MacLean Family Blog: Dawson's 4th Birthday...Malian Style

So normally, we don’t do much for birthdays. Just our family and two ladies here who are like family have a party. Presents (sent by grandma), dinner of the kid’s choice (or when younger what I thought was their favorite), cake and ice cream. That’s it. Well, for D’s day this year, we had the awesome blessing to have grandma actually here What better gift is there really? But to add to that, our friends the McCabes were also in town. They have three kids (5, almost 3, and 4 mos) but live in the capitol, 5 hrs away. So it is a great treat whenever they are around. So since grandma AND the McCabes were here, we decided we must go all out and have a party. And go all out we did….but mind you, it was in Mali so the ability to “go all out” is limited here.Dawson is in a stage where he LOVES superheroes. Any superhero, Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Superman, Spiderman, Mr. Incredible, WordGirl, Bibleman, you name it, he’ll love it. (But please, don’t ever tell him of a new hero, there are enough alter egos flying around here). They are always fighting someone- Joker, Penguin, Dr. Two Brains, Tobey, Slacker, Cheater, Kenan, Janybody. Dawson is most often Batman, I am Robin and Kenan is Batgirl…I’ve tried and tried to be batgirl and let Kenan be Robin, but to no avail. Thankfully, grandma brought out Superman outfits so now Kenan can be Superman and doesn’t have to be a girl. J But alas, I digress from the birthday party… so since D is in love with superheroes, there was no question to the theme of the party. We all dressed up…Dawson was Batman (as was Ella), Kenan and Silas were Superman, Aiden preferred no costume, I was Robin, Grandma a super tree (yes, a tree. Still have NO idea where that comes from but if Dawson sees a picture he talks of grandma being a super tree…and being the great grandma that she is, she agreed and was a tree). The best costume was Brett- he was Joker…Malian style. A little lotion on the face to make the baby powder stick, lipstick, and green Easter grass taped on a plastic bag for the hair was all it took to make him the perfect (and a bit scary) Joker. The kids loved it.

Thanks to a “birthday party” put on our church when we were still home this summer (they wanted to give him a party for his birthday even though it was months away), we had Batman decorations. They played find the bats scattered around the yard, musical chairs (which when Dawson didn’t win, had to be done again so he could! J), and we had a “piñata”. I put that in quotes because it was really just a ziplock of candy and stickers, wrapped in brown paper which Dawson had colored. But hey, it worked. J It didn’t really break open, but rather the ziplock fell out of the other, but again, they got candy and they were happy.

I love Dawson's since of accomplishment here with the pinata breaking. His face says it all- "Breaking a pinata- just one of the many jobs in the life of a superhero. Mission accomplished."

On to presents…which he loved…a remote control Batman car from our church in Raleigh, some work books regifted from the party last Oct, bucket and cups for playing outside from the McCabes, other things I can’t remember, and the big big gift from grandma- a BIKE! Though Joker and Batman had made up and decided to be friends, (Joker had been taking the bat away from the kids as they tried to hit the piñata,), Joker had hidden this last gift. So the kids had to go searching…and thanks to a little redirecting Ella AWAY from the bike by her mom, Dawson found the bike and was quite excited.

Batman and Joker making up.

Then it was dinner- hamburgers. And then cake and ice cream. Dawson requested blue ice cream with chocolate chips. And hey, since I had to make it anyway, I could actually give the boy what he wanted thanks to a little food coloring.

Overall it was a great birthday party. He had a blast…and I think we all did. Thanks to grandma for all the gifts, esp the bike, to make it special. And thanks to the McCabes for coming so he actually had kids at his party. And to Brett for being a great Joker!! I think that was the highlight of the party for the kids...they are still talking about it.