A Magical Birthday Party

Very shortly Master nine will have his tenth birthday. Ten! How can it be? I'm like every parent I know, in shock at how the years have flown by, full of highs and lows, regrets and joys and a gazillion lessons learned by me as a parent. And here we are. Double figures. I'm in mourning a little, but it helps me to put the time we have to look forward too into perspective if I remind myself that Kookaburra is actually just in Grade 4 and technically we have until Grade 12 with him right here by our sides living life, developing, learning and growing. It's still the same amount of years but the difference between saying Grade 4 to Grade 12 as opposed to ten and eighteen, it just feels like a little less time on the latter.

Double figures and a sixth birthday we felt deserved a party. A great celebration. Where our boys would be surrounded by family and friends to help ring in their new age. Maybe a surprise party! he he.... so secret squirrel it was and I slyly sent messages out to their closest playmates. With a hope and a prayer for weather,we began preparations.

Mr E and I brainstormed late one night, because generally that's when the best and most creative ideas crop up and it was concluded that we could craft the party favours, play some lovely games and have very simple food and the whole thing would cost next to nada.

Yeah right!

But we don't throw parties every year and these were very special birthdays so the expenditure in our eyes, whilst shocking, was very justified. Lets just say that Lincraft probably supported one of their staff for a weeks wages on what I kept 'just popping in for a few things' for (maybe I exaggerate but only a little).

It's my own fault. I habitually throw myself into projects full bodied and want the best out of what I commit myself to and ultimately, we wanted our boys to have a fantastic and memorable party.

The first thing I did was consult The Birthday Book - an absolutely beautiful book by Ann Druitt and I thoroughly recommend it as a resource for creating wonderful birthday memories and traditions (currently $26 on the Book Depository fyi) -for ideas (and perspective).

We had a few great games. The first, usually named Ma and Pa's clothes, involved creating two teams from the children and lining them up at an equal distance away from a container each of dress ups. The goal for the children was to race to the container, as quick as they could get dressed in the item of clothing with buttons and buckles done up and then run back to their team so the next child can have a turn. The containers were so full of a variety of dress up clothing - boots, glasses, hats, dresses, shields, braces etc etc - that after the children had run through enough times that they had donned up to three mismatched items the supplies were exhausted and we just had to take a photo of them because gee they looked a sight! They enjoyed this game immensely.

After this the party kids were quick to want to move onto the next game. Unfortunately I noticed that these games were too rowdy/ loud/ fast for the little people in our lives. It proved difficult for them to participate so I wouldn't recommend the games I'm suggesting for four and under. Something quieter and more gentle, if any games at all, would be better.

Sock tail tag is always a favourite with my boys and works well regardless of group size. Materials are simple. One long sock tucked into the back of your shorts with the aim being to chase your friends to relieve them of their 'tail' whilst protecting your own. No hands holding that tail in place though. I find it helpful to have the kids playfully jog the boundary of the area they're to play the game in to solidify what's 'in' and 'out'. It's also good to limit the time dedicated to Sock tail tag as it can get out of hand. Imagine loads of crashing kids as they run whilst looking over their shoulders to keep a watchful eye on their vulnerable little tails.

Animals in a cave went well too. The instructions advised pairing the children off and have them select an animal for themselves but seriously I would forget one or more of the animals and then someone would miss a turn! No good. So alternatively, to cope with my terrible memory, I made the teams a lot bigger, about five children each. The materials are easy peasy. Just get the biggest sheet you own and use it as a parachute with adults and children lining the edges to lift the material up and down through the air. When it's up that's your cave. A teams animal is called and the children need to pass through the cave before it collapses and take the place of their friend on the opposite side of the cave. If a child finds themselves trapped in the cave after it collapses, the hardest thing to do is find their way through the cave as it is.

The last, but in my opinion the best, was Dragon Racing. We needed teams again of about five and with an adult participating as the head of the dragon, this worked exceptionally well. Line your team up and then pop down onto hands and knees in a crawling position then take a gentle hold of the ankles of your friend in front. Each team needs to cross a finishing line moving together whilst crawling and holding your friends ankles like a human chain. If your dragon collapses, stop, get it together and then keep going. Remember to roar like dragons to make the dragon move faster!

Whew! If you've read all that - thanks!

For party favours we had the children colour and paste decorations onto their own party crowns. The crowns were two dollars for a pack twelve at a cheapy variety shop in town. Reminder to myself and well, everyone, glitter is messy, they will spill it and lots of it, so somewhere outdoors is awesome for stress free creating.

It was amazing how short a time the games actually played out for and the rest of the party was spent playing in the playground. My mother was quite firm with me when I invited her to the party. She mandated (I'm kidding) that there must be games because children running wild just isn't good. At that point I wondered if she'd ever really taken much notice of what our boys are up too when she's visiting or were the performances I witness on occasion held out especially for me?

After singing and cake the afternoon had rolled around to finishing up. But I wasn't going to hand out party favour bags, a kiss on the cheek and a cheery cheerio. Nope. I wanted the end to be memorable and fun for our birthady boys and guests, so I led my party people on a Treasure Trail.

I'd hidden their little party favours around the park and led the children off on a series of pretendings. First they were giants taking enormous gigantic steps, then we were as small as mice, making ourselves as teeny tiny as possible and crawling along the ground. Next we were gnomes with treasure sacks thrown across our backs and shovels in our hands digging for treasure - here they found gems strewn through the grass. A bag of two dollar sparkle gems from a cheap variety shop provided the prop and weren't they just so excited to discover real treasure!



From here we flew like graceful butterflies to a tree that had grown bells on elastic for them to wear on their wrists so they could tinkle music as they played. The children then chose to be pixies and elves and skip to the river (a big blue sheet that was used for the Animals in the Cave game) where ribbons tied to rings were waiting for them (the rings were thrift shop wooden curtain rings with the screws removed - two dollars for a bag of forty).


Swirling their ribbon rings through the air they discovered a trove of bubbles awaiting each of them. A myriad of colour and noise surrounded us - ribbons twirling, bubbles catching the afternoon light and wrist bells tinkling. A noisy colourful celebration.

Saying goodbye, the children each collected a handmade badge to help remind them of their time with our boys and their part in marking out this special occasion with them.

It was a joyful and happy birthday party. I had feared that some of it may have been too young for Master nearly ten but I noticed that his public schooled, very cool, eleven year old friend was very happy with the favours and played along just as well as his younger siblings. It was a Magical Birthday Party, one that we will all look back on fondly and reminisce sweetly about such a beautiful time in our lives.

Well, that's a mammoth post but hopefully if you're in search of a few different ideas for childrens party's this may have helped. The party favours did take me a long time to make but as we homeschool, when we invite children to occasions such as this one it will never be only one child from a family. We have friends as part of family groups and as a result we don't ever lack for playmates but it does mean that I'm making thirty hand sewn wrist bells and thirty ribbon rings are made and thirty badges - which did involve a solid twenty two hours of sitting on my bum on the couch sewing and gluing. But I love to make things for my children and other children. The looks on their faces of pure joy when they discover this something special is for them is a fantastic reward for the time spent in making and creating. But I must say, I had the wonderful Mr E on ribbon tying duty and his fingers were far nimbler and quicker than mine and I'm so appreciative to have a partner who is there for me however he can be.

This is it in the way of partys until Kangaroo and Kookaburra have their tenth and thirteenth birthdays but here's hoping that the years are very long until then.