Children's Birthdays

My host dad recently said to me that in life the most stressful thing when you have children are the kids birthday parties. Will they be enough fun? Will there be lots of meltdowns? Will it be too long? Too short? I had my first experience planning a child's birthday this past week when I was given 3 days notice on planning a birthday for little J who had just turned 5. 3 DAYS. If I had more time I think I could have pulled off much more but maybe only 3 days was for the best? I reached back into my memories of my own birthdays and pulled out some fool proof ways that the kids could have fun. First off? TREASURE HUNT. Everyone loves a good treasure hunt.  H (my host mom) and I planned the treasure hunt to go for about 45 minutes through the neighborhood including a stop at a playground and some forest area for the kids to run around in (we apparently did not need the forest area for running around as kids were sprinting between clues!) They ended up finding their goody bags and some sequins to put on their craft. oh yes, the craft.

We decided to make masks for the birthday. H bought some feathers, sequinsy things, colored pencils, and glitter (because you can't have a girls birthday without it!) The kids ended up each making a mask which they wanted to spend more time than we were able making sure it had just the right amount of glitter (read: dripping off the mask) feathers surrounding it and little sequins everywhere. Julia and Mimi are still making masks even days after the party, clearly should have thought of this earlier in the year!

Overall? The party was a success! My cake was well received by the kinder (luckily!), and they all seemed to have had a good time.  Not too stressful, no meltdowns, and no accidents. And another thing to add to my resume. Birthday planning MASTER. (Just kidding!)

Perspective on slowing down

I have officially been here 2 months. I never EVER thought I would be doing this. Living the slow life. My friends here who are au pairs talk a lot about how this is our life (whether negative: i.e. I can't believe that I have to take care of THESE kids, or positive: I can't believe that I only have to take care of these kids! you see?) Our greatest worry is where our next trip will be or what time the last train is before we can't get home anymore.
I am generally working 30-35 hours a week. Not even a full time job. The rest of my time? I have spent wandering the city, drinking LOTS of coffee and tea, reading (I have read about 10 books since I have been here. It has been GLORIOUS. So glorious I am looking into getting a Kindle to enable my addiction. All book suggestions are welcome!), watching entirely too much online tv to get my American culture, and doing a little singing here and there (More on that in a later post) It's crazy to think that my life for the next 10 months will consist of me learning German and teaching kids songs I learned in Elementary school (Miss Mary Mack, anyone? Miss Suzy had a Steamboat?) as well as English.
Really it's time to explore Europe, which I hope to fully take advantage of. We'll see where I get to. I have made a list of places I want to head to before I leave (a very long list which I will spare you of.) I am currently planning a trip to Salzburg with a couple of other au pairs (Sound of Music tour!) and perhaps a trip back to Milan at the end of November.
The weirdest thing for me thus far has been not being constantly busy between 8am and midnight every day. No homework, no outside activities (until recently!). It's all a little strange!
More to update later this week about what I have been up to.