Jewel's & Canberra's Birthdays - 7th-9th Mar

Fun and sadness for Stanley. He's gotten to do some more fun things, but he is sad that his trip to Australia will be finishing soon.

Monday was a public holiday. It was Canberra Day - celebrating the day when Canberra was founded. Canberra is only 97 years old, so it's still very young for a city.  The kids didn't have to go to school, and Adam & Elissa didn't have to go to work.

On Monday, Jewel also had her 6th birthday party. She invited 9 of her friends from school over for the party. Jewel and her friends played a lot of similar games to Jayde. They played the Chocolate game, and Don't Eat Jewel. They also played Musical Statues and Pass The Parcel. Jewel got lots of nice presents, including another Barbie. Jewel has a big collection of Barbie dolls.  She also got given a CD with lullabies sung by the singer Jewel.

Stanley got to try some different party foods - one that he liked was called Fairy Bread. Fairy Bread is made by spreading butter on a piece of bread, cutting the bread into triangle shapes and then covering the bread in "Hundreds and Thousands". Stanley said that in America they don't have Hundreds and Thousands, but they have somthing similar called "Sprinkles" or "jimmies". Stanley thought the Fairy Bread was yummy.

Jewel's birthday cake was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The top part of her was a doll, but her dress was made out of cake. Stanley though that Belle the Cake was pretty. She told Stanley, that No, she couldn't go back to the USA with him ...

At the end of the party, they had a Piñata full of chocolates and lollies. The Piñata was shaped like a heart with pictures of the Disney Princesses on the front of it.

Something else that Stanley noticed that was different at Jayde and Jewel's Birthday parties was that after singing Happy Birthday, they then sang it again in a different language. Adam explained that the kids used to go to a different school. At that school, once a week they had a class learning about Japan, and they learnt some Japanese words. They even learnt how to sing Happy Birthday in Japanese. Since then, tt has become a tradition for Jayde, Seth and Jewel to sing Happy Birthday in both English and Japanese at their birthday parties. Most of the kids at the party didn't know it, as in the new scholl they are at, they don't have classes about Japan. They have classes about Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the countries near Australia. Stanley said that in America, the children sometimes learn some Spanish words, not Japanese or Indonesian words.

Stanley was thankful that he got to stay for Jayde and Jewel's birthday parties. Thank you Gabrielle!