Of course, we are not nearly old enough to have a thirteen year old daughter, so I don't know how this happened...believe what you will. Liz and some of her school friends gathered on a Friday night in mid-November to celebrate her birthday. Here are AJ, Liz, Justine, Sherou and Silke waiting for our ride. We were not happy that the night turned out to be rainy since we had planned to walk to the restaurant for dinner, but this turned out to be an advantage in the end. (you'll have to keep reading to find out why) Two of the moms offered to have their drivers run us over to Me & You 2--the outdoor restaurant/pub with a boardwalk and ocean view where we planned to eat. Good thing we had two vans offered to us since we had 10 people. The original plan was to eat pizza and then come back to our place to play games, etc...
We brought along the cake we had purchased earlier in the day, figuring it was easier to eat around a large table than to try to all fit around our small one.
Thankfully the cake ended up tasting pretty good. We were a little leery but decided that it was a must-have item, even if it didn't taste good! Notice the "happy birthday" in English and the pile of fruit--they insist on putting fruit on all cakes, sometimes even cherry tomatoes! We fought over the chocolate and white chocolate discs...they were yummy!
We also brought this bouquet of daisy-type flowers we had purchased from a little shop in our neighborhood. I was a bit nervous to try to negotiate ordering a bouquet with extremely limited language skills, but, once again, my pointing and nodding skills came in handy and we ended up with this nice arrangement for about $5! They have an ingenious way of wrapping the stems in a big sheet of thick plastic and securing it all with tape (and covering it with decorative paper) that precludes the need for a vase. The lady was an artist, I tell you.
Little did we know that Olf, the Swedish owner of the pub, and his wife had ordered TWO DOZEN roses for Liz! When we dropped in to tell him that we'd be coming with a party, just to make sure we had a table reserved, we did not have this in mind! He got on the mic (one of his favorite things to do) and announced that there was a new teenager in the house...don't remind us! It was very sweet. Then he told us that the band was going to be starting soon and that they would sing a birthday song for Liz. So we had to stick around for that and the girls were having fun so we didn't mind changing our plans a little. By the time the band came out and sang to her, it was past 7pm and other patrons were showing up but, since it was bad weather, the crowd was pretty sparse. Lucky for us because it meant more special attention for our group.
The band members came over, one by one, and stood on this little area, right by our table, and sang songs from the huge list the girls had made for them! Cordless mics helped make this work, even though I think they had a bit of a hard time timing their words to the music because of the distance. The girls were a little embarrassed at first but they warmed up quickly by singing along, loudly! Of course, the natural progression was for them to be invited onto the stage to sing with the band!
Wow! We never expected this kind of treatment...but they had a ball! We thanked the band and Olf profusely and his response was, "Hey, you want a party, I'll make you a party!" Not sure how we're going to top this in four years when Amanda turns 13!
Of course, we are not nearly old enough to have a thirteen year old daughter, so I don't know how this happened...believe what you will. Liz and some of her school friends gathered on a Friday night in mid-November to celebrate her birthday. Here are AJ, Liz, Justine, Sherou and Silke waiting for our ride. We were not happy that the night turned out to be rainy since we had planned to walk to the restaurant for dinner, but this turned out to be an advantage in the end. (you'll have to keep reading to find out why) Two of the moms offered to have their drivers run us over to Me & You 2--the outdoor restaurant/pub with a boardwalk and ocean view where we planned to eat. Good thing we had two vans offered to us since we had 10 people. The original plan was to eat pizza and then come back to our place to play games, etc...
We brought along the cake we had purchased earlier in the day, figuring it was easier to eat around a large table than to try to all fit around our small one. 
Thankfully the cake ended up tasting pretty good. We were a little leery but decided that it was a must-have item, even if it didn't taste good! Notice the "happy birthday" in English and the pile of fruit--they insist on putting fruit on all cakes, sometimes even cherry tomatoes! We fought over the chocolate and white chocolate discs...they were yummy!
We also brought this bouquet of daisy-type flowers we had purchased from a little shop in our neighborhood. I was a bit nervous to try to negotiate ordering a bouquet with extremely limited language skills, but, once again, my pointing and nodding skills came in handy and we ended up with this nice arrangement for about $5! They have an ingenious way of wrapping the stems in a big sheet of thick plastic and securing it all with tape (and covering it with decorative paper) that precludes the need for a vase. The lady was an artist, I tell you.
Little did we know that Olf, the Swedish owner of the pub, and his wife had ordered TWO DOZEN roses for Liz! When we dropped in to tell him that we'd be coming with a party, just to make sure we had a table reserved, we did not have this in mind! He got on the mic (one of his favorite things to do) and announced that there was a new teenager in the house...don't remind us! It was very sweet. Then he told us that the band was going to be starting soon and that they would sing a birthday song for Liz. So we had to stick around for that and the girls were having fun so we didn't mind changing our plans a little. By the time the band came out and sang to her, it was past 7pm and other patrons were showing up but, since it was bad weather, the crowd was pretty sparse. Lucky for us because it meant more special attention for our group.
The band members came over, one by one, and stood on this little area, right by our table, and sang songs from the huge list the girls had made for them! Cordless mics helped make this work, even though I think they had a bit of a hard time timing their words to the music because of the distance. The girls were a little embarrassed at first but they warmed up quickly by singing along, loudly! Of course, the natural progression was for them to be invited onto the stage to sing with the band!
Wow! We never expected this kind of treatment...but they had a ball! We thanked the band and Olf profusely and his response was, "Hey, you want a party, I'll make you a party!" Not sure how we're going to top this in four years when Amanda turns 13!
What a fun adventure for you! Happy day, Izzy-lay!! Love you lots!!
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