Birthday Plans

Well, the icing worked. Many thanks to all my lj friends and to Diz who talked to me on IM. I melted some sunflower margarine and mixed it with icing sugar and vanilla essence until I had a pliable dough, which I sort of pressed onto the cake. I've learned that next time I will press it onto greaseproof paper and transfer the whole shape to the cake at once, but that's why I was practicing. I also learned that I will probably need a whole POUND of sugar for the icing which seems INSANE to me. However, even Rob liked the resulting icing, and he hates icing, so that's good.

The invitations don't say party - they say "Birthday - Please come to tea" - and I've bought teeny weeny party favours from the fair trade shop; each child gets their initial letter with an animal on it (D has a dolphin, R has a rabbit, etc) and a little handcarved wooden mouse. I'm not sure what to put the party favours in because I don't awfully want to use little plastic bags as is traditional. I might make something. It's not like they're large.

And now I need to plan the food; I think it's probably easiest to put a big plate of sandwiches, a big plate of sliced fruits, and a bowl of crisps out first, and then bring the cake out afterwards. I'm hoping to keep the adults in a separate room as parents seem to cause fuss a bit, since each parent will be hovering over their own children making sure they're getting the right things to eat, and not misbehaving or spreading jam in other children's hair.

I think for sandwiches it's easiest to stick with mild cheese, ham, and sliced egg, on shop-bought bread, with no tomato or cucumber or anything; a lot of the kids are kind of fussy, and there will be eight of them around the table (about five of Linnea's particular friends and the rest siblings or similar). Fruit juice to drink. Lots of sliced fruit to choose from - should I string it on sticks or will they stab each other?

Then when they've eaten they can tear the house apart for half an hour before cake. Then we can send them home.

The adults can have tea or coffee and the same boring sandwiches the children are getting. Next year I will absolutely insist on a drop-off and pick-up party. These things would be much easier without having to fit all those parents in! Adults take up a lot more space than children, and they care more about the quality of the entertainment.

And thus is the bar nicely lowered for the next lot, starting in August.

Oh gods, I have to do it again in August.

Jasmine

I hope it responds well to very enthusiastic pruning in the spring.