It was to be held at Mummidalen (the outdoor wilderness area that belongs to the kindergarten...at least I think it belongs to them. They use it once a week and keep it in shape), and was to last two hours on Saturday afternoon, with "good food and fun play," and the kids were asked to dress according to the weather.
Leona was excited! I was unsure what kind of gift we should bring (what is normal in terms of price range), but luckily we had something we needed to do in Stryn on Friday, so we looked around and found a cool looking airplane that was filled with bath bubble soap, that was only NOK40 - a totally acceptable cost in our opinion, as anything over NOK60 would be a bit much for us for a kid we don't really have a relationship with.
If we hadn't found that, I had thought me and Leona could make a parking garage out of toilet paper rolls for him.
I went to drop her off at the party, and she looked a little forlorn, so I asked the birthday boy's mom if it was ok if I stayed, and she said 'of course!' All in all there were about 13 kids - about 9-10 of the kids from kindergarten (4 and 5 year olds) plus the three youngest refugee boys in the village (6, 7, and 8 years old), and then the birthday boy's older brothers and three cousins.
I was very pleasantly surprised with the chillaxidness of the whole thing. The mom had not planned any games - just that the kids would play freely as they wanted (and the kids are familiar with the place so they jumped right in), and the food was hot dogs in buns, with desert being cake-muffins without frosting, Cheetos, and non-stop chocolates (like smarties/M&Ms) and gummy-cars. And juice without any added sugar as the drink.
And that was it. Simple, the kids enjoyed the food, watching the birthday boy open the presents, and enjoyed playing (Leona didn't play too much, mostly hung out at the table and munched on the snacks after the meal was done), and I got to help the mom serve the food, snacks, and simple clean-up (she was the only adult there, besides me), which she also appreciated.
This was thus also my first official kids party as a mom. I think we'll hold off as long as possible before we jump into one of these of our own though, and just stick with close family going forward like we have in the past, as I am not much of an acquaintance party person. But the option of just simple like this party was at Mummidalen makes it doable at least.
[Leona is standing in front of the boat in the middle of the picture, beside her best friend...as in bestest...closest...in kindergarten, a girl who I think is her fourth cousin but I'm not positive - the birthday boy is her third cousin though~~]
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