A Leap Year Birthday Party in Austria!

Airport greetings with Irma!

I'm in Austria!  My dear friend, Irma, lives here.  She and her wonderful family hosted me for three days, and the big kick-off was her sister's very special birthday.  Centa was born on Leap Year so this is the 7th time in her life that she has been able to celebrate her birthday ON her birthday.  

Even though she is turning 28 years old, we decided to have a 7th Birthday Party, properly decorated with balloons, streamers, teddy bears, cotton candy, and plenty of kids who could not wait to eat the frog-shaped treats.  Irma's son, Felix, is playing peek-a-boo with the camera while his cousin, Agnes, is gazing longingly at the sweet frogs. 

Irma's whole family is extremely musical.  As a matter of fact, Irma is a professional violist, and she had the brilliant idea to fill wine glasses with varying water levels to build a musical scale.  Then we were going to dye the water with food coloring and hand out little sheets with color-coded songs for people to play.  

Except our glasses were NOT cooperating.  We could only get about 4 notes with the glasses we had.  We needed larger glasses and we just didn't have them.  

Even Mary, Irma's sister, tried to make it work.  She got closer than me and Irma, but still no luck.  It was a really fun idea.  Next time we will just have to find some larger wine glasses before the party so we can pull it off.  

Henry, Irma's middle son was very excited for the celebration to begin. 

And who could blame him with this delightful spread?!

Here is our 7-year-old, Centa!  Little by little the guests arrived and just as the living room was about to burst...

...in walked a very unexpected guest. 

A MAGICIAN! 

What 7th Birthday is complete without a magician?  He was totally captivating and quite funny.  I didn't understand a word he was saying since he did his entire act in German, but I still thought it was a great show!  I can't remember the last time I saw a magic show. 

He had us all pretty entranced- kids and adults alike! 

He even had us all chant the magic words in unison to help the Birthday Girl cast the spell.  In German, the magic words begin the same way they do in English with "Abracadabra," but then you add an enthusiastic "Simsalabim!" at the end. 

Irma made a delicious 7th Birthday cake. 

And when we were all starting to drag a bit, we re-energized with a heated game of musical chairs. 

My friend Brian, Irma's husband, was in charge of the music. 

The party went on for hours, and Irma's children Henry, Felix and Theo made a valiant effort to stay awake, not wanting to miss a single moment. 

They did a great job, but even Henry eventually passed out in the middle of the living room floor, playing up until the very last second. 

Now that was a good party!  Happy Birthday Centa!