The party

Well needless to say, I am totally and utterly exhausted after Eloise's 4th Birthday party. She had a wonderful day. Here are a couple of photos of the day.

Our little fairy.

The food table

Gorgeous cupcakes made by Eloise's Godmother, Melanie

The paper flowers (I stuck them on balloon sticks)

Dainty fairy sandwiches made by Eloise's other Godmother, Carina.

The branches have pom poms and butterflies glued onto them.

The pink lemonade (made by mixing lemon and raspberryade).

It tasted truly revolting but the kids loved it!

The fairy Queen.

We set up a throne in the corner and every child had their photo taken on it (to be turned into thank you cards later on. We borrowed the fantastic toadstools from Eloise's ballet teacher.

 

Our other fairy Queen, Madeleine. She was such a huge help on the day!

And finally, our two gorgeous girls playing pass the parcel.

We also played Musical statues and pin the star on the fairy wand (Maddy and I painted a fairy on a big piece of paper and the kids had to stick gold stars on the picture and try to get it on top of the wand.

We also had art activities so that everytime there was a lull (or there was a queue for the pin the star game), they could go off and amuse themselves. They made butterfly wands (I used butterfly cards from the John Sands range, cut in half to make single butterflies.) The kids decorated them with stickers, pens and glitter and then glued them onto lolly sticks. We also had the fairy colouring in pages to keep them busy if they finished their butterfly. I really couldn't have managed the party without an awful lot of help from my lovely friends and of course from Richard who spent the vast majority of the afternoon washing dishes, taking video and making coffee whilst I had all the fun directing the party games.

Eloise had a wonderful day which was of course the whole point of it. Now I have to just get used to the fact that my baby is 4 years old and this time next year she will be starting school. I am so going to miss that funny bunny when she does!

Christmas Spectacular

Most of you will know that it's the biggest Devonport Craft Market of the year tomorrow. I really can't wait and Sarah of Songbird Designs and I have been crazily busy getting ready for it. I've managed to grab 5 minutes before we head down to the venue to set up to update my blog with some pics. I also amazingly managed to convince my beautiful daughters to do some modelling for me (gingerbread bribery!). So here you go. This is what I've been busy doing this week:

CUPCAKE TEE AND FLOWER FILLED FAIRY SKIRT

NEW APRONS

CUPCAKE PINCUSHIONS... good enough to eat!

AND A TEDDY.

Hope to see you there tomorrow!

The Devonport Craft Market, 32 Clarence Street, Devonport. 10am -3pm

The Big Day

I was woken at 5.30am this morning by an extremely excited little girl desperate for her party to begin. Our beautiful Eloise had her 3rd birthday party today. I normally get extremely stressed by my kids' birthday parties because I always try to do too much in too little time but this time I made a plan, stuck to it, kept it simple and small and it was wonderful. Here are some photos:

The Dora cake. I made the cake in a bunt pan. I always use packet cake mix for birthday cakes as it is always moist and lasts about a week. I had to use nearly 4 packets to fill the pan. I then used 4 quantities of butter cream which I divided into 3 bowls and coloured. I used all of the butter cream. I then simply piped rosettes all over the cake and doll's bodice and added shop bought icing flowers. I sprinkled edible glitter and butterflies over the cake and voila, done. Oh and I wrapped Dora's legs and body in the soft plastic bags you get your veggies in to protect the cake and help her to stand upright. This is an age old party cake but it always looks so impressive.

Heart cupcakes:

Place setting (Stephanie of Liberty Lane made the beautiful crowns which were a great take home present that will actually last!)

The finished bunting (Happy Birthday Eloise):

The table. I used gorgeous pink and yellow primroses as a centre piece. I covered the plant pots with yellow crepe paper and tied them with offcuts from the purple felt table runner and pink fabric table cloth (just hemmed pink fabric). The pink and purple balloons are on sticks stuck into the flower pots and are tied with yellow curling ribbon.

Another shot of the party table

Each child had a cupcake with their initial on it at their place.

Here the kids are having their party food:

We played traditional party games. Pass the parcel, Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Musical Bumps. As it was a Dora themed party, we also played a Dora adventure game that came to me at 6am this morning (so it was handy I was woken so early!). We planned to have a normal treasure hunt but I decided to make a Dora style map of the garden and we did a Dora treasure hunt.

The kids had backpacks filled with small balloons, musical instruments and plastic knives (one for each child). We put the slide in the middle of the lawn and that became Slide Mountain. Two wonderful friends sat on the bench by the wendy house and became the Grumpy Trolls. I tied paper streamers to our washing line and that became 'Paper Forest'. Finally, I put my jewellery box filled with bags of lollies in the sandpit and that became the Tiny Desert. The kids followed the map, found the relevant tools from their backpacks to help them over the obstacles and tried to stop another wonderful friend who played Swiper, from swiping their stuff. They had to sing Happy Birthday to the Grumpy Trolls to send them to sleep which was hilarious. The kids loved it, so did we and my girls have spent all afternoon playing it again and again (my poor jewellery box is looking a little worse for wear!). I had so much fun today. Small, simple and sticking to the plan is definately the way to go in future!!