planning C’s birthday party (the second one this year! lucky guy). It’s been fun having Lauren around, and she’s just getting settled into the expat thing. We hope she likes it!

It was so nice to have a quiet little get-together with a few friends. C loved playing with the balls with Johannes.