MeySen Birthday Party

It seems like June is just packed full of fun events for the kids.  First there was Friends Day, then we had a field trip, last week we made a special snack of popcorn balls (to go along with our Native American unit), and this week the school celebrated MeySen's 44th birthday.


For this special day, the students experience an American-style birthday party.  The regular course students have a birthday party in their rooms by class (that means Kris had to set up, clean up, and run 4 Birthday parties in 2 days).  I had it a little easier, as I only have 1 class and my supervisors ran the party.  It felt a lot like being a youth leader -- except instead of having the stress of running activities and making sure everything was on time, I got to just have fun playing games and eating cake with my kids.  I LOVED it!  


This job often reminds me of the things I loved about youth ministry - sharing the gospel, building relationships with kids, and having fun with them. (But I do still terribly miss my small group -- LOVE YOU GIRLS!!!).  Anyway, back to the party....


When the students arrived they did a little bit of work then we went into the big hall with the other 3rd grade and 4th grade classes.  My supervisors, Jonathan and Judith, led several relay games for the kids.  For one of the games, the kids had to put as many stickers as possible on their friends faces.  By the end, my students were covered in stickers and it was so funny!


After the games, we had cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to MeySen.  And since this is Japan, instead of drinking juice or pop with their cake, the students drank cold wheat tea.  Here is a video of my students singing "Happy Birthday".

The day ended with the kids picking "Happy Birthday" helium balloons, which they had been gawking over since they first arrived.  We received special instructions to make sure each kid had enough time to pick their balloon, had extra balloons so that the last kid to pick still had a choice, and did not under inflate the balloons, as any of these 3 things could result in parents calling and complaining.  (Yes, parents do call to complain if their child comes home with an under-inflated balloon...)  Since I was so paranoid about under-inflating balloons, when filling them, I over inflated them and popped 4 of them.


After filling them up with sugar and getting them all wound up, we got to send them home to their parents! Hahaha!  The only thing missing from the day?  Good old fashioned pin the tail on the donkey!