You only turn 7 … twice ?

Two weeks after the actual birthday, we finally had the long scheduled party…  First E was sick, then there was an out of the ordinary stake conference (where the first stake president was released and a new one was called--a first for Moscow).

So, E had our good American friends over, with their 4 children under ten, then another American friend bringing the daughter who had invited E to her party in the fall so of course we invited her.  One of our Russian family friends was supposed to come but their kids got sick.  And a friend E made in her after school class, Aurora, also came with her grandmother.

Here is the birthday lunch, spaghetti and meatballs, by request from the "birthday girl" -- "imenitsa" in Russian.

 E tried having a My Little Pony themed party, with stuff printed out from the internet.  Coloring pages, pin the tail on the horse, playing trains, the usual kid stuff.  Some of the kids liked the activities:

And some just wanted to play with someone else's toys (which are always more interesting than your own toys):

The one "different" thing we tried was a pinyata.  It was a mess to make, and looked stupid, since all we did was papier mache over a balloon. In addition to candies, there were also little tiny plastic animals that fell out. The other Americans thought it was fun to, but it was very bizarre for the little Russian girl.  (They had never seen something like this, and our explanation that it was something from Mexico didn't help either.)

Of course then there was the requisite cake and ice cream.  Parent-photographers out there will understand when we explain that trying to get a decent picture of a kid actually blowing out the candles is pretty much impossible, by the time you turn out the lights for the candles and have a dozen moving children around a table.  This photo is when all the kids watched the candles re-light themselves after E blew them out.

E's friend Kate (also American) gave E the wig her mom had made her for the previous halloween. E loves this movie and still enjoys dress up now and then (despite being a "big kid").

This is E sitting in one of her favorite gifts (a soft stuffed chair, which she uses for a reading chair), with her Russian friend giving her gifts to E).

Note please the contrast between Aurora's hair and clothes and E's.  This about sums up the difference between kids in US and kids in Russia.  In Russia, all the girls always have their hair done super nice and always dress up fancy for a birthday party.

And of course, the party was a big success for the smallest one, who grabbed lots of cake while no one was looking…

We forgot to take a posed photo with all our guests before they left.  This is a few of them:

So, now E is "officially" seven.  :-)