Princess Party

Last Sunday the Small Person's birthday party finally arrived. In our wisdom (!) we chose to have it at home. Alexandra had asked for a Princess party, so that's exactly what we tried to give her.

She invited eight of her favourite friends (keeping it small, so that we could manage in our tiny shoe box house), and they all came dressed in pretty dresses or princess costumes. You can see the Royal Scroll Invitations in a previous post. Alexandra wanted to be Merida from The Brave. I made this dress the day before with a lot of help from my dressmaker Nan. I made the pattern from an existing dress and mad use of the only blue fabric I had in my stash, and some pale gold satin ribbon in my ribbon box. The only thing I had to buy was a zip. Oh, and a bow and arrow set from the pound shop. You can't have a feisty Scottish warrior type princess without some weaponry, can you? I intended to put lots of little plaits into the Small Person's hair the night before so that it would frizz up a bit - but I forgot! I was also going to make her a leather bag like Merida wears for her arrows, but ran out of time. The Smaller Person wore the well used Knights tabbard that I made a whole bunch of for the children at our wedding back in 2007. This is the one Alexandra had.

We made wands from kits I bought from Wilkinsons, then we made bracelets using elasticated thread and purple and white beads. That allowed enough time for everyone to arrive and settle in. We had booked a meal at The Oak, the pub restaurant at the bottom of our road, so an hour into the party, we put on our coats, got into pairs and paraded down the road. The Small Person's Grandma and Grandpa were at their window, and her Nana and Auntie Steph were at their window, so we gave them a royal wave and carried on our way.

We had pre-ordered the food so it was ready for us when we arrived, and Mr Bogert had popped out while we were jewellery making to decorate the table and take the cake. The most popular dinner of the day was lasagne (surprise, surprise!). Each princess had a conical hat (which I think may actually be called a henin, but don't hold me to that!) which I handmade from wallpaper samples. I also made one little crown in the same style also from wallpaper samples so that the Smller Person would have one to wear. We used sheer purple fabric with silver butterflies on for the table runner, bought princess napkins and party poppers, and special request from HRH Princess Alexandra, we had curly straws!

The cake was a cheat cake. She wanted a castle cake, but I knew I wasn't going to get it done in time. Everything for this party had been made on Friday and Saturday, because of me having too much uni work and an assignment due before that, so time was quite precious. We sang happy birthday and all had ice cream for pudding. Back into our pairs and back to our house...

Once we were settled back in at home, we played pass the parcel and then quietened down, dimmed the lights and watched Disney's Brave. we had cushions spread out all over the floor for the girls to sit or lie on. We had mini battenburg cakes and iced party ring biscuits on gold plates. We had intended to get popcorn for the girls to eat during the movie, but we had to forget something, right?

When the movie was over the girls were having a bit of boogie to the credits, then we had paper cup pinatas. After the Smaller Person's muppet party and the kermit pinata back in October, the Smaller Person really wanted a pinata too, but we had to concede that there really wasn't time to make a proper pinata, and Mr Bogert had gone as far as telling her she probably wouldn't be able to have one and that we were really sorry. At the last minute I thought about the Princess paper cups I'd bought. So they became individual pull string pinatas. Alexandra was so happy she got her pinata, even in an unusual form.

Home time (finally - this was a marathon party just to fit in the meal and the movie!) and each girl took their wands and bracelets, their princess hats, the contents of their pinata, a strawberry iced cupcake (so that I didn't have to cut the big cake yet) and a goody bag made from pink Satin with each girl's initial on. These were also made on Saturday with the help of my Nan.

The girls all seemed to have lots of fun, the Small Person was really happy (which is what counts), and other than being surrounded by a really high noise level all day (!) it wasn't too bad. The girls were all really well behaved and got on well together, even though some were from school and some were from the village, so didn't know each other). There wasn't even a big mess to clear up afterwards. Having the meal out was the best idea ever, no food preparation, no washing up, and Gayle at the Oak was really helpful.

Birthday parties over for another year, now just to get on with Christmas. Did you know I have bought absolutely NO Christmas gifts yet!? Worrying, but if I can put a Princess Party together in 2 days, I can do Christmas ;)

In a couple of future posts, I will show you how I made the cheat castle cake, the henin/cone shaped princess hats, the princess goody bags and the paper cup pinatas.

7th Birthday

So, how does a 7 year old spend her special birthday? We woke her up by singing happy birthday. It's the first time for months she's woken up quickly and with a smile on her face! Once she got downstairs she was just too excited to do anything but look at her presents. Zack still has his birthday fresh in his mind, so there was a lot of "Yay! Birday! My Birday!" but once we explained that it was actually Alexandra's birthday and they were her presents, he was very good. He decided to help by shoving presents at her and saying "open it".

Her birthday fell on a school day, but at this age, that's even more exciting because all of your friends and teachers KNOW it's your important day. She had time to open a few of her presents before we set off in the car to school. Normally she would catch the school bus, but it's sort of become a tradition that on her birthday we take her to school. Mr Bogert had a chiropractor appointment anyway, so he dropped us and went on to get his back fixed! We called in at the shop to buy chocolates for her classmates, and then she was off with her friends for the day.

After school we took her to Zizzi in Kenilworth for her birthday dinner (this has also become a sort of tradition since she began school and we can't take trips out during the actual day anymore). It had to be a restaurant that had lasagne and there was lasagne as we promised (we would have been in a awful lot of trouble otherwise!). We took a few presents for her to open there which she did in between eating. She was, as ususal, full of bubbles. She'd had a great day at school with her friends and playing with her new Merida doll that I crocheted for her.

The easy crochet pocket scarf went down well! 

She was excited to get some new lego (the lego friends sets) and played for a little while at the table while she waited for dessert. She asked for chocolate ice cream, and they brought it out with candles which was nice of them. I had the yummiest food: Strozzapreti Pesto Ross followed by Lemon tart. Yum!

Zack was hug fan of the dough sticks!

The very important lasagne.

I've included this photograph because you can see a wall hanging behind our table which is why the small person chose this table. It is layered fabrics and machine embroidery - Knights and Queens.

Alexandra's Movember!

It just so happens that this year her birthday coincided with the Warwick Victorian Evening, when they switch on their Christmas lights, have lots of stalls, some rides and other things. So after dinner, we set off there.

We have taken the Small Person here in the past, but the Smaller Person has never been. If you can make it to the event it's lovely. The streets are closed off to traffic, there are wonderful smells in the air like roast chestnuts, hog roast, candy floss, mulled wine etc. There's music from various corners including the live acts on stage, then there's the wonderful lights themselves, and it just feels so festive and friendly. We've never been this early in the evening before though and have to say, it was packed! I'll show you more in a later post.

I think it was the perfect way to end her birthday outing. It was way past their bedtime (but it is a one off) and so the Smaller Person fell sleep in the car. I lay him on the sofa when we came in, took his outside clothes of and covered him with  blanket, and then The Small Person opened the last of her presents. As soon as we mentioned cake and Mr Bogert was cutting slices, he woke right up with a big smile and said "Have cake?" How cute are these Small People?

Now we just have her Princess Party and then it's Christmas go! Go! Go!