Wednesday, December 5, 2012

4th Birthday Party!

The day started early for me as I had a full day of teaching before the party at 4.15. There was a cake to assemble (see the recipe here - no cooking involved!) and vegetables to cut before work and cards to open with DD. I was a bit nervous as this is our first birthday party at home. Until now (for the past two years) the nursery has made a party for each of the children and the parents come with the cake, etc... This year at kindergarten, DD will share her birthday celebration on Friday with another boy. I get to send a cake and candles but I'm not invited.

Anyway, back to yesterday. When I came into the salon first thing I wondered why it can't always look tidy like this in the morning (without the decorations and balloons of course.)


One reason it looked so tidy was that all the toy boxes had been moved out into the hallway.


I'm allergic to latex so we never have regular balloons here. These are foil balloons, they last forever and cost 1nis (18p) each in the shekel shop.



DD opened her cards and was thrilled with them. Thank you family for sending them from England.


I put together one very sophisticated looking cake for a 4yo. DD loved it (phew)!




We started the party with a pass the parcel in which each girl won a bangle to put in her jewellery box. Then we started the boxes by sticking in the mirrors and felt lining.


Then we had supper while the glue dried.





And then we got down to the business of decorating the jewellery boxes.



There were various styles created largely reflecting the age of the artist. We had a 3 1/2yo, two 4yos, and three nearly 6yos.


At the end we chose jewellery to fill our boxes and everyone went home with a full box of bling. In the interests of full disclosure, the boxes cost about 1 pound each and the jewellery was 18p per item. Each child got a necklace, a bracelet, a bangle, a ring and a set of hair clips. The mirror, the felt and the stickers came to about 50p per child so I spent about 2.50GBP on each guest.


DD loved her party. I loved that it was organised and not just a riot of wild running around. We used disposable plates, etc... for supper which I had left over from my birthday party in September. It wasn't Disney or Barbie themed but no one noticed. And the clearing up took about 10 minutes.

Hooray we did it! Happy birthday my darling 4 year old! xxx

26 comments:

  1. looks like a fabulous party. Sorry we couldn't come and make our jewelery boxes. Happy Birthday DD from Miriam, Charles, Eli, Nathan & Theo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you - we missed you too but we enjoyed opening all your cards in the morning!

      Delete
  2. What a great party! Kol hakavod you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad it worked out so well- and glad to have popped by beforehand. I gather the chips behaved themselves.... :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the food worked perfectly - thanks for your idea of pre-cooking the chips. By niftily swapping the oven trays around everything got cooked to perfection. The only problem was way too much food followed the other familiar problem of me finishing it all off for breakfast, brunch and lunch today. *Sighs*
      I'm so glad you popped in beforehand, it was great to see you and you kept me calm. :)

      Delete
  4. And it looks like a great time was had by all! The cake looked great! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks - I got away with it this year... But they did enjoy the party so I can relax on that front for 12 months.

      Delete
  5. Looked like everything worked like a charm! Happy birthday DD.Cake looks delicious.
    I have made a pirate party for boys and those " Jewelry" boxes were Treasure Troves. They had hunted for treasure first ( worked off some energy) and then decorated the boxes to put their bounty in!
    I love the 12 months until you have to do it again. I feel that every time.
    Gilly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did think of making them into treasure boxes - but then I'd've had to invite the boys as well. They are all lovely boys but it was also a numbers thing.
      I'm terrible I know but I just like my boring little routine.

      Delete
  6. What a wonderful party, and looks like everyone had a great time - DD is simply beaming! Could you send me a party bag - I want some of that cake! X.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To be honest - the cake does not taste like a great homemade cake. I just did this to have a cake for the children. They loved it because of the sugar, the chocolate spread and the marshmellows, but I wouldn't serve it to adults.

      Delete
  7. The cake looks shockingly gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'Looks' being the operative word. See my comment above. Even I, and I'm not a cake person, agree that shop bought cake is not a patch on a real home baked cake.

      Delete
  8. She's a lucky girl. And you must still count your lucky starts every day I bet? Fabulous. Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hooray indeed. It looks like a very successful party and your daughter looks VERY happy :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She was very happy. She kept saying, "Welcome to my party," throughout the event.

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. Hooray you managed to comment Rach! Yes it was fun, thanks. :)

      Delete
  11. HUGE Happy birthday wishes to your munchkin! Fab photos and looks like it was a fab party too :-)

    xx Jazzy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jazzy, we enjoyed it. And yes she is a bit of a munchkin :).

      Delete
  12. I want to apologise for being "late to the party" in wishing DD a Happy Birthday. Sorry :-( but it really was a party LOL.
    Looks amazing.
    I also am starting to realise what it is nice to wake up to, so making more of an effort with tidying before bedtime, to start the day in a nice way. We don't have ANY toy boxes though so I really really need to sort that out!
    The party looks fabulous and your cake is a great idea.
    Love,
    Liska xx

    ReplyDelete
  13. You're not late - now it's on the blog this party could run for years! And we've not been so tidy since. Must make more of an effort on that. :)

    ReplyDelete