The Wonderings of Wibble: Bilingual and Cheeky

It was very cool to celebrate Eric's 6th birthday this week. I love a themed party and Mario was a very fun theme. I've come a long way in my Mario knowledge, since the days when I was asked to do a Mario mural for a neighbour, when I didn't have much of a clue about the characters. At that time I'd just found out I was going to be moving to France and I remember listening to learning French audio books while painting the mural, but now my knowledge of French and Mario has really improved. I've even played Mario Kart with Percy's French classmate, so I know all the Mario related French words.

Eric hasn't really ever had a big party. His 3rd birthday was in the height of lockdown, his 4th was still pretty locked down, for his 5th we had just moved here and knew no one, so it was about time we did something good. Percy had a big party for his 7th where we got a hall and a bouncy castle, so we looked into hiring a small bouncy castle for our garden here, but it was crazy expensive like more than double what we paid for Percy's party, for a much smaller castle. Some things are weirdly expensive here for no reason. Another thing we used to do in Liverpool, but now can't afford to do, is get our car cleaned on the inside. We don't own a hoover because we don't own carpets so I wanted to get our car cleaned. I used to pay £12 a few times a year for the guys outside Dobbies (the garden centre) to give our car a mini valet. They made it great inside and outside, while I could go inside with the boys and get a free hot drink, because we got 2 a month with our Dobbies membership (which was maybe £12 a year). Anyway there was a similar looking business outside a big shopping centre, they wanted 60 euros just the clean the inside!

Another thing you can't seem to buy here, but you could loads of places in England, is an inflated balloon. You can buy the foil balloons everywhere, but then you have to buy your own helium canister. We just wanted one balloon in the shape of a 6. Other random things that are hard to get here include: hummus, hash browns, black beans, halloumi, crisps in a bag that is just for one person, and a decent hot chocolate.

We actually went to Spain at the weekend to see what is cheaper there and a lot of things were. We mainly went to buy me a new bike. I've had my lovely folding bike for 10 years now and I love it, but it's not a joy to ride anymore and I wanted the exact same thing but new. They don't sell it anywhere in France but they do sell it in the first major town in Spain - Figueres. I got the last one in the shop and I love it.

She's called Rosa, (the girl's name we never used).

We also stocked up on cheaper meat, hummus and nice cheaper juices at a supermarket and this market...

But back to the party... After a lot of thought we didn't go for the crazy bouncy castle, we instead bought a second hand chocolate fountain for 8 euros, and made some home made Mario themed games. We made a Mario track in the shape of a figure of 8. Eric wanted "a figure of 6" because it was his 6th birthday and it was hard to explain why that would be difficult. He just invited 6 friends which was the right number to fill the house without it being too much. I did face painting and Dan was in charge of giving glow in the dark Mario temporary tattoos. My decision to make the party bags from scratch using paper and glue only hours before the party was a bad one, but it turned out ok in the end.

We did two games: Pass the parcel and pin the moustache on Mario. The French kids had not heard of either of these. Before pass the parcel I tried to get the kids to sit in a circle on the sofa and chairs. This is where cheeky Eric thought he'd take a chance to make a joke out of my imperfect French. I wanted to say "sit on the sofa" but I actually said "sit in the sofa." He then thought it was hilarious to lift up a bit of the sofa bed where we store the duvet and try and get in there, saying in French, in front of all his mates, "what mum? you said sit IN the sofa Ha Ha Ha. " It was actually pretty funny.

He's so excited to be six, I always feel a bit sad every time he gets older in a way that I don't do with Percy. He's just a great age at the moment, very easy and agreeable, very affectionate and was so excited about the birthday party. I loved making all the decorations and doing the cake and stuff, I love a theme. I have no clue what I will do when they're teenagers and don't want decorations and a theme.

All Eric's toes used to fit on my finger.

After the success of Pin the Moustache on Mario, I was asked to make a Pin the ear on Charles thing for a coronation celebration we went to at my English friends house. I virtually never paint faces because they're hard! This actually turned out better than some times where I've tried to do a serious painting. Maybe I could go into business doing bespoke pin the x on y posters.