We had green balloons everywhere, shamrocks taped all over the house, steamers, and a huge leprechaun piñata (we are in central America after all, and even a party celebrating the Irish needs a piñata.) We ate green Jello Jigglers, pizza, other healthy snacks, and snickerdoodles rolled in green sprinkles instead of sugar (Paul's idea). It went amazingly well. There were no tears, no fights, and no kids sitting alone mumbling how lame the party is and how could their parents have so cruelly left them here. I had two other couples over here for reinforcements and that was wonderful. We had a few activities going on around the house that the kids seemed to rotate through; trampoline, xbox, movie on our new big screen using the projector, and a coloring table full of St. Patty's day coloring pages for the younger kids. The best part of the evening for the 10 and under crowd was when one of our Marine Security Gaurds came to the house dressed up as a Leprechaun. He had an awesome costume and pulled off an Irish accent the whole night. He played with the kids for at least 1½ hours; playing tag, popping balloons with them, doing magic tricks, and handing out shamrock stickers to all the kids. It was a totally crazy, but totally fun night. The house and I survived just fine, and people are already talking about the next kid's party at the Scherbel house.
Monday, March 27, 2006
St. Patrick's Day Party
For St. Patrick's day, the Embassy was planning to have a wild Irish party for the grown-ups. And Paul, being the family guy that he is, and the business-minded one, thought that a seperate party for the kids would be a great way to allow more parents to attend the adult party, and let the kids have a good time too. So he volunteered his house and his cool wife to host (yours truly). So while Paul was off on our ward's temple trip to Guatemala on his way to training in Washington DC, I opened my home to nearly 40 children, ages ranging from 2 to 14 years old from 5:30 -11-30pm. 
We had green balloons everywhere, shamrocks taped all over the house, steamers, and a huge leprechaun piñata (we are in central America after all, and even a party celebrating the Irish needs a piñata.) We ate green Jello Jigglers, pizza, other healthy snacks, and snickerdoodles rolled in green sprinkles instead of sugar (Paul's idea). It went amazingly well. There were no tears, no fights, and no kids sitting alone mumbling how lame the party is and how could their parents have so cruelly left them here. I had two other couples over here for reinforcements and that was wonderful. We had a few activities going on around the house that the kids seemed to rotate through; trampoline, xbox, movie on our new big screen using the projector, and a coloring table full of St. Patty's day coloring pages for the younger kids. The best part of the evening for the 10 and under crowd was when one of our Marine Security Gaurds came to the house dressed up as a Leprechaun. He had an awesome costume and pulled off an Irish accent the whole night. He played with the kids for at least 1½ hours; playing tag, popping balloons with them, doing magic tricks, and handing out shamrock stickers to all the kids. It was a totally crazy, but totally fun night. The house and I survived just fine, and people are already talking about the next kid's party at the Scherbel house.
We had green balloons everywhere, shamrocks taped all over the house, steamers, and a huge leprechaun piñata (we are in central America after all, and even a party celebrating the Irish needs a piñata.) We ate green Jello Jigglers, pizza, other healthy snacks, and snickerdoodles rolled in green sprinkles instead of sugar (Paul's idea). It went amazingly well. There were no tears, no fights, and no kids sitting alone mumbling how lame the party is and how could their parents have so cruelly left them here. I had two other couples over here for reinforcements and that was wonderful. We had a few activities going on around the house that the kids seemed to rotate through; trampoline, xbox, movie on our new big screen using the projector, and a coloring table full of St. Patty's day coloring pages for the younger kids. The best part of the evening for the 10 and under crowd was when one of our Marine Security Gaurds came to the house dressed up as a Leprechaun. He had an awesome costume and pulled off an Irish accent the whole night. He played with the kids for at least 1½ hours; playing tag, popping balloons with them, doing magic tricks, and handing out shamrock stickers to all the kids. It was a totally crazy, but totally fun night. The house and I survived just fine, and people are already talking about the next kid's party at the Scherbel house.
