Thanks ecb and others too for the tip about Sundays. I will never plan anything on a Sunday again!! Sadly, too late for this party....
Joey82 - you made me laugh! what a great idea! And MusicChick too - that is such a sweet thought. I appreciate it so much.
So far I think we have 3 definites and 1 maybe, so that should be fine for a little party this Sunday. I am happy with this.
BUT the thing is, these kids are NON-garderie ones.
I am still somewhat disappointed that none of the Swiss kids from garderie can make it. My son has tried really hard to make friends. The kids not coming are the kids he enjoys playing with at garderie, talks about at home, and he really wants them to come to his party. I really hoped ONE from garderie would come. Oh well... C'est la vie..
Thanks Odile and others too. I am certainly learning a lot about how to do a party here!
A few tips I have learned along the way
-- date, best on a Saturday, then weds. afternoon. Never on a Sunday. Best to sound out a few parents orally in advance on availabilty, etc. then you have at least a core group before sending invitations.
--advance planning. I find this very big here. One month in advance for the invitations is the norm. 2 weeks or less, is just not going to work for most people. One swiss german mother I know always have everything organised to a T and sends out the invitations 6 weeks in advance with a relatively short RSVP time period.
--sending invitations by post. Kids sending via kids at school is done but is messy in my experience, if young age don't do this. Leaving in letter box or via an intermediary is not so good either. And email invites are unheard of.
Because they obviously can't pronounce the word "birthday" correctly they should stick with the german version: "Zum Gebutstag viel Glück!".