So, these crazy Germans, they like to get their celebrations all lumped in together. Right after Easter, we were confronted with not just Mother's day (as per the rest of the world) but then 2 weeks later came Father's day! For me, I truly love celebrating these two days because I believe that the things mums and dads do for their kids are immeasurable and that they are rarely given the opportunity to revel in this special title bestowed upon them. I sincerely take great joy in seeing the look on the mum's faces as they are treated to a day of relaxing and love from their little one, or the giant smile on the dad's faces as they get to relive their childhood with their child.
In Australia, this was simple. Mum's were celebrated in May, Dads in September. Plenty of time to make both feel special independent of the other. Not here. Because the two days were sooooo close, most of the groups in my kindergarten all decided to celebrate their parents together, with an afternoon tea picnic. But not me, not my Tigers. Of course I had to go all out. Not only did we celebrate Muttertag and Vatertag separately, we did both in style. No simple little tea parties for us.
I might add though that as always, photos are only of the decorations and such. I wish I could include kids and their parents as they were just so darn cute! Specially at Father's day, but of course, privacy policy...
First, I should give a couple of photos from our Easter celebrations. This was an amazing wonderful day with most of our families attending and while it was just the gathering of families for a morning tea, we still gave a few special touches to make the Turnhalle (gym) look like a beautiful Easter party venue.
The Tiger Teachers were all given an Easter Gift Basket. It was a lovely treat!
We finished the day with an egg and spoon race, but when my colleague (and GBF) were made to race against each other, we were made to race backwards. This was the result - an awful lot of bum bumping. I also ran into my group leader when I got to the finish line and pinned her to the wall....
So, on to Muttertag!
Now, I wasn't completely silly, I did sneakily recycle an idea from my Australian classroom that has worked successfully. But the trouble here was that I didn't know of any TV shows about cooking. In the past I have used Masterchef or My Kitchen Rules to base the idea around, so asking my colleagues, I discovered 'Perfekte Dinner'. And thus, "Tiger's Perfektes Dinner" was born.
The invitation!
This was the Tigers Perfeketes Dinner Restaurant!
The Children made special 3D artwork for the restaurant!
On the day of the event, the mums arrived to find they were not allowed to go into the Tiger room (which had been transformed into the Tiger's Perfektes Dinner restaurant) but rather had to report to the Turnhalle. This time the gym had been turned into a kitchen, and there were 5 different work stations. Together, the mums and their children cooked up a storm, and when the food was ready, the children led their mums to the restaurant.Once seated at their tables (by our lovely waitress) the children then came out of the room to prepare to serve their mums. On went their special designed kochmutze (chef hats) and then they collected the first course for their mums. We made our way through the 5 courses, starting with Lady Bug Appetisers, iPod Sandwiches, Mini Quiches, then finishing with Mars Bar Balls and Apple Pie Bites.
There wasn't a single morsel left at the end of the party! Then the mums were treated to their present. This was a cookbook we had put together (each mum had contributed a recipe) and a bookmark from their child. All the mums were so impressed with the effort, detail and ideas that had gone into the whole event. They said that the cook book was such a useful present, and that they had such amazing memories from the day. At one point we insisted that the mums stop trying to clean, that it was their day to be treated. Many of them found this a difficult thing to do! One mum even cried when she saw her present. I might add, being a bi-lingual kindergarten, we also had made the cookbook in two languages. We have a mixture of parents, some speaking English, some German, so we made the extra effort to design and translate two versions.So at the end, a huge success, and every mum continued for the next week to talk about it! I must add too that on the morning of the party, I walked into the restaurant to find not just my boss, but the big boss, owner of all the Wichtel Akademies in my room, observing all our efforts, wearing one of the kids chef hats! He was super impressed which left me feeling super chuffed!
But of course, as soon as Mother's day was over, I had only 2 weeks in which to prepare for Father's day. Oh dear, what had I gotten myself into! We had decided to go Superhero theme! This meant box buildings. Lots of them! I think my cleaners just about had it with me by the time the party actually happened as they were unable to clean my room properly for two weeks just because of the box buildings!
So to keep in brief, the Superhero Party was held again in the Turnhalle. Again, it had been transformed. This time, into Gotham City! We made a Super Hero training course, starting with a Telephone changing booth (for the complete superhero transformation). Then dads and kids had to fly through a burning building, climb through Spiderman's web, crawl through Kryptonite Cave, bowl over all the Super Villains with their bowlingball of power, throw bean bags at the Superhero Sound Effect box, then rescue our pet Fredoling by using super strength to lift the cage!
Bomb Cakes & Kryptonite Wacklepudding (jelly)
Bowl over the Super Villains
I feel the need to mention at this point the costuming. Of course, what Superhero party is complete without awesome costumes? I myself turned up as Clark Kent, but it wasn't long until I revealed my true identity (by going through the Telephone Changing booth of course!). My colleague Naiyana came as Bat Woman. Almost all of the dads got involved in some way. Some only wore a mask or a t-shirt but some got right into full costume. I had one dad completely kitted out as Superman - which was hilariously ironic when we caught him digging into the Kryptonite Wacklepudding (Jelly). Another came as Batman, and one dad completely matched his son because mum had created a new Superhero and designed matching shirts for her boys! They were Papa Dino and Baby Dino Superheros!
To top all this off, there was a Superhero photo booth where I took flying photos of the children with their dad, plenty of Superhero foods to devour including Super Bananas, and then to finish off, a Bobbie Car race down the hall of the Kindergarten.... Dad vs Dad! This was the highlight of the party. We could have just said dad vs their own child, but then where's the fun in that? What dad would have actively tried to beat their own flesh and blood? The laughs started from the moment the first two dads took their position at the starting line, perched on their tiny Bobbie Car. One dad had a serious look on his face and a lolly pop sticking out of his mouth. His opponent (also his best mate) was throwing sneaky glances in his direction.... As my colleague Cassandra screamed 'GO!' the two dads started to move, slowly at first because as it turned out, socks didn't give the best grip on our lino floors!
The races got faster, and more competitive. One dad used the radiator on the wall to help pull himself along when he got stuck. My Australian dad got really competitive and as the dad he was racing against reached the finish line, he grabbed the back of his t-shirt and pulled him off his bobbie car! Then it was my turn. I was to go against my group leader Naiyana. We managed to tie, just. I nearly had to employ the same techniques as my Australian friend! When it came to technique though, it was interesting to note how the different techniques worked. Some when for the double footed push, others went for the crazy spider move! If I could upload the video I would because it was simply hilarious!
With the party drawing to an end, we went back to the turnhalle where the children gave their dad's a present. This was a cup (Pokal) that had a super dad or super papa logo on it, and inside was a chocolate bar and some tic tacs. But these were no ordinary sweets. The dads either got a Super Strength bar, or a Super Elasticity bar, and the tic tacs were either Invisibility Pills, Growing and Shrinking Capsules, or X-Ray Vision vitamins!So after promising to keep this short, I feel like I have blabbed for ages. But it was an awful lot of fun! For me, it was so good to celebrate these two events separately and I think the dads felt special having their own day. Having said that, next year I might re-consider just how much effort I go to. I want Australian dates back. 5 months between the two is good, not two weeks!
Ok, so now that is all said and done, I promise the next blog will be back to travel fun. In two days we leave on an exciting adventure to Portugal and Spain! 10 days away - I don't know how I will cope! It will be the longest holiday we have had here! Can't wait! It is well deserved too I think as in between these three big events, I've also handed in 2 masters assignments! I'm a little exhausted - but so happy!
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