Happy 6th Birthday Ella

Today we celebrated Ella's sixth birthday - she had a wonderful day. Since it was Wednesday, there was no school. We kept Jonah home too so that he could take part in the fun. It was a bit too cold and windy to go up the Eiffel tower (the birthday activity that Ella has been planning since we arrived), but Ella was not the least bit disappointed by the second choice of activities.

We spent the morning at the science museum. For the first time, Ella tried out the area intended for the kids over 5 and absolutely loved it. She played for a long time in the pretend TV studio, explored the art farm, the computers, the area about other cultures, and the area about the human body, and still only saw about half of what there was to see. She also attended a presentation about the history of candy - starting with the Gauls (who ate honey) through the middle ages where kings ate sugar coated nuts (but still no candy for children), through Napoleon I who (apocryphally ?) introduced the cultivation of the sugar beet which brought candy to the masses. Meanwhile Jonah had a great time playing in the Cite d'enfants for younger children. He worked in the play construction site and car repair shop, played with the water and the mechanical toys, etc.

After the museum we went to lunch at the Hippopotomus restaurant - a favorite (American- style) hamburger restaurant of Ella's. I ordered a brownie with sparklers in it in a whisper. When Ella saw it coming toward the table (accompanied by 5 servers to sing happy birthday) she said, "Oh, mom, we should have gotten something like that for me, since it's my birthday." She was stunned and thrilled when they actually put it down in front of her and sang to her.

We went next to the book area of a nearby toystore, where in a family birthday tradition, each of us picked out a new book (Jonah chose Sleeping Beauty, consistent with his recent obsession with Disney Princesses) and Ella picked out a nice collection of fairy tales and other details every child should know about princesses and fairies.

We spent the afternoon playing with birthday gifts (stringing beads, folding origami animals), and practicing the 4 questions for Passover (every time Ella sings "kulo matzah" Jonah cracks up saying "culotte matzah." - culotte being the French word for underpants). We finished the celebration with dinner and chocolate cake (of course). It's hard to believe we have a six year old already, but so much fun to watch Ella enter her seventh year with grace, beauty, and lots of happiness.