Thursday 14 April 2011

The (belated) wrap up

It's taken me a while to get to this, but still - better late than never!

Post-party wrap up coming up.
I'll stick to the facts - there's a lot to cover.
If I forget anything - feel free to ask in the comments.

THE BEGINNING - FUN AND GAMES

When the kids arrived we had the table set up for craft.

They all coloured in and decorated a fish cut out, they came from Riot art and craft which are in lots of suburban shopping centres.


On the tables there were foam stick on shapes, pencils, textas, glue sticks galore, sparkly paper, kinder squares and bowls of sequins and bead - all from Officeworks.


I'm not into competitive games for under fives as it always ends in tears and I am a bit old-fashioned about making everyone a winner - really, how does that prepare you for life!

The kids warmed-up with some under the sea musical statues - they had to dance like snapping sharks, octopuses, fish and crabs.

Next up - parachute games!
We got a parachute off eBay ($26 delivered to our door - seriously).

I left the guy who lives here in charge of the parachute games and he really delivered, they had a ball. There are a bunch of games on the web - just use Mr Google.


We also had a treasure hunt - two groups with five clues each - the last clue was to find the guy who lives here.
Once both teams found him he opened a treasure box and shared out gold coin treasure to them all.

We also did old-style balloon-between-the-knees relays and egg and spoon races (I hard boiled the eggs).


THE MIDDLE - FEEDING THE STARVING HORDES

With this many kids to feed I truly recommend sitting them all down.
We hired tables and chairs from Party Squad - they are great to deal with and it's worth the money - I think it is anyway!


We served the following:
  • Treasure swords - fruit on skewers
  • Octodogs - Sorry I didn't get a pic of these, they went so quickly - hot dogs shaped like octopi - see them here.
  • Mermaid Cakes - cupcakes with mermaid/fish/crab toppers (shown below in some playdough).
  • Sausage boats - Sausage rolls with a sail made of a triangle of paper glued to a toothpick
  • King Neptune Pies - party pies
  • Starfish sparkles - fairy bread cut like starfish
  • Octopus smiles - jelly in oranges - see here for how to make them - also a biiiig hit!
  • Sugar periwinkles - My mother-in-law made meringues shaped like periwinkle shells!
  • Ariel's cheesy bacon tarts - made by my mum - delicious.

    
    Make these using scrap booking paper cutters, toothpicks and a glue gun.
    
THE END - CAKES AND FAREWELLS

Two mermaid birthday cakes of course!

The cakes were standard round butter cakes with the centre filled with a jelly sea, surrounded by a wall of Clinker lollies to stop it slipping off the cake.

The mermaids were a gift to the girls and came from The Friendship Tree.
They sat on a 'rock' made of icing so they didn't get ruined in the jelly.




Then we took a photo of each of the kids either being a hula girl or a surfer kid (their choice) in these funny cardboard cut outs from Lombards, which is also where we got the hanging fish, paper plates and cups, streamers and lei's from.
  
Phew !! I'm exhausted!

And here are the wonderful Grandparents who helped out in so many ways on the day and in the lead up - my heartfelt thanks to them.


 

17 comments:

Becky said...

I am tired from reading about all that fun stuff! Can you please organise my 40th birthday, which is a little way off yet so you have plenty of time ;)

Liz said...

Awesome birthday party....
Lizzie
xxx

cherri said...

BEST...PARTY...EVER!

Nic said...

Are you available for hire??? You did a fantastic job :)

Carolyn said...

wow! looks like so much fun! I agree with Becky- can you come here and organise my DDs 5th birthday :)

Donna said...

You throw one hell of a party! Hats off. job well done!

Tanya said...

Like Becky, I too have a 40th coming up...suggestions welcome!
YOU, my lovely, a above average in a really nice way!
Also, I had jelly oranges at my parties when I was young (back in the olden days!), never those weird octodogs though!
It all looks soooo very fun (and exhausting) and they will remember it.

sophie said...

Wow, what an awesome party, looks like everyone had a ball.

Cass said...

Looks like a fantastic time

Seaweed and Raine said...

It looks like the party was a total hit! I don't know which bit was my fave - it all looks so good. Think you might want to become a party planner? ;)
Hope you got to put your feet up for the rest of the week!

Megs said...

What a fun party Karen! I bet your girls had the greatest day - and what a steal on the parachute! I will have to have a search on ebay for one of them too I think!

PlanningQueen said...

Your photos are just gorgeous. Thanks for linking to me!

Little Munchkins said...

Looks like an awesome party! I am not game to have that many children in my house yet, so it's been playcentre parties so far!

Natalie said...

Wow, what a fantastic party! Looks like they all had a wonderful time

Meika said...

What an awesome party! I am all inspired for my Elsa's 5th birthday in November now!

Belinda said...

You are a champion Karen. Look at all those kids!! Great job

naomi said...

wow, lots of planning went into that party... just think how fun it will be when you get to plan their weddings (hehe!). Looks like everyone had a great time :)