November 1, 2011 by Sarah
This past week we celebrated Sadie’s 7th birthday. Being new to Moscow we weren’t sure of how it would all go down. After all, we have only been here for about a month and a half and at the time of planning her special day we knew very few people, didn’t know if we would have our big shipment, or for that matter if our house would be filled with boxes of stuff from home.
So we asked ourselves: who do we invite? where do we do a party? and with what supplies? I had bought a few things before leaving the States: cupcake papers (but I had no cupcake pan yet, or whisk for that matter), cute birthday plates and napkins and a number 7 candle. But that was hardly enough to do a proper party. Especially for a girl who is accustomed to jumpies (aka moonwalks) and handmade rainbow butterfly pinatas and such.
After a little convo we decided to do a marshmallow roast on the green, which is a large grassy field near the playground on compound. We sent out the notice/invitation in the weekly newsletter inviting all the kids at the embassy to celebrate with us. We arranged to get some wood from our neighbors. I bought some balloons at Auchan and the older kids had a fun time blowing them up the night before her big day. Then we attached the balloons to a long strip of tulle with pink yarn, both of which had been sent with our air shipment. Mom sent some jumbo marshmallows; Amazon provided some roasting sticks and before long we had a party going on!
Before we arrived in Moscow we learned that we would be within walking distance to the zoo so Sadie said she wanted to go there on her birthday, and you know Sadie– if she says it, she sticks with it. Travis took the day off from work and we celebrated our little Sadie throughout the day.
We started with a birthday banana bread served with cinnamon-apple topping. Next up was opening presents, which we had been displaying for her in our otherwise-empty china cabinet. It was a little unfair for Sadie, because it looked like she had twice as many presents as she actually did, due to the fact that the back of the display area is mirrored. She got over her disappointment when she opened her tutu skirt. And her smile grew larger when she saw that we included a matching skirt for baby sister Helen. Hey, I am a big sister and I know the joys of matching with your baby sister don’t last forever.
After bundling up for the 34 degree weather we went to the zoo. We saw a polar bear (he panted as if he were hot, but maybe they always do that?), a white tiger and a snowy owl. The monkey house there is enclosed, which gave us a nice opportunity to warm up.
After the zoo we lunched at a cafe chained called “My-My,” pronounced moo-moo. It’s the kind of place where you walk through the line, pointing to what you want. It seemed ideal for us, being beginners at Russian. At the salad station we all did fine: beet salad, chicken and pineapple salad, bean salad. Then came the meats. I pointed to something that looked like a pork cutlet. The guy seemed incredulous that I would order it. I insisted. Turns out I should have heeded his hinting that I, an American, would not order that item. I looked down and saw what was unmistakably a tongue.
Sadie pointed to something that looked like a ground beef patty. At the table we tasted what was unmistakably liver. It actually tasted fine and we didn’t make a stink over it, so she ate most of it. I had a few bites, since I couldn’t bring myself to eat the tongue and switched with Travis.
Travis had ordered something that looked like chicken. Turns out it was a chicken-shaped patty of some kind of meat (maybe chicken?) and veggies wrapped around a chicken drumstick bone to make it more authentic. It was the tastiest of the oddball lunch.
We decided we should only eat out at restaurants that are sit-down style and we should really bring a dictionary with us. Whew!
Back at home, we had just enough time to get a good fire going before the little kids were out of preschool and the big kids started to arrive off the buses. The marshmallow roast was a great idea, and a superb time was had by all, both big and small. Well, Helen started melting down as the fire was roaring but I think it had something to do with the fact that it felt pretty cold outside, she had only had a short nap on my back and she was d-o-n-e, done.
I can hardly believe Sadie is 7. As I watched her throughout the day, all I could think about was how much growing up she has done this past year. She is a brave, confident girl who is smart and has a heart of gold.
A few nights before her actual birthday, Sadie and I went to the ballet at the Kremlin Palace Theatre. While the ballet itself left a little to be desired, the experience and time together was priceless and felt like an ushering of Sadie into official Big-Girl-World. Happy Birthday, Sadie!
