Good old-fashioned fun and games 2 comments
Well, we survived our first birthday party in France!
It was a blisteringly hot day and we were very concerned that the kids would all get collapse under the heat, so we erected the gazebo and the parasol on the field to provide some shade. We filled the cool bag up 
with lots of bottles of cold water and planned games that were not too energetic.
Yes, thats right, games. I know Molly was 11 and, had she been in England, the idea of organising party games would have been laughed at. But here it’s the done thing, and how nice it is too. There’s none of the competition that there was in England about who can provide the most spectacular party, with the most incredible activities and the most wonderful party bags. Here there is just the child, their friends and some good old fashioned games. Throw in a bit of cake and brioche to keep their energy levels up and you’re good to go.
So we got sorted out for some of our favourite old party games, including:
- Drawing a person by folding the paper into 4, someone draws the head, then passes it on to the next person to draw the body…and so on
- The balloon race – stand in a line and pass the balloon alternately over your head & between your legs. First team to go through the line 5 times wins
- Carry a penny between your knees and try to drop it in a bowl. First team to get all their pennies in the bowl wins
- Spoon & string – tie a spoon to a length of string. The first person passes the spoon down inside their clothes, then the next passes it up inside theirs, then the next one down and so on. First team to get the spoon all the way through wins. Then another race to see who can pull the string back again the fastest.
- The chocolate game – roll a die, if you get a 6 you have to put on a hat, scarf and gloves and start eating a big bar of chocolate with a knife and fork. Meanwhile the die is still being passed round so if someone else gets a 6 they immediately take over. Much fun with this one as everyone is desperate to start eating the chocolate so, when they get a 6 they jump up and start donning the gear, only to have to give it up before they start eating as the next person has rolled a 6!
We also came up with a little anglo-french game which involved the kids being given an english word, then having to go find all the letters, which were hanging from the trees in the garden, to spell the same word in french. This worked well until we found that the wind had blown some letters away, and we had spelt one of the french words wrong. But hey ho, it kept them amused for a while!
In between games they were all content to eat, drink and jump on the trampoline. It was so hot that they didn’t really want to charge about too much, which was nice, as neither did we.
Molly really impressed us with her spoken french. We haven’t really heard her speak very much french, so it was lovely to hear her explaining the rules of the games to her friends in a super french accent. Very impressive and quite reassuring – we were beginning to think that she was having difficulties with it, but clearly not.
If there was one problem then I think it was that the party was a fraction too long. If it had been half an hour shorter I think it would have been perfect. We just felt it took a bit of a dip at the mid-point, although that may well have been due to the heat.
After everyone had left, our friends took pity on us once again and invited us for drinks, eats and a dip in their pool. A very welcome end to a great day.
