Hannah had her birthday party two weeks ago: several friends (and their brothers/sisters) at Nairobi Art Center making and painting clocks, along with some gymnastics and games in the garden there.
Most birthday parties this age in Kenya (at least for well-off people) involve something like this. Leah's was similar (though with a bouncy castle). Others may have acrobatics displays (as happened yesterday at the birthday party of Hannah's best friend, Padme) or organised activities like playing drums. Of course there's some food provided depending on the time of the party, often including a BBQ as meat is eaten so much here, and there's a variety of different portable BBQs around. One was meant to cook a few pizzas in a vertical stack.
As with Leah, we went to the local Cake Shop down the road and ordered a cake, balancing the desire for pink icing (the soft icing is not as bad as hard icing) with the opportunity to have a cake that is actually nice (chocolate fudge). We encouraged Hannah's friends to give arty presents instead of toys, and now our living room looks more like an art studio there is so much stuff everywhere: some completed, some underway, and all the paints and other things around.
This year Hannah didn't have a breakdown during the games like she did last year, and managed to keep her calm well during the treasure hunt to show she is maturing. Incredible that she is six years old and ready for primary school. She enjoys writing though she can't spell yet so we need to help tell her what letters to write. Still some way to go with reading, but that will be next as the German system doesn't start that until primary school after they are six.
She's fine playing downstairs on her own and usually gets off the school bus and comes up on her own, though we're not yet ready for her to go alone to wait for the bus in the morning, where she might be waiting around and it's still quite dark that early.
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