day 638 | september 15, 2012 | around the world with roo and red

party time! we hosted roo and red's joint party at home so we wouldn't have to worry about rain or haze levels. we would have loved to do it at the same place like last year, but figured that an indoor party might be able to serve the theme better.

the kids started their adventures by receiving a passport upon their arrival. armed with ink pads and a collection of letter rubber stamps, they could personalize their passports as well as their travel kit luggage tags. 

egypt was the first stop. there, they had to look for the hieroglyph characters of their name. once complete, they could spell it out by sticking each character on the wall, similar to how ancient egyptians carved their history onto their temples and palaces. 

next stop, france. initially, i intended for the little ones to create an eiffel tower using lolly sticks. after trying it out myself (peek at the tower sitting right under 'FRANCE'), i realized i needed to be more open-minded about what the kids would be happy and able to create. my eiffel tower ended up looking like a leaning tower of eiffel, with a well.

instead, we simply asked them to design and create their own tower, and they were very happy to do so. i think the rainbow colored sticks might have helped win over some cooperation. the little ones spent the most time in paris, with several of them coming back while were in 'transit.'

in japan, our resident 'sushi master' taught the kids how to roll a simple rice roll. it was sticky messy fun, but the kids loved it, and a few of them even came back for seconds and thirds! :) they brought home their sushi mats so they can make sushi for their mommies and daddies another time.

and they all ate the sushi they made!

last stop, brasil. there was some contention on the way i spelled it, and a couple of very smart boys highlighted that i spelled it using the portuguese way. these must be the footie fans!

the main message was on conservation and saving the endangered rainforest animals. we directed them to look for and rescue jungle animals in a simple scavenger hunt. several went around the house raiding our stuffed toy collection and giving me stuffed bears, dogs, and cats, before a few of them noticed the wooden decal jungle animals. :)

the little ones got to keep the 'animals' they rescued. stuck on our wall, these are the wooden decal animals that got left behind.

the kids collected stickers as immigration stamps, for every adventure completed; and you could see the how proud they were once they got all four stickers.

for our wrap-up, we asked the kids to stick little people onto our homemade world map to identify the places we went to. i wanted them to visualize how much of the world we've explored.

i had to rope roo in to identify tiny singapore. a few of them knew where japan, egypt, and france were, but struggled to pinpoint brazil. to help the kids along, we painted all the countries we visited in orange to make identification easier.

red slept through most of the party, but woke up in time for the candle-blowing and the eating!

... as well as playtime with some of her big sister's friends. red also managed to cuddle up to a couple of really cute babies!

after the party, roo got to open #3 gift on her birthday list. :) (i'm STILL hoping the barbie phase fades out soon...) thank goodness, birthdays only happen once a year. i think i need a year to recover my party-planning mojo again.

thanks to all the little ones, mommies, and daddies who took the time to celebrate with us. hope you had as much fun as we did! we loved throwing this party for you guys. our main goal was to give the kids a fun experience that will whet their appetites to explore, and to develop an awareness that there is a big, big world out there. i'd like to think we were fairly successful. :)

right now, i'm just soaking up roo and red's post-party high! :)

roo and red party series: