McLauchlan's North Macedonian Musings: Happy Birthday (part 1): A party for my daughter with her friends at QSI Skopje

The Community Room at QSI Skopje can be rented out for events. It is a great space - and - given our travel and other activities in these final weeks (!) in Macedonia, renting out the Community Room immediately after school seemed the best way for my daughter to celebrate (and also to say Good Bye to) her friends at QSI.

*Special Thanks* to our friend Kristina who helped us with finding the karaoke DJ and the BEST CAKE EVER (along with the BEST cupcakes and the BEST cake pops! WOW WOW WOW

I don't expect we can ever, in our wildest dreams, "top" this unicorn cake - even on her wedding day. It was simply astonishingly amazing! THANK YOU, Tina!!

Every year (since she turned 1) our daughter's birthday party has been devoted to some kind of community service project. Usually she picks the cause/community need, and then we research together possible community projects for her and her friends to support. I regret that in these past few weeks we have been unable to get ourselves organized around a charity here. (Just planning the party, away from home, was time-consuming in itself.) Hence - all of her friends brought her gifts - for her (not for rescued animals or seabirds or orphans or survivors of domestic violence, as in years past)

She was truly overwhelmed by the generosity. And her friends knew just what she wanted. I know she is going to treasure these books and headbands and t-shirts that she got from her friends. (Fingers crossed all these treats can make it into our luggage going back to Florida.)

As soon as we got back home she cheerfully sat down and wrote all the Thank You notes.

She had such a wonderful time - playing and singing with her friends - and then opening gifts from everyone. It was a very special occasion! Thank you QSI (especially Kristina, who runs the community room) and to our friend Kristina for making this such a special birthday for my daughter!!

We will organize a volunteer project when we get back to Madeira Beach, unrelated to her 12th birthday. If we can find a way to work on a project that benefits women and children in Macedonia, we will. Stay tuned.

Have you ever seen a more magical cake?!?!?!

WOW! Obviously these cupcakes and cake pots are truly adorable ...but they are also DELICIOUS

there are many excellent bakeries in Skopje - but - I must say that these cakes and desserts we had for this party were absolutely phenomenal. I will update this post with their website. My daughter exclaimed that they should get an award for that cake. And I agree!

We brought the instant camera and a few packs of film with us - so that we could take pictures of our daughter with all of her friends - and take a second one that we could give her friends as a memento. (purchased on HSN.com for a Christmas gift)

we ordered pizzas and pastrimalijas for dinner -- I wanted to get a picture of the passtrimalija - as this may be the only (or, at least the first) party at which we have served pastrimalija - her first favorite Macedonian dish (similar to pizza -- but just the way she likes it - no sauce!) I was a bit late getting a picture of the pizzas - so - you can see here what was left at the end of the party...

as you have seen in other posts about events at QSI - the Community Room has a terrace/patio and exit on to the school grounds - so the kids could play outside as well