Birthday Plans

[ailbhe]

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.

Comments

[ai731.livejournal.com]

For something to put the party favours in - do you have any saved scraps of fabric ? You could "wrap" each in a small squarish piece of fabric to make a sort-of bag, and tie off with a bit of ribbon or string.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

When I was a child, my mother used the colored comics from the Sunday newspaper as gift wrap. Bright and engaging - and free! I don't know many people who take Sunday papers these days, though. Twists of tissue paper, if you have any about?

[ailbhe]

A twist doesn't live up to the required levels of effort by SUCH a long way BUT I can use kiddie magazines (dreadful concept but there you go) and make bags/boxes from them, which will work perfectly. Yay! Free, ecologically sound, and might even be admired by one or two people.

[artela.livejournal.com]

"Netting" material cut into circles and threaded around the edge with bright ribbon - stick favours in, pull ribbon, make bow - sorted :-)

[scarletts-web.livejournal.com]

I always thread fruit onto drinking straws and call it fruit kebabs - goes down well.

[jexia]

My MIL gets those grab bags of clothes-which-won't-otherwise-go from the op shop, cuts the sleeves off, hems the bottoms and turns them into permanent gift bags that get used each Christmas.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

rivka just did a thing with Alex's friends. She gave them brown paper "lunch" bags (do you guys have them?) and coloring tools and had the kids decorate their own favor bags. Then while they were doing other stuff, she filled the kids bags.

Have fun :)

N.

[flybabydizzy.livejournal.com]

good idea with the bags - you could do similar with 'place mats'
No sticks, just in case.
Have fun
glad the practice cake went down well

come to tea

[(Anonymous)]

Mmm. The expectations of a "party" can be a bit out of control, so our last birthday was a "coffee and cake" invite too.

Re: come to tea

[squishsplash.livejournal.com]

oops - that was me

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Ooh, rare occasion when lurker can be useful!
Origami - can be recycled :) The 'traditional box' one comes out with a base half the size of the sheet of paper you use, and the sides are a little floppy, but a slightly bigger one used as a lid will fix that.

[ailbhe]

Oooh, potential - I have a lot of children's magazines which might be perfect.